People who are self employed and looking for a home loan will be needing some assistance, so it would be beneficial to get a mortgage broker. A mortgage broker will be able to ascertain what type of mortgage will be most suitable for your circumstances and can access products that aren’t available on the high street. Also if you work for yourself you may need to enlist the services of an accountant to not only ensure that all your finances are in order, but to also verify your claims when you apply for a mortgage.

When applying for a mortgage as a self-employed worker, you will probably need to provide audited accounts as well as bank statements, so make sure you keep the relevant information filed away. And for some mortgages such as self-certification, you might not need to prove your exact income, but you will need to provide evidence to support your claims.

Some of the pros for the self employed mortgages include that they are likely to be more flexible and take irregular earnings into account, you may not have to prove exactly how much you earn, and he amount you borrow is based on you real earnings rather than the figure quoted to the taxman.

Some of the cons of the self employed mortgages are that you wont have as much choice as your employed counterparts, the rate of interest is likely to be higher than the mortgages available to standard borrowers, and the best deals may only be available through mortgage brokers and you will have to pay for their help.

A tracker mortgage is a loan secured against a property where the interest charged is guaranteed to maintain a set relationship with, or “track”, Bank of England base rate. This type of mortgage will typically be cheaper than a capped, flexible, or fixed-rate mortgage, but while the cost of a tracker mortgage will fall if interest rates fall, it does not protect the mortgage holder against rises in interest rates. Tracker mortgages tend to be very popular and are often aimed at first time buyers with attractive initial offers. All high street lenders will offer Tracker mortgages which means that they are plentiful and usually competitive.

The Tracker mortgage is usually offered for a set amount of time perhaps 2-5 years after which the mortgage will revert to the standard variable rate. However, there are Lifetime Tracker mortgages which Track the Bank of England rate for the whole lifetime of the mortgage. Although Tracker mortgages don’t offer the absolute certainty of level of future repayments that Fixed Rate mortgages do for instance they do offer the added comfort of knowing that if the base rate plunges you are not tied to the previously higher rate.