KB Logo
Get Free Consultation

Resources for Homebuyers

The best place you can start is by getting in touch and speaking with one of our advisers. Please arrange a free consultation or email us your questions.

Book your free consultation now!

Mortgage Calculator

If you’d like to get an understanding of how much you can borrow, without speaking to us, try our calculator.

FAQ's

Here we answer some of your frequently asked questions. For any other questions, just drop us an email at enquiries@kbmortgagesolutions.co.uk

Can I pay my mortgage off early?
Yes, however you could have early repayment charges to pay if you have only had your mortgage product for a short amount of time.
This will vary depending on the loan amount, the term of the mortgage and the interest rate.
The main things that dictate how much a person or couple can borrow is income and current credit commitments. All lenders have different ways to calculate what someone can borrow.
This is a score that we all have and is based on how we have conducted our finances over the preceding six years and is used by Financial Services companies to assess our credit worthiness.
Most lenders like to see a track record over 6 months, that said with most lenders if you have a signed contract and your first pay slip issued it’s something a lot of lenders will be fine with. If we are needing to using income like overtime, bonus/commission payments these are normally required to be evidenced for at least 3 months.

This is commonly abbreviated to AIP, or DIP (Agreement in Principle, Decision In Principle) which is the same thing just called differently across lenders and brokers.

Yes, with most lenders they allow you to overpay 10% of your mortgage balance, this will be fully explained to you in a mortgage quote but as an example £220,000 Mortgage, borrowed over 30 years on a 3 year fixed, each year you will be able to pay your monthly payment and 10% of the balance in addition (£22,000 in this example) either in one lump or varied instalments.
You can improve your score by proving that you can repay debt and cope with any credit commitment you have, such as loans and credit cards and by paying things like mobile phone bills and utility bills on time.  Also, it helps to be on the electoral role.
This will be made up of a lot of criteria, based on your age, income, current commitments, deposit and credit score history, due to it’s complexity and varied lending it’s always advisable to speak to an adviser to get an accurate idea. Most lenders work of an income multiplier typically 4.5 x your income but this will only give you a very rough idea with some lenders being much higher and some lower.
There are various costs associated with buying a property which we’ve detailed below:

  • Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT): currently first time buyers are not required to pay SDLT.  Current percentages payable can be found at https://www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax

  • Solicitor’s fees: These are based on the purchase price.  Typically, First Time Buyers will pay £500-£1000.

  • Valuation fees: For most lenders these are also based on purchase price.  Many lenders offer free valuations, especially for first time buyers and remortgages.

  • Lenders arrangement fees: These can usually be either added to the mortgage or paid up front and average at about £999.00.
Yes. You can “remortgage” to another lender to take advantage of their better interest rates. As part of our service, we will contact you as you approach the final few months of your existing mortgage deal to provide you with details of the options available to you.
Yes, most lenders allow up to 10% of the mortgage balance to be overpaid each year without incurring any penalties.
Some lenders will work off 1 years books, the majority will need 2 years full completed and submitted books to use any income from a self-employment.
If you ask a lender for an agreement in principle these will normally be valid between 30 – 90 days. This typically pre checks your lending and credit score but does not secure the mortgage in full.
Once you’ve found a property you can apply for a mortgage, which will begin the process of lending. Once this is approved the lending will be valid for 6 months.
Normally a minimum of 25% deposit. Some lenders will do a lower deposit, but it will restrict who you can approach for lending.
As a minimum, the building itself needs to be insured. We would usually recommend that you also insure the contents within your home too. Other insurances we recommend are life insurance and income protection insurance and critical illness cover, all of which are quoted from across the whole of the market.
A repayment mortgage is guaranteed to pay off your mortgage by the end of the term as long as all payments have been made.
An interest only mortgage is where your monthly payments are only covering the cost of the interest and your loan amount will remain the same. At the end of the term, you would either need to sell the property to repay the mortgage or find another source to repay the loan.
With most mortgage lenders now doing a soft footprint on your credit score, an agreement is a good idea, mainly to give you peace of mind, but this will also back up your position financially with owners and estate agents so they know finance is achievable should you see a property you like.
You will need a minimum of 5% deposit. The more deposit you put in, the better the interest rates will be. For example, if you put in 15% deposit this will get you a better interest rate than a 10% deposit. It will also with some lenders affect what they will lend, with some lenders lending you more if you put down 10/15 or even 25% as a deposit.
This has been popular abroad, as yet most UK lenders will only take their mortgage payments monthly via direct debit.
A Buy-to-Let mortgage is where you buy another property specifically as an investment with the intention of letting it out.

Case Studies

The names have been changed for data protection reasons but the stories are real.

Case Study 1

Emilia went to her bank, Halifax, for a mortgage with a 5% deposit. She failed the credit check. She then came to us for a mortgage and we managed to get her approved elsewhere. Everything ran smoothly and the client completed on her first home. We saved her money too:

Karl says “It can be common for first time buyers, particularly young people without much credit history, to fail a credit check for a mortgage in principle. When the aim is to buy with a 5% deposit, the credit check is harder to pass than with a 10% or even 15% deposit. Commonly clients will come to us, explaining that their bank would only give them a mortgage if they’re able to put down a higher deposit – which is often not possible.

By speaking to an experienced broker like myself, we are often able to put our expertise to use, and find the client an alternative option. Depending on the scenario, some banks can be easier to pass the credit check with than others.

In this particular case we decided to submit the credit checked mortgage ageeement with another lender, and we were accepted.

In addition we were also able to save the client a further £40pm on her mortgage deal, for 2 years, which totals £960. She also got a free valuation with the lender I recommended for her, saving her another £200. So it’s well worth paying us a £295 broker fee to sort everything out.

To top it off, we’ll be getting back in touch with her (free of charge) in 2 years’ time to arrange her new mortgage deal when her fixed rate is about to expire”.

Case Study 2

Jack thought that he couldn’t get a mortgage as he was self-employed, and also had credit issues (defaults) in the past. He didn’t even bother trying as he had been told that it would be impossible, before a friend recommended that he spoke to us.

We managed to find him a lender who was fine with his income situation and also his past credit issues. He managed to buy his first home.

Karl says “A lot of self-employed people will struggle to get mortgages. It’s important to know that just because one bank won’t lend to you, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get a mortgage. Different lenders will assess self-employed people in different ways. E.g. Some are fine with your first years’ tax returns, and some can look at the operating profits of limited companies instead of directors dividends etc. It’s best to speak to us and show us your income proof so that we can assess it.

In terms of the previous credit issues, we were able to help Jack. Many high street lenders won’t be able to offer you a mortgage if your credit issues are recent, and you may need to wait a number of years until they’ve dropped off your file and/or your credit score has improved. Some lenders have a zero tolerance policy in the last 6 years.

However, some alternative lenders can offer mortgages by doing a manual assessment of the credit file instead of a strict credit check. Some lenders don’t take into account communication defaults, and can consider the application where the defaults are more than 1,2 or 3 years old.

In Jacks case we were able to get him approved for the mortgage despite a number of defaults which were between 2 and 5 years old.

Our Fees

We give free consultations and offer free advice. In terms of our fees, we usually charge a £295 fee on submission of a successful full mortgage application – should you be happy to go ahead and use us. For more complex cases which require more time and effort, we may charge a higher fee. Your adviser will confirm this.

Our fee comes with a property life-time guarantee – once you’ve paid us, we’ll arrange all of the future like for like re-mortgages / rate-switches on the property free of charge.

Book your free consultation now!

Terms and Conditions