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Originally posted by MarkM
It's based on affordability now i.e. what you are left with each month after paying your bills/outgoings. Not necessarily x times your salary.

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But how do they know what bills you'll be paying if you're a first time buyer? We didn't rent. We went straight from living with my parents to a mortgage, so they wouldn't have known anything.

Unless they average out the bills and assume many many things.

Btw i'm a massive worrier about debt and at first the though of a mortgage scared me shitless, but honestly it's nothing to worry about at all (as long as you can easily afford it).

When we moved in, our mortgage was about 30% of our take home pay, so not much in the grand scheme of things. It's now about 20% thanks to favourable interest rates, so I find myself wasting money more than I used to!

not when they go through it with a fine tooth comb i doubt it.

Can you not manipulate the figures though?

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Originally posted by richardworrall
yeah, luckily we missed this affordability interview by a matter of days!!

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yeah, luckily we missed this affordability interview by a matter of days!!

It's based on affordability now i.e. what you are left with each month after paying your bills/outgoings. Not necessarily x times your salary.

Had been renting and wanted mortgage payments to be the same so went to bank to check affordability figures and find what price house we could comfortably afford. Found house, searched for best rates on moneysupermarket etc. All came back with Post Office best for our needs. Filled in their online forms, put offer in and got accepted. Found a local solicitor who was cheap and really good.
We offered £125,000 so no stamp duty.
£15k "gift" deposit from family which we didnt declare in our outgoings to help application.
About £1000 all in for solicitors costs
What else you need to know?

Pretty much the same as Ben but I went with Nationwide (already had a mortgage savings account with them).

Had a meeting, found out my affordability and went from there, really wasn't the difficult daunting task you hear about tbh.

Only issue with mine was it being a repossession and it had to be completed within 28 days, Nationwide where really good though and moved everything very quickly :)

We went into Halifax and sat down with a mortgage advisor.

Was quite easy really. We showed her our wage slips and she told us how much we could borrow, then used their recommended solicitor and survey people.

It probably cost a bit more, but we paid no stamp duty and it was much more convenient.

I would like to buy in the future and have looked online and also spoken to people who have bought and banks regarding mortgages.
The banks just make it sound more confusing than it already is and I wanted to hear some of you members who have bought properties how you went about it, deposit amount needed, type of mortgage, solicitor fee's & anything else that would be of help.

Regards