Getting a Mortgage

Posted by Mortgage Squared on 16th February 2021 -

After what could have been months of searching and endless viewings you’ve found your dream home, but what now? The mortgage stage is one of the most crucial steps during the house buying process.  Not many of us have the cash to buy outright so we turn to mortgage lenders to complete the purchase. However, nothing is usually straight forward so we’ve put together a handy little brief to explain the process and hopefully help you along the way. Here at Mortgage Squared we can help you throughout the entire process so you don’t get any stressful or awkward situations that will hamper your application.

Picking A Lender:

We don’t like to blow our own trumpet but this is what we are really good at here at Mortgage Squared. Making sure you have the right lender for your requirements. With so many lenders out there and so many schemes it can be confusing to find the right one. We do our research and shop around to find you the best mortgage deal. We have the experience to be able to negotiate with the lender also so if you see something in another offer you like we can always see if your preferred lender can also include this in their offer.

Different lenders require you to have certain criteria so its important we work with you to make sure you fulfil these.  Its at this stage that our knowledge and experience can really help you make the right decision for you and your new home so you aren’t blinded by the excitement of the process rather then take in everything you are being given in terms of information.

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Being Approved:

You have most likely seen the term pro-approval or pre-qualify when looking into mortgages.  These are not the same thing when it comes to applying for a new mortgage. Pre-qualification is a far easier process to undertake. As it is completed without virtually any of your information being verified.  The mortgage lender will estimate the value of the mortgage you can afford based upon the information you have supplied them that includes income, employment, debt and payment commitments.

Pre-approval is different as this is the information you have provided to the lender that has been officially verified. This can be pay slips, screen shots of your bank statements or actual statements themselves, outgoings such as any other loans etc. Basically it’s the process where you prove with evidence you can afford the mortgage you are applying for.

If a home seller received 2 offers on their property and one is from a pre-approved buyer and the other is from a pre-qualified buyer then the seller will most likely choose the pre-approved mortgage buyer as this means they have proven they have the criteria to move ahead with an official mortgage for the new home.

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Improve Your Bartering Power:

If your credit rating isn’t the best you could be worried that only mortgage schemes with higher interest rates will be offered to you. If so, fear not as there are steps you can take to help you negotiate better deals with the potential lender.

The more deposit you can put down the better position you will be in to negotiate with the lender. This means better interest rates so in the long term the saving can be literally thousands of pounds, so it’s well worth making the extra effort to save up as much deposit as you possibly can.

Improve your credit rating to be able to get access to more lenders and to open up new benefits and opportunities.  If you know you will be looking to purchase a property at some point in the future then ideally you should start improving your credit rating or even repairing if it’s been damaged by late payments or arrears in the past. This action combined with a higher deposit to put down will put you in a far better position to negotiate with any potential mortgage lender.

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DTI is what lenders look at to assess how viable you are when you apply for a mortgage. This stands for debt to income ratio and is based on how much you owe and how much you earn in a month.

Lastly compare lenders before committing to one. This is something we can help with and our industry knowledge and experience will mean you can relax knowing all possible options have been covered and no stone left unturned in finding you the ideal mortgage scheme for your own personal requirements.  Never be tempted to just go with the one with the lowest interest rate as there could be other factors that mean you end up paying more in the long term.  Our team of mortgage experts here at Mortgage Squared can take care of all this for you.

So, if you’re ready to take the next step and you have found your dream home then speak to a member of the team here today to get started with a free no obligation chat. We will listen to your situation and needs and then put a plan together to move forward with the purchase of the property you have seen.