Be Prepared

Before you apply for a mortgage, it’s essential that you can afford the monthly repayments, ensuring you have enough left over to enjoy your daily life. We will help you to complete a budgeting planner listing all your household bills and regular expenditure, including an amount for protection.

We can then work out how much you can afford to borrow. As a starting point though it would be good for you to review your own finances by completing the following income & expenditure form, this in the first instance will help you figure out how much you’d be comfortable with paying each month and at what point would it be uncomfortable.

Before a lender agrees your loan, they will check your income and outgoings thoroughly to ensure that you can afford the monthly repayments as well as any future increases in interest rates. Each lender works to an individual criteria as to what is and is not acceptable, and this can affect quite drastically what each lender would consider lending you.

Our advisers understand each lender’s criteria and will pick the best products from the whole of the market and a mortgage that best suits you, your budget and your new home.

The documents that you will need to be provide can vary from lender to lender, but as a rule of thumb you should organise the following:

• Photo ID such as passport or driving licence
• Proof of address by way of council tax bill, utility bill or bank/credit card statement or annual mortgage statement
• Three months wage slips and latest P60
• Three months bank statements where your salary gets paid into
• If you are self-employed, it could be a combination of SA302, your accountants reference, company accounts and HMRC tax year overview.  Please speak to us and we can guide you through what will work best.
• Details of where you deposit will be coming from; statements for savings or gifts from family

A lender will use one of three credit agencies to check your financial history and payment record before offering you a mortgage; these are Experian, Equifax and Call Credit (Noddle).

If you’re in any doubt as to your credit history it is worth getting your credit report yourself to spot any potentially costly errors. You can check your address history and make sure any historical credit is accurate.

We recommend that you obtain your credit reports as early as possible in the process to check for errors and also make sure you’re correctly showing on the electoral roll.  You can run a free report at www.noddle.co.uk or carry out a free check with a thirty-day trial at www.experian.co.uk and www.equifax.co.uk

This list is not exhaustive so always disclose all relevant facts and details to your adviser so that you get comprehensive mortgage advice relevant to your individual situation.