Lenders have so much choice about who they lend to these days you need to make yourself as attractive as possible to give yourself the best chance of being accepted. Added to which if you can be accepted by the lenders who have tougher criteria or credit scoring models then youve got a better chance of getting better rates and terms too.

Ill sometimes say to a client if only youd spoken to me first where a little planning and forethought could have resulted in a competently different outcome for them. This often revolves around ensuring that the client is prepared for the lenders requirements. So this article is going to focus on what you can do to ensure youre ready for applications and getting the lenders to like you.

Mortgages
I speak to some clients to find that they have let out their house thats on a residential mortgage and they are living in one of their buy to lets or even both! If youre applying for buy to let mortgages lenders will want to see that you have the correct mortgages in place and that you arent going to be using their mortgages in the wrong way. For residential mortgage applications its doubly important as lenders will want to see that you dont have multiple residential mortgages that they need to account for in their affordability assessment, potentially massively reducing the amount you can borrow.

You need to ensure that if a property is let out it is:-

• Unencumbered (no mortgage debt)
• Or has a buy to let mortgage
• Or has a residential mortgage with permission to let in writing from the lender.

You should also ensure that you can produce a proper tenancy agreement and bank statements clearly showing the rental income being deposited direct from the tenant or from the managing agent and the bank statement should also show the mortgage payments too (if applicable).