Your local online mortgage broker will explain this in greater detail.

A mortgage is simply a large loan that you take out from a bank or building society when buying a property. Firstly, you own your home. Secondly your mortgage provider simply uses your home as security while you are making your mortgage repayments and clearing what you owe.

Mortgages are ‘secured’ against the property being purchased. But if you have to stop paying back the loan, the mortgage company can repossess your home. However, to be fair, most lenders normally try to help you with a plan, if this fails and they cannot help, the lender may repossess your home to get their money back.

The million pound question. Well, many mortgage lenders can lend you up to five times your salary. But the amount you qualify for will depend on quite a few things:

• your age,
• the number of children you have,
• if you have any adult dependants,
• you have any payments for current credit commitments

Mortgage lenders assess your circumstances and work out how much they think they can lend you after considering the things above as well as what they think you can afford each month after you have paid your household bills.

All our mortgage advisers can help enormously with this and have tools designed to calculate how much you can borrow. Furthermore, our online mortgage advisers will let you know which mortgage lenders to approach to get the right amount of mortgage.

Normally you will need to provide a deposit, an amount of money provided by you. The amount of money you need to provide as a deposit is generally a minimum of 5% of the price of the property you want to buy. So, the bigger the deposit you can provide the less you need to borrow on a mortgage. Also, a lot of mortgage providers reduce the interest rates they charge to people putting up bigger deposits.

It is easy enough to get a mortgage from a bank or building society yourself, if you are comfortable that they are offering a good deal. When applying they will ask a series of questions about you and your finances. The lender will calculate what amount of mortgage they think is affordable. They will also run several checks to assess your financial status. If they accept your application, you will be sent an offer.

However, it is probably easier, and quicker, to find the best mortgage using a local online mortgage broker like MDFS. In fact, all you have to do is book an appointment with a mortgage expert who looks after your local area. Tell them a little about yourself in addition to the home you want to buy, and they will compare deals across the market. Your online mortgage adviser will then explain all the pros and cons, fees, and charges, before going on to set up an action plan to make sure things go according to plan.

Remortgage
Remortgaging means changing your existing mortgage to a different deal with a new lender. However, rate switching is where you get a new deal with your current mortgage provider. Furthermore, remortgaging and rate switching can help you get lower interest rates or better terms.

First-time buyer
Many first-time buyer mortgages include incentives like cashbacks or reduced fees. Our local online mortgage advisers will help with finding good deals for first-time buyers. In addition, you will also get tips on deposits, mortgage types, and getting a decision in principle.

Home purchase
When you are buying your next property, you can either take your current mortgage deal with you, which is called porting or look to find a brand new competitive mortgage. As deposits are normally bigger when moving home, great deals can be found. Therefore, your adviser will search for different loan to value deals and compare what is available.

Buy to Let
A buy-to-let mortgage is specifically for people looking to purchase property as an investment, rather than as somewhere to live. If you are buying a house or flat and intend to rent it out to tenants, you need a buy-to-let mortgage.

Some lenders will assess your mortgage application based on credit score and some will assess your application based on a credit search. However, lenders who credit score will often require a high score with no adverse credit history, whereas lenders who credit search are not basing their decision on a computer.

What is a soft credit search?
A soft credit search is when a lender carries out their checks without leaving a footprint on your credit file for other lenders to see. A soft credit search will also not affect your credit score. Hence, when your score is low, as too many normal credit searches can impact your rating even further.

When you have found a property book an appointment or call your adviser. Your online mortgage broker will re-assess your needs and recommend a mortgage. They will compare hundreds of mortgages, including a few that are exclusive to us, and cannot be found on the high street or comparison sites.

Assuming you are happy with the mortgage product recommended, we will get you a Mortgage Agreement in Principle. This will confirm how much the lender thinks you can afford to borrow. The decision in principle will help you when putting in your offer for your dream home.

As soon as your offer is accepted, you will need to appoint a solicitor. We take care of the entire mortgage application process through to completion. We liaise with your solicitor and lender to ensure that your application is a success.

If you are looking to remortgage, we recommend looking for a new mortgage deal around four months before your current deal expires. Starting the process early gives you plenty of time to compare all the available mortgage products and submit your application.

Decision in Principle?

We can normally apply for, and get, a Mortgage Agreement in Principle within a couple of hours. But you will need to provide your online mortgage adviser with a bit of basic information. However, a Mortgage Decision in Principle is not a 100% guarantee that your full mortgage will be accepted.

Mortgage Offer
There is no standard length of time from mortgage application to offer. Service standards are different between mortgage providers. However, we target to get your mortgage offer as quickly as possible, normally in 10 to 14 working days. Therefore, the time it takes depends on making sure the information requested by your adviser is provided or uploaded as soon as possible. Some complicated mortgage applications, such as those for the self-employed, contractors and limited company directors, can take a little longer.

Like other mortgage advisers we receive a payment from the lender at completion of your mortgage. However, unlike some other mortgage brokers we do not charge you a fee of any amount or description, regardless of the amount of work involved. Therefore, for these reasons, and because of our unbiased approach, more and more customers are turning to MDFS Mortgages for advice every day.

We are here to save you money on your mortgage, not cost you more than it would if you did it yourself. Applying for your mortgage through us costs you no more than going directly to a mortgage provider for the same deal.

Moreover, frequently we will have access to special deals not available directly from lender.