Who’s tried to get a mortgage recently?

Success or failure? they could offer you more than you expected or less?

I will probably find out this Saturday if I can [even] get one.

completed on one this week.

Got a good price, and negotiated a fee discount. BUT it is with a “relationship” bank and I was refinancing a development loan. For the price there was a 50% LTV cap which was OK for us.

Split the loan into two, half at base + 3% for 2yrs, half at base plus 4% for 5 yrs.

my moneys on your wife 😉
Yes if you have 20% deposit they will lend at a shit rate [relative to current interest rate if not history]

my moneys on your wife

who do you think you are? Robert Redford?

🙂

Anyway, based on the latest 3m libor forward curve I’ve been using for work, I expect to be in the money sometime during the 3rd year 😉

we actually complete tomorrow, first time buyers, we rented for years before deciding to finally buy. Our is with HSBC but we had to pay a fair deposit for a decent rate.

Depending on your situation, the mortgages around 5% deposit just aren’t worth it unless your not spending much. 10% is a bit better and anything around 20-25% makes a big difference.

I was suprised at how much we could actually borrow, we could actually borrow substantially more than we spent but if we went to the maximum, a>we would have needed an even bigger deposit and b>the repyaments would have been a little bit OTT as we like to go on holiday and enjoy life rather than just pay off a mortgage!

I don;t think there is much of a right or wrong answer, it just depends on the deal and your financial circustances!

Just completeing one now, phew! Much harder to get this time than ever before.
If it wasnt for my excellent mortgage advisor I think I would have given up!
If you want his contact details I can recommend him 100%

Yep had an offer for almost six months (it was a six month offer), we’ve only just found the property we want, the bank have extended the offer so we can complete.

Which is nice.

I took out a new one around 10 months ago. Me and Mrs B in very secure, reasonably well paid jobs for 15 years and it was very touch and go at the rate we were after. Not an experience I intend to go through again any time soon.

😆
you lost me after the redford no though. Mine is fixed for 2 years who is my money on then? Not confident but could only get 3 years anyway and it was always 1 % more for each year fingers crossed.
PS I met stoney off here not stoner hence my confusion over meeting.

PS I met stoney off here not stoner hence my confusion over meeting.

Yeah. Im not known for fraternising with socialists 😉

as he was selling me something I am sure you can understand my confusion.

We got an agreement in principle easily enough, whether that translates to a mortgage remains to be seen.

Got to find a house to buy first too 🙂

Yep – completed 3 months ago. Used Nationwide and managed to get a good rate fixed for 5 years. The loan to value rate was good for us because we’d been in a previous property for 18 years and carried a decent deposit to put down – this helped us get the better mortgage rate with the lender.

“Anyway, based on the latest 3m libor forward curve I’ve been using for work, I expect to be in the money sometime during the 3rd year”

//Geek alert// The forward Libor curve is not the same as the market “prediction” for rates in x months. It represents the rate at which banks will lend to each other today for that period. //Geek alert off//

//I know// but it’s the closest thing to a market expectation of forward pricing in the absence of a time machine //I know//

Well, it’s an expectation

and my expectation is that it’s going to be higher than my 4% fix. SO that’s two expectations. any more for any more?

my 4% fix

??

half at base + 3% for 2yrs, half at base plus 4% for 5 yrs

Which of your rates is fixed? You’ve just described variable-rate mortgages.

base +

my typo late last night.

been doing SWAP work too much lately.

Been offered one, but eventually declined it. Not the right time to buy a house for us at the mo.

just got a buy to let.

+1 on the mortgage advisor. Found a bloke who really knows his stuff and saved us loads, and found a very good deal. Def. recommended.

Turns out I can get one and I guess its not far from the amount I expected..

I don’t think it’s feasible for me right now, but I guess at least I’ve found out

+1 on what ChrisA said…we just had ours approved yesterday with HSBC. The mortgage advisor was excellent…we’ve been saving for years and bought a house in a price range that left us with a 20% deposit (just!!). 20% seems to be the magic number at the moment…if you drop below that your mortgage choices drop from around 25 to 6…

We only borrowed about half of what they said we could have…we figured, smaller house=smaller mortgage=lower payments=less stress=easier to sleep at night… 🙂

I completed about a fortnight ago at base +1.79%. Lifetime tracker, no fees, no tie-in and unlimited overpayments (which was important to me). Max 60% LTV though, so not much use early in a house purchase.

Has anyone got a good 5 year fixed deal recently?

Best we can come up with is 3.4% on 2 year fixed 30% deposit.

awesome-o: The mortgage advisor was excellent…we’ve been saving for years and bought a house in a price range that left us with a 20% deposit (just!!). 20% seems to be the magic number at the moment…if you drop below that your mortgage choices drop from around 25 to 6…

I’ve never met an IFA that I actually trusted. I’ve also found that the phrase “we don’t source mortgages from the whole market, but offer a wide selection from a range of companies” or whatever is says on the FSA form they pass under your nose once your trapped in their office, actually translates to “we don’t source the best deals on the market, but we will offer products from anyone willing to pay us a good commission!”

I’ve never understood the whole IFA thing as they all seem to be independent and just after the biggest commission.

Our IFA seemed very good. He got us a good deal (way lower than many were getting at the time), though we were borrowing less than 3x my salary and only about 60% of the market value of the house so were in a very good position.

He was very good at talking though the options.

We’re going back in the autumn as our 2 year fix will be up and we’re hoping to move to a shorter term (as wife is now getting back into work after a kiddie break) this time. Assume we should be looking to fix the rate?

poly: I’ve never met an IFA that I actually trusted. I’ve also found that the phrase “we don’t source mortgages from the whole market, but offer a wide selection from a range of companies” or whatever is says on the FSA form they pass under your nose once your trapped in their office, actually translates to “we don’t source the best deals on the market, but we will offer products from anyone willing to pay us a good commission!”

This thread’s gone cold but I just wanted to clear up one thing, I wasn’t referring to an IFA (I don’t trust them either), I was talking about HSBC’s in-house mortgage advisor (unless they’re classed as IFAs but I didn’t think they were?). We had already done our research and decided what our best options were, she went through everything and basically agreed with what we’d already decided was best but pointed out a lot of other helpful bits and pieces of info that are buried in the fine print… very pleased 🙂

I’ve never understood the whole IFA thing as they all seem to be independent and just after the biggest commission.

I would never pay for an IFA’s services on a commission basis unless I knew them personally and trusted them completely (in which case I doubt they would offer to be my FA anyway!).

IMO it’s best to use them on a fee paying basis (you are legally entitled to do this) and opposed to commission.