Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

Things to consider as well as the mortgage when buying a house are explained by Lloyd Wells Mortgage Brokers

We help a huge amount of First Time Buyers from start to finish with their purchasing journey. From the very first call when they want to know how much they can borrow and how the process works. To them collecting the keys and beyond.

Of course, as Mortgage Brokers, people’s main focus is to secure the best rate, and quickly, but there are a number of other areas that are often overlooked. Below I’m going to highlight a number of these areas and why they are important.

Solicitors and Stamp Duty

As well as the right Mortgage Broker, it’s important to make sure you are working with the right Solicitor. Once your mortgage is approved and ready to go, it’s over to the solicitors to complete the rest of the steps through to completion. The legal part can be quite lengthy and therefore if you have the wrong solicitor it can be very stressful. If they don’t keep in contact or they aren’t proactive with their work the process can drag on and the last thing you’ll remember about house buying is how stressful it is.

Recommendations here are King. If you have a friend or family member that has recently purchased a property and had a great experience with the solicitor firm they chose, that’s an excellent recommendation.

We also work closely with solicitors on a daily basis so can recommend great firms if you need them. Please just ask and we can make sure we supply you with someone that will give you the service you expect.

Solicitors will also be able to advise you on stamp duty costs.

Valuations/Surveys

Valuations are something that we help arrange too. The Mortgage Lender will always carry out at least a ‘basic valuation’ as part of the process so that they know the property is fit for lending and worth the amount you are paying for it. However, a basic valuation is as it sounds, basic.

If you personally want to know a bit more about the property to make sure what you are buying is in good condition then you will want to arrange something a little more in-depth. This is where you can look at a Homebuyers Survey or even a Full Structural Survey.

Typically, we look to arrange these separately to the Mortgage lender’s normal valuation to keep things moving as quickly as possible. These surveys will supply you with a lot more information on the property’s condition and history so that you know there are no issues you might have missed when viewing the property. When spending a huge amount of money on a property, I know I would want to know that it was all sound and as expected.

Again, we are here to help. If you need information on these, please let me know. We can find you a local surveyor and can arrange a more in-depth survey if you wish.

Building & Contents Insurance

Buildings Insurance is a requirement for getting a mortgage. If you are buying a flat, this is often part of the service/maintenance charge so you may not need to arrange it yourself. But if you are buying a house you’ll need to prove you have building insurance before you exchange.

Contents Insurance is completely up to you but if you are insuring the building, you’d be crazy to not insure all your possessions in it.

There are a lot of indifferent levels of insurance and add-ons that you can take with it. If you have a specialist property (Grade II listed or Thatched Roof) you may also need a different amount of cover.

By all means, you can run through a quote on a comparison site but if you do need a hand with this aspect, let us know. We work closely with a Brokerage that specialises in finding people the right cover. If it’s your first time taking insurance, you’re not sure what the terminology means or you would like to just have an expert’s guidance to make sure it’s right. Let us know, we can ask them to get in touch to make sure it’s right.

Personal Protection

This is an area that is often forgotten about but it is so important. After all, you’re taking out a huge financial commitment with a mortgage and if something were to happen to stop you from working and earning, the roof over your head could be repossessed.

When we talk about personal insurance in relation to mortgages, we are talking about 4 main types. There are main other types of insurance but the 4 most common are:

  • Life Insurance. This provides a tax-free lump sum in the event that you die. If you are taking the mortgage with someone else and the mortgage is reliant on both of your incomes, this is essential. You’ll want to make sure the surviving person can continue to live in the property after your death (as visa versa). If you have kids or are planning a family, the lump sum can protect them too.
  • Critical Illness. This provides a tax-free lump sum in the event that you are diagnosed with a critical illness. Some providers will cover you for a huge amount of areas (cancer, heart attack, stroke, MS, etc). This cover is important to make sure that if you aren’t able to work and earn you’ll still have a lumpsum to keep you afloat financially.
  • Income Protection. This will provide an income in the event that you are off work due to a qualifying illness or injury. This could potentially provide you with an income every month for as long as you are off so that you can continue to cover your bills. This is an important cover, especially if you are self-employed (i.e. a tradesman where an injury could prevent you from working and earning for a period of time).
  • Family Income Benefit. Similarly to Income Protection, this pays out an income. The difference here is that it pays an income to your family in the event that you die. This way they can continue to cover your bills after your income has ceased.

We will help with this once we have helped get your Mortgage Offer over to the solicitor for them to start their work. We will run through all the options and provide a tailored recommendation. We’ll then apply for the insurance on your behalf and make sure it is set up and ready to start as soon as your mortgage does.

Wills

These products are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and we are not authorised via PRIMIS Mortgage Network to advise on them.

The final area people forget to think about is a Will. On completion of a purchase, you will suddenly have a large, expensive asset. If you don’t have a Will and you die, this asset may not go to the person you would want it to.

For example, let us say you aren’t married but have bought a property jointly with your long-term partner. If you die, you’d probably want your share of your property to go to them right? As you aren’t married though if you don’t have a Will your share will most likely eventually go to your blood relations, not your partner. If they disagree on want to do with your share, your partner could be forced out of their home. Or, Visa Versa.

We can recommend a great company to give you advice on this and to set you up an appropriate Will.

Buying a house is such a large financial decision, it’s a good time to make sure all your other finances are in order. Please let us know if you’d like us to help with any of these. We want to make sure when you move in you are fully set up and ready to go.

Lloyd Wells Mortgages Next Steps

We are happy to talk through all the options with you, as any great Broker should do.

Do give us a call on 0117 332 5197. Our initial conversations usually last around 15 minutes.

Alternatively, you can email enquiry@lloydwellsmortgages.co.uk and let us know how we can help you.

We will discuss:

  • How much you can borrow
  • What that will cost
  • What fees can you expect
  • How Lloyd Wells Mortgages work
  • What insurances you will need
  • What documentation you will need to provide
  • Next steps

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.