Your first appointment: what to bring and what we will ask you

A good number of people put off their first mortgage appointment for months. Not because they are not ready, but because they do not know what happens in one and are worried about turning up unprepared or being judged.

So here is the whole thing in advance. What it is for, what to bring, what we will ask and why, and the questions people are usually too embarrassed to say out loud.

What the appointment actually is

It is a conversation, not an application. Nothing is submitted anywhere, nothing goes on your record, and you are not committing to anything by sitting down with us.

The initial consultation is free of charge and without obligation. If you decide afterwards that you would rather do nothing for a year, that is a perfectly good outcome.

What to bring

If you have these to hand, the conversation goes further:

• Photographic identification and something showing your current address.
• Your recent payslips, if you are employed.
• Recent bank statements, personal and business.
• If you are self-employed or a company director: your last two years of accounts, or your tax calculations and tax year overviews.
• Anything about your deposit: where it is and where it came from.

And the important part: if something is missing, come anyway. We would far rather have the conversation and follow up on a document than have you postpone it for a month over a payslip.

What we will ask you, and why

None of this is a test. Each question is there because it changes what is possible.

How your income is made up, so we can present it accurately. This matters far more for the self-employed and for directors, where salary, dividends and retained profit tell quite different stories about the same person.

What goes out each month, including loans, cards and car finance, because affordability is about the gap rather than the headline income.

Whether anybody depends on you financially, which affects both affordability and what protection is worth considering.

What you are planning, for the next few years. Somebody expecting to move again soon has different needs from somebody settling.

Your deposit, and its source, because lenders ask and it is better sorted early than at the last minute.

The questions people are embarrassed to ask

We would rather you asked. In no particular order:

"I missed a payment a few years ago." Say so. It is common, it is often less significant than people fear, and it is far better known at the start than discovered later.

"I have only been self-employed a short while." Also common. Lenders differ considerably in how they look at this, which is exactly the sort of thing advice is for.

"My deposit is small." Then we work with what there is. It shapes the options rather than ending the conversation.

"My income is complicated." Good. That is the situation where we are most useful, and it is why we exist alongside an accountancy practice.

The bit that is genuinely different about us

JB Partners sits alongside MCC Partners, a firm of accountants. In practice that means a set of company accounts gets read by people who read accounts for a living, rather than being interpreted from a PDF by somebody who does not.

For an employed applicant with a payslip, that matters very little. For a company director whose income arrives in three different forms, it can matter a great deal.

What happens afterwards

We will tell you what we think is realistic and what the next step would be. If that means an application, we will explain what it involves. If it means waiting six months and getting a couple of things in order first, we will say that instead.

We have written separately about what happens once an offer is accepted, which is the stage most people find hardest.

On fees, plainly

The initial consultation is free of charge and without obligation. There may be a fee for mortgage advice. The precise amount of the fee will depend upon your circumstances.

We would rather you read that here than wonder about it.

If you would like to book, we are in Gravesend, and you will speak to the same adviser throughout rather than a different voice each time.

Your home/property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other debt secured on it.