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Buying first home costs?

24 replies

GiantPandaAttacks · 21/07/2018 17:31

We're looking to buy our first home in the new year but I'm unsure how much the additional costs will be. We're FTB aiming to buy a three bed house for £375,000 (stupidly expensive area) with a 5% deposit. Our stamp duty is currently £2,500 but I don't know what additional costs are required on top of this. Does anyone have a list or idea?

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NotAllIndividuals · 21/07/2018 17:45

Go to the Which? website, it gives a handy breakdown of buying a house and their reviews are quite useful if you have to furnish the place!

NotAllIndividuals · 21/07/2018 17:48

Can you get a mortgage with only 5% deposit? A Decision in Principle would be handy as a FTB as agents and sellers will want to know you're serious.

nomorespaghetti · 21/07/2018 17:54

Conveyancers fees
Searches
Surveyors fees
Mortgage valuation fee
Mortgage arrangement fee
Stamp duty
Good to think about things like buildings insurance costs, removal costs, furnishing costs too.

You could give London and County a call, they gave us an idea of what we could borrow, and also the fees involved.

The above list is just off the top of my head btw, i may have missed somethings!

GiantPandaAttacks · 21/07/2018 18:08

We're hoping to get a 5% mortgage - banks are currently advertising them so fingers crossed! The which? guide sets out the costs at around £6,000-£7,000 (including the stamp duty). Does that sound about right? We're not ready to get a decision in principle yet - we're not going to be able to start looking until December / January, I just wanted to roughly know costs so that we can put the extra away.

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BubblesBuddy · 21/07/2018 21:15

Well £375,000 is not a stupidly expensive area for a 3 bed and you could always look at a 2 bed if the extra costs mount up. DD has just paid £600,000 for her first property - 2 bed flat! You are fairly lucky as your price bracket isn’t outrageous!

The costs nomirespaghetti mentions are spot on but you might find things don’t work so keep a contingency fund for putting things right. There can be all sorts of faults that come to light after you move in. Nothing major, because you should know about that, but little things can add up. It also depends if the property is totally as you want it or whether you need to upgrade pretty quickly.

Alexalee · 21/07/2018 22:13

Your stamp duty would be 3750
Legals and searches 1000
Mortgage valuation 350
Survey 600

TurquoiseDress · 22/07/2018 07:31

A 3 bedroom house for £375k sounds pretty reasonable rather than stupidly expensive!

Where we are in SE London £375k would certainly not even get you a 3 bedroom flat let alone entire house.

The posters above have listed useful info, I would agree re the Which website as being useful for a breakdown of costings etc

nomorespaghetti · 22/07/2018 07:49

The money saving expert website have a good guide for first time buyers, which i think lists some costs as well as practical things you can be doing now to ensure you're in a good position to buy (Checking your credit ratings, etc)

user1484247439 · 22/07/2018 09:29

Your stamp duty calculation is incorrect , it would be 3750 as it's 5% of anything over 300,000.

We've just bought for a similar price and our solicitors costs were around 2200. You'll just need to budget for any surveys, home and life insurance and if there's any fees you have to pay upfront for the mortgage.

RubyTrees · 22/07/2018 09:45

Although not mandatory, also consider critical illness / income protection insurance.

Fluffypinkpyjamas · 22/07/2018 10:40

Stamp duty on £375000 will be £8750 OP.

We are waiting to exchange . Our Building Survey (formerly called Full Structural) was £900 . Legal fees are expected to be 2k approx , it varies on area/company so you’ll never really know until you’re doing it. Just make sure you always over estimate rather than under.

Keep us posted!

user1484247439 · 22/07/2018 10:56

They're first time buyers so it's calculated differently fluffypyjamas

Fluffypinkpyjamas · 22/07/2018 11:40

Ah I see, sorry didn’t read it properly Blush

Fruitforpud · 22/07/2018 19:37

This link is your friend...

www.rightmove.co.uk/cost-of-moving-house.html

ASauvignonADay · 22/07/2018 23:29

I wouldn't recommend L&C - they gave me an over inflated amount; I put in an offer and had to find more money as couldn't actually borrow that much.

I did eventually buy and as far as fees went I paid (approx):
Solictors - £1500
Full survey - £300
No stamp duty as FTB and under the threshold
Unless my brain is failing (tired!) I don't think there were any other costs relating to buying the property, but I've spent a fortune so far in repairs/DIY!

Usernamesareboring · 23/07/2018 00:04

We bought as FTB with 5% deposit at £320,000 in 2016, it cost nearly £11k (but our sdlt was £6k of that)

Usernamesareboring · 23/07/2018 00:07

Oh and the homeowners alliance website is well worth a visit as an FTB - there is so much you don't know and no-one tells you 😳

hoa.org.uk/

GiantPandaAttacks · 23/07/2018 08:45

usernames Oh dear lord, why/how did it cost that much?!

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SlothMama · 23/07/2018 10:42

I'm a FTB and my costs were;

Stamp duty: £0 thanks to living in the North!
Solicitors fees+costs: £1008 which also included searches
Broker:£0
Mortgage fees: £400
Survey: £250

CluelessMillenial · 23/07/2018 10:46

Going through the FTB purchase process at the moment. Re mortgages: watch out for maximum LTVs from lenders. eg Nationwide only lends 85% LTV on new builds which left us scraping an extra £2000 (but their interest rate was worth it). We also went direct to lender as the brokers failed to factor max LTV in! Definitely get an AIP before looking.

Other costs so far:
Reservation fee (NB only):£250
Solicitors estimated: £1100, fixed fee + searches.
Mortgage fee (worked out cheaper than no fee product long term): £999
We didn't have a survey done as its a new build.
Removals: we've only got a small amount of furniture and moving a couple of miles so renting a van for a weekend: £200
Stamp duty: £3000
Total: £5900!

There may be a gap between rent term ending and getting our keys so we're keeping £1000 spare for a last minute couple of weeks in a holiday let and storage.

Usernamesareboring · 23/07/2018 16:46

Stamp duty, solicitors fees (we also had a deed of trust drawn up as we are tenants in common) surveys, removals, insurance, final bills on old place, advance bills on new place, getting things such as phone/Sky/Wifi set up (so installation costs). Oh and although we had come out of rented with beds/sofas etc we didn't have any white goods so had to get fridge/freezer, washing machine, cooker etc so forgot that would be included in that figure

GiantPandaAttacks · 31/07/2018 15:22

@CluelessMillenial what's an LTV?

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Kneesbendarmstretchrarara · 31/07/2018 15:39

Loan to value. Ratio of deposit to amount being borrowd.

GiantPandaAttacks · 31/07/2018 15:48

The washing machine / fridge freezer had occurred to me as well. Looks like if we're successful, we'll be moving with the very basics!

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