How To Avoid Mortgage Delays When Buying A House, If buying a house wasn’t stressful enough, unexpected mortgage delays that risk everything are another level. From credit issues to missing paperwork or lender delays, these seemingly small things can end up pushing your completion date back weeks, or even worse, having the whole thing fall through. Whether you’re a first-time buyer or moving up the property ladder, these issues will still affect you. Below, we’ll explain what some of the most common delays are and how you can try to prevent them.
Have A Mortgage In Principle Early
Before you even start searching for homes more seriously, you should meet with a mortgage advisor/lender to see if they think you could borrow. This is a mortgage in principle. Not only will it give you an idea of what you actually afford, so you don’t waste time looking at properties out of budget, but it’ll show sellers that you are actually serious about buying. That can speed up any application you make on any future property.
Be Organised
Being prepared and on top of everything is key to making sure things don’t get delayed. That could mean keeping track of paperwork, calling solicitors and lenders to chase things up or even booking surveys and searches in advance. A lot of delays happen thanks to missing paperwork or when people just don’t have the right documentation. If you know you’re going to buy, research what you’ll need to show people.
Poor communication is another reason that the purchase can slow down: people not getting back to you, or emails not getting sent till days later. If you want things to go quick then you may need to prod people a bit to get a move on.
Consider A Bridging Loan
Sometimes there can be delays in getting your mortgage accepted. The problem with this is if you’re already in the middle of purchasing a property and the mortgage isn’t ready, you might be left with no way of paying. In this case, bridging loans might be useful if you’re worried about losing the property before the mortgage gets finalised. As the name suggests, they can bridge the gap by giving you the money to buy the house, and then you effectively use your mortgage to repay that debt – which then leaves you with the usual mortgage repayments as standard.
Avoid Any Big Financial Changes
When saving for a deposit, you often have to think about spending habits. The same goes for mortgages. Even if you know you can afford your mortgage and are waiting for it to just get accepted, you still need to be careful with your financial situation.
Try to avoid big changes like changing jobs, taking out credit, missing payments or making unusually large purchases. These can all threaten your mortgage getting accepted, even after applying. If your situation does change, then the lender may want to re-check all your finances again, causing delays.
Mortgage delays can be incredibly frustrating, but many of the most common problems can be avoidable. By staying organised, keeping on top of your finances and having a backup plan if things do get delayed, you should be able to prevent many of those issues and continue to move forward with purchasing your home.
