Viewing 20 posts - 41 through 60 (of 60 total)
  • Buying my first house – advice, timescales etc
  • johndoh
    Free Member

    don’t intend to for a while

    But if you plan on being in the house when you do have them then it would be worth considering a home near to good schools – Ofsted reports on all schools are readily available and RightMove show schools on their maps (with links to relevant Ofsted reports) too.

    ahsat
    Full Member

    So we are currently trying to buy our next house, but that is a move forced by work and we only bought our first house 2 years ago (ouch!). We are purchasing at a higher price than you, so stamp duty will be different and our solicitors fees a bit more expensive, but will give you an idea of cost.

    £525 – home buyers report and mortgage valuation
    £300 – basic searches fees (non refundable, in general)
    £90 – additional local searches (certainly not refundable)
    ~£1500 – solicitors fees (only payable on completion); however, that is the basic cost and there may be additional work they have to do, extra searches etc.

    We pulled out of a previous place due to the structural report, on which we had already paid £300 of searches, £250 for home buyers (we got a reduction as a mortgage incentive), £450 for structural engineers report (in light of the survey). So that was nearly £1000 lost in circumstances we couldn’t forsee, but better in the long run.

    So as people say, do not underestimate the costs of moving. If you dont have ~£3k or so on top of the deposit, you arguable cannot afford to move just yet. Most solicitors wont let you pay the fees by credit card, you need to transfer them with the deposit at exchange. At the moment you only have an AiP, not a full mortgage offer, so dont worry about it running out. It just gives you an indication of what they will lend you. Ours has run out but we are now in the process of full application. Enjoy going to look at places knowing what you can afford, and see if you can save the extra bit of money in the meantime.

    mahalo
    Full Member

    ah stamp duty. another f**kin racket! our stamp duty is gonna be about 2%. if that wasnt bad enough we did hope to hold onto our current house as we had just about enough put by to cover that and the deposit – but some filthy degenerate scumbags in the government decided that as of May this year if we wanted to buy a second home the stamp duty would be more like 5%!! which in monetary terms meant we were about £12K short!!!! absolute bastards.

    another thing, our solicitors wanted assurances the money in the bank was generated by us saving, and not just deposited there (like a loan from mum & dad or something) WTF does that have to do with them??? how are people supposed to get on in life with all this red tape? doing my head in…

    n0b0dy0ftheg0at
    Free Member

    OP, if you are both buying your first place, I hope you both have Help To Buy ISAs with £1600+ in them by the time of contracts. Takes three calendar months maximum to reach that amount, which enables both accounts to get 25% extra from government.

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    So that was nearly £1000 lost in circumstances we couldn’t forsee, but better in the long run.

    But if it saves you £10K on structural repairs / prevents you buying a pup, that’s £1000 well spent. Sadly, there’s no 28 day return policy on house buying.

    our solicitors wanted assurances the money in the bank was generated by us saving, and not just deposited there (like a loan from mum & dad or something)

    Never heard of that before? Unless if by ‘loan’ they’re concerned that your folks would have a claim to own that much of the house, which the mortgage co wouldn’t like. Whenever i’ve bought, they didn’t care if the deposit money was well-gotten or ill-gotten, just as long as it had been gotten.

    johndoh
    Free Member

    just as long as it had been gotten.

    They are wanting assurances that it is ‘gotten’ for keeps, and not to be de-gotten back to the lenders straight away once the deal has completed.

    chrishc777
    Free Member

    We should be fine on that front, we’re getting a 100% mortgage after years of unsuccessful saving. Start putting money by? Here you go, have a broken gearbox on the car etc etc.

    brooess
    Free Member

    some filthy degenerate scumbags in the government decided that as of May this year if we wanted to buy a second home the stamp duty would be more like 5%

    You need to get yourself a better understanding of economics, the (negative) impact on society of wealth inequality, and maybe a little bit of empathy for people younger/poorer than you…

    The stamp duty change was to try and get house prices back under control as they’re currently breaking the economy by taking up such a massive % of income.. you may have noticed that interest rates are still at emergency levels because the economy is essentially as bad a state as it was in 2008 (in terms of debt levels, it’s actually worse).

    I don’t understand this desire to make the most expensive thing we ever buy as expensive as possible, to the detriment of the rest of the economy, our kids, and broader standard of living… We have one of the lowest rates of outright home ownership in the EU – far behind Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania as it happens…

    There’s plenty more policies in the pipeline following on from the stamp duty increase too…

    mahalo
    Full Member

    well perhaps, but selfishly it just feels like we work hard and save hard to provide a better future for our family, just to get a swift kick in the bollocks. that was to be the pension plan.

    chrishc777
    Free Member

    Eat the rich I say 😆

    Basically I think the principle is that you don’t need 2 houses, and lots of people have 0 houses, so if you want 2 you can pay some more tax. Some people work hard for what they have and it’s understandable that it can seem unfair but as above, look at the bigger picture

    mahalo
    Full Member

    Never heard of that before? Unless if by ‘loan’ they’re concerned that your folks would have a claim to own that much of the house, which the mortgage co wouldn’t like. Whenever i’ve bought, they didn’t care if the deposit money was well-gotten or ill-gotten, just as long as it had been gotten.

    same here, i think its another new one the establishment have enforced to stop people laundering cash… or helping out their children who cannot afford to get on the ladder!!

    medders
    Free Member

    If you’re in London and SE and you can then wait a few months – big announcements due on housebuilding in the autumn statement, interest rates due to go up early next year, BTL yax changes come in next April – plenty of BTL properties coming on the market right now as landlords beginning to realise they’re going to lose money.. this’ll change the balance of supply and demand at the bottom end which no doubt will feed through into chains…

    Sorry but much of this is wrong and/or misinformed. Housebuilding – maybe but will take many years to have an effect (bye bye nice green spaces and playing fields and hello barratt boxes with inadequate infrastructure) / imminent interest rate rise? No chance. Look at the current fixed rates available – none of the banks think a rise is likely and it would be rather damaging to the economy / BTL tax changes – is not that severe and only affect a tiny minority of BTL landlords and the majority of those will have addressed it already and/or rents will rise. Brexit remains the biggest risk to the property market but if it affects that, everything will tank including the availability of mortgages and jobs.

    Teetosugars
    Free Member

    we’re getting a 100% mortgage

    Didn’t realise you could still get these..

    hexhamstu
    Free Member

    We went with an online company for convayancing. Had searches on a place and didnt buy, theu said searches were free until we bought a place. Ending up buying 2 years later and they honoured the searches thing. Ended up paying £950 had to pay for an extra search and because it was leasehold. Definitely didnt have the solicitors full attention but for the price we couldnt argue. Manage to complete in 6.5 weeks.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    I would go with a fixed price online conveyancers – save a bucketful of cash

    do your research and visit loads of places – anything you like go back to see what its like at school closing time / rushour and also at pub chucking out time

    Get someone who knows buil;dings to check it over – I used to thing a full survey was worth it but now not so sure.

    Biggest piece of advice – chill. Many folk find the whole process very stressful but IMO the way to deal with this is not to let it effect you. Chase your conveyancers but don’t let delays and nonsense get to you. Sort out the stuff you can sort out, be relaxed about the rest

    g5604
    Free Member

    Full survey is worth it. Cost us £800, but used it to knock 3k off price. We also know exactly what we are getting into

    whatyadoinsucka
    Free Member

    thanks for the brilliant comments and advise, just put our house on the market and looking to buy close by. more room for another bike :0)

    as regards getting a full survey, it depends on the house, once got advise from a mortgage advisor get the basic survey and then stand outside look at the roof, has it got one, does it look well maintained, have the walls damp etc.
    the problem with full surveys they dig and dig and find problems that arent always problems, just to justify the expense

    whatyadoinsucka
    Free Member

    ps. have i missed anything

    house price ,
    stamp duty
    selling agency fees,
    solicitor/survey fees
    mortgage rate fees

    plus paint, flooring/carpet furniture etc

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    If you are in rented accomodation, with a shortish notice period, you will be in a good position for making offers as the seller should favor the chain starting with them.

    I had 3 offers and ignored the one that was £10k above the others because they had yet to secure a buyer.

    If you are looking for a house for the first purchase then favor shared passageways if you can – houses with the doors in the centre so your living room will not be adjacent to your neighbours – then you won’t have to worry so much about noise.

    Be very careful with the location you buy – some locations are sought after and expensive but in times of ‘boom’ all the other places become expensive as well, if we go ‘bust’ they will be first to drop price fast.

    You can get insurance against the chain failing, but you have to take it out within a short period of making the offer – somethign like a week.

    The longer the chain the more likely it is, so worth taking out.

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    survey fees

Viewing 20 posts - 41 through 60 (of 60 total)

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