Buyer's support thread #5

[scribblegirl]

Sorry for breaking the last one

and for all....

Kind of, I looked sporadically and then got bored. So stopped. Then saw a house I really liked in the wrong place. So I looked some more, saw my fab house and put an offer in after one viewing. It ticked all the boxes and I knew we could make it a home.

Can I join? After months of losing out we finally had an offer accepted today. We are FTB in South East London. My friend is our broker and she's applied for our mortgage tonight and we already have the quote through! I'm a bit confused about what happens now to be honest.

Think I'm speaking to the EA tomorrow and then appointing a solicitor. I'm a solicitor but have zero clue about conveyancing even though we had to study an entire module on it.

I'm so thrilled we don't have to view anymore bloody flats!

So is it better to buy a not very nice house in the town you'd like to live in, or a nice house in the town down the road where you'd rather not live?
I've just missed going for a great house in an ok place which I just don't actually like. But I can't afford anything nice in the place I do like. Feel awful about losing the nice house, due to procrastination. Feel I've made a terrible mistake. But my heart sank when I thought of living in that town for years.

Ooh that sounds good kirin - Sounds like you've got the right idea, having a friendly broker is handy! I grew up in SE London but can't afford what I want to buy there so am moving a loooong way away to the coast where I can buy a big house!

leman it's a cliche I think it really is all about location. Given time (and you've got the mortgage term!), you can change/grow to tolerate pretty much anything you don't like about a house, but you can't move it! Hang in there and something in the place you want will come up eventually, you could even try the old "notes through the door" - it always seems to have worked for other people on Internet forums!?

theremustbeacatch my friend who is an EA told me once that she's never "sold" a house in her life. That it's like dating, it might not be live at first sight, but there's a spark between people and houses, like temp said, you can picture yourself in there, even if it doesn't seem to tick all the boxes.

Tits you are far braver than me! I hope you manage to get moved and settled before you need to go back to work

There must be a catch every time I've moved I've been worried about not finding something in the right area but you always do. The important thing is not to get caught up on what you think the perfect house is and try and imagine what it would be like to live there once you've made it your own.

Kirin congrats on finding a house

Leman I'd go for a not so perfect house in the right area. As others have said, you can do as much or as little as you like to your house to make it perfect but you can't pick it up and move it out of an area you dislike.

Off to the mortgage advisor today. I know it will all be fine, there's no reason why it wouldn't be but I'm absolutely terrified something will go wrong. I just hope it's a nice quick and easy application and we can get moving ASAP.

We've bought the perfect house in a not-so-great area. It isn't horrible, but it isn't as nice as I'd prefer. However, the schools are good and the area is receiving a large amount of investment over the next decade or so, and we believe/hope that it will gentrify over time. High-rise flats are being demolished for better housing, older buildings are being fixed up, etc. We felt the house was worth the so-called risk of living in a not-as-nice area, because we plan on living there for the rest of our lives. There isn't huge crime rates or anything, the neighbours are very stable and have lived in the same street for generations practically.

I think area over house is a good general rule, but you can't make those decisions on paper; you really need to look at the area, get to know it a bit, and meet a few neighbours. I even spoke to a local policewoman who was considering viewing our house while it was on the market! Police don't generally want to live where they work.

Good luck with the mortgage advisor potato.

We have chosen our solicitors - it's really hard to know whether to trust reviews but you've got to choose someone!

We are buying a flat with share of freehold which as I understand is a bit of a pain in the conveyancing process. I don't know if we should get a full structural survey or just ask detailed questions. I'm leaning towards a full survey but obviously I'm conscious that it'll cost us a lot.

What is everyone else doing?

I contacted the agents about the nice house in not so nice area, and though it is not on Rightmove anymore, they are still considering offers, so I've put one in. I don't know whether it will be accepted - I think they've had a lot of interest.
We've been looking for a really long time now, all the time paying rent - money down the drain - and living in a very small flat. We really do need to move. And we need a house with certain specifications for my work, specifications which you don't tend to get for the money we've got and in a nice area. Plus I checked the area around the house before putting in the offer, and it's better than I'd appreciated.

kiri - go for a full structural survey. But make sure you get a good recommendation - I've had some awful surveys, which have failed to pick up major issues.
Every survey I've had has enabled me to negotiate down the purchase price - by more than the cost of the survey, because they have picked up problems that were not apparent on viewing the property. Plus the answers to your questions may not be truthful, or well informed.
The last survey I had resulted in the vendor offering a reduction of £15,000.
Plus as well as hopefully helping you avoid buying a dud house, it's very useful to have lots of advice on what needs to be done to the property, so you start off on the right foot.

It's all moving so quickly! The lender was planning on going to the flat tomorrow to do a valuation survey but we cancelled that as we want a more detailed survey. The estate agent called to say they've never experienced it move quite as fast - less than 48 hours between accepting an offer and a survey.

I'll be relieved if the mortgage stuff gets sorted quickly to be honest, that's the bit I've worried about most.

I think we might be moving solicitors. Ours have been taken over and it's a complete nightmare trying to get anyone to even speak to us for two minutes. My best friend recommended hers but we foolishly went with the one the broker recommended...think we are going to have a big chat and consider our options tonight. Better to do it right now than later when some work has actually been done - not that I am confident this firm will actually do any

Has anyone else moved firms mid-purchase?

Oh yikes heyhey - that sounds headachy whatever you decide. Fingers crossed you get hold of someone who will help (threatening to move business might kick them up bum into getting decent response?).

I'm being uncharacteristically risky and just having the valuation survey. Partly because time is of the essence (so don't want to get embroiled in renegotiations) and because I don't want to find out anything scary, I will take my blissful ignorance and suffer consequences later. (In fairness, we brought BIL, a structural engineer to 2nd viewing, and he has cast his eye over the place, which satisfies me!)

Good luck with the offer leman. It's SOO frustrating when you're ready to move and the world conspires against you.

We just had a valuation survey because it's a house less than 10 years old and it's exactly as it was build. Our experience of surveys is that they're useless anyway. All defensive wording and missing the actual issues. The house isn't going to fall down and we'll see about the rest.

I think the people buying our house only had a valuation survey. I assume they've stretched themselves thin financially and we're looking to save some money. The house is fine, but I think it was a big risk on their part. It's a 1930s semi with several additions and structural alterations over the years so you'd usually want a proper survey.

Our buying problems are around the searches, and stupid pluvial flood models (we have it on good authority that they are next to useless, even if it's currently the best available). Bleurgh. I hate house buying.

My broker has pointed out to me that as the mortgage co are lending me 95% of the property price they would be unlikely to do so if the property wasn't sound. So I'm taking a risk too...

We are only planning on getting a more detailed report because we are buying a flat in a big old Victorian house and I don't want to get stung with a bill for a new roof in 6 months time. At this stage we know very little about what maintenance has been carried out. Basically, we cannot afford for something expensive to go wrong!

That's probably reasonable logic, temporary. Incidentally, I didn't know anyone did 95% mortgages anymore.

I think house buying is always about balancing risks. It's always a bit of a stab in the dark. You spend 15 or so minutes looking round (sometimes only once) and then decide to put in an offer that will see you paying hundreds and hundreds of pounds a month for the next 20 or so years to live in it. You're always going to be taking a risk. You just have to figure out what you're comfortable with and go for it.

We're gambling on the pluvial models being as unreliable as we think they are (albeit with some proper advice from a friend who really does know how these models work). And that the insurance companies won't be completely stupid.

At least three lenders do 95% because I did a compare and contrast thing with the broker. The one I'm with would lend 4.5 times my income too.

Solicitors instructed. I guess now we wait fir the survey to be done and mortgage offer?

Best of luck to everyone waiting on surveys and mortgage offers!

Having felt quite overwhelmed after viewings on Monday we're feeling better and better about our top choice. Our mortgage advisor has just got back to us and we've now definitely got an agreement in principle to go up to the price we need which is great. We're now waiting on feedback from the agent r.e. how willing/able the seller would be to move quite soon as whilst we're FTB we're moving area and if we can't buy in time for the move we'll have to rent and will be tied into a tenancy. BUT if they say they are happy to move for the right offer then we'll be putting in our best offer and crossing our fingers very hard...

Well, after another spectacular display of incompetence from our solicitor this morning, we have officially jumped ship to a new firm. The estate agent told us off the record that she is relieved because the takeover firm have a reputation for being a nightmare

How long does it generally take for a draft contract to be drawn up?

Sending and to everyone else waiting!

We are just waiting for the mortgage to be finalised (hopefully) it's been 14 working days. The valuation was done last Thursday. Extra documents were asked for Thursday afternoon, I finished sending them Monday morning. Mortgage broker reckons Friday.

Solicitors are waiting to go and we have an exchange date of the 18th May. We have to exchange within 7 days of the mortgage offer.

We need to hand our rent notice in on 1st June then we hope to complete 2 half of June.

I'm constantly on my emails waiting for the mortgage offer!

What sort of extra documents were requested if you don't mind me asking? It's only day 2 but I'm starting to panic that we won't get a mortgage offer.

We've finally exhanged thank goodness. Moving on the 20th

I can honestly say the last 2 weeks have been horrendous! Our buyers solicitors are bloody useless.

Another dumb question from me!

Do the solicitors start their searches st

Posted too soon!

Do solicitors start the searches before you get a mortgage offer? Or do they only do that once the finances are all sorted?