Guest blog: Helping Rachel from Spoilt Belle Boutique buy her dream family home

At the end of last year, Rachel Shivers, owner of Spoilt Belle Boutique in Magherafelt purchased her dream family home with a mortgage from Progressive Building Society.

‘Like many of you, we always dreamed of having extra space for our growing family and Progressive Building Society has been a huge part in helping that dream become our reality – they were a fantastic lender to deal with.

When we initially began our mortgage journey our advisor assessed our affordability, and once they had a broader picture of where we were at financially, they equipped us with the information tailor made to guide us through this new path.

During our search for a mortgage provider, Progressive stood out the most to us, as my partner and I are both self-employed which can make the mortgage process slightly trickier. But with the help of our local Progressive branch manager and our accountants we were able to make the process extremely positive and seamless!

Knowing that everything was being taken care of by the team at the Ballymena branch put us at ease from the very beginning. Wendy the branch manager was a fantastic help and her customer service was first class. She kept a constant stream of contact with us so we knew exactly where the process was at and how long everything would take right up until we got the keys.

Moving home during COVID-19 had its difficulties, however luckily, we were not in lockdown the month we moved. It also had its benefits as we were at home more so we could get lots of things done during the day which we wouldn’t have been able to do normally. I made sure to order as much as we could in the weeks before: moving boxes, bubble wrap etc. And as I had just had a baby a few weeks before the move I found it was a great time to pack up while I was technically on maternity leave and had extra time on my hands!

Right at the beginning of the selling process we got our home valued by an estate agent to give us an idea of the market value of our property. We were extremely lucky that we already had prospective buyers who also ended up getting their mortgage through Progressive. This was amazing as both applications went through at the same time.

Our experience will always be unique as we decided to move just as the whole world stopped, both our businesses had stopped trading during lockdown and I was just about to give birth to my third child! Although it was an extremely daunting time, we look back at the house buying process with great memories! It was amazing to have that time at home to spend with our family and get things organised which we probably wouldn’t been able to do previously. We also got to spend lots of time making memories in our previous home that was built by my husband which was lovely.

We are delighted to have taken our mortgage through Progressive and could not recommend them enough to our friends and family. Thank you Progressive for helping us find our happy place!

P.s Don’t forget you can find the answers to a range of questions you sent in and hear more about my personal experience in my dedicated Instagram mortgage highlights.’