In this episode of "This Shared Ownership Thing" Podcast, Cheryl Gibbens (Marketing Officer) is joined by the Business Development Manager from The Mortgage People (TMP) Alex Greaves and they discuss all things mortgages, from applying to the paying off process.
The conversation surrounding shares being purchased between 25-75% is based on the current shared ownership model and our shared ownership homes under the existing scheme. You may have heard that there are some changes to the Shared Ownership model on the way. Whilst this doesn’t impact on our current shared ownership homes for sale we will be updating our website with more details around the new model soon. If you have any questions about this in the meantime please do get in touch with us or visit the Government’s website to find out more.
In this episode of "This Shared Ownership Thing" Podcast, Cheryl Gibbens (Marketing Officer) is joined by the Business Development Manager from The Mortgage People (TMP) Alex Greaves and they discuss all things mortgages, from applying to the paying off process.
The conversation surrounding shares being purchased between 25-75% is based on the current shared ownership model and our shared ownership homes under the existing scheme. You may have heard that there are some changes to the Shared Ownership model on the way. Whilst this doesn’t impact on our current shared ownership homes for sale we will be updating our website with more details around the new model soon. If you have any questions about this in the meantime please do get in touch with us or visit the Government’s website to find out more.
Hello, happy February. And welcome back to this shared ownership thing podcast. After having a month off, we have recharged and we are full of energy. Ready to kick the podcast back off in 2022 every month, we have a chit chat about all things, shared ownership, sharing our incredible customer stories, and also debunking common misconceptions of shared ownership. I'm Cheryl the marketing officer at Esther sales. And today I'm joined by the business development manager from the mortgage people also known as TMP Alex Graves. This episode, we're going to discuss all things, shared ownership mortgages, but before we kick off, let's learn a little bit more about yourself, Alex. Here's a few quick fire questions for our listeners to get to know you. Are you ready? Ready? Okay. Number one. What is your most used emoji on your phone?
Speaker 2:
Two<laugh>. I've got three children.<laugh>
Speaker 1:
Okay. So you always send per emojis to children?
Speaker 2:
Not always, but regularly.
Speaker 1:
<laugh> okay. Number two. If you had to go on karaoke, what would your go to song be?
Speaker 2:
So it's daydream believer by the monkeys, but I am trying to change it. I wanna do something with a bit of rap in it, which I think will be very cool.<laugh>
Speaker 1:
I love how you answer that as if you go on the karaoke regularly.
Speaker 2:
Well, I don't, but I do, I do like to plan the head, so I've been trying to change it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Do you have a karaoke lined up anytime soon?
Speaker 2:
No, I don't have anything lined up very soon.<laugh>
Speaker 1:
Um, number three, would you rather be reincarnated as a dog or a cat? And why?
Speaker 2:
So I prefer dogs, but I would rather come back as a cat because they can do whatever they want at any time they want can't they? Yeah. But the dog's just tied in and relying on youth to go out for a walk and stuff. So definitely a cat.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. And they're quite sassy as well. Like if anyone's annoying, you, you can just like whack'em.
Speaker 2:
Exactly. And I'm kind of I'm think I'm built more like a cat than a dog as well. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
<laugh> I can imagine you just pounce them from wall to wall, to your neighbors. Lovely.
Speaker 2:
<laugh>
Speaker 1:
Um, and lastly, what is your favorite meal?
Speaker 2:
So chicken or lamb dress with Pilar rice and a NA
Speaker 1:
Oh, you don't go Papa dos.
Speaker 2:
No, I do. Strangely. I find that they really fill me up.
Speaker 1:
Do they,
Speaker 2:
Even if I have like a couple before then I'm not, I can't eat all of my proper foods, so no, I stay away from the Papa done.
Speaker 1:
Hmm. Fair enough. Um, oh God, I don't even know. I literally love all food, but if I was to go to an Indian, I just have a basic com with below rice. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And my 11 at
Speaker 1:
<laugh> Papa doms with the mint sauce. I love that. It is.
Speaker 2:
That is nice. So I do actually, if I do eat, pop it on, then have all the stuff on it as well. That is lovely in it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. I do love that. And then I tried a new Nan recently. Actually I can't. Oh, was it the P Nan?
Speaker 2:
I had a bit don't think I've tried it.
Speaker 1:
Oh, mm. That was incredible. What is that?
Speaker 2:
It,
Speaker 1:
I can't remember. What's it? It's really sweet. I'm not sure if it's coconut maybe really. Sorry if I've got that wrong, but, mm. Right. Moving on from our paua NANS, let's chat about all things mortgages. I presume you stumbled across this podcast because you're interested in shared ownership and you want to find out a little bit more, wow. You've stumbled down the right podcast road. So for the benefit of any new listeners, shared ownership is when you buy a share of a home and you pay rent on the share that you don't yet own, if you're able to do so, you can go on to purchase more shares of the home. This is referred to a stair casing until if able to, you can purchase the whole hundred percent of the home with shared ownership. Deposits can be as low as 5% of the share that you purchase. And this makes it a more affordable option for many people. So, as I said earlier, Alex is a business development manager for TMP. And you may have seen their little chirpy bird mascot on social media before Alex, can you tell us a little bit about what TMP do and how do you help shared ownership buyers?
Speaker 2:
Yes. So basically, um, affordable housing and in particular ownership is what we do. So it's our area of expertise. Um, we've been in the business for around about 16 years and, um, the whole business has really been built around affordable housing. So it's not just something that we dabble in. It's what we deal with all the time. Um, we do other mortgages like standard mortgages help to, but that is really where we, yeah, where we, where we operate, um, all of the team, whether it's mortgage advisors, the case managers of the coordinators that deal with the, the back office side of things, they're all trained in the nuances of, um, shared ownership. And because of this, um, we are usually a able to help clients find the best mortgage that's bright for their circum. Um, we also realize that buying a house can be really, really stressful. So we wanna make sure that we, uh, take the stress away and deal with all the boring stuff. So whoever's buying a property, can get excited about it and look forward to getting the keys and buying their furniture.
Speaker 1:
Love that awesome little introduction for what you do. We have asked our followers on both social media and on live chat, what they would like to know about mortgages for shared ownership homes. The following questions are what we've had sent in by people, both looking to buy a shared ownership home and people that have brought a shared ownership home already. So let's kick it off with this one. What is the process with TMP and how long after completing affordability assessment will I hear back?
Speaker 2:
So the process is so in Italy, um, one of the team ASTA would send the client an email, which has a link onto our website. Um, just click on the link, um, answer a few basic questions, like income name, any debt, that kind of thing. And once they hit the submit button, um, we will receive it straight away. Now we'll get in contact with the client within 24 hours to maybe ask a few extra questions. If there's something that's not quite there, um, or to confirm whether you've qualified to buy the property and watch share, or in some cases to, to let them know that they've not been successful and why. So really it takes about within 24 hours after completing the assessment, we would come back to that person to let them know what's happening.
Speaker 1:
Okay. Fab, does someone need a mortgage in principle decision in principle before they complete the assessment with you guys?
Speaker 2:
Uh, in short? No. So, um, when we do the financial assessment, that's making sure that the customer would, uh, meet the homes, England criteria and it establishes what yeah. They can go for, but once we've actually done it, we will then contact the client. As I said, chat them through, um, what share they can go for. We would look to get'em mortgage and principle done at that point, which will be based on lenders that have mortgages available for that specific client. So no, we can do all of that for them makes no difference.
Speaker 1:
Awesome. And obviously there is quite a lot of different terminology and all of this that can get confusing. So is there a difference between mortgage and principle and decision and principle, or are they the same thing?
Speaker 2:
I mean, I'd call it a dip decision in principle. Um, some people used to call it like a mortgage promise a while ago. I think like some lenders used to call it that, but yeah, MIP and differ are the same. Perfect.
Speaker 1:
What will help a mortgage application be seen as favorable?
Speaker 2:
So I think probably the main thing is like the bank account conduct. Um, so I suppose if, if this stuff, somebody was asking to borrow a load of money, um, the lenders need to feel confident that that person can manage their current situation. So, um, try not make sure that, uh, everything's being paid on time. Um, try not to take out any debt before you take out a mortgage as well, or before you apply for a mortgage, because that will affect what you can borrow. Um, so they're the main things really just look at it as if you are gonna lend somebody to money, you'd wanna feel C and that they can pay you back. So that's what you've gotta be able to prove to the mortgage lenders. And that's the same with them, whether it's ownership, whether it's the standard mortgage, whatever. So they'd all be looking at the same thing. So
Speaker 1:
If someone had say a car on finance, would that normally negatively affect it or would it all just be based on affordability?
Speaker 2:
So it wouldn't, as long as everything was kept up to date, um, it wouldn't negatively negatively affect it because I suppose if you were looking at like a car loan, that's like an asset that you've got for that debt. So that's actually how I view it is kind of a healthy debt. Um, so no, it wouldn't have an impact, but it would actually impact what they're able to borrow because it's the certain amount of money that they can't pay the mortgage back for each month. Then
Speaker 1:
That makes sense. Um, why is it better to purchase a higher share with shared ownership?
Speaker 2:
Um, well, I suppose the biggest share you buy the less rent you pay and I, nobody likes paying rent. They every really must rather be paying that money on a mortgage. Um, secondly, most people that I've spoken to in the past, they either want to buy mortgage in the future or they wanna own all of the property. Now, since I've been doing mortgage for about 10 years, house prices are something you rise. So if you were to buy a biggest share in Italy, then that share would cost less than if you were to buy it in the future when house prices have increased. If that makes sense. That does
Speaker 1:
Make sense.
Speaker 2:
So, um, again, we can't guarantee that house prices will always increase, but based on my knowledge over the last 10 years, it generally works out to be cheaper, to buy the biggest share up upfront.
Speaker 1:
Perfect. If someone was to buy a share ownership home with their partner and they end up splitting up, could one of them take on the mortgage by themselves and how would that process work?
Speaker 2:
Um, so it's not really a straightforward yet, or no, it's gonna come down to that particular situation. But if we assume that both partners are happy for that to happen, um, it really comes down to affordability. So I would suggest whoever you, whoever they arranged the mortgage with initially, um, go back to that advisor, let them know about the situation as it stands today. And they will look through the case. Okay. Um, they will look at the income of the new household any day to day living costs. And they would then possibly go back to the mortgage lender and say, look, this is the situation, uh, and do their own affordability calculation. So in theory, yes, but there's a lot of things to start doing. And again, that would be the same, whether it's dead only if you put standard mortgage, there's no difference between how lenders would look at it.
Speaker 1:
Perfect. So they'd just need to go to their mortgage lender for advice on it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. Or, I mean, again, if, if they arrange the mortgage through PMP, then I mean, come back to words and speak to the broker that arrange initially, and they would do it on their behalf, but if they'd gone elsewhere, then they might have go back to the lender.
Speaker 1:
Okay, awesome. Um, what is the lowest deposit percentage that I need to have? Can my deposit be less than 5%?
Speaker 2:
So I suppose really 5% is the figure that you would need as a minimum. Um, so if the scale was a hundred thousand of them, then you deposit would be 5,000 pounds. Um, by having a 5% deposit, you get access to more lenders with lower interest rates, uh, with a choice of you have a, a mortgage with lower set of fees or higher set of fees, it just gives you more options. Um, so you are more likely to get a mortgage that's Payed to your plan. Um, there are a couple of lenders that will do mortgages with less than 5% deposit, but their interest rates tend to be a little bit higher as do their setup fees. Uh, and there's just not as many options. So if you can get to 5% deposit, definitely go down that route. Perfect.
Speaker 1:
And the final question, do you have any key tips for people who are at the start of their shared ownership journey and are about to start applying for shared ownership? Mortgages?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So as I alluded to before, um, definitely always pay all of your bills, um, on time, your credit commitments on time as this will show the lender that you are somebody that they can trust, um, give your count some PLC. So stay within your overdraft limit, make sure you direct debits don't bounce. If you can try not use your overdraft limit at all, um, and make sure you're prepared for the future. So get, get your grips with outgoings. You've got, um, and put, try and put some money aside for little emergencies, just so you're planning ahead. Really. Um, you can go onto our website, which is, um, PMP, mortgages.co UK. And there's a section called, um, GetSet device, uh, section called GetSet to buy. And this gives you a list of paperwork that you can get, which most lenders will ask for. So you can get that all prep. And I suppose, by getting that sooner, rather later, it'll mean that you're kind of familiar with the process and it'll put you at an advantage then. Awesome.
Speaker 1:
And that's really good to know. I'll, um, pop the link to your website in the description for this podcast as well, but that is the end of all of your questions that I'm gonna fire at you. Good. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 3:
Pleasure.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much to Alex for being a guest on the podcast. You've shared some really invaluable information which will really help our listeners who are starting their shared ownership journey. And if you are feeling inspired, we have some customer stories available for our listeners to see on our website, just visit asta.co.uk/life stories to watch our customer to testimonials. And if any of our
Speaker 3:
Listeners have any other questions that they would like answered in regards to shared ownership, you can contact us through live chat on our website, ather.co.uk/sales through our social media channels via email on home ownership@ather.co.uk or by phone on zero one three eight zero seven three five four eight zero.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much for listening and thank you for your support. This shared ownership thing podcast is brought to you by as sales visit as dot code UK slash sales. For more information,