the undercover landlord's search for a buy-to-let mortgage

This is a my first proper post as the under cover landlord.

The idea is that I give you the reader a warts and all guide to doing certain things that us a landlords need to do. I pull no punches, spin no half truths. I just tell it as it is!

This is my tale of trying to find a buy-to-let mortgage in the post “credit crunch” world.

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My personal circumstances
My circumstances may be different to some of you. I’m self employed and therefore don’t have a regular salary. Straight away this limits the numbers and availability of buy-to-let mortgage products. A significant proportion of buy-to-let lenders require landlords to have a regular income above a certain level, £20k seems pretty standard.

Maximum flexibility
Because the loan was for what hopefully will be a short to medium term depending on the success of my intended investments, ideally I wanted a flexible mortgage. Having used a publication that I subscribe to Moneyfacts I was able to find buy-to-let mortgage lenders that allowed over payments, under payments, capital lump sum payments and early redemption of the mortgage.

At the time these included: Astra from N&P, Bank of Scotland Mortgages, BM Solutions, Bradford & Bingley, Chelsea BS, Cheshire BS, Leeds BS, Northern Rock, UCB Home Loans Corp, Yorkshire Bank.

These buy-to-let mortgage providers offered a variety of : repayment holidays, underpayments, over payments, lump sump withdrawals and drawdown facilitys which all suited my requirement of flexibility.

Drawn to obscure lender
I was immediately drawn to one obscure lender; The Staffordshire Railway BS which offered all the above options apart from lump sump withdrawal. On further investigation I discovered by using my copy of Moneyfacts Business that they also offered a pretty competitive rate of 6.85% with a free valuation. All was looking pretty good!

Having identified this promising buy-to-let product I used Property Hawk’s lender details to find the buy-to-let lenders website and to check out their details. I then made a initial phone enquiry. Unfortunately, it turns out that the lender was only lending on properties within its’ home county of Staffordshire. As my property was in Nottinghamshire that ruled me out straight away. Time for PLAN B!