AIBU to use ALL of my savings on new home?

[whereiscaroline]

I'm buying a new home and due to exchange shortly.

What I didn't realise at the point of reserving was that almost everything in the show home was an "additional extra", so to get the house how I want it, I will need about an extra £23k!

As an example...

Downlights are £90 each.
Heated towel radiators are £400 each.
Shaving points are £80 each.
And so on.

I can just about afford the extras but it will mean using every single penny of my savings which makes me nervous.

The alternative would be to save up and have these items fitted in the future, but if we cause any damage to the house in doing so then could potentially have issues with the NHBC warranty and snag list as the builder could argue it's damage we've caused.

My job is secure and in the event that I did lose my job then I would receive a decent payoff but using ALL my savings makes me really nervous.

WWYD?

£400 for heated towel radiators ! Are they gold plated? They are being greedy. I am sure you can get lovely ones for a lot less and get them fitted. Same with the others on your list. I know someone who sold her brand new new build kitchen and used the money to have one to her style fitted for less than the developers quote. There are usually deals/sales coming up in the new year.

Friends bought similar.
Some of it was outrageous. I seem to remember some nonsense about soft close kitchen cupboards which turned out to be pence to do themselves.
They did regret not having the garden landscaped, patio etc as it turned out to be far more than they would have paid. Also was charged a ridiculous amount for a door to the garage but sucked that up.

In your shoes not sure what I would do. Will you still have equity in the property? Could you extend the mortgage to leave you some savings?

www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/towel-radiators/cat830996#category=cat830996&sort_by=-price

prices from £39 - to over £600 but I bet they won't spend more than £70 on the item for your home

I had a kitchen quote from Howdens and then took put the appliances and work top and saved £3k on a nice kitchen but Howdens isn't expensive.

Search the internet for the kitchen they are offering and see how much it actually is, check out the appliances

Then ask for discount as you don't want their bog standard kitchen so you want money off the price

We bought a new home from Redrow and things like heated towel rail, house alarm were included -please don't tell me you have to pay to have shaver plugs put in??
We did pay to have the patio extended but we put out own turf down

Don't use your savings, no one knows whats around the corner with Covid so I'd be cautious.

Retro fit these items as you go. They are massively overpriced, £90 a down lighter has me you could get the whole ceiling done for not much more than this.

@ivykaty44

Id be tempted to contact a local builder and get a quote for all those things, including a kitchen of your choice to fit

Then go back and state you want the builder to come in and finish off the house, so they can leave those parts and you'll pay the builder separately tp do these works

let them know its going to save you £11k and see what they say

This!

But I'd also say most people don't have a lot of savings left when they buy their first home!

Post too soon... So then having feew savings left after a purchase at any stage is probably not uncommon.

We moved into our new build about a month ago having spent a fair bit on extras and upgrades. The kitchen was the main expense, as expected. People will say you can do things yourself for less money but are you really going to rip out a perfectly good kitchen to replace it with something more to your liking? That would be wasteful (unless the developer would agreed to not put a kitchen in but then not sure how that affects NHBC sign off).

We paid for things that are best added at the build stage. So extra power points, downlights, garden tap etc. You CAN get these done later but why do you want to mess with re plastering and decorating?

We chose to do all our own flooring downstairs and we did save thousands doing this. It also meant we had more choice. We did have to live with concrete floors for a week or so but it was a minor sacrifice.

We paid the developer to lay carpets upstairs but having done our research, any cost saving would have been negligible so it was worth it.

We're getting a local company to fit our wardrobes, again quite a saving and more creative licence.

The developer threw in bathroom flooring as an incentive so we paid to have the same tiles put on the wall. Probably could have got this cheaper ourselves but since it's a small room and we got the flooring thrown in, it made sense to us.

I don't regret any of our decisions or money spent. We've got the house how we want it! We don't really have any savings now but it won't take us long to build that back up, while living in our lovely new home

With the kitchen, even the upgraded one may not be perfect. In our current house I loved having the standard kitchen (which was the one the builders installed for the previous owners.) After 5 years I knew what worked for us and what didn’t, so I was able to design our perfect kitchen, change elements of the layout etc.

One thing I would pay extra for though is lots of plug sockets....

You need to go through each item, cost it yourself like for like then weigh up how much hassle it will be to do afterwards.

Eg towel rail, definitely get a plumber in later to fit.

Kitchen, does your £7k upgrade actually improve the cupboard carcass or just the doors? Would it be cheaper to change the doors in a few months? You can always eBay the nearly new ones for example.

And unless you are planning any structural work, don't worry about invalidating your NHBC warranty. Tbh, your unlikely to be able to ever claim on it anyway except in severe cases.

Haggle. Work out what you really want (the kitchen) and what you'd like to have. Eg say you'll pay for the kitchen if they thrown in heated towel rails and downlights.
Look as if you are prepared to walk away.

Oh and just buy a shaver plug adapter for the toothbrushes! £5 will fix that problem.

Get usb ports in your plug sockets.

I thought there was no stamp duty at the moment???

@LooseMooseHoose

Oh and just buy a shaver plug adapter for the toothbrushes! £5 will fix that problem.

But where do you plug it in? There's no "normal" socket in a bathroom.

Your extras seem really expensive we were given 10,000 to spend on the extras flooring, kitchen upgrade, the kitchen upgrade wasn't alot at all.
We didn't go that much over the 10,000 and managed to get all the floors carpeted and tiled within that budget (it's a big house) as well as upgraded internal doors, handles, kitchen, heated towel rails better taps extra sockets and downlights in the areas we wanted them as well as bathrooms/shower rooms tiled.
I can't see how your extras equate to so much that's staggering.

The sales agent at the site we bought from was excellent (and this seems to be common amongst the different builders in our area), she highlighted the extras that were worth it, the ones that weren't and gave us the number of their tiler etc to get some things done directly and cheaper.

Towel rails can easily be installed by a plumber, same for an outside tap, our carpet fitters were allowed access the day before we got our keys so we had them down for moving and then we had the number for the guy that put large mirrors in the bathrooms. Might be worth a conversation at the sales office?

You just charge your toothbrush in the bedroom or landing? I charge my toothbrush about once every 3 weeks, plug it in before leaving for work, unplug when I get home. Dh is a sparky and I've never felt the need to ask him to put a shaving point in the bathroom.

One thing I would pay extra for though is lots of plug sockets....

I have 18 sockets in my kitchen and it is enough for the first time

and the tumble dryer and washing machine are in a utility

Id also ask for extra in the bedrooms, by the time you have a bedside lamp, clock radio, then by the dressing table a hair dryer and straightener etc

Often bedrooms will only have 4 and kitchens 10 which is never enough (dishwasher, toaster, kettle, oven, microwave, fridge) and you'll have to start unplugging to plug appliance into the electric

I'd have a set amount of savings I wouldn't compromise on, at least 3 months expenses. No one wants to lose their dream home in a crisis. Could you add a few thousand to mortgage?

Work out what you can trim. Soft close fittings on the kitchen probably. Charging points and extra sockets maybe not worth trimming.

Work out your safety net - can you add extra to the mortgage? If you have an unexpected expense in the first 6 months have you got a good credit score to allow you an interest free credit card, or a good overdraft etc. If you get made redundantre you entitled to a package?

Haggle.

Going against the grain, I would probably go with the extras if they were to my taste and was likely to get them in over the next few years anyway. Although you might get it all done for less cost with independent tradesmen, all the hassle involved in this would put me off. I'd rather have it all done and have my house how I wanted it rather than doing things over a few years and having to source things individually and get quotes each time. Most people moving into a new house use up a lot of their savings.

I have a new build which was already built, so had no option to get extras. At the same time friends of ours bought off plan and paid £14k for extras.

With both of those experiences I can honestly say that quite a lot of the extras aren't worth it, as they can easily be done afterwards, cheaper. However, I would get any electrical work done by the builder, as its a pain to do it afterwards.

Think where you really need downlighters - my friends got them all over the house and only ever use them in the kitchen and bathrooms. I would like them in our kitchen and bathrooms, and retrofitting will be a pain.

Definitely get the upgraded kitchen. It makes a big difference. As we didn't pay for any extras (and got a lot of free stuff) we are going to treat ourselves to a new kitchen in the next couple of years. The basic ones are quite poor.

How many extras are there that they add up to £23,000? £7K for a kitchen you like doesn’t sound extortionate - not to mention the convenience of it all being fitted before you move in. Remember you might be able to get all these things more cheaply, but you’ll also have to factor in time off work to supervise workmen etc etc. TBH with a new build I’d be far more keen to have detailed surveys of the plot to be sure it wasn’t built on a flood plain etc since it’s not a tried and tested development in that respect. If you can build up £23,000 in savings again within the next six months it doesn’t sound as if you have too much to worry about - just get the extras you want (especially the kitchen) then you can move in and enjoy it (isn’t that the whole point of buying new when all’s said and done?)

@whereiscaroline

Shaving points definitely necessary - we have electric toothbrushes.

Downlighting can be done afterwards for half the price but if we have any issues with cracking my concern is the builders will say the electricians (or whatever other trade) have caused the issues.

Get a converter and charge the electric toothbrush in a normal Plug socket! Much cheaper option