Hi Keith & Shel,
I was also slightly surprised to read about you getting a 4 bedroom house for the £70K mark as well in your initial posting!
I've just had a look on rightmove and I do indeed see about 10 or so properties with a minimum of 4 bedrooms and a max price of £70K. I'd 'tend' to think that the areas these properties are in are towards the 'lower' end of the scale, however I see that it is indeed possible to buy such a property.
From what you've said, it will be difficult for you both to get a mortgage based on your hubby's previous bad credit rating and I presume your lack of a credit history from not being in the UK for very long (I'm assuming you're the American in the relationship!)
I'd suggest that you get your husband to re-check his finances and do some re-arranging and careful monthly monitoring and prepare a budget and stick to it as best as possible in order to imrprove his credit rating in the quickest way possible. Get logged onto
www.creditexpert.co.uk (there are others, I've mentioned this one as I personally use it and am happy with the service) and have a look at the report and look to see where imrpovements can be made. You may want to look at yours as well. It may be worthwhile to look at the £10K you'll have for his debt resolution, and 'spread' the payment across multiple debts and pehaps over a period of time - say 6-12 months. This 'time' lapse way of paying back will show on a longer term that he's managing his money better - which will improve his icredit score and look more favourable to potential lenders. This method will also help in you both saving up more money to put down as a deposit on ahouse you may see. The current £10K you'll have is about 15% of a desposit of a £70K house, which isn't a bad rato at all nowadays - if you coul dbump that up to perhaps 25% you'd be much better looked upon by lenders when it comes to mortgage application time. I suggest you also speak to local mortgage brokers wholl have access to more products/choices wich may be more suitable for you and not offered by the mainsteeam banks/lenders etc.
The downside of all this is that over the next 6-12 to 18 monhts or so, the £70K home may increase in value or asking price by some margin - perhaps 80K. There's nothing reealy you can do about that, such is the 'gamble' of house prices and financial ability !
You can get a mortgage on your own, and there are companies that 'extend' credit to Americans coing here - however you'll probably find that a single income mortgage application will require you to be in employment for a number of years and be 'relatively' well paying i.e close to or above the higher rate of Tax pay level/threshold. AS for extending credit to US people, I think those would also be geared up towards those who are quite or very well off. The only productservice I know of which extends credit that way is if you were in the USA and held an American Express card - as they'll 'transfer' your credit with them to the UK subsiduary of American Express and in turn they'll update your UK credit report with good (if it is that!) feedback from them.
There is more to this depending on your individual personal financial status and it may be worthwhile you checking out more websites to gain more information at this stage as it'll be free. Once you know more and ask more questions etc, you can prepare with a more knolwedgable background.
Good luck
Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!
