FTB: Clueless

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leonmahon

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Apologies if this has come up before. I've searched and looked through the key posts and am still very confused.

Myself and partner are in the process of buying a house for the first time. However having always believed we would never be in a position to buy (through the boom), we've never bothered paying attention to any mortgage or financial issues in our lives thus far. Now we are actually able to afford somewhere but have no idea where to start on the mortgage side of things.

For example we have no clue where to start looking for the best rates, what's a good idea as regards interest vs fixed (we want the lowest overall cost, not necessarily a static payment), what to judge rates by (we don't even know what APR is or what it means in practice).

I've looked at numerous websites but the bottom line always seems to be that they're selling something, so I don't know who to believe.

Should we be looking at a financial adviser or mortgage broker? Again we want to do things as cheaply as possible as we want to buy a house that needs a lot of work and put our money into it over time.

Can some kind soul answer a few of these questions for us or point us in the direction of some impartial advice for financial amadans?

Many thanks.
 
Perhaps get a book on the matter. I don't have a name to hand but perhaps someone else might suggest one or you could pop in to Easons or the likes and ask.
I would advise that you get as much knowledge as you can before buying.
Have you been looking at properties - no harm in starting.
Have you been saving for deposit.
Also no harm in approaching some of the financial institutions to see what you would be eligibly to borrow. But don't agree to anything until you have yourselves educated on the matter.
Have you any friends or family that have bought - ask them what they did?
 
The first step I would suggest is to read the beginners guide to buying a
home on the National Consumer Agency site.

http://www.itsyourmoney.ie/iym/buyingahome

It wont give you direct advice on the best deal for a mortgage, but it
will arm you with information to help you look at what is available.
 
Thanks guys. Yep that's a start. We have been looking hard and have a good amount of savings, well over 10% of what we're looking to buy, so we are up to speed in that area. Its the financial nitty gritty we've no clue about. I'll look at that website and check out the local library for some books.

PS Zen Arcade is my fav Husker Du Lp ;)
 
My advice is to save hard, to have 20% +, so you only need to borrow for 80% or less of the house value.

You may get a better mortgage rate this way.

Also, don't forget the:
  • legal fees
  • stamp duty
  • mortgage protection insurance
  • house insurance
  • furniture costs
 
I assume you have checked out as far as you can that the location suits you. You mention that the property will need some work to be done. you will have to discuss this clearly with whatever lender you choose as one of the requirements for eventual drawdown of the Mortgage loan is the obtainment of a satisfactory surveyors..if this report suggests work needs to be done you will need to have this aspect clearly agreed.
 
dewdrop said:
you will have to discuss this clearly with whatever lender you choose as one of the requirements for eventual drawdown of the Mortgage loan is the obtainment of a satisfactory surveyors..if this report suggests work needs to be done you will need to have this aspect clearly agreed.
Click to expand...

You are right, but lenders only care about the security of their mortgage, so long as the property is structurally sound, not in danger of catching fire through faulty wiring etc and is not overvalued, they don't care about other repairs that may be desirable.

Our Dublin house needed A LOT of work but the only work demanded by the lender was rewiring, we had to have it rewired within 6 months of taking out the mortgage. When we did, we wrote a letter informing the lender that we complied with their requirement and never heard anything back on this.

We were also denied contents insurance (but not building insurance) until we had the windows changed, as the old ones were not lockable and easy to break into.

Everything else (including no bathroom!) was of no interest to the lender.
 
For future reference, I got a hold of The Mortgage Maze Explained by Liam Croke out of the library. Sightly out of date, but otherwise very useful and easy to understand.
 
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