FTB's - Advice needed

Myself and my partner have been holding back on buying a home for the last few years and are wondering if now is a good time to go for it.

We have a good deposit saved but have not approached any banks yet to apply for a mortgage but we recently saw a few houses that we are interested in viewing, I have a few questions and if anyone can offer sound advice I would be really grateful.

First things first, the mortgage. We need to go and apply but not sure how this works, do you get approved in principal first or do you go in with all your payslips etc? And how long does the approval last for? I know from reading the threads here that AIB is offering the best rate to FTB's but, that being accepted is not guaranteed in this climate. My OH has a great credit rating and has saved solidly for the last 3 years, has a good job with good wages. I have a stable part time job but always seem to get refused for credit (although I did have a lot on my credit card at one stage but that has been paid off, I checked my credit rating and there doesn't appear to be anything against me) OH would easily get approved for the mortgage by himself so should we go in joint or just let him since I seem to have been refused a lot before? (I don't want it affecting our application)

My second question is about bidding for the house. We are viewing 3 houses 1 is €285,000 in a really nice area that we would definately like to live in we can't believe the price actually so if we like the house and decide to put a bid in, should we go much lower than this since it seems like a great bargain anyway? The other houses are 300 and 359 so how much lower would we want to be going for them and can you assume that the price you see is significanly more than the price you should be offering? I read the thread here about how to bid and got some good tips there but just want to be confident about it so I can put the tips to use.

Thanks for reading and hope that's not too confusing!

BOI 1 year fixed rate of 2.49% is now better than AIB- in any event you may be better opting for a variable rate with ECB likely to cut at least twice more in the coming months.

Best advice I can offer is to find a reputable, knowledgable independent broker who has access to at least 8 lenders- this will allow you to seek multiple approvals & get independent advice on each lender. The Financial Regulator or a referral from a friend should allow you to contact a decent advisor.

Yellow Belly, do you think it's likely there will be two more reductions in the ECB rate?

One cut is on the way thursday next week,

http://www.independent.ie/business/...-cut-base-rate-by-05pc-next-week-1650654.html

Thanks YellowBelly so you reckon it's best to go with a variable rate, great. Hopefully we'll get approved now. Can you recommend a broker?

Does anyone have any advice on the other questions in my post please? Thanks!

The norm seems to be to bid a good bit lower at the moment. Set yourselves a cut off point that you are not willing to go beyond. If the lower offer gets it for you, happy days. If nt, work in increments until you have reached your target and if they are still not willing to budge, walk away.