First time buying & selling - advice

[Challo]

Apologies to derail the thread, but what is the best way to identify what house you can afford? Im aware its all about affordability rather then just the simple combined salaries x 4/4.5

We know what deposit £ we have but other than that i have no idea if we can look for houses costing £250k or £300k.

[Sarnie]

Challo said:

Apologies to derail the thread, but what is the best way to identify what house you can afford? Im aware its all about affordability rather then just the simple combined salaries x 4/4.5

We know what deposit £ we have but other than that i have no idea if we can look for houses costing £250k or £300k.

Speak to an advisor?

[Gareth79]

Challo said:

Apologies to derail the thread, but what is the best way to identify what house you can afford? Im aware its all about affordability rather then just the simple combined salaries x 4/4.5

We know what deposit £ we have but other than that i have no idea if we can look for houses costing £250k or £300k.

This might shed some light:

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/tools/hou...

Before the detailed affordability checks it was purely based on your income. Outgoings are now factored in, so if you have relatively high outgoings and are looking to maximise your borrowing it might make sense to cut back for at least three months before applying. (Although those will probably need to be long-term cutbacks really!)

[Challo]

Sarnie said:

Challo said:

Apologies to derail the thread, but what is the best way to identify what house you can afford? Im aware its all about affordability rather then just the simple combined salaries x 4/4.5

We know what deposit £ we have but other than that i have no idea if we can look for houses costing £250k or £300k.

Speak to an advisor?

I was actually thinking of pm you sarnie. Will drop you a note this afternoon if all ok.

[Sarnie]

Challo said:

I was actually thinking of pm you sarnie. Will drop you a note this afternoon if all ok.

No problem, happy to chat!

[redandwhite]

Challo said:

Apologies to derail the thread, but what is the best way to identify what house you can afford? Im aware its all about affordability rather then just the simple combined salaries x 4/4.5

We know what deposit £ we have but other than that i have no idea if we can look for houses costing £250k or £300k.

I spoke to my current lender as this was the quickest and easiest in my mind. They did an over the phone affordability assessement which gave me a rough maximum figure.

[drainbrain]

Well the conditional offer came in on my house today so I thought I'd start the mortgage process for the next place. I've a corporate account with a hi-street bank and my RD gave me a number to phone.

Anticipated a headache because of "unusual circumstances" - my age, being pensionable + S/E etc - but apparently no big deal. Apparently I do a preliminary application online which gets me a DIP.

Then once I get the DIP I re-contact this geezer's department and assemble the paperwork they require to verify. Specifically asked if SA302's were needed and got told 'no' although obviously accounts, and other financial data and accountancy details are the central part. At that point they'll then tell me what they'll lend me. Not what they MIGHT lend me - what they WILL lend me. And that's got a 6 month window. Then I can go house hunting knowing the max I can spend.

So seems not much really has changed.

(Mind you, the stage of it that required a phone call to what I take it was a call centre staffed by what I take it were inbound call handlers armed with a template was pretty surreal. Basil Fawltyesque at some points. They should at least know very basic stuff e.g. that shareholders own companies and that directors operate them and that the two may or may not be the same. Etc etc etc. Explaining how s/e enterprises are structured in terms of financial accountancy was very nearly impossible. It was a battle at one point to try to explain to the lady that she really really really didn't need to know what the sole trader business turned over. She needed to know my net relevant earnings (she'd never heard of net rellys) and my post tax drawings. Eventually a management type intervened before she had an aneurysm).

Edited by drainbrain on Monday 6th February 19:24