How to Improve your Chances of Getting a Mortgage

Many people like the idea of buying their own home. Most people though, will have to borrow the money to be able to do this. They will need to take out a mortgage. However, not everyone is offered a mortgage and therefore you will need to make sure that you have a good chance of getting one. A lender will look at a selection of things when they are deciding whether they want to lend you money. You should think about these and make sure that you do everything you can to look good in their eyes.

Regular income

A lender such as Omacl will want to see that you have a regular income coming in so that you will have the money available to pay for the repayments on the loan. They will also want to see that you are in a secure job. This means that you should have a permanent job and have had for more than three months. This is because you will be free of a probation period and you will be in a secure job. If you are self-employed, freelancing or in a temporary job, then you will not have a secure income and so that will put off lenders as they will worry that you may get into the situation where you cannot afford to repay the mortgage.

Mortgage lenders will require a deposit before agreeing the loan.

Large deposit

Most mortgage lenders will require a deposit and this will vary but is likely to be around 10% of the value of the house. This is a lot of money, but the more you have, the more likely you are to get a mortgage. The lender wants some help with paying for the property. They want to only lend a proportion of the value. This is because if you cannot make the repayments and the house has to be repossessed by the lender and sold, they want to make sure that they will able to get their money back even if the house value is lower when it is sold. Having a large deposit will also show the lender that you are able to budget and put money by to save up and that will help them to feel confident in your money management skills.

Do not spend all you earn

A mortgage lender will also want to check your day to day spending. They will look at your bank statements and see how much you earn and spend in a month. They will want to see that you have enough money left to cover the cost of the mortgage repayments. Therefore, if you can cut back your spending a bit, you will be able to show them that you will be able to manage. If you are paying rent, then they will allow for the fact that this will no longer be a cost, but you should still try to show that you have money left over so they can see that you are capable of budgeting.

Good credit record

A good credit record is essential. They will be looking to make sure that you have no long term outstanding debt or anything like this. It can be a good idea to take a look at your credit record to make sure that it is correct and there is nothing on there that makes you look bad which is not right. Also see whether there are any debts on there and think about whether you should be paying those off to give a better impression. You might be better off using some of the money you have saved towards the deposit to repay debt, but obviously you may need a certain amount of deposit so you will need to plan this carefully.

How to Increase how Much you Save

Many of us would like to increase the amount of money that we save each month. It might be that we are saving up for something or that we just want to build up some money to have in case of an emergency. It can give us peace of mind to have some savings behind us and so it is a good idea to think about whether we should be saving more money. If we decide that we want to save more, then we will need to come up with a strategy on how we are going to achieve this. There are different things that we can do.

Put Money Left at End of Month in Savings Account

Many people will put the money that they have left at the end of the month into a savings account. This means that just before they get paid they will take everything that is left in their account and pop it into a savings account. This is better than not saving at all, but there is often a chance that there will be no money left in the account to save. This is because we will often take a look at the account balance and then if we have some money available then we will spend it. Then, there will be nothing left to save. There are therefore better ways of making sure that you save money regularly.

Make Regular Payments at Start of Month

It can be a good idea to set up a transfer each month which take money from your current account, just after you get paid and puts it into your savings account. This will allow you to make sure that you always put some money in there and do not spend it on other things. Of course, you need to get the amount right and make sure that you will still have enough money left to pay for everything that you need for the rest of the month as well. If it happens that, even when you do this schedules payment, you still have money left at the end of the month, you can do the above and put the remainder into the savings as well.

Pay Less for Things

It could the case that you do not have enough money to save very much or anything at all and you would like to have more. There are various things that you can do to get more money and paying less for things is probably the easiest. You may already compare prices and shop at the cheapest places, but often we forget to compare prices on everything. We need to think about things like insurance, lenders, utilities and contracts as well as when we are in shops and supermarkets. If we are constantly checking to see whether we can pay less for things, then we will hopefully be able to save money in lots of ways. We might be able to therefore spend less in several areas and use that money to add to our savings account.

Buy Less

It could have a bigger impact if you buy less things. This is because you will totally cut out buying some things and this will save money than just paying less for them. Obviously, there are some things that we cannot go without but there are things that we buy which we do not really need. These things are items that we can manage without but that are nice to have. These could include alcohol, holidays, jewellery, cushions, music, evenings out, restaurant food, candles, perfume etc. There are so many things that we could do without and it is good to think about whether you are prepared to give up some of the things that you buy so that you can save some money.

How to make an Income from your Home

Most of us are not aware that we have an opportunity to make money from the home that we live in. There will be some restrictions, especially if we do not own the house and our insurance may restrict us with certain things too. However, there are things that we can do and it is worth thinking about these things to decide whether we might like to try some of them.

Get a Lodger

If you rent a house, then it is unlikely that you will be able to sublet a room in your home, but do check with the landlord if it is something that you are considering. If you have a mortgage then you will need to check with the mortgage company that they will be happy for you to rent a room. You will also have to check with your insurer and you may need to change your insurance policy and perhaps pay a bit more. Having a lodger will bring in a regular income. However, you will have to live with that person and you will have to decide whether that is something you are prepared to do. You may enjoy the company but it depends on your personality and it could be the case that you like living alone or just with people you really know well.

There are many ways to make money from home.

Set up a B&B

If you have a spare room with a bathroom nearby or en-suite then you could set up as a bed and breakfast. This could work better if you live in a place where there is lots to do and see in the area or fairly close by. You will have to be prepared for lots of washing and cleaning, having to get up early to cook breakfast and things like this. You will need to make sure that you charge enough to cover the costs of doing all of these things as well as the costs of advertising and your time. You will also have to check with your landlord, mortgage company and insurer to make sure that they are happy with you doing this.

Rent an Attic or Garage

It can be easier to rent out a room for someone to use as storage. You will again need to check with your landlord, mortgage company and insurer to make sure that they are happy with you doing this. You may need to pay a little more insurance but it should be cheaper and easier than the above two suggestions but you will not get so much income from it. However, it can be a great way to make a bit of money from a space that you are not using and you will be able to just ignore the things that are in there.

Rent a Driveway

If you live near to a town centre or a company without much parking, you could make money by renting out your driveway. You may find that you can make quite a bit each week by allowing someone to park there. There are websites that you can advertise on and so it should be pretty easy to do this. It will mean that you will not be able to use the driveway yourself so you may need to only do this if you do not have a car yourself or have an alternative parking space that you know will always be available. Often, you will just rent it out in working hours and so if you drive to work, then the driveway might be free while you take your car to work each day. However, if you have a day off, you will still need to leave the driveway clear.

How to make Money Buying and Selling Things

There are many people that make money buying and selling things and it can be a fun and easy thing to do. You do not need any training or special skills which means that anyone can do it. There are just a few simple steps and you can get started. Decide what to sell, there are lots of things we could potentially sell but there will be some limiting factors on what you can sell specifically. This is because you will want to know a bit about what you are selling so that you can check out the quality and know what exactly to buy. You will also need to store the items and if they are big you will need a lot more space than if they are small, so think about what you have space for. You will also have to pay for them and if they are too expensive you will not be able to afford them.

Find the Stock

Once you have decided what sort of thing you want to sell, you will need to find a supplier. This will mean finding someone you can buy the items from. You will need to think about profits at this point and make sure that you are not paying more than necessary for an item, but you will also need to make sure that you are buying items that are good value for money. If it is too cheap it might be broken when it reaches you or when it gets to the customer and this will not be ideal. You might be okay with selling cheap things, but consider whether you want a reputation for selling cheap or whether you would rather get a reputation for selling quality items. Also think about what country it comes from and whether you want to buy from there, pay the import duty and postage, and whether you are happy with the environmental cost of buying from a distance away.

Decide on the Price

Pricing can be tricky. You must charge enough to make a profit or else you may as well not bother at all. This means making back what you paid for the item but also covering any other costs such as payment processing fees, website costs, packaging and postage and things like this and leaving some extra to pay yourself. You want to be competitive but you need to make sure that you are not selling items so cheaply that customers assume that they will be poor quality and not buy them. The price you can charge may also be influenced by where you sell the item. It can be wise to look at places that also sell those items or similar ones and see what they charge to think about what you should be charging.

Find Somewhere to Sell it

There are different choices for selling. You could sell online or offline or both. You could sell in a shop you set up (either a physical one or off a website) or in someone else’s. Consider the costs of all of these so that you can decide on what the best option will be for your budget but also consider what will work for your potential customers. You may want to choose a selection of places so that you have more chance of getting customers.

Marketing

It is important not to forget about marketing. People need to know that you are out there and that you are selling things. Think about how you will promote yourself and what you are selling to your potential customers to get lots of sales. Without sales you will not be able to buy more stock and continue the business as you will not be able to cover your costs and you will not be able to pay yourself. So, make sure you work hard at this bit.

Tips on Sticking to a Budget

If you need to stick to a budget then it is not always easy. You might be motivated at the beginning because you are enthusiastic and want to really make a big effort but the novelty can wear off. You may even find that it takes very little time before you start to wish that you had not even at the budget in the first place. There are things that you can do to help though.

Write Down the Goal

If you write down your goal and the reason why you are budgeting this will help. So if you are trying to repay a debt so you can have a better credit record to get a mortgage, saving up for a holiday, making sure you make ends meet or whatever, write it down and stick it somewhere you will see it. You can give details too, such as when you want to achieve it by, what the advantages of achieving it are etc. So perhaps – ‘save £50 a month for two years so I can afford to go on holiday to Spain’ could be the sort of thing. Make the effort to read it through each day so that you keep remembering what you are aiming for. This should help you to keep going with it.

Focus Hard on the Process

It can be a fun challenge to change things we are doing so that we can achieve something we are aiming for. Try to focus on this and try to enjoy what you are doing so that it makes it easier. Work on finding ways to make it fun, break it down in small goals you can achieve daily and find ways to praise yourself for doing well. It can feel good to know that you are achieving what you want and try to muster up that positive feeling when you have a good day and are able to achieve what you want to.

Ignore the Bad Days

Try not to focus on the days when it does not work out well, just start the next day with new determination. There will always be days when we just cannot help but not stick to our plan. We might overspend or we are not able to save as much as we wanted or things like this. It is a good idea to think about what went wrong and try not to make the same mistake again, but do not punish yourself, no one is perfect and so there will always be times when things get out of control and we need to accept that and move on.

Treat Yourself

It can be hard though so make sure that you treat yourself from time to time when you are doing well. You may be able to think of treats that are free but if not just something really cheap to help you to feel good and stay motivated. This is not always easy but it should be possible to think of something you will be able to use as a reward even if it is a lie in at the weekend, a long bath, small chocolate bar or whatever. Just make sure they do not get too expensive and do not treat yourself too often it should be a reward for a significant amount of hard work. Try to also just praise yourself and feel good about what you have done. We need to get out of the habit of thinking we need a treat that costs money every time we achieve something good or else it could lead to us spending too much again.