Your first step should be to speak to a mortgage broker. 

We will set up an initial consultation (free of charge), during the consultation our aim is to understand your goals and provide you with some information and figures to help begin your house search.

 At an initial consultation we would need to review your income and your expenditure so that we can accurately estimate your maximum purchase price and the likely monthly payments you would need to make for your new mortgage .  

After the consultation we should be able to obtain a decision in principle which is specific to your circumstances. – this process is free of any cost to you and there is no obligation to use us or any particular bank at this stage.  

In the industry we often refer to this as a DIP or an AIP (agreement in principle).

This is where we calculate the maximum amount of mortgage that may be available to you, we then carry out a credit search -which is usually a soft footprint credit search (it wont affect your credit score). If approved you will be issued with a certificate of your creditworthiness or approval - a DIP certificate. You will most likely need this certificate before you start viewing property, plus it can be reassuring to know that you have been approved “in principle” before negotiating on a new home.

 'In principle' is the terminology usually offered by lenders as the certificate isn’t a guarantee, but if your documents support the information that has been provided then you shouldn’t have any issues proceeding.