Help to Buy, or Help Yourself?
Walking into an Estate Agents to ask for mortgage advise, almost felt like I was pretending to be an adult. Playing a game of house, and acting grown up. I have had to act many years older at work for a long time, but doing it outside of work felt weird. Almost like I was conning them into thinking that I am an adult.
However, my first stop was Bridgfords and their Countrywide Mortgage adviser sat me down and went through the various options. The first of which was the governments new incentivised 'Help to Buy' scheme, for first and second time buyers with a very low deposit. I was looking for a mortgage for a property around the £100k mark. I appreciate that if you are from London, this wouldn't buy you a garage, but up North you can buy a fairly respectable 2 bed house, with a garden and if you're lucky off street parking. I was looking in Macclesfield, a medium sized town in a nice country setting, so prices I suppose are higher than Manchester suburbs, but still reasonable.
The 'Help to Buy' mortgage looked golden. I could buy a £100,000 property with as little as £5,000 deposit. However, I was turned down. I thought "oh god, if I cant get a Help to Buy, I've got no chance" (not the case as it turned out). I was turned down because the repayments were around £700 per month(!!!), and with a monthly income of just over £1200 after tax, the bank weren't satisfied I could afford it. Help to Buy seems great, as long as you're raking in at least £30k a year (which I'm not, given).
Next stop was NatWest, and this time I was helping myself. Putting in as big a deposit that I could afford. All my savings from 3 years of graft, totaling a Richard Branson busting £14,000. This however, brought my monthly repayments down to £339 per month, fixed for 2 years on a 30 year term. NatWest were happy that I could make the payments, and so after a few meetings, a little interrogation, and a mountain of paper work, I was given my mortgage offer. An £86,000 loan with a £14,000 deposit.
And so, the house hunted started (to be honest it already had, so let's say continued)....
