The financing of a home purchase is where most of the trouble starts. Wanting a house, Finding a house, Convincing a loving spouse to buy the house, these are all easy compared to the problem of paying for the house.

Let's assume that you've found a house and agreed a price with the seller.

There really should only be two things left to consider:

1. How much of a deposit can I raise?
2. How much does that leave me needing to borrow?

Sadly it's not that simple. For the deposit we need to look at various sources: Savings, Sale of a Previous House, Loans from family, Loans from other institutions like a Credit Union, Loan from the developer etc.

For the remainder of the finance needed we also have issues.
What kind of loan can I get? Is it with a traditional lender or a subprime lender? Should I fix my rate and for how long?

Then there's the question finding money to pay stamp duty, and working out how much your mortgage will really cost after mortgage interest relief is deducted.

In this section of the guide we'll tease apart these issues.