Doing all the background work before you apply for a mortgage.
When you apply for a mortgage there are quite a few checks that will be made on yourself, lots of questions, lots of things you need to know or at least find out. Even when you have an “agreement in principle”, there are still further things you need to do. So here are a few things, that won’t hurt if you get ready before you start to apply for a mortgage.
1. Make sure your credit report is in a good place.
Making an application for a mortgage means your finances will come under close scrutiny. This hugely varies from different lenders. But, when you apply for a mortgage, most will do a hard search on your credit report. A hard search is a detailed look at your credit and lending history. Hard searches in themselves can be damaging to your report. If there are lots of them. As hard searches only really happen when you are lending money. So make sure your report looks as good as it can be. There are plenty of good services that can do this.
2. Get your payslips ready.
Mortgages are generally based on your pay, generally looking at what you get annually and then multiplying that by 3-5 times to get to your amount you can lend. So if you get £50,000 and you are looking at 4x, you can lend £200,000. Easy. And a lot of mortgage lenders do take a realistic picture, if you get bonuses, advancements, everything, they will take a full picture. So when you apply you have to put forward your payslips to prove your income. So have a look at your past payslips and make sure they are all up to date as you will most likely have to supply up to 6 months of your most recent payslips.
3. Understand your expenses.
During the application, you will most likely be asked about your expenses: What is your monthly credit card bill, what do you pay on electricity, gas and water etc. Now for most all these expenses really are not in their head. So take the time to understand your generally expenses each month
4. What other debts you have
You need to also have to hand any other lending you have done. There maybe elements you don’t realise are debts: Overdraft, car payments, credit card, personal loans and
(Your house may be repossessed if mortgage repayments are not kept up to date.)