I didn't realise buying a house was so hard.

[m3jappa]

Since june 09 myself and my girlfriend have been trying to get a place. We are first time buyers and went through all the trouble of getting a mortgage, im self employed so it was that much harder, that was the easy bit....

1st house : seller pulled out when the place was undervalued by 15k (offer accepted at 205k) was a silly undervaluation imo.

2nd house : better than the first, we had our offer accepted, valuation done, mortgage offer sent to us to accept. This went on for 3 months! The sellers were just not serious about moving and to this day still have not found somewhere and aren't really bothered. Cost us £1100 in valuation fees and arrangement fee which we had to pay when we pulled out because it went on to long and we were worried about losing the mortgage rate.

3rd house : beautiful, never thought i,d get a place like this for my first house, some people dont end up with a place like this let alone for their first buy, we were happy, offer accepted at 240k for a house which was 300k in the peak so we were very happy. They had a place lined up, no chain, then they got gazumped! leaving us hanging on.
some hope does remain but not a lot tbh.

Now the banks (or natwest at least) seem to have pulled 20% tracker mortgages which means we would need 25% to get a decent tracker rate which i am not willing to do as it will nearly wipe me out.
We have about 2 weeks left until we must get a valuation done on a property or our mortgage in principal is gone which means we can no longer afford a 240k house. We must have looked at 20 houses, theres none left now to look at (except one which we are looking at tomorrow so remain hopeful). not being able to afford 230k+ means theres even less available here. The smaller houses are all imo overpriced compared to the range we are looking at, 300k and theres some real bargains but we just can not go anywhere near that amount.

So just thought id post this to see if anyone else has ever had such a farce getting a place.

We seem to have had bad luck, i know people who have literally offered and completed within 8 weeks but no such luck here.

[Hereward]

We put our house up for sale in April and will, touch wood, complete in two weeks time.

In the last 7 months we have accepted three offers on our house, with the first two being timewasters.

The whole process is a joke, there really needs to be some sort of binding legal or financial commitment at the point of making/accepting an offer.

[m3jappa]

Sorry to hear that, i think a lot of these buyers out there cant get the mortgage, We were told when we started to literally go out, make offers and then apply for a mortgage which imo is a little unfair on the sellers. We waited until we had been accpeted and had a mortgage in principal before we offered.

The estate agents each time we have had an offer accpeted told us 'congratulations you just bought a house'

big lol at that, i now realise that the offer being accepted almost means nothing.

[GTO Scott]

I've just started the long road to house ownership too.

It's a complete ball-ache with paperwork, spending a fair wedge of cash, and until contracts are exchanged the constant fear of being gazumped (especially in my position, with the combination of deal/house/rate that i've found).

On the other hand, the other side want exchange within 28 days, so hopefully.....

[Dave_ST220]

Hereward said:

We put our house up for sale in April and will, touch wood, complete in two weeks time.

In the last 7 months we have accepted three offers on our house, with the first two being timewasters.

The whole process is a joke, there really needs to be some sort of binding legal or financial commitment at the point of making/accepting an offer.

Too right, luckily we sold to a BTL investor who completed fine & rented back to us while new build was constructed. Happy to say a distant memory now Wait until moving day, that can be fun!!

[SJobson]

Hereward said:

The whole process is a joke, there really needs to be some sort of binding legal or financial commitment at the point of making/accepting an offer.

I don't see how there can be. If you are bound to proceed when you make the offer, how does the seller enforce that against you if you don't have the cash to pay?

[Engineer1]

Thanks to the current financial and employment environment making a house sale binding would be stupid, the seller could loose their finance, the buyer could loose their finance, either buyer or seller could get jittery based on something someone at work said.

[K50 DEL]

I put my house on the market in January, accepted an offer at the start of May
Had an offer accepted on a house I wanted to buy at the end of May.

The sale of my old place (to a FTB'er with an AIP) completed in September and I got the keys to my new place mid-November.

Never again!!

[Scraggles]

bought house many years ago, vacant possession, looked ok, surveyor's report was worth less than the bog roll I used this morning - he missed a depression in the ceiling under the toilet where the water had leaked, all dried out now

asked an independent mortgage guy for advice on 5 year, quoted him the figures I got from nationwide and he suggested I go for it

[rlw]

SJobson said:

Hereward said:

The whole process is a joke, there really needs to be some sort of binding legal or financial commitment at the point of making/accepting an offer.

I don't see how there can be. If you are bound to proceed when you make the offer, how does the seller enforce that against you if you don't have the cash to pay?

You have to put down a non refundable deposit when you make the offer, the same as on exchange of contracts. Make it 5% on the offer and a further 5% on exchange and changing your mind early on costs 5% and after exchange 10%. Obviously you must have the ability to pull out following an unfavourable survey but this is what should be covered by a proper HIP in the first place.

[m3jappa]

Went to look at another place today, lovely house with no chain. Looks to us like a very good investment (4 bed detached in good area which in good nick back in the peak would have been around 330k. the place needs work and i reckon we can get it for 265-270)

So lets hope this one goes through (if anything to keep the gf happy).

Viewed another place this morning and the guy had a nice tuscan in the garage- turned out he was a pher, bloody small world

[fido]

m3jappa said:

We have about 2 weeks left until we must get a valuation done on a property or our mortgage in principal is gone which means we can no longer afford a 240k house.

m3jappa said:

the place needs work and i reckon we can get it for 265-270)

isn't that a bit of a stretch, assuming 'needs work' is a minimum of £20k?

Edited by fido on Saturday 14th November 16:02

[m3jappa]

when i say can't afford its more in my mind. It just means the deposit is a lot more and would leave me with a lot less which is something i dont really want to do. I,d tather do 20% and have nice money left than do 25% and have just a few grand.

I,ve worked it out and its sub 10k to me (i,m in the building trade). Its also very liveable so theres no mad rush to get things done. Its just not as nice as it should be iykwim.Its mainly filthy dirty tbh, needs bathroom, en suite, cloakroom and decorating, the rest is there really.

The problems we have is not the monthly payments its the deposit and stamp duty.

If the bank pulls our rate it means that to get the same deal (its actually a bit worse) we need 25% meaning that the 240k house deposit now becomes nearly 64k inc stamp etc.

20% will see us paying out just over 51k all in.

20% on the 265 house is 53k plus stamp which we are trying to do a deal with where we pay 1% he pays the rest. meaning a total outlay of just over 56k which is doable.

i have worked it all out and even if rates went up to 6% then we could still afford it. Imo i dont think rates will go far at all for the next two years but thats obviously just my guess.

The deal we can get means the mortgage would be £850 ish per mth and if it went to 6% would be 1150 ish.
I know people living in little 2 beds paying that becuase they got a crap 5 year fix and put literally no deposit down.

I really dont think the property value will be hit much round here, houses are selling and only those poorly presented or marketed aren't. Even crap is selling and really its only the real rubbish which is still about, things like normal 3 bed semis which have been extended so much into 5 beds they are simply monsterous creations- those arent selling.
For some reason houses are reasonably priced round here, they always have been, its also a nice area and as such desireable to an extent. We certainly like it here, moreso after looking at other supposdly better more expensive areas.
5 miles up the road in billericay 230k would be lucky to buy me an ex council semi. The house we are looking at would be about 400k !

I think we are being sensible. (i hope so anyway).

Edited by m3jappa on Saturday 14th November 20:07

[GTO Scott]

rlw said:

SJobson said:

Hereward said:

The whole process is a joke, there really needs to be some sort of binding legal or financial commitment at the point of making/accepting an offer.

I don't see how there can be. If you are bound to proceed when you make the offer, how does the seller enforce that against you if you don't have the cash to pay?

You have to put down a non refundable deposit when you make the offer, the same as on exchange of contracts. Make it 5% on the offer and a further 5% on exchange and changing your mind early on costs 5% and after exchange 10%. Obviously you must have the ability to pull out following an unfavourable survey but this is what should be covered by a proper HIP in the first place.

I wasn't asked to place a deposit by the estate agents selling the property I am looking at. Should I be concerned?

[bga]

GTO Scott said:

rlw said:

SJobson said:

Hereward said:

The whole process is a joke, there really needs to be some sort of binding legal or financial commitment at the point of making/accepting an offer.

I don't see how there can be. If you are bound to proceed when you make the offer, how does the seller enforce that against you if you don't have the cash to pay?

You have to put down a non refundable deposit when you make the offer, the same as on exchange of contracts. Make it 5% on the offer and a further 5% on exchange and changing your mind early on costs 5% and after exchange 10%. Obviously you must have the ability to pull out following an unfavourable survey but this is what should be covered by a proper HIP in the first place.

I wasn't asked to place a deposit by the estate agents selling the property I am looking at. Should I be concerned?

That was an example of how the process could work.

The only deposit you usually make is on exchange of contracts and that is managed by your legal representative.

[E-one]

Think i might be in a minority here. As first time buyers, we were a bit worried about the whole process. Went with an independant mortgage broker who was excellent, talked us through the whole proceedure, explained everything we asked and more. Looked around a couple of places, found one, put in an offer and had it accepted, all within a week from getting the mortgage agreed. Whole thing went as smooth as silk. From thinking of buying to moving in, took about two months. But i do think we were exceptionally lucky!

[m3jappa]

E-one said:

Think i might be in a minority here. As first time buyers, we were a bit worried about the whole process. Went with an independant mortgage broker who was excellent, talked us through the whole proceedure, explained everything we asked and more. Looked around a couple of places, found one, put in an offer and had it accepted, all within a week from getting the mortgage agreed. Whole thing went as smooth as silk. From thinking of buying to moving in, took about two months. But i do think we were exceptionally lucky!

It seems that from everyone else we have spoken to we are extremely unlucky

I dont really mind tbh as ever house has been better than the last, this 4th house is so much better than the first house its untrue, it has given us the time to sit down and actually work out different deposits,rates and terms and whats really best for us. Originally i was going to go on a 5 yr fixed with 15% deposit at 5.89%,only because everyone told us fixed is the only way to go.
At the time of offering on the first place i really didnt know how to play the estate agents game.
I feel like we are experts now

[m3jappa]

Well we have now agreed a price on the 4th house no chain though so should fingers crossed be ok.
Agreed 273k and they pay ALL the stamp duty which is a big big help as obviously the deposit (20%) is quite sickening to be handing over! So technically we are paying 265k which is 20k below asking- which believe me round here is pretty good going, its only been agreed as the seller has been relocated and needs to sell and we have no chain. Other places we looked at were dropping literally noting witht he first place not dropping more than 3k lol

Its going to be quite easy at first as we have got a 2 yr tracker at 2.4% above base leaving mortgage at just £830 a month (we have gone 35yr, i have no intention of doing 35yrs but it gives me the option to overpay when times are good and to actually have quite a small mortgage when things are hard), lets just hope those rates dont get too crazy..... either way i have realised that even if the rates were to go to 10% on a house which is 50k cheaper its still not going to be easy. If rates were to ever go up to 10% then yes its going to be hard but then i think everyone will be finding it hard and i suppose its just a fact of life. I just cant see them going to high over the next couple of years, maybe i,m wrong but i hope i,m right.

I think we have got a real bargain. theres a house exactly the same for sale which is on a main road and doesnt have a conservatory (this one has a conservatory like a small house 16x15ft internal and its hidden down a little cul de sac) and its in good nick and is up for 325k (obviously he may be trying it on a bit).

All in the whole house will cost me no more than 7k to renovate, and i,m talking being done nice with travertine bathroom, solid top wood floors etc etc......the beauty of being able to turn my hand and knowing good suppliers Its also once cleaned liveable so its not got to be done straight away.

So all in we are very happy and feel like we are getting there.

At the beginning i never dreampt we could afford a place like this, i mean ffs its a 300k house! but it 'seems' like its affordable as have been saving way way more than the mortgage amount anyway for quite sometime now. I know people paying 1100 a mth for small 2 beds because they bought at the top of the market with no or little deposit and got a 5yr fixed because 'thats the best way to do it mate' Good god i would not want to be in their shoes for the next few years.

[SJobson]

rlw said:

SJobson said:

Hereward said:

The whole process is a joke, there really needs to be some sort of binding legal or financial commitment at the point of making/accepting an offer.

I don't see how there can be. If you are bound to proceed when you make the offer, how does the seller enforce that against you if you don't have the cash to pay?

You have to put down a non refundable deposit when you make the offer, the same as on exchange of contracts. Make it 5% on the offer and a further 5% on exchange and changing your mind early on costs 5% and after exchange 10%. Obviously you must have the ability to pull out following an unfavourable survey but this is what should be covered by a proper HIP in the first place.

The survey isn't the only thing which might cause a buyer to want to pull out - how about lack of planning consent, road proposal which would CPO half the garden, that sort of thing. If you left get-outs which permitted a buyer to pull out as a result of adverse entries in search results, how adverse would they have to be? You'd have no certainty of a binding contract.