Will try and keep it brief.

Trying to plan to hopefully get a mortgage in April/May next year (2017).

Aim is a property of about £80k. Aiming for a £12K deposit (so a 15% deposit) and a £68k mortgage.

First time buyer and a sole trader in a skilled profession (just to make it nice and hard for myself). By April/May 2017 will have 3yrs of accounts that should show I earned: year 1 – broke even. year 2 – £13k. year 3 – at least £20k hopefully.

Will be 30 by then and should be able to show a good credit history.

What we reckon? Chance of me getting a mortgage off that brief?

Not too sure who to contact for advice (hence being on the fountain of knowledge that STW) given I don’t plan to get a mortgage for a little while I don’t want to pay someone now for something that may change.

Cheers ya’ll

Stick the details into the affordability calculators on the banks’ websites. You won’t need any more information than you’ve given above.

Lots of banks websites have a ‘how much can I borrow’ calculator so have a dig about. These days it’s not as simple as 3 or 4 times your gross income, lenders calculate how much you can borrow by using an affordability calculator which takes into account a general level of outgoings and your personal outgoings, so if you have any debts or other commitments (childcare for eg?) that will affect how much you can borrow. At the place where I work it wouldn’t be in your interest to declare your first year no profit as we will calc a mean average of the years available, so for yourself (not incl your 1st year) gives a gross annual of 16.5. Using the old income multiples (which still give a good indication) and if you have no debts this would give you a potential mortgage of 4.25×16.5 = 70k. So it looks like you should just scrape in. I hope some of that helps. Some general advice, focus on getting your debts down (if you have any) in the next year and in the 6 months before you apply make sure you stay in credit with your current account with more coming in than going out as you will be asked to provide likely 3 months bank stats for any mortgage app. Good luck.

Get a broker, they are worth every penny. I had a 30% deposit! no bad credit, a low income multiple and good affordability and my bank didn’t want to know.* A broker got me a good deal but it was a right pain for various reasons like my accountant not having the right letters after her name to match their form(she passed in 1970 and said she wasn’t going to re-sit just so I can get a mortgage)
A lot depends on the current lending conditions at the time and this was before the lending criteria came in even though I would have passed those no problem (no CC debt/car payments/sky tv/gym memberships/Coke habit/kids)

Get your SA302 from HMRC now as it takes a few weeks and is an essential piece of paper.

*i pulled the £60k savings and moved my business account because of this, why should they lend my money to others with 2 bob to rub together as a deposit but not to me? All because I’m self employed.

All our sole traders applying for mortgages are being asked for SA302’s which only takes a phone call to HMRC to request.
Those using mortgage advisor’s seem to have better success too.

take a look here, theres some good info

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/

help to buy ISA is a good deal for 1st timerse- 25% contribution from the Govt. But you can only save £200 per month + £1200 initial contribution