First Key Home | firstkeyhome.co.uk/partners/lenders | hello@firstkeyhome.co.uk
Partner overviewFirst Key Home is a plain-English guide that walks first-time buyers in England and Wales through every stage of buying a home, so they reach their lender, broker and solicitor knowing what is coming next.
For banks, building societies and mortgage lenders
The problem
Nobody teaches people how buying a home works. Many first-time buyers learn the process as they go, often from whoever happens to answer the phone. For lenders, that gap tends to show up in the same places.
Incomplete applications
Buyers do not always know which documents they will be asked for, or why, so applications arrive with gaps and go back and forth before they can be assessed.
Source of funds and gifted deposits
Gifted deposit letters, identification for the giftor and evidence of savings often come as a surprise. Chasing them late holds up both the mortgage and the conveyancing.
Offers running close to expiry
When a buyer does not understand what is happening in the conveyancing, delays build quietly and a mortgage offer can end up close to its expiry date, or past it, before the purchase is ready to complete.
Lender requirements discovered late
Many buyers do not realise that their lender has its own requirements their solicitor must satisfy before completion, or that conditions in the mortgage offer need to be met. Finding this out at the last minute adds pressure for everyone.
Purchases going abortive
An unprepared buyer is more likely to panic at a survey result, miss a deadline or lose confidence part way through. Every abortive purchase is time and cost spent on an application that never completes.
The same questions, again and again
Customer teams and brokers spend time explaining the basics of the buying process, which is time that could be spent on the mortgage itself.
What First Key Home is
First Key Home explains how buying a home in England and Wales works, from saving a deposit and getting a mortgage in principle through to exchange, completion and moving in. It is written for people who have never done this before, and it is designed to be read before they need it, not after something has gone wrong.
Plain English
Every stage is explained without jargon, with a glossary for the words buyers will hear from their broker, lender and solicitor.
Independent
First Key Home is not tied to any lender, broker or law firm, and it does not recommend products or providers.
Education, not advice
It does not give financial, mortgage or legal advice. Throughout the guide, buyers are pointed back to their broker, their lender and their solicitor for anything specific to them.
Schemes explained properly
The Lifetime ISA, Shared Ownership, First Homes and other schemes are explained in plain English, with links to GOV.UK so buyers can check the official rules for themselves.
Written from experience
Written by someone who has worked in residential property for nine years and has seen where first-time buyers tend to get stuck.
Official scheme information on GOV.UK
Where we explain a government scheme, we link to the official GOV.UK page so buyers can check eligibility and the latest rules.
What buyers learn
First Key Home covers the whole journey across 15 modules. These are the ones most closely connected to the mortgage, from getting finances ready to the day the funds are released.
Module 2
Getting Your Finances Ready
Saving, affordability, credit files, gifted deposits and the paperwork that shows where the money came from.
Module 3
Getting a Mortgage in Principle
What an agreement in principle is, what it is not, and why it is not the same thing as a mortgage offer.
Module 8
Surveys and Searches
The difference between a lender's valuation and a survey, and what to do when either one raises a concern.
Module 9
The Conveyancing Process
What the solicitor does between instruction and completion, how the mortgage offer fits in, and how buyers can keep things moving.
Module 11
Completion Day
What happens on completion day, step by step, so buyers know what to expect and when.
Module 13
The Lifetime ISA (LISA)
How the Lifetime ISA bonus works, and how the timing of a withdrawal can catch buyers out close to completion.
Module 15
Government Schemes for First-Time Buyers
Shared Ownership, First Homes, the Lifetime ISA and the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, explained in plain English.
Ways to work together
Every lender is different, so these are starting points rather than fixed packages. We are happy to shape something around your customers, your members and your channels.
01
Link to the free resources
Add our free checklist, free module, stamp duty calculator and guides to your first-time buyer pages. There is no cost and nothing to set up.
02
Co-branded access for customers or members
Bulk access codes, built on the same code system we already use for gifting, so your first-time buyer customers or members can unlock the full guide. Codes could be shared at application, at offer, or as a member benefit.
03
Content for customer emails
Short, plain-English explainers on topics such as gifted deposits, mortgage offers or completion day, written to sit within your own customer communications.
04
A pilot with one region or product line
Start small with one region or one product line, see how your customers use it, and decide on anything wider from there.
Pricing on request. Get in touch and we can talk through what would work for your customers and agree something that fits.
Free resources
These are free for anyone to use and to link to from your own website, emails or customer packs.
Free cost checklist
A printable list of every cost that usually comes up when buying a first home, and when each one is paid.
firstkeyhome.co.uk/free-checklist
Module 1, free to read
How buying a home works, from the first search to collecting the keys, with no sign-up needed to read it.
firstkeyhome.co.uk/free-module
Stamp duty calculator
An estimate of stamp duty for first-time buyers in England, band by band, with plain-English examples.
firstkeyhome.co.uk/stamp-duty-calculator
Free guides
Short plain-English articles on offers, costs, surveys, searches, exchange and completion.
firstkeyhome.co.uk/guides
About the founder
Summer Heal
Summer has worked in residential property for nine years. Over that time she has seen how often first-time buyers begin without anyone explaining how the process works, and how much smoother a purchase is when they do understand it.
She started First Key Home to give buyers the clear, honest explanation she wished every one of them had before they began, and to make life easier for the professionals who work with them.
Get in touch
Let us talk about your first-time buyers
If any of this could help your customers or members, Summer would be glad to talk it through. Send a short email and she will get back to you personally.
First Key Home provides general information about buying a home in England and Wales. It is not legal, financial or mortgage advice and should not be relied on as such. First Key Home Limited, registered in England and Wales, company number 17245025.