Length of mortgage process?

Hi,
We have seen our ideal home and want to put down a booking deposit now but are a bit afraid that we will lose it if the process of getting the mortgage takes longer than 21 days. We applied direct to the tsb and are also using a broker. Should we wait until we get the approval in principle before paying the booking deposit? They said once they have all the relevent forms payslips etc it'll only take 48 hours for approval in principle. How realistic is that? We will also get parents to go guarantor if necessary. What does that entail? Any help/advice greatly appreciated.

Re: lenght of mortgage process?

Put the booking deposit down, you are not signing anything and can pull out and get it back should something happen your mortgage application.

Mortgage approval will only take a couple of days but means very little - you will need an loan offer before you sign contracts (i.e. within 21 days) but that should be no problem either - you should have that within a week of application.

If your case is straightforward there should be no problem getting a loan offer within 3 weeks.

You should go about organising current account/saving statements etc. now if you haven't done so already (it can take the bank 2-3 weeeks to post these out). It is the things you least expect that can hold up the application so ask your broker/lender the usual items required and start getting them ready so that after you receive your approval in principle you're ready to proceed to loan offer.

Usually when you pay the booking fee it is totally refundable until the contracts are signed, which will be aprox 5 weeks from paying the booking fee.