Self build mortgage brokers

[Jenjen]

Hi

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for self-build mortgage brokers other than Buildstore? Keen to explore options at this stage as haven’t always heard positive feeedback on Buildstore. Based in Scotland, if that makes any difference. 

[the_r_sole]

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Edited September 26, 2019 by the_r_sole

[newhome]

Has anyone tried this? It’s not available to those who can access bank lending but there must be some who can’t get a standard mortgage for a variety of reasons? 

 

https://www.mygov.scot/self-build-loan-fund/

 

[Our_Valleys_build]

8 hours ago, Jenjen said:

Hi

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for self-build mortgage brokers other than Buildstore? Keen to explore options at this stage as haven’t always heard positive feeedback on Buildstore. Based in Scotland, if that makes any difference. 

buildstore are doing mine and have been very helpful along the way

[Jenjen]

58 minutes ago, Our_Valleys_build said:

buildstore are doing mine and have been very helpful along the way

Thanks, it’s food to hear positive feedback. Did you manage to do any pre-planning approval application or promise or did you need to have planning approval before they would do anything?

[Alex C]

I used Ecology Building Society and they were great to deal with and easy to draw money down as and when I wanted it.

[the_r_sole]

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Edited September 26, 2019 by the_r_sole

[Our_Valleys_build]

1 hour ago, Jenjen said:

Thanks, it’s food to hear positive feedback. Did you manage to do any pre-planning approval application or promise or did you need to have planning approval before they would do anything?

 

1 hour ago, Jenjen said:

Thanks, it’s food to hear positive feedback. Did you manage to do any pre-planning approval application or promise or did you need to have planning approval before they would do anything?

with mine i already had the full planning in place for the build, it may be benificail for you to have the full planning in place first so they know its viable i guess.

[Damo]

On 23/01/2019 at 09:51, Our_Valleys_build said:

 

with mine i already had the full planning in place for the build, it may be benificail for you to have the full planning in place first so they know its viable i guess.

 

How far are you through the process? My take on most of the bad reviews seem to be related to getting stage payments done on time potentially putting builds at risk. 

I’m nervous about going with them because of that so looking for contrary examples (I know people rush to the internet to complain but not to praise so cant always judge by bad reviews). 

Edited February 5, 2019 by Damo

[Our_Valleys_build]

43 minutes ago, Damo said:

 

How far are you through the process? My take on most of the bad reviews seem to be related to getting stage payments done on time potentially putting builds at risk. 

I’m nervous about going with them because of that so looking for contrary examples (I know people rush to the internet to complain but not to praise so cant always judge by bad reviews). 

Im still awaiting my solicitors to finalise my first pull down of funds, these solicitors seems to be the most fustrating across the board really, but my broker is very helpfull along with buildloan who have arranged the application etc. nothing gets done fast with solicitors

[Weebles]

+1 for The Ecology Building Society. Their rate was slightly higher but the upfront costs for Buildstore were a lot higher. I worked it out over the 2 years (lock in period for Ecology) and it was pretty even so went with Ecology due to feedback from others. Easy to draw down cash whenever we need. Buildstore had fairly rigid stage payments in our quote. Their surveyor wanted a budget and didn’t believe mine (spreadsheet based) and insisted on a professional assessment. I went with Estimators Online for £180 for them to come within £10k of my budget.....got the mortgage approved within 1 day of sending that in though.

 

TBH, I don’t think the surveyor thought we could build a house - he could yet be right ?

[Jeremy Harris]

Another vote for the Ecology.  They were really easy to deal with, with very good customer service, plus they were pretty quick to get everything arranged. 

 

Buildstore were a complete and utter shambles, slow, very expensive and seemed to delight in finding inventive ways to both delay things and extract more money.  The worst decision I ever made was to get involved with Buildstore, bar none.  The final straw was getting tangled up in the (expensive) self-build insurance they offer.  When we went over the time we'd allowed, not only did Buildstore charge a great deal more to extend the policy, but they also have a scam running with other insurers, so that when you try to get insurance elsewhere you get turned down because you're already flagged as being a Buildstore customer.  I managed to escape this trap in the end, but only after being caught in it the first time we tried to renew our policy.

[eandg]

Do Ecology consider advance (or part-advance) stage mortgages? With a bit of luck we'd be on the cusp of being able to swing an arrears-based product but it'll be very tight so it might require a bit of flexibility on the lender's part to be able to swing it. 

[Alex C]

I had no stages at all from Ecology. I could take whatever money I wanted whenever I wanted it. Made life very easy for the build. I am not sure if they were more flexible than usual as I had a lot of equity in the plot. They are one of the few banks you can just ring up and ask questions and you can deal with the same person every time.

[Amateur bob]

On 07/02/2019 at 13:25, Alex C said:

I had no stages at all from Ecology. I could take whatever money I wanted whenever I wanted it. Made life very easy for the build. I am not sure if they were more flexible than usual as I had a lot of equity in the plot. They are one of the few banks you can just ring up and ask questions and you can deal with the same person every time.

i notice you say you had a lot of equity in plot, im hoping to get a mortgage on a plot owned outright and with 100k build deposit i would need a further 100k for doing the build am i likely to get a mortgage without having to prove income? as im self employed, wife earns 20k a year however

[Alex C]

@Amateur bob no chance on getting any money without proving income expecially if you are self employed. You will need to show your last 3 years accounts and show that you can afford to afford to service the loan even with a rise in interest rates. Is that 200k total for the build? Dosnt sound much for building a house. 

[Jeremy Harris]

We had to jump through a few hoops to prove income, as I'd taken early retirement and so had to prove that my pension was not going to just disappear.  Proof of income was the greatest amount of work in getting the mortgage sorted, IIRC, as despite the fact that my pension was more than enough to cover the amount we borrowed, they still needed full details of my wife's income as well, and proof of her pension when she reached retirement age.  Getting that information was a PITA, as she was about 5 years off retirement and her employer wasn't set up to provide that information.  It all seemed a bit pointless for a mortgage that was never going to exist for more than 5 years, too, but we had to comply in order to get the money.

[Amateur bob]

3 hours ago, Alex C said:

@Amateur bob no chance on getting any money without proving income expecially if you are self employed. You will need to show your last 3 years accounts and show that you can afford to afford to service the loan even with a rise in interest rates. Is that 200k total for the build? Dosnt sound much for building a house. 

slight problm ive only been a partner in business for one year and only on small % although i withdraw more than my %, wife is on 20k salary would this be enough to cover the 100k id need to borrow?

[Amateur bob]

3 hours ago, JSHarris said:

We had to jump through a few hoops to prove income, as I'd taken early retirement and so had to prove that my pension was not going to just disappear.  Proof of income was the greatest amount of work in getting the mortgage sorted, IIRC, as despite the fact that my pension was more than enough to cover the amount we borrowed, they still needed full details of my wife's income as well, and proof of her pension when she reached retirement age.  Getting that information was a PITA, as she was about 5 years off retirement and her employer wasn't set up to provide that information.  It all seemed a bit pointless for a mortgage that was never going to exist for more than 5 years, too, but we had to comply in order to get the money.

im in my 30s so pension shouldnt really be a hurdle for me but proving my income(being a small % partner in business) and wife only being on 20k may be a big problem?

[Alex C]

7 minutes ago, Amateur bob said:

slight problm ive only been a partner in business for one year and only on small % although i withdraw more than my %, wife is on 20k salary would this be enough to cover the 100k id need to borrow?

I expect not as you are unlikely to be able to borrow 5 times her salary. For a lot of self builders raising cash is one of the hardest parts of the build and seems to get pretty overlooked for such a fundamental part or the process. Sounds like you need broker. And also my original question, is 200k the total for a new build?

[Amateur bob]

1 minute ago, Alex C said:

I expect not as you are unlikely to be able to borrow 5 times her salary. For a lot of self builders raising cash is one of the hardest parts of the build and seems to get pretty overlooked for such a fundamental part or the process. Sounds like you need broker. And also my original question, is 200k the total for a new build?

yes i dont want to go over this for the build cost, i own plot and have half the money for build cost

[Conor]

Good to rear the positive reviews on Ecology. They are pretty much the only company that will deal with us, very positive initial feedback from them so hopefully all goes well.

[Alex C]

4 minutes ago, Amateur bob said:

yes i dont want to go over this for the build cost, i own plot and have half the money for build cost

Are you sure you are going to build a house for 200k? If you tell that to any bank the chance of them lending you money is zero.

[scottishjohn]

and unless you can prove definitively your wife is not going to have kids --when her income will likely stop --  you stand a dull chance 

go ask them --put if off and save some more is the answer as you have the plot 

and who knows what brexit will do to interest rates ??

If i were you  I would using the extra time for lots of planning AND  not jumping just now

too many variables ,or just get planning --

do the founds  with the money you have to start with 

 

Edited June 3, 2019 by scottishjohn

[Jeremy Harris]

27 minutes ago, Amateur bob said:

im in my 30s so pension shouldnt really be a hurdle for me but proving my income(being a small % partner in business) and wife only being on 20k may be a big problem?

 

 

Best bet is to do some research with lenders, or use a mortgage broker.  Each lender will have a different policy on things like the income multiplier, which is one reason why a broker can often be the quickest way to do things.  The downside with using a mortgage broker is the cost, as the market for self-build mortgage brokerage has been pretty much stitched up by Buildstore, and they are both expensive and not that great to deal with. 

 

 

15 minutes ago, Conor said:

Good to rear the positive reviews on Ecology. They are pretty much the only company that will deal with us, very positive initial feedback from them so hopefully all goes well.

 

We found the Ecology really great to deal with.  Dealing with the same person on the phone each time was a big benefit and they were pretty quick at sorting things out for us.  They did impose some restrictions on the build, like no PVC windows and a decent level of energy performance, but we were going to exceed their requirements anyway, so none of that had any impact.  The only slight downside was that the Ecology weren't the cheapest in terms of interest rates, but my view was that it was worth paying a bit more interest for the service we received.  In the grand scheme of things the interest wasn't a massive difference in cost, especially when compared to something like Buildstore's arrangement fees.