by cwms | May 8, 2025 | Mortgage Advice, Mortgage News, Uncategorized
Your Path to Homeownership: Essential Advice for First-Time Buyers
Embarking on the journey to buy your first home can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right strategies, tools, and a little patience, you can turn your dream of homeownership into reality. Here are some essential tips for first-time buyers to guide you through the process.
Start Saving Early
The first step towards buying your own home is to start saving as early as possible. Creating a dedicated savings plan can significantly impact your ability to secure a mortgage. Consider setting up a high-interest savings account specifically for your home purchase. Regular contributions, even if they are small, can accumulate over time and put you closer to your down payment goal. Additionally, consider cutting back on discretionary spending to boost your savings rate.
Exploring Low-Deposit Mortgages
Low-deposit mortgages can be an excellent option if you don’t have a substantial amount saved up for a down payment. Many lenders now offer products that allow first-time buyers to put down as little as 5% of the property value. This can significantly reduce the initial financial barrier to entry. However, with higher deposits you get a better interest rate on your mortgage. Research and compare different lenders to find the right interest rates and terms to suit your financial situation.
Understanding Shared Ownership and New Builds
Shared ownership schemes can be a great way to step onto the property ladder without buying a home outright. This model allows you to purchase a share of a property, typically between 25% and 75%, while paying rent on the remaining share. If you’re considering buying a new-build home, look into programs like Own New, which often offer additional incentives for first-time buyers. Coombes & Wright are approved brokers for Own New, a nationwide scheme funded through a subsidy paid for by the builder. Own New’s ‘Rate Reducer’ is for people buying a new build property and offers a unique mortgage with access to lower interest rates and reduced monthly payments during the initial mortgage period. By combining these opportunities, you can make homeownership more affordable and less daunting.
Professional Mortgages for Newly Qualified Buyers
If you’ve recently completed your qualifications in a professional field, explore professional mortgages explicitly tailored for new graduates or those in fields like healthcare, law, and finance. These specialised products often come with favourable rates and flexible criteria, recognising the higher earning potential of your new career. Engaging with lenders who understand your profession can help you navigate the purchasing process more smoothly.
At Coombes & Wright, our mortgage experts support you at every step, from your first enquiry to successful completion and picking up the keys. We manage the complete mortgage and protection process for you, including all application paperwork and admin, liaising with your lender, solicitors, estate agent or new home builders. Book a free, no-obligation initial consultation to chat through your options. We will get you well on your way to owning your dream home. Happy house hunting!
Book your free no-obligation initial consultation
by admin | Mar 31, 2021 | Uncategorized
Fraud is a fact of life and the potential payoff for property-related fraud can be very high. This means that everyone involved in the property market needs to stay vigilant about it. Here’s a quick guide to what you need to know.
There are different types of property fraud
Some of the most common types of (attempted) property fraud include:
- Money laundering
- Investment scams
- Fund interceptions
- Identity theft
These can all be implemented in various ways. Ultimately, however, all frauds require you to trust someone who shouldn’t be trusted.
Money laundering
Money laundering tends to be an issue for property professionals to handle. As a regular buyer or seller, your only experience of this is likely to be having to provide ID. For completeness, it’s increasingly likely that this will be verified electronically. This is to protect against forgery, which is now highly sophisticated.
That said, it is not out of the question that you will find yourself approached by someone wanting you to act as a “money mule”. The simple way to protect yourself is just to say no. No matter what they offer you, it’s not worth the risk.
Investment scams
You can be targeted by an investment scam even when you’re not actively looking to buy or sell property. The way to protect yourself against investment property scams is the same as the way to protect yourself against investment scams in general. Make sure you do thorough due diligence before you decide whether or not to part with any cash.
In particular, be clear about whether or not the scheme is covered by any industry bodies or regulators. These do not guarantee that an investment is legitimate, let alone that it will be successful. They can, however, be a lot better than nothing.
Fund interceptions
Fund interception works by persuading the victim to transfer funds to a scammer rather than a legitimate recipient. The scammer often achieves this by pretending to be someone the victim knows and trusts. It may even be someone from whom they were expecting a legitimate bill.
As with investment scams, the key to protecting yourself against funds interception is to be sure you know who you’re dealing with. Find out both the contact details and the bank details of your legitimate key contacts (e.g. your solicitor) and only use those contact details.
Be aware that both phone numbers and emails can be “spoofed” (impersonated) as well as hacked. Always verify any contact by calling or emailing the known contact details. Never let yourself be pressured into taking hasty actions. Remember the old saying – act in haste, repent at leisure.
Identity theft
Your identity has a value, especially if you’re a homeowner (or about to become one). You, therefore, need to be careful to protect it. Here are some ideas.
Keep your mail secure
You may not get much postal mail these days, but you still need to ensure that what you do get is kept safe from prying eyes (and fingers). Once you’ve read it, shred it. If you don’t get enough mail to justify a shredder, then a pair of scissors will do. Just remember to cut finely and cut in both directions.
Protect all your devices
Any device with a mainstream operating system (e.g. Windows, macOS, Android and iOS) should have plenty of security software available for it. Make sure you at least download one of the free antimalware programs. Consider investing in one of the paid-for offerings. In particular, look for one with advanced message-filtering capability. This can help to protect you from scam emails.
For devices that don’t have proper security software, make sure you use a strong and unique password.
Use two-factor authentication whenever you can
Two-factor authentication combines something you know (your password) with something you have (usually a one-time code). It can do a lot to improve the safety of your accounts.
Please contact us for more information.
Recent Comments