Steps towards getting a mortgage...

closifer

Hi everyone,

Myself and my partner are just starting to save and make inroads into our student debt etc and we are hoping that we will be in a position to buy in 18 months but want to make sure we are taking all the right steps now.

Here is our salary info -My partner is a teacher. He is contract but pretty secure - another 2 academic years until he is permanent though. He is on maybe 30k per annum. I am on 25k base and 5-10k commission and bonuses. We both still have some student & credit card debt which we are hoping to have erased completely in 12-18 months.

We have been renting for 4 years in the same area - rent of 700 per month but we could purchase a 4 bed duplex in our estate for 130k at present so the grand plan is to save about 12k and we could get a 15 year mortgage for the remaining 115ish with monthly repayments of 850 which would be quite manageable.

Besides obviously paying off the outstanding debt and saving regularly - is there anything else we should be doing to make ourselves attractive to the banks? Its a pretty small mortgage and the online calculators say that we could borrow up to 250k based on current earnings but I know that is besides the point and obviously we have heard all the horror stories about banks not giving out cash...

killers1

closifer wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Myself and my partner are just starting to save and make inroads into our student debt etc and we are hoping that we will be in a position to buy in 18 months but want to make sure we are taking all the right steps now.

Here is our salary info -My partner is a teacher. He is contract but pretty secure - another 2 academic years until he is permanent though. He is on maybe 30k per annum. I am on 25k base and 5-10k commission and bonuses. We both still have some student & credit card debt which we are hoping to have erased completely in 12-18 months.

We have been renting for 4 years in the same area - rent of 700 per month but we could purchase a 4 bed duplex in our estate for 130k at present so the grand plan is to save about 12k and we could get a 15 year mortgage for the remaining 115ish with monthly repayments of 850 which would be quite manageable.

Besides obviously paying off the outstanding debt and saving regularly - is there anything else we should be doing to make ourselves attractive to the banks? Its a pretty small mortgage and the online calculators say that we could borrow up to 250k based on current earnings but I know that is besides the point and obviously we have heard all the horror stories about banks not giving out cash...

First bit of advice for you is to stay away from online calculators!! They only give an indication of what your salaries qualify you to borrow but make no reference to the most important part and that is proving you can afford the stressed repayments. Secondly, unless your partner is either permanent or on a 'contract of indefinite duration' their salary as a teacher will not be included by the banks. Your salary alone isn't a million miles off qualifying you to borrow the amount required but you will need to be able to prove affordability in your own right by way of your savings & rent contributions. If you can keep your savings + rent combined @ €1kpm until you are ready to apply you should have no difficulty in obtaining approval even allowing for some rate increases between now and then...