Saving/Applying for a mortgage 2015/16/17/18/19

Sleepy · 16-02-2016 11:26am

Yeah, BOI seem to be far more interested in lower LTV's. Their rates for 80% and under are great but the standard first time buyer territory of 80-90% is way out of line with the rest of the market.

Santy2015 · 16-02-2016 2:31pm

Viewed this morning and love the house, went to bank after with all our details such as recent payslips and p60 and updated salary cert for herself, the advisor said he'd send the application next week? Does this sound weird? We have the deposit saved and a small bit extra, saving 370 a week so the rest of the money will be gathered quickly. Have 15k and around 2k in current accounts so everything else will be okay

Mink · 16-02-2016 3:00pm

Sure may as well join in the fun.

Got notification that landlord wants to sell the house we've been renting for past 3 yrs, however the rents for smaller properties have gone up in the area 300-500 and I swore that if we ever moved again it would be into our own house.

We've about 5k saved, have 15k gift from parent. We have a car loan that we took out last August (due to necessity) and there's no hope of paying that off anytime soon. Went to see broker and without the loan we'd get approved 170k plus, but with it the max is 147k.

Not a great selection for that price in the areas we are looking in.

So the gun is to the head but don't want to buy a house I'm not happy with just because there are no other options.

Sleepy · 16-02-2016 3:55pm

That's almost exactly what happened to us Mink except we've been renting the place for 6 years...

Luckily we had just cleared most of our debts, I recently got a decent raise and parents were able to help us out with "gifts" that amounted to enough to pay off the credit card debt and amount to a 28k deposit. Between the new salary and my annual performance bonus, we'll be able to top that up to 31k by the end of the month when our broker is going for approval for us. We're hoping to have that up to around 35k by the end of June when we'll have to move.

With Central Bank rules, even only allowing 7k of that to cover the costs of the move / any essential work on anything we buy, that limits us to about 250k which isn't much of a budget for a family home in Dublin!

We've viewed a couple of properties and there's only one we've viewed asking slightly under that which we're interested in and hoping will still be on the market when we get approval. Having to wait until the end of the month to apply is making February 2016 the longest month in recent memory for us! Mrs Sleepy is terrified the house will sell before we can even get an offer made on it!

Alkers · 16-02-2016 4:17pm

You can always apply for an exception to the 3.5*rule if you have the deposit saved, 300k opens a lot more potential in Dublin than 250k

messy tessy · 16-02-2016 4:25pm

Simona1986 wrote: »

You can always apply for an exception to the 3.5*rule if you have the deposit saved, 300k opens a lot more potential in Dublin than 250k

Is this not only if your (single) income exceeds €50k per below link?

http://www.mortgages.ie/go/first_time_buyers/how_much_can_i_borrow

Sleepy · 16-02-2016 4:36pm

It'd be the deposit we have (and the timeframe we're looking to move in limiting our ability to increase that) which limits our borrowing levels more than the income rules tbh but even then, I'm more comfortable in and around the 250k level.

Even leaving aside the facts that my other half is predominantly a stay-at-home mum (which leaves us effectively a single income family) and my hesitance to borrow anything beyond that which I could repay should interest rates take a sharp increase (I've been stress testing my figures at 8/9% rather than the 5/6% the banks seem to use), there's some quality of life issues too.

Wherever we buy we'll want to put our own stamp on it (even if that's just redecorating) and I'd like us to be able to do that without needing to rely on credit cards or giving up all quality of life. We don't live extravagantly but we like to be able to do stuff with the kids at the weekends and family days out get expensive pretty fast as do my two hobbies: craft beer and keeping a coral reef tank)

kala85 · 16-02-2016 5:54pm

Mink wrote: »

Sure may as well join in the fun.

Got notification that landlord wants to sell the house we've been renting for past 3 yrs, however the rents for smaller properties have gone up in the area 300-500 and I swore that if we ever moved again it would be into our own house.

We've about 5k saved, have 15k gift from parent. We have a car loan that we took out last August (due to necessity) and there's no hope of paying that off anytime soon. Went to see broker and without the loan we'd get approved 170k plus, but with it the max is 147k.

Not a great selection for that price in the areas we are looking in.

So the gun is to the head but don't want to buy a house I'm not happy with just because there are no other options.

Just wondering how the car loan affects the amount you can borrow from the bank. How is it worked out?

Alkers · 16-02-2016 6:53pm

messy tessy wrote: »

Is this not only if your (single) income exceeds €50k per below link?

http://www.mortgages.ie/go/first_time_buyers/how_much_can_i_borrow

Nope, we are below both of those figures and we go an exception from two banks. I've not seen those figures before anywhere else except for that website.

angeldelight · 16-02-2016 8:06pm

So I got a call from one of the agents I was speaking to last week - a house we're interested in is being shown tomorrow with an open viewing. I'm freaking out, no idea what to even ask or look out for!

quadrifoglio verde · 16-02-2016 8:14pm

kala85 wrote: »

Just wondering how the car loan affects the amount you can borrow from the bank. How is it worked out?

It reduces your monthly repayment capacity
You can only borrow 3.5 times income, but as well as that you have to have X amount for living
A car loan reduces this repayment capacity.
As does kids

Once you have the mortgage, then go out and buy the new 5 series. Not the other way around

Glen_Quagmire · 16-02-2016 10:21pm

Just to jump in here guys, I'm also saving for a mortgage, I've about 7k saved so far and saving about 800 a month so I'm still miles off where I need to be and feeling like I'll never get there.

Would it be a wise move to invest 5k of my savings in some stocks or bonds (I'm clueless about investments so need to do some research) in the hope to speed things along?

hardCopy · 16-02-2016 10:24pm

Santy2015 wrote: »

Thanks, yeah we won't be making any offer. Not until I know fully that we've got approval.

We've viewed about 10 houses in the last few weeks without getting approval. It took us longer than expected to gather all our paperwork after meeting a broker. In the meantime we've been viewing everything in the area we want in the budget broker reckoned we'd get approval on.

The agents haven't directly asked us if we're approved. They've usually asked vague questions about whether we're ready to move.

Santy2015 · 16-02-2016 10:34pm

hardCopy wrote: »

We've viewed about 10 houses in the last few weeks without getting approval. It took us longer than expected to gather all our paperwork after meeting a broker. In the meantime we've been viewing everything in the area we want in the budget broker reckoned we'd get approval on.

The agents haven't directly asked us if we're approved. They've usually asked vague questions about whether we're ready to move.

Yeah we viewed 3 houses to day 2 with the same estate agent and one with another. The other estate agent seemed very pushy and went a bit too far in my opinion. He wanted to know there and then did we want to make an offer and I said no we'd need to think about it and he mentioned other bids, the 2 houses we viewed earlier in the day was a great experience as that estate agent was helpful answered all our questions and not once did she mention making offers or other bidders.

athtrasna · 16-02-2016 10:36pm

Glen_Quagmire wrote: »

Just to jump in here guys, I'm also saving for a mortgage, I've about 7k saved so far and saving about 800 a month so I'm still miles off where I need to be and feeling like I'll never get there.

Would it be a wise move to invest 5k of my savings in some stocks or bonds (I'm clueless about investments so need to do some research) in the hope to speed things along?

No, you need to show regular saving for starters. Stocks are akin to gambling and bond yields are low in the short term. A 30/60 day notice savings account maybe but your return will still be low

Glen_Quagmire · 16-02-2016 10:43pm

athtrasna wrote:

No, you need to show regular saving for starters. Stocks are akin to gambling and bond yields are low in the short term. A 30/60 day notice savings account maybe but your return will still be low

Thanks, any other tips to speed things along? Feels like it's a never ending task at the moment...

Santy2015 · 16-02-2016 10:53pm

Glen_Quagmire wrote: »

Thanks, any other tips to speed things along? Feels like it's a never ending task at the moment...

Bank of Ireland have a mortgage saver account now and you get 10% added on at the end

Glen_Quagmire · 16-02-2016 11:06pm

Santy2015 wrote:

Bank of Ireland have a mortgage saver account now and you get 10% added on at the end

Just seen that there on consumerhelp.ie. It says no breaks in savings allowed, so does that mean if I commit to saving 800 a month, I'm stuck with that for a defined period or how does it work?

Santy2015 · 16-02-2016 11:30pm

Glen_Quagmire wrote: »

Just seen that there on consumerhelp.ie. It says no breaks in savings allowed, so does that mean if I commit to saving 800 a month, I'm stuck with that for a defined period or how does it work?

I wouldn't be totally sure but a fixed amount each month for a certain period seems right like a year, 2 years etc. I'm too far along at this stage to start it but It does look a great deal for people starting out.

greenorchard · 17-02-2016 1:45am

Simona1986 wrote: »

You can always apply for an exception to the 3.5*rule if you have the deposit saved, 300k opens a lot more potential in Dublin than 250k

Can I ask what banks offered you an exception & was it difficult to get?

youcancallmeal · 17-02-2016 10:40am

Santy2015 wrote: »

Bank of Ireland have a mortgage saver account now and you get 10% added on at the end

Wow never heard about this, sounds quite interesting. I wonder if it would be worth going with BOI when you take into consideration this extra 10% on savings and the 2% cash back. Will have to sit down and do the maths

Santy2015 · 17-02-2016 11:08am

youcancallmeal wrote: »

Wow never heard about this, sounds quite interesting. I wonder if it would be worth going with BOI when you take into consideration this extra 10% on savings and the 2% cash back. Will have to sit down and do the maths

Defiantly worth a look, I've savings nearly done so it was too late for me to set up the account, but if I was starting it again I'd save with them

sozbox · 17-02-2016 11:23am

Santy2015 wrote: »

Defiantly worth a look, I've savings nearly done so it was too late for me to set up the account, but if I was starting it again I'd save with them

Have to save for 6 consecutive months and must draw down a BOI mortgage to avail of the 10%.

sozbox · 17-02-2016 11:26am

youcancallmeal wrote: »

Wow never heard about this, sounds quite interesting. I wonder if it would be worth going with BOI when you take into consideration this extra 10% on savings and the 2% cash back. Will have to sit down and do the maths

Factor in the difference in rates too, the short term cash didn't sound too good when I did my numbers, I'd save much more going with a lower rate vendor with no cash back option.

youcancallmeal · 17-02-2016 11:39am

sozbox wrote: »

Factor in the difference in rates too, the short term cash didn't sound too good when I did my numbers, I'd save much more going with a lower rate vendor with no cash back option.

Yes true, might be worth it for us though if we are at the max allowable entitlement for the 10% and the 2% cash back. Would be looking to transfer the BOI mortgage as soon as legally possible as well. Lots of small print to read and maths to do but yeah I'd be surprised if it was the better deal in the long run

Alkers · 17-02-2016 12:00pm

@greenorchard - we applied for one with all of the banks/lenders and KBC and ebs approved us for it, the rest all approved us to 3.5 * only. No more difficult to applying as per normal.

messy tessy · 17-02-2016 12:16pm

Simona1986 wrote: »

@greenorchard - we applied for one with all of the banks/lenders and KBC and ebs approved us for it, the rest all approved us to 3.5 * only. No more difficult to applying as per normal.

Do you mind me asking if this because you had a healthy amount saved (more than 20%) I would have a great cash deposit, but as I am applying as a single person 3.5 times my salary is not a huge amount. Sorry for all the questions, I just have not heard of this exemption before.

jennyhayes123 · 17-02-2016 12:26pm

Just for anyone feeling discouraged and like they are a million miles away keep going. Me and my husband saved for so long to be able get a mortgage for us and our 4 kids. We thought we would never get there nut we are now in our new house 4 months and living it. No thanks to our own bank BOI.
We got it through a fantastic broker on here that was highly recommended.
Keep on saving and you will get there

sozbox · 17-02-2016 12:38pm

messy tessy wrote: »

Do you mind me asking if this because you had a healthy amount saved (more than 20%) I would have a great cash deposit, but as I am applying as a single person 3.5 times my salary is not a huge amount. Sorry for all the questions, I just have not heard of this exemption before.

I applied as a single applicant and got 4 times salary. Initially approved to 3.5 but I emailed a few weeks later asking for 4 times and they emailed back saying grand.

EBS

Alkers · 17-02-2016 1:00pm

@messy tessy we have the minimum deposit with the new rules but we're both below 30 and the repayments are significantly less than we can afford.

Mink · 17-02-2016 2:41pm

kala85 wrote: »

Just wondering how the car loan affects the amount you can borrow from the bank. How is it worked out?

The broker didn't explain it to me, all I know is that the difference in buying power was 30k.

quadrifoglio verde wrote: »

Once you have the mortgage, then go out and buy the new 5 series. Not the other way around

Unfortunately no new cars, we just did a slight upgrade to the existing bangers to keep us on the road, it wasn't a big loan at all but just the fact of a loan has cut our spending power, nothing we could have done about it though.

Sleepy wrote: »

That's almost exactly what happened to us Mink except we've been renting the place for 6 years...

Best of luck Sleepy, really hope everything falls into place and all your lives aren't too upended. I'm lucky in that my son is not even started primary and won't til 2017 so he's a bit more pliable.

Santy2015 · 17-02-2016 3:11pm

So got onto my mortgage advisor today after meeting him yesterday as I wasn't fully sure why he said he'd wait till next week to send our application, we have the deposit saved for our maximum spend so that's in order. He said he wanted to send it once we had another weeks savings done. I don't see why that would make a difference? It'll be 540e extra come next Tuesday. He did kind of mention that he'd like us to be somewhere near the stamp duty figure alright so we'd be half way with that 540e

Jen44 · 17-02-2016 3:18pm

usually they wont approve you till you have all that in place so id imagine he is trying to make your application look a bit stronger

Santy2015 · 17-02-2016 3:29pm

Jen44 wrote: »

usually they wont approve you till you have all that in place so id imagine he is trying to make your application look a bit stronger

It'll be a lot stronger but saying that he told me back in December come back when you've the deposit saved and everything will go well from there. He's been good already but it sounded a bit worrying when he said that then. In the next 4 weeks we'd have all the outlays covered with just out savings

Sarn · 17-02-2016 4:19pm

Inspector Coptoor wrote: »

Yeah, 3 years fixed at 3.45%.

The caveat is that we are paying a full 20% deposit of €86k on the house we are buying.

I was just checking through the rates there. Are you sure that's the APR they quoted you and not the interest rate? As the APR is quite a bit higher. The lowest APR for first time buyers, 3 year fixed is 3.8 - 4.0% based on an interest rate of 3.45%.

Inspector Coptoor · 17-02-2016 6:18pm

Sarn wrote: »

I was just checking through the rates there. Are you sure that's the APR they quoted you and not the interest rate? As the APR is quite a bit higher. The lowest APR for first time buyers, 3 year fixed is 3.8 - 4.0% based on an interest rate of 3.45%.

I don't think I mentioned APR at all?

I just said the rate has been reduced from 3.6% to 3.45%.
The APR is probably closer to 3.8

Sarn · 17-02-2016 6:41pm

Inspector Coptoor wrote: »

I don't think I mentioned APR at all?

I just said the rate has been reduced from 3.6% to 3.45%.
The APR is probably closer to 3.8

Ah, ok. It's just easier to compare rates between lenders using APR.

greenorchard · 17-02-2016 7:33pm

sozbox wrote: »

I applied as a single applicant and got 4 times salary. Initially approved to 3.5 but I emailed a few weeks later asking for 4 times and they emailed back saying grand.

EBS

Did you have a big deposit? We're going to be applying in a couple of months but we're hoping to get 4 times our salaries. We have a strong savings record & will have approx 25% deposit

cnlbel · 17-02-2016 10:36pm

We are saving saving and feel we are close to start applying. I'm employed and the other half is self employed. We think a broker is the easiest option in terms of applying. Do we pay broker or does bank?? How do I figure out a good broker to go with? Naieve dot com!!!

Sleepy · 17-02-2016 11:14pm

The bank pays the broker. There's a lot of recommendations on this forum for a user called killers1 who we're using for our application too. So far I've found him incredibly responsive, emailing us back in minutes etc. but can't comment any further as we've yet to apply, never mind get approval!

zl1whqvjs75cdy · 17-02-2016 11:16pm

Just out of interest is anyone still giving voluntary contributions to a pension while trying the save the deposit? I'm torn are to whether to maximise saving or try and keep the pension ticking over. I'm 26.

messy tessy · 17-02-2016 11:27pm

donkeyoaty0099 wrote: »

Just out of interest is anyone still giving voluntary contributions to a pension while trying the save the deposit? I'm torn are to whether to maximise saving or try and keep the pension ticking over. I'm 26.

Yes I pay in about €60 a month. I have always paid that so I don't miss it. I'd say if you can start or keep paying into your pension...

zl1whqvjs75cdy · 17-02-2016 11:31pm

messy tessy wrote: »

Yes I pay in about €60 a month. I have always paid that so I don't miss it. I'd say if you can start paying into your pension...

Yeah we have a mandatory input of 120 and a match (at the moment, increases with years service) up to 90 quid so I'm putting in 210 anyway. At the moment I'm also putting in an extra 150 a month. I'm thinking that 150 would be better going into a deposit.

messy tessy · 17-02-2016 11:35pm

donkeyoaty0099 wrote: »

Yeah we have a mandatory input of 120 and a match (at the moment, increases with years service) up to 90 quid so I'm putting in 210 anyway. At the moment I'm also putting in an extra 150 a month. I'm thinking that 150 would be better going into a deposit.

Agreed

sozbox · 17-02-2016 11:47pm

greenorchard wrote: »

Did you have a big deposit? We're going to be applying in a couple of months but we're hoping to get 4 times our salaries. We have a strong savings record & will have approx 25% deposit

I wish! 10% is all I have. FTB

Glen_Quagmire · 18-02-2016 9:22am

sozbox wrote:

I wish! 10% is all I have. FTB

All I have is 3%. Loooong wait for me

18-02-2016 4:00pm

Those who have gone for approval recently, did you actually go in with a house to show the bank as one you were interested in when getting the approval or did you just get an approval for an amount? I would like to try to get full approval before really looking hard as I'd like to know for sure I will get full approval, they will very quickly tell you "yes there should be no problem getting approval". I'd also be looking for an exception to the 3.5 times rule most likely and would like to see if I would get if.

whiskeyman · 18-02-2016 5:24pm

Azalea Screeching Padding wrote: »

Those who have gone for approval recently, did you actually go in with a house to show the bank as one you were interested in when getting the approval or did you just get an approval for an amount? I would like to try to get full approval before really looking hard as I'd like to know for sure I will get full approval, they will very quickly tell you "yes there should be no problem getting approval". I'd also be looking for an exception to the 3.5 times rule most likely and would like to see if I would get if.

I just went to get approval on an amount we calculated with the mortgage adviser - and this included an exception on the salary total.

messy tessy · 18-02-2016 5:32pm

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-mortgage-rules-1.2088470

Point three of this explains about exceptions. i actually hadn't heard of this before this thread. Thanks!

18-02-2016 5:54pm

whiskeyman wrote: »

I just went to get approval on an amount we calculated with the mortgage adviser - and this included an exception on the salary total.

See I don't even know what exactly I will spend as I'm really only testing the waters at the moment to see where I would stand. When speaking to the advisor I asked for a bit more than 3.5 times my salary to get a nicer figure and she verbally said I'd more than likely get it but what is said and what happens are two very different things.

I have only gone as far as the "having a chat" stage yet, just to get a feel for the whole process really.

Saving/Applying for a mortgage 2015/16/17/18/19

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