You may have seen our Mortgage Success story posts on the site or you may have even found us whilst looking for success stories from people in a similar situation to yourself. The aim for this post is just to explain how it can be helpful to find similar stories but why not to read into them too much.
We were talking the other day and we realised that it is pretty rare we seen anything new after nearly 10 years as a broker. Some examples being:
- 15 Defaults? Seen it!
- Been in an IVA and then gone bankrupt? Seen it!
- Bankrupt and a Repossession? Seen it!
- Gave up counting the number of pay day loans at 35? Seen it!
That being said however, it is almost impossible to find someone with a situation the same as yours because there are so many possible variations it is impossible to compare and draw any sort of conclusion from.
Take for example the 15 defaults:
- Who were the defaults to?
- How much were they for?
- When were they registered?
- Have they been satisfied and if so, when?
If the 15 defaults were all 5 years old and satisfied for 4 years, we may be able to get you normal rates. If they were all registered 12 months and go and not satisfied, we would have to look at a specialist lender and the interest rates would be higher – although in both scenarios, I would like to think there are options.
Our Success Stories
The stories we write are real life examples of people we have been able to help, they are there to give you an indication of what we can achieve together.
Your options will vary and they really will depend on your circumstances. The single biggest factor when trying to get you a mortgage if you have a chequered credit file is time. You are going to have more options if your adverse is 5 years old than you would if it were 5 months old.
That being said, we look at the bigger picture, the size of your deposit will help and what the issues were will all play a factor into your options. A one off Default is going to be far less of an issue than a bankruptcy but if the bankruptcy were 5 years old and the Default was from last month, you could actually find the bankruptcy case has more options and better rates.
What can you do?
If you have adverse credit, you have adverse credit. It is rare we can get it removed, so we have to work with that. There are things you can do to help us though:
- Ensure you keep on top of your payments and that there are no arrears when it comes to looking for a Mortgage. The longer the gap between any issues and your application the better.
- You can build up your deposit as much as possible, generally speaking the bigger the deposit the better the options.
- Be honest with us. We ask people to give us the good, the bad and the ugly. We work for you, so hiding things from us is never helpful and can result in a declined application.
- Speak to us. As the old saying goes “if you do not ask, you do not get”. Worst case scenario we will tell you we cant help at the minute. But we will always try to point you in the right direction and give you something to aim for.
Whilst it is difficult to find someone with the same circumstances as you on the face of it, what we do find is that we typically have a handful of core lenders we speak to for our cases with adverse. Some lenders criteria is black and white and you either fit or you dont – these lenders usually have the highest rates, but allow a lot more.
You then have your manual underwriting lenders, these lenders can be forgiving to people who have had a blip or even had a really bad time but have satisfied everything.
We also have our flexible high street lenders who will accept the odd bit of adverse.
The options available will depend on your circumstances. We use the phrase a lot, but the devil is in the detail.
If you would like to look at what is available, please do get in touch. We will talk through your options and see if we can get you your own success story.