Get Help With Buying Your First Home
We’ll walk you through the entire process — from understanding your budget to getting the keys in your hand.
We search the market to find first-time buyer mortgage deals that suit your needs and save you money.
We offer mortgages to support home ownership from a host of government schemes, for example: shared ownership, right to buy & section 106 properties.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
Our mortgage repayment calculator is a useful starting point — but personalised advice makes all the difference.
At Tom Garvie Mortgage Services, we take the time to understand your situation and guide you through your mortgage options with clarity and confidence. Once you’ve used the calculator, we’ll help fine-tune the figures, explain what’s possible, and find a deal that fits.
When you’re ready, we’ll handle the paperwork and liaise with lenders to make the process as smooth as possible.
Before you start viewing homes, it’s important to know what’s affordable. We’ll take a look at your income, outgoings, deposit, and credit history to work out how much you could borrow. This gives you a clear budget and helps you feel confident when making an offer. We’ll also explain how lenders assess affordability, so there are no surprises along the way.
We’ll connect you with trusted local estate agents, giving you early access to new properties. Arranging viewings helps you discover what’s important to you in a home, whether you find the perfect one right away or after a few tries. We’re here to support you every step of the way.
As soon as your offer is accepted, we’ll get straight to work. We’ll submit your mortgage application the very same day and instruct your solicitors at the same time, ensuring everything moves forward without delay. It’s the first big step on the path to getting your keys — and we’ll be with you every step of the way.
You will find the exact amount you can borrow will vary from each bank and building society. Our specialist mortgage brokers will ensure we find the right mortgage for your circumstances and show you exactly how much you can borrow with various different lenders. We will also give you reliable information regarding interest rates & monthly payments so you can structure your property search for your first home.
To get an agreement in principle we will request proof of your income and expenditure. This will then allow our experienced mortgage broker to calculate how much you can borrow and produce an Agreement in Principle for you. This is often referred to as an AIP, DIP (Decision in principle) or MIP (Mortgage in Principle)
To prove your income we will request your last 4 months of payslips and your latest P60 if you are employed, or your last 3 years of Tax Calculations & Tax Overviews if you are self-employed.
The Help To Buy Scheme is a government led scheme which offers First Time Buyers the ability to purchase a new build home with a 5% deposit. The Help To Buy Scheme then provides up to 20% of the purchase price as an interest free-loan for the first five years.
The Shared Ownership Scheme gives first time buyers and those who don’t currently own a home the opportunity to purchase a share in a property. The purchaser pays a monthly mortgage payment on the share they own, and then pays rent to a housing association on the remaining proportion. The purchases has the option to increase their share during their time in the property via a process known as staircasing.
We have access to mortgages starting from just 5% deposit! Typically, the higher the deposit, the lower the interest rate. Some properties require a higher deposit, a specialist mortgage broker will be able to guide you through your options.
Typically buying your first home takes 10-12 weeks. This is very much dependant on if you are purchasing a property in a chain, as this may take longer for all parties to progress to completion.
At Tom Garvie Mortgage Services we cover a number of locations and can help you buy your first home anywhere in the UK.