Well I’am but missus had a house which she sold when split up with her ex and we are both renting.

Now we are looking at a 3 Bed new build which is £117.995 full price and £94,000 with help to buy.
We have £10,500 deposit so a good amount over the 5% for help to buy.

Now we are looking at two, one which isn’t built yet for same price and one which is built and comes with carpets, fencing and rear turf.

Are we better off going for the already built one or waiting a few more months till more houses on the development are built?

Also if we put a reservation fee down on a none built one and get the mortgage sorted and the house isn’t finished then what?

Also solicitors fee, we have been quoted £1200 all in. Good price?

how did you find the solicitors? that fee sounds expensive for a new build home, which should (hopefully) need less soliciting. Ask if they have experience with new builds, and in particular this company (and this development if its a large one) – if they just did the deal on the house next door, it should go through much more smoothly

New builds are notoriously negociable. Often they’ll throw in stamp duty (don’t think that applies to you), carpets, turf etc as part of the negociation. They’re doing this now to try and get the built one sold (your money will give them funding access to build the next ones).

if you can point to the development, people may have some comments. Generally, I wouldn’t see any advantage in waiting, if you’re happy to live on a building site. its worth noting that getting stuff delivered can be a pain for the first year, as the postcode won’t be in satnavs etc (I put the nearest established postcode as a line on my address as well).

If you put a holding deposit down (normally a grand or so), they give you 30/45/60 days to exchange contracts. By the end of this you need to pay the full deposit, and have all the paperwork sorted. It is wise to also have financing in place – if you are completing in 3 months time, most mortgage companies will be fine – the offer is frequently valid for 90/180 days but its worth mentioning this when you’re applying.

if anyone has already moved in, give them a knock and ask how the builders are. they might have a horror story, they might have good things, either way it’ll be feedback. If you’re the last on a development, it can be harder to get issues rectified (as if they’re still building the next road over, it’s easy to send someone over to sort out a leak etc)

Under £120K for a 3 bed new build! where abouts in the country are you?

guessing it might be one of these (from the username) http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E182&maxBedrooms=3&minBedrooms=3&maxPrice=118000&minPrice=117500&radius=40.0&includeSSTC=true

close 5lab! But different development. Been to look at development and they have three houses built so far. Well I say built, one is show home and the others are on the interior stage by the looks of it.

Yes I’ve heard horror stories of new builds, but my mums house was a new build in 1991 and her dads in 2004. My mums has only now just needed new windows and soffits fitting as the wood was rotting.

And solicitors was just one a friend used he found online and local is (Blackburn).
Mortgage I have looked at quotes and it’s in the region of £130-150k

This was the email I got this morning.
Legal fees
£745.00
VAT thereon
£149.00

Telegraphic transfer fee (inc VAT)

Disbursements on Purchase

Local Search
Drainage Search
Coal Mining Search
Chancel Insurance
Environmental search
SIM Search
Land Registry search
Bankruptcy searches for 2
Land Registry registration fee

£30.00

£143.33
£49.00
£47.74
£19.50
£49.60
£4.00
£3.00
£8.00
£95.00

TOTAL

£1,343.17

Sounds pricey to me.

Call these guys. They were brilliant with our last purchase (and the one we opted out of), plus friends’ purchases.

Can’t help on much but what I can say is that my brother had a new-build and found the snagging easier to deal with when the builders and tradesmen were still on site building other houses than when they left. Basically, once they leave they’re difficult to get back as they’re on to new jobs, when they’re building the house down the road it’s easy enough for them to pop over and fix the problem.

Trade off Getting the extras thrown in on the stock plot versus the extra time you will be living on a building site.

Mortgage offers have an expiry date which are normally long enough unless the site build rate slows down.

Solicitor sounds expensive – is this the builder’s recommended firm?

That’s pricey. We just paid solicitors fees of £500 plus £45 transfer fee plus £50 for something else I forget what – all plus VAT. Searches were £150.

Searches are a fairly standard price but your solicitor is taking the pee – espcecially as it’s a new build (they’re easier).

Before you commit to buying, check out the whether the property is leasehold and if so, how much it would cost to buy out the lease.

Plus, I hope you have a Help To Buy ISA, given this sounds as if this is your first home. Your gf cannot use HTB ISA as it sounds like she was a named person on the mortgage with her ex, but that doesn’t affect your right. Including the bonus £1k deposit when opening the HTB acccount, you could save £1600 over three months and then qualify for the 25% bonus.

If buy the built option tbh, I wouldn’t buy off plan again, but that’s only based on one shite experience.

Also, most new builds need a shit load of work done to them, garden, storage, shelving, external lighting etc.

on the flip-side, my new build hardly needed any – garden was plain but usable (lawn, patio and a couple of trees), had to put a few hooks up and curtains\shutters but otherwise pretty good – company was pretty responsive at coming out as well. The spec was higher than I’d have put in by myself.

That said, it was somewhat at the other end of the market compared to the one being talked about here, so I suspect the builders had a lot more margin to play with to get things right.

OP : have a think if there’s any changes you’d want that can (possibly) be put in at build stage. I had a door from garage->house, his n hers sinks in the en-suites and some speaker cables sunk in the walls during build (so much cheaper than changing it later)

That said, it was somewhat at the other end of the market compared to the one being talked about here

So pretty expensive for solicitors then.
I think when my mum had her new build the garden was poor drainage wise and was like a bog so I’ll be checking that out.
Hers was a Barratt home. Cost £100,000 back in 1991 worth £375,000 now.
Alot of these Gleeson homes seem to be built on old factory sites.
Colleague from work has one, she seems happy with it.

Looked at some by keepmoat, slightly bigger, nicer looking but leasehold and in dog rough areas.