In this blog, we’ll explain how the mortgage process works and how our involvement as a mortgage adviser will help you buy your home.
Let’s start with what will happen when you first meet one of our advisers: :- They'll get to know you, your moving plans and how much you already understand about mortgages – so they can help fill in any gaps for you should you want to understand more.
- They'll pull together all the information and documents a lender will need from you, ready for when you make an application. You can read more about this here
- With your permission, they'll carry out a credit check with the lender to produce an Agreement in Principle (AIP). We know that making multiple credit checks can affect your credit rating and will only do what's necessary to make sure you get the best possible mortgage. It's best to understand how much you can borrow BEFORE you start looking at properties. An Agreement in Principle does exactly that. Not only does it highlight how much you can borrow so you’re only focused on viewing homes within your budget, it lets the estate agent and the seller know that you’re a serious buyer and in a position to proceed with buying a home up to a certain price range.
Found your ideal home and had your offer accepted?
Congratulations! We’re in a great position to support you with your mortgage application.
Mortgage steps
Step 1. We'll find your ideal mortgage. Not all lenders approve mortgages on all types of property. The good news is that we know which lenders are the most suitable for your type of property and circumstances and will have based our lender recommendation on this. Things move quickly now, so it's important we have all the right documents to hand. A reminder of what paperwork you need for your mortgage application is here.
Step 2. We manage the application process for you and submit your mortgage application to the lender. If there are upfront fees payable to the lender, this is the time when you’d need to pay them. That is likely to be a fee for the survey and an arrangement fee, depending on which mortgage product you’re applying for.
Step 3. The lender will review your application and loan amount to confirm it's affordable for you. This might include asking for a reference from your employer or accountant. Because we've built strong relationships in the industry, we can sometimes chat directly to your underwriter to ensure they have additional information to help process your application.
Step 4. Once they’re happy to lend to you, the lender will then arrange for a survey to be carried out to assess the property’s value and condition for their mortgage purposes only. It is sensible to get an independent survey arranged in order to understand the condition of the property – we can refer you to a partner firm to help with this.
Step 5. Once the lender's confirmed that all the checks have been completed and they’re satisfied, they'll produce a formal mortgage offer. The time it takes depends on the lender, but in general it tends to be quicker when you've got a mortgage broker like us on your side to work directly with them. We make sure they've got everything they need to make a decision.
At the same time as the mortgage application, there’s likely to be lots of other paperwork that you might need our help with. Rest assured that we'll be there to talk you through every single piece of paper so you don't need to worry about a thing.
Some mortgage brokers finish working with you once you've got your offer. We do things differently at Alexander Hall. We'll stay in touch with you, your estate agent, solicitor and surveyors all the way through to completion. We'll keep in contact with you after that too, making sure that as and when your needs change we are there to support.
