Self employed and want to buy a house? Try a flexible mortgage

Self employment is a huge rage these days. Statistics show that more and more people are choosing to be self-employed in recent times. After all, who wouldn’t like to work on his or her own terms, get better pay by him or herself and have flexible work hours? Most people would rather be answerable to themselves than their bosses. Many people are beginning to consider these factors and are considering self-employment as a feasible option.

In spite of the positive factors outlined above, self-employment has its own share of disadvantages as well. To start off alone, you must be prepared to live with the insecurity of not having a fixed income. You could go without pay for an entire month and then go ahead and earn a lot the next month. There is none of the fixed monthly pay security that comes with regular jobs.

This has its own pitfalls. Suppose you are self employed and want to buy a house. Keeping in mind the fact that you do not have a fixed source of income, which lender will give you a mortgage? After all, the people who do business with you also need to be assured that you will have the money to pay your monthly installments. Look at it from the lender’s point of view – why would he risk his money to give someone who probably can’t pay every month as opposed to someone who is sure to pay every month (that is, a person with a fixed income)?

Is there a solution to this? Yes, it comes in the form of something known as a “flexible mortgage”. These are specifically for self employed people, but they do have awfully high interest rates. The upshot if this is that it doesn’t require you to pay a fixed amount per month and you can pay as little or as much as you want depending on how much you can afford that particular month. You can also borrow from the paid-up amount – it’s not called flexible for no reason! This will lead to a long duration mortgage period, but it certainly makes things simpler for a self-employed person. That way, if you are self-employed, you don’t need to worry about buying a house.

So if you are pondering about being self employed and still want to be able to buy your own house, consider getting a flexible mortgage. If you have braved risking the insecurity of not having a fixed income then you can certainly brave the higher rates of interest and longer loan duration of a flexible mortgage.