Buying your first home can be an exciting but nerve-wracking experience as it’s something you’ve never done before. However, if you speak to your local mortgage advisor, we will help you along every step of the way from the start of the process to the very end when the transaction completes with the solicitors. Read on for our guide to buying your first home.

If you speak to a mortgage advisor in your local area, they will be able to help you to ensure you get the best deal. At LTC Mortgages, we will go the extra step by taking a look at the property and advise you on whether the property is worth what you are buying it for and if it is worth the investment you are entering.

 The most important part of the mortgage process is seeing if you can afford the mortgage size you are after, this depends on your income and deposit size, this is also the first step and this is what we will look at before any products or deals are agreed.

It is important to have good credit because this is something every lender looks at and sometimes this can be the deciding factor on whether your decision in principle is accepted with them or not. This will increase your chances of getting a mortgage, it will also increase the number of lenders we can look at when choosing the best deal.

If you have bad credit this will be seen as a higher risk transaction by the lender because they need to ensure you are able to repay your monthly mortgage payments on time every month. You can improve your credit by satisfying/settling any defaults, making sure you pay all remaining payments on time and in full. If you have several monthly payments for credit cards or loans you can pay some of the smaller ones off to strengthen your credit or close any unused credit cards. Also, avoiding payday loans is the best thing you can do because this shows the lender you have poor management of your money if you use them and they will reject your mortgage application.

There are 3 main products which are:

·        Fixed – set monthly mortgage payments that stay the same until the fixed term ends

·        Tracker – the interest rate falls inline with the Bank of England base rate

·        Discount – the interest rate follows the lender’s SVR rate

There are 3 main types of mortgages which are:

·        Interest only – you will only pay the interest off the mortgage

·        Repayment – your monthly payments will come off the overall loan amount

·        Offset – your savings account is linked to the mortgage which reduces your interest that you pay as you will only pay interest on the difference between your savings amount and your mortgage

The first step is to choose the perfect property for you, whether this be a buy to let or a residence for yourself you need to make sure you are happy with the property. Take into consideration the location, the number of bedrooms/living rooms and if you would like a front or rear garden and a driveway be sure to check these.

Secondly, you would speak to a mortgage advisor in your local area to weigh up your financial options if you are purchasing the property with a mortgage. This is when we will look at deals and lenders that are suitable for you.

The third step is when you put your offer in to the estate agent for the property you wish to purchase. Once your offer is accepted by the vendor, come back to us and we will finalise your mortgage with a full application to the lender. This is also when we can appoint you a conveyancing solicitor if you haven’t already done this.

Once your mortgage has offered with the lender the solicitor process will start and this is when the legal aspect of purchasing a property is dealt with, when all paperwork has been filled in and sent back to the solicitor you will pay your deposit for the property then exchange of contracts and completion will take place. As soon as the transaction has completed you can collect the keys from your estate agent for your new property.