Owning your own home

John Charcol were very good for me.

London and Country have been fine when I've used them. Although you may want someone you can meet face to face if you're in a more complicated situation (I'm just employed/salaried so nice and easy).

We just used cornerstone mortgages, both of us were in slightly unusual situations. My contract at a university runs out in May and my girlfriend was about to move jobs with a 2 month gap in between.

@Stonehedge and I have both used Lee Fisher more than once, and I've certainly used him for more than standard circumstances.

As @TW said, Lee Fisher is awesome. He has helped with a fair few non standard mortgages for us but has also helped several friends as first time buyers. He takes great pride in his work and has been our go to mortgage advisor for over 20 years.

If you can research, and do relatively basic maths / excel then you can a probably do it yourself by identifying 1-4 appropriate lenders and calling them.

There is a lot of smoke and mirrors in terms of products and fees, but honestly it really is going to be x4 your combined income.

However, mortgage broker is really good when either; a) you don't want/can't do it yourself, or b) have non-standard circumstances. But if you and your partner are employed PAYE then all the broker is going to do is use an app that filters providers by eligiblity and compares the real net cost of each of them. In a sellers market they often have an additional edge as their relationship with the lenders means that they can get things done more quickly than an individual.

is there a step before that for someone as green as me?

1. Work out the range of what you want to pay p/m (now and if your circumstances change) - ie what would be ideal, what could you push yourself to. Whatever number you think you can borrow, being able to afford your monthly payments is the most important thing.
   
2. Work out with your partner what your plan is for the next 5yrs.
   
3. Work out the rough fees (solicitors, SDLT, mortgage fee) and subtract this from your savings to work out your deposit.
   

I used Habito. Richard got me a larger mortgage, at a better rate than anyone else could (I shopped around quite a bit). The process was far smoother than when I initially secured a mortgage through London and Country.