First-time buyer mortgages, properly advised.

First is finding out what your deposit is going to be and where it's coming from. The most common route is normally three months' bank statements. Try not to move the money around in that period, otherwise we'll just need more statements.

We'll also need your last three months' payslips, passports, driving licences and proof of address dated within the last three months.

If you're self-employed it becomes a little more complicated on the paperwork side, but it's normally tax calculations and tax year overviews, down to full accounts.

It depends. The mortgage landscape changes quite often. Currently, depending on lender criteria, the maximum can stretch to around six times your income. We'll run some calculations with you on the phone to see where you can get to.

In terms of deposit, lenders sometimes release deals that look fabulous, but they're often about attracting people. There are some 100% mortgage deals which won't require any kind of deposit, but there are a lot of criteria surrounding them. For example, one is based on the rent you've been paying.

Another lender will accept a flat £5,000 deposit, but the industry standard is a minimum of 5%. That gives us the widest range of lenders. It's worth having a conversation even if you don't have 5% yet. We can work out what you'll need and your overall budget, even if it's twelve months until you'll be buying.

Most people have heard of fixed rates, where the interest rate is fixed for a two or five year period. Some lenders will also do three years and some do longer terms.

There are also discount rates and tracker rates, which follow the Bank of England base rate. There are many different variations, but most first-time buyers choose a fixed rate. They've never been in this process before, and they want to know exactly what their payments will be each month.

I tend to recommend a fixed rate unless you're doing something slightly different. That's rare for first-time buyers.

Roughly 90% to 95% of first-time buyers opt for a fixed rate. Whatever rate you choose, for example 4%, that stays with you for the time you fix for. If it's a two-year fixed deal, your rate won't change for that period and nor will your monthly mortgage payment.

There are usually early repayment charges, so if you sold your house and paid off the mortgage, you'd pay a percentage to the lender for coming out of it early. But most people don't move into a house and sell within six months, it's just something to consider.

The opposite is a variable rate. The main type is a tracker, which follows the Bank of England base rate. If it goes up, your rate goes up. If it comes down, your rate comes down. A lot of tracker deals have no early redemption charges.

So if you're looking to pay off the mortgage within a certain period, or you think rates are going to come down, you might want a tracker for now and fix later. We'd run calculations to make sure that's cost-effective. There's no point spending £50 to save £50.

Help to Buy is no longer in place. Shared Ownership is still available, where a housing provider sells you a percentage of the property and you pay rent to them on the remainder, alongside the mortgage. Not many Shared Ownership opportunities come up at any given time, and they tend to go quickly because they let you buy with a lower income.

A lot of new build developers will give you a 5% deposit contribution which can boost your own deposit. The alternative is something called the Own New scheme, where a small group of lenders are involved.

Instead of the developer giving you the 5% deposit to put towards the house, that value goes to the lender and they offer you a better rate. In effect, your rate could go from 4%, which is typical for a 90% loan-to-value product, to something materially lower for the first two years.

When we look into this scheme for clients there are often more savings to be made by putting a 5% deposit in upfront. We'll run both side by side before recommending one over the other.