Buy to Let / Residential Investment Mortgages We have schemes for both landlords and first time buyers: • Buy to let financing/refinancing for all types of properties and tenants • Refurbish schemes for cosmetic and significant improvement A buy-to-let mortgage is a loan for an individual to purchase a property for the explicit purpose of renting it out. Many people see buy-to-let schemes as an alternative to a pension. It is essential to plan carefully and to speak with a professional adviser. Here are some factors to think about before making your decision: Type of property Consider the market you are buying into and decide what properties are attracting the largest rents and which properties are least vacant. You should look for a property that suits the local rental market. Also make sure that the property will be low-maintenance and will not require a lot of repair work .

Availability of Finance
Before purchasing a property, you must ensure you have sufficient finance available, either out of your own savings or with the help of a mortgage lender.

The lending criteria for buy-to-let mortgages is usually more restrictive than residential mortgages. While it is possible to secure a residential mortgage for up to 100% of the purchase price of your home, buy-to-let mortgages are rarely available for greater than 85% of the purchase price.

Remember that your property will be at risk of repossession if you do not keep up on payments on any mortgage secured on it.

Location of property
Purchasing a property close to where you live will make things easier to administer and manage.

Rental Income
Be aware that rents can fall as well as rise, so your projections for income must err on the side of caution. You must also budget for those periods when you do not have a tenant. It may be wise to deduct two months income from your annual total when calculating estimated annual income.

Costs
Nationwide, annual rental yields average around 8% or 9% of the value of the property. However, that is the gross figure. You will need to deduct maintenance costs, insurance, tax and agents' fees.

Letting agents
You may wish to consider employing a letting agent who will perform some of the associated and time-consuming tasks of buy-to-let such as:
• legal paperwork
• finding tenants
• repairs and tenant issues
Letting agents do charge significant sums in yearly management fees to perform this work (up to 10% of the rent or more).

Important Points

Why should I use YMO?
As professional mortgage brokers, we can save you the time of discussing you specific financing needs with multiple lenders and will shop around to secure you an attractive deal.

Borrowers with a poor credit history
Although many lenders will not lend to individuals with low credit quality, there are specialist lenders who accept individuals with county court judgements against them. These lenders are likely to restrict the maximum amount of loan and charge a higher interest rate to compensate for the increased risk.
Below we explain the what, why, how, who and when of buy to let mortgages within the UK.

Forward Buying Facilities
You may be in competition for a property against other landlords and need access to immediate funds, e.g. when buying at auction. In these cases, some lenders offer "forward buying facilities" to landlords. These are usually only offered to experienced landlords rather than first time landlords.

The competition also occurs when landlords are buying property "off-plan", when a property is being built and flats, for example, are sold out of this building.

The Financial Service Authority does not regulate most forms of business finance

Written quotations are available on request. All loans are subject to status. A valuation or survey fee may be required. An administration fee may be payable.