from renting to mortgage

therealgirl

I am trying to educate myself on all things mortgages and banking as we are renting the past ten years and have three kids so we are getting sick of moving every few years and renting crap houses for ridiculous money...

I am so clueless about how mortgages work though...the way I am thinking now is, we pay €750 p/m rent (crap house, great location) ...can we assume that because we can afford to pay a landlord this we might as well be paying a bank this for a mortgage?

Or am I being naiive and there is actually a whole load of other hidden costs involved in a mortgage?

Is it better to be married or still just a cohabiting couple?

Is there any service we could avail of that would be impartial to the banks , where we could get advice on mortgages?

Thanks!

Skybox

There are so many different things to consider when getting a mortgage and comparing it to renting. Some examples off the top of my head include location. The fact it is a crap house in a great location would ask me to question how much rent you would be paying for a great house in the same location. Do you need to be in the same location for work, school, etc?

To get an idea of affordability, you could check out Daft.ie to get an idea of house prices in your desired location. You could then check out any of the banks websites and look for a mortgage calculator, most of the bank websites have one. Insert the mortgage amount, term of the mortgage (longest are generally 30-35 years) and it will calculate your monthly repayments. Other costs to consider include life assurance and house insurance both of which will be deemed essential by the bank.

It may be worth your while to pop into a mortgage broker. They would have knowledge of what would be required and can go to the various banks on your behalf. The benefits of this include the fact that you only need to complete one mortgage application.

Best of luck whatever you decide!

homerno

Skybox wrote: »

There are so many different things to consider when getting a mortgage and comparing it to renting. Some examples off the top of my head include location. The fact it is a crap house in a great location would ask me to question how much rent you would be paying for a great house in the same location. Do you need to be in the same location for work, school, etc?

To get an idea of affordability, you could check out Daft.ie to get an idea of house prices in your desired location. You could then check out any of the banks websites and look for a mortgage calculator, most of the bank websites have one. Insert the mortgage amount, term of the mortgage (longest are generally 30-35 years) and it will calculate your monthly repayments. Other costs to consider include life assurance and house insurance both of which will be deemed essential by the bank.

It may be worth your while to pop into a mortgage broker. They would have knowledge of what would be required and can go to the various banks on your behalf. The benefits of this include the fact that you only need to complete one mortgage application.

Best of luck whatever you decide!

remember when you are doing your figures that interest rates are at a historic low, so you should factor in a rise of a few percent in a few years ,

marathonic

Add about 1% of the property value for annual maintenance. Some years, you might have no maintenance. Others you might need to replace a boiler or repair damaged pipes with frost or a damaged roof with storms.