Evening good folk of STW. I’m not usually on here much but you all seem an exceedingly knowledgable bunch so here goes. Mrs Matt’s granny has been in a care home for about 6 months and the time has come to sell her house or she’s out on her ear. We have been asked if we want to buy it and Mrs Matt’s mother will give us a hand with a deposit.

Anyway, mortgages. Where do I start? We’ve always rented so I have got absolutely no idea what I’m looking at when I start looking at mortgages. I can get the gist of fixed and tracker etc but that’s about it. Also, what else should I be looking out for expense wise?

It’s not as much of a minefield as it is made out to be. Good to place to start would be looking here:
Money Saving Expert

As for expenses – you’ll have valuation fees, mortgage arrangement fees, conveyancing costs and possibly stamp duty. Then moving costs. Then decorating costs. Then…. (you get the idea!) ;-). Difficult to generalise the costs because they will differ depending on your circumstances – once you know what you can afford, go talk to the usual providers like Nationwide and see what they can do for you.

Good luck.

Fees will be around £500 I’d guess-it’s not going to be too complicated if you’re buying the place from your gran! Just do it, way cheaper than renting the equivalent property.

We can afford it but I don’t want to go headlong into it and find out that there’s a whole bunch of people expecting to be paid when I can’t afford it. People like solicitors, banks, etc etc. I’ll have a mooch round MSE and see if that allays any fears.

my quote from solicitor below (*Oxfordshire)

legal fee £600+vat (£720)

Stamp duty ** 3% over 250k, 2.5 below I think – check

Land Registry fee £270

Local search £120

Drainage and Water search £53.28

Bank Transfer fee (to send the purchase monies to the seller’s solicitors on completion £30+vat (£36)

Land Registry search £3

Bankruptcy searches £4

re mortgages – be aware of the offset concept – it works if you have saving/will pay off early etc

You will need a survey – in order of rising cost
mortgage valuation – well paid professional views it from helicopter to verify value for mortgage
housebuyer – well paid professional stands on pavement near house
structural – recommened if house > 100 years old, well paid professional enters house and pokes it with stick
(* for any professionals out there I had a housebuyer on my first flat – they said it was fine, my dad was a lighthouse keeper/manual labourer with no professional qualification other than lifes hard knocks – he spotted damp and faulty fittings within 5 minutes, so ime professional means ‘liability denied at all costs’) [*rant apology to op]

Stamp duty 1% upto £250k

Is there a lower limit on stamp duty or is it payable on everything? The place we’ll be buying is only £50k.

Hope thats the open market valuation …. You cant make up an arbritrary value to avoid tax ….. Frowned up on

All as above. I’d add that you should include some professional advice from people you trust above and beyond the homebuyers report. Get the electrics, boiler and roof looked at. Really so you understand what extra costs you might need to pick up.

I would say the legal fee quoted above is a bit high, ours was around £350 for the new house and about £300 to remortage our existing house on a buy to let.

You’ll not pay any stamp duty on a £50k property.

That is a valuation from an estate agent that visited the property yesterday. Ceiling price for the street is around £100k but to get there would involve spending around £20k getting a dormer put in upstairs, as is but tarted up would be around £75k tops.

Samuri, thanks. The boiler isn’t a bother, I work in a plumbers merchant so know plenty of people to sort that. Roof had a velum out in a couple of years ago so should be ok. Electrics need looking at though as for some reason the rear ring main of the house trips when the oven is turned on.

Hopefully may get some help from Mrs Matts brother as well as he is a solicito,r but mainly involved with commercial property.

Stamp duty normally starts above £125k IIRC.

Unless you live in a deprived area (the north!) and then it’s £150k which as we all know, would buy a 18 bedroomed mansion in Barnsley.

OOh bugger. Look, if part of the house trips when the cooker goes on then it means the cooker isn’t on a seperate ring. Really, get that looked at!!!!

No stamp duty payable under £125000. If that’s any help.

Oven doesnt need to be on separate ring though….. Just the hob

Ovens can and often do have plug sockets on em :/

Oven elements probably spackered and shorting to earth.

Yeah but any major element on a shared ring is going to be an issue. It’s at least indicative of an old wiring setup.

It has been a problem really since the kitchen was refurbished to an easy access one (oven at chest height etc) but speaking to Mrs Matt apparently other appliances have managed to trip it as well. Think it’ll be one of those things that only a sparky on site will be able to solve

This is the process I’d go through.

Get as big a deposit off Mrs Matt’s mum as you can – as soon as you can – even if you have to pay back some later. Try not to make it too obvious – but don’t get caught out money laundering or avoiding inheritance tax. (Maybe you sold her a car?) 😉 ) If you have the money well in advance the bank won’t have to add your MIL to the mortgage which will save time, hassle and money.

Make sure your credit scores are good and fix any problems. – Make sure phone bills, credit cards are all being paid regularly and aren’t in arrears.

Get your earning evidence ready. Now is the time to do some overtime.. (I mean a little bit of extra income might help your affordability score – don’t go nuts if it’s unsustainable).

Don’t just choose a mortgage based on the rate, or the fees, or the monthly repayment. you need to look at all of these and the overall cost. at £50k something with low fees is probably most important.

Some banks are faster than others. your bank might not have the best rates – but many offer discounted fees, and they have direct access to your data which saves time and hassle. Worth getting a quote.