Before you apply for a mortgage, The Mortgage Library will make sure you are MORTGAGE READY and take the steps needed to give you the best chance of getting your preferred mortgage offer.

It is worthwhile contacting us in advance of applying for a mortgage so that The Mortgage Library advisor has time to put these steps in practice. The advice they give may need to be put into practice several months in advance of making your application, so it’s best to contact us sooner, rather than later.

Part of being Mortgage Ready involves your credit score and affordability assessment. You must show you can, not only afford the mortgage but can regularly meet the monthly repayments.

Your creditworthiness is worked out by a credit score. This score can be found online at various companies such as Karma, Experian, Clear score and Equifax. You can check this out yourself initially and then regularly, to make sure everything is accurate. You can also make sure that your bills are always paid, as well as your credit cards paid back regularly, as this will show you can borrow responsibly.

Try to bring your credit card borrowing down to less than half of what you could borrow on your credit limit, to achieve the best credit score.

The help of The Mortgage Library advisor is essential here, as they can look at your credit score and advise as to the best action to take. By listening to the advisor, you can avoid making too many applications for credit, as they, in turn, show up on your credit report and affect your credit score.

The Mortgage Library advisor will also help with your ‘affordability assessment’. You can show the advisor, in confidence, all your financial outgoings and expenses. The advisor will then discuss with you how to improve your situation by, maybe cutting some of your spendings and paying back as much as you can afford, of any big debts, for example.

You may need to avoid making any big purchases during the months of getting Mortgage Ready which is why it is so important to start the Mortgage Ready process months in advance of applying for a mortgage.

Do not give up if you have a bad credit score, as The Mortgage Library can help with this too, see bad credit advice page.

We call them librarians because they go above and beyond to research the best mortgage products