What Happens Once You Submit Your Mortgage Application?

You hunted for a house and settled on one. You used a mortgage rate calculator to compare your income and expenses. Also hunted down a suitable lender and filled in their mortgage application form and submitted it. Now all you have to do is to wait for the lender to get in touch with you. We know waiting with uncertainty is tough. Hence we’ll tell you what actually is happening with your application as you read this. And what you can expect to happen.

Assessment

The lender’s team is trying to get a picture of how you manage your finances. Your application is being assessed to make sure you’re not overstretching yourself. An assessment of your deposit amount, incomes, household bills, savings and debts is done. They will contact you for extra supporting documents if the picture is unclear to the lender. If you’re employed, keep your pay slips or three months’ bank statements handy. This depends on the product you’ve chosen though. If you’re self-employed, they will ask upto two years’ accounts. Once the team is confident you’ll be able to meet your repayments, they will move your application along to valuation.

Valuation

Valuation is done in both buying and remortgaging. Your lender will appoint a surveyor to check the property for its correct valuation. It is also checked for its suitability for mortgage purposes. They’ll likely give you a choice of what level of inspection you would like. The law requires a Standard Valuation. It is the smallest level of inspection required to progress your application. A surveyor will inspect the property and compare it with similar ones. Afterwards, they create a Valuation report.

Offer

Once the valuation is complete, your lender will write to you about their mortgage offer after carrying out all final checks. If you’re remortgaging, you hardly need to worry as it’s likely they will appoint one of their own solicitors. The offers you receive will be based on the data you provided in your application. Property sale price, loan amount and your specific mortgage product make a difference. If required, they can make changes can to these.

Completion

Once your solicitor has made all their checks, they will agree on the dates for exchanging contracts. Your solicitor will complete the sale with the seller’s solicitor. On exchange of contracts, you pay your deposit is to the seller. You’ve now committed to buying the property.

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