The Ultimate Checklist Before Buying Your First Home

We’re on a mission to make the home buying process as easy and as understandable as possible for First Time Buyers, so we’re providing you with the ultimate document checklist to help you on your way.

You have the deposit, now things are starting to move along and securing your new home can be a tough and hectic time – that’s why we’ve teamed up with AIB to provide simple and useful info on all things associated with buying your first home. We’ll provide the small details so you can focus on the bigger things like finding the right home. As we mentioned in our first article ensuring you have the correct paperwork in order is half the battle and can make the whole process much easier. Before you can get your mortgage approval, you need to show you can repay the mortgage – makes sense but there’s more to it than that. Most often, you’ll need to provide proof that you have a steady and regular income coming in each month, proof of employment and payslips. These days, most of us receive payslips electronically which is great for keeping them all stored away. Something to consider are Savings Statements. It’s super important for the bank to know where your deposit is coming from, whether it be a gift or purely from savings. You’ll also need to declare any loans or credit card you have and supply statements for these as all of this will be taken into account when deciding how much you can borrow. Did you know you can borrow 3.5 times your yearly salary? If you’re applying with your partner it’s your salaries combined x3.5. This will help decide your term so you know how much you can repay each month. Not only this, you’ll want to show how responsible you are with money – keeping up-to-date with credit card bills for example is something that can help you along the road to getting a mortgage. If you can show you can borrow and repay back money, it will all stand to you when applying for a mortgage. Lucky for you, we’ve pulled together a quick checklist of what you might need: – Proof of employment (Company signed Salary Certificate) – 3-6 months’ payslips – 6 months bank statements If self employed you may be required to submit more, however your mortgage advisor will be on hand to help you through the process. As we said, it’s super important to show you can take on this loan and repay it. Proving your Personal Accounts are in order and that you can live within your means. For example, you can pay rent each month and save some money so this shows you can get used to paying the equivalent of a mortgage. Finally, the Help to Buy scheme is well worth looking at if you are planning on setting off on the house buying journey. The scheme offers refunds of Income Tax and Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) that you paid in Ireland over the previous four years - so you could be entitled to a nice chunk that will make a big difference. The incentive is available to First Time Buyers and you can find more info on it here. AIB's Mortgage Advisors are on hand to help you with all of the above and have pulled together even more info on the right documents needed - check them out here.

Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. is an authorised agent and servicer of AIB Mortgage Bank u.c. in relation to the origination and servicing of mortgage loans and mortgages. Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. and AIB Mortgage Bank u.c. are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.