The mortgage questions people actually ask.

Most lenders want at least 5%, although 10% opens up a noticeably wider range of products and better rates. For Buy to Let, 25% is the typical floor. We’ll always model the trade-off between waiting to save more and buying sooner — the maths is often closer than people expect, especially against rising rents or moving asking prices.

Lenders look at your gross income, your existing commitments (loans, credit cards, child maintenance, school fees), and stress-test the mortgage payment at a higher rate than the one you’re actually being offered, to make sure you can keep up if rates rise. Different lenders weight income types differently — bonus, overtime, dividends, day-rate contract income — which is where lender choice changes the borrowing figure significantly.

Yes. The criteria are tighter and lenders read accounts differently — some look at the latest year, some at the average of the last two or three, some at salary plus retained company profit. We know which lenders work for one-year cases, which handle dividends generously, and which read contractor day rates well. The trick is matching the lender to your specific income shape.

Usually yes, depending on age, amount, and type. Recent and large issues narrow the lender list and push pricing up; older and smaller ones often barely matter to specialist lenders, even when the high street says no. Honest, early disclosure is the single most useful thing — we can almost always work with the truth.

Not the initial conversation. We use soft searches and indicative criteria checks to narrow the lender shortlist; a hard credit search only happens once we’ve chosen a lender that fits your situation. Speculative hard searches are exactly what we won’t do — they leave footprints that can make future applications harder.

From first conversation to mortgage offer is typically four to eight weeks. From offer to completion is then driven by the property, the solicitors, and the chain — usually another four to eight weeks for a straightforward purchase. We keep the mortgage moving on its own timeline so it’s never the bottleneck.

A bank can only sell you their own products. A whole-of-market broker compares 80+ lenders, including specialist names that don’t advertise to the public. The right answer is whichever route gets you the right product at the right price — sometimes that genuinely is your existing bank, sometimes it’s a lender you’ve never heard of. We’ll tell you straight either way.

Fixed rates buy certainty for the term — your payment is locked, which suits households who want predictability. Trackers move with the Bank of England base rate, which usually means a lower starting rate but exposure to rises. The right answer depends on how rate-sensitive your household budget is, your view on where rates are heading, and how long you intend to stay on the deal.

A product transfer keeps you with your current lender on one of their new rates — quick, light on paperwork, often no fresh affordability check. A remortgage moves you to a different lender, which can mean a sharper rate or different criteria, at the cost of a full application and some legal work. We compare the two so the decision is on numbers, not inertia.

About six months before your current deal ends. Most offers are valid for up to six months, so you can secure a new rate early and still switch to a better one if the market improves before your deal expires. Leaving it to the last month is how people end up on the standard variable rate by accident.

Most aren’t — standard buy to let lending falls outside FCA regulation, although certain cases (like letting to a close family member, known as "consumer" buy to let) are regulated. We’ll always tell you up front which side of the line your case sits on, because it changes documentation, lender choice, and the protections in place.

Generally no. Commercial mortgages, most bridging, and development finance are not regulated by the FCA. That doesn’t mean lenders are unregulated — most large ones are FCA-authorised in other respects — but the specific loan product sits outside consumer mortgage rules. The documentation, protections, and process are different from residential lending. We’ll talk you through what that means before you sign.

For residential mortgages, we’re typically paid a procuration fee by the lender on completion, with no fee to you. For more involved cases — complex income, adverse credit, specialist lending, commercial and bridging — we may charge a client fee, always disclosed in writing before any work begins. No surprises.

Broadly: ID, proof of address, last three months of payslips (or two-three years of self-employed accounts/SA302s), three months of bank statements, evidence of deposit source, and details of any existing credit commitments. For commercial cases there’s more — company accounts, lease details, business plans. We’ll send you a clean checklist tailored to your situation rather than a generic one.