Before you jump into home ownership, it’s wise to take a moment think seriously about your current financial situation and how buying a house will affect it. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is my income stable and do I have a monthly budget? Have I disposable income each month, or am I living from week to week?
• What’s my current rental payment and what can I reasonably afford for a monthly mortgage payment?
• Am I planning to live in the area for at least three to five more years?
• Will I have cash reserves left after closing in case the property needs repairs? Will I have money left to buy furniture and move?
• Is my employment situation stable? If I were to lose my job, do I have a safe fallback plan?

It’s easy! We will chat for ten minutes on the phone and, based on our conversation, I can give you a rough price range. I will ask you about the following:

• What line of work are you in?
• How long have you been at your job?
• What is your annual salary or other income sources?
• Where is your deposit coming from?
• What are your regular monthly debts such as car loans, credit cards and savings, rent etc.
• Is there any issue in relation to credit history that we should be aware of?

To get started, we will need the following documents. Please email these items to us directly; we will send you a link to our Secure Web Portal:

• Three Months of recent payslips
• Employment Detail Summary (Formerly p60) for the last year
• Salary certificate from your employer, it must be stamped with a company stamp
• 6 months Current bank account statement, saving account statement and any loan or credit card statement.
• Photocopy of driver’s license/ Passport and proof of address

• If you haven’t already found a home or just have an offer on it, we can apply to a bank to see how much would be the maximum mortgage amount that they would be willing to offer. Once an offer on a house is accepted, we can send in the house details and move the application on to loan offer.
• This will speed the process up and it makes closing a sale quicker.

• One of your first decisions should be between a fixed rate (the interest rate and monthly payment remains constant for a set period of time normally between 1-5 years) or a variable rate (the interest rate is adjusted — either up or down — at specified times during the mortgage term).
• We review this at the application stage, and again at closing if there have been changes.

• Easier to budget, since your payment is always the same for the set period of time.
• No possibility of an interest rate change making your mortgage during the term of the fixed rate

• More income needed to qualify because of higher initial mortgage rate
• If interest rates go down charges may apply to get out of contract.
• If you make extra principal payments, you will shorten the life of your loan, and save on interest, but your monthly payment will not decrease.

• Valuation Cost. The bank will look for an independent valuer to value the house and it normally costs approximately €150 which is paid by the client.
• Legal fees. Your solicitor will charge a fee for reviewing the legal documents and title of your property and mortgage allow approximately €1,500 for this
• Stamp duty.
• Our fee, this is based on a number of things. But, we operate a free service right up to application stage.

• The bank will issue a legal pack to your solicitor, where you will sign it in front of your solicitor where he/she will advise you on it.
• Your bank will need a house insurance policy
• The lending bank will need a life insurance policy.
• A Direct Debit Mandate will need to be signed so the bank can take your mortgage payment.
• We will then work with your solicitor in order to get funds released.