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bobsy852
Posts: 17 Forumite
Hi All,
I'm hoping someone can offer some advice, as my fiance and I are getting rather fed up with the process of buying a house having been looking for 6 months now.
We are first time buyers with the fortunate position to have a decent £16k to put towards a deposit (MAX).
This gives us 10% towards a reasonable deposit for a property around Bury/Rawtenstall in Lancashire.
As a building surveyor myself, I like to think I know what I'm looking at when I view a property and therefore understand a bit more of what a property will take to put right etc. So I'm happy to take on a bit of work.
We've lived in a flat for 4 years now though and so for us, the outside is more important than the inside. We'd ideally like a nice garden, off road parking and a garage would be ideal but not essential.
We've found 2-3 big properties now which fit well within our budgets but require work. We put offers in on two. The first was accepted but then when the mortgage company came to value the property they valued it at less than our offer and so the seller refused to sell for that price. With no more money to put in, we had to pull out. Leaving us £370 out of pocket! :eek:
The second we loved too! Again needing stripping out and re-doing but this time we have been out-done by a cash buyer who was willing to pay more than the asking price.
I thought being a first time buyer without a chain would leave us in an advantageous position, but it seems like an impossible task.
I wondered if anyone could offer any advice on how we get on this ladder? I thought raising the deposit would be the hard part!!
(P.S; we don't want to buy new build, we'd rather take on a bit of a project with more character).
I'm hoping someone can offer some advice, as my fiance and I are getting rather fed up with the process of buying a house having been looking for 6 months now.
We are first time buyers with the fortunate position to have a decent £16k to put towards a deposit (MAX).
This gives us 10% towards a reasonable deposit for a property around Bury/Rawtenstall in Lancashire.
As a building surveyor myself, I like to think I know what I'm looking at when I view a property and therefore understand a bit more of what a property will take to put right etc. So I'm happy to take on a bit of work.
We've lived in a flat for 4 years now though and so for us, the outside is more important than the inside. We'd ideally like a nice garden, off road parking and a garage would be ideal but not essential.
We've found 2-3 big properties now which fit well within our budgets but require work. We put offers in on two. The first was accepted but then when the mortgage company came to value the property they valued it at less than our offer and so the seller refused to sell for that price. With no more money to put in, we had to pull out. Leaving us £370 out of pocket! :eek:
The second we loved too! Again needing stripping out and re-doing but this time we have been out-done by a cash buyer who was willing to pay more than the asking price.
I thought being a first time buyer without a chain would leave us in an advantageous position, but it seems like an impossible task.
I wondered if anyone could offer any advice on how we get on this ladder? I thought raising the deposit would be the hard part!!
(P.S; we don't want to buy new build, we'd rather take on a bit of a project with more character).
0
Comments
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Sounds like you've been unlucky, but look at it from the sellers' perspective: why should they sell it for a lower price to someone just because they're a first time buyer?
FTB's just ain't special when someone else has deeper pockets. Sorry if this isn't what you want to hear.0 -
Echo the above. FTB can be an advantage in many ways, but if someone's not desperate to sell they will be quite happy to wait longer for a few more grand.
Cash buyers will probably come ahead of you. Especially ones willing to oh above what you will. As will anyone willing to pay more than you in most cases.
You will get there though!0 -
Another echo here.
Being a FTB is all well and good, but £££ is probably more important to most sellers.
Be patient, you will get there.0 -
Being at the absolute limit of your budget doesn't help. You need to be prepared for unexpected costs, including after you've bought the house (boiler breaks down on day 1 etc.). During the buying process all sorts of things can crop up that require more money (indemnity insurance, extra solicitor work, inspections from survey, etc.). Having a buffer also means you are in a position to withdraw your offer, e.g., if the seller starts messing you around, bed survey results, etc.
What left you £370 out of pocket?0 -
Plus at the price you are looking at, there'll be a lot of first time buyers.
We've just sold our house, we had 6 offers, all from 1st time buyers, some with very good deposits. Ultimately, it came down to who offered the most.0 -
Mortgage valuation I guess.
Yeah mortgage valuation.
I know I can't do anything about coming up against cash buyers. Just seems to be a lot of competition on the properties we like. Only one we didn't get competition on was one that was prone to flooding! But even we decided we didn't like that property enough to risk having to repair it every year!
I'm just finding the whole process very frustrating. Estate agents aren't really flexible enough and my fianece and I work in different places and are available at different times making viewings difficult.
The market also seems pretty stagnant in that properties don't change much so we struggle to find anything new we like!
We'll have to keep looking. I'm just hoping it doesn't go on much longer! I can see why people buy new builds. A shame they don't offer what we want.0 -
I suspect from what you've said and the way you've said it, your frustration arises from the fact that your expectations tend towards the unrealistic, and may require a little management. Downwards.0
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Been in the same position myself. ALWAYS lost out to investors who could always go well above the asking price, even when I was offering substantial amounts over. But I have my own feelings about investors being allowed to by smaller properties (but that's for another thread) and doing FTB's out of a house.
Anyhoo, the current property that is currently going through the motions I only got because the sellers had a preference to give the house to an FTB over an investor because they struggled to get on the ladder and wanted to give it to someone who was in their position. I ended up having to go 10k above asking price (very common here) to get it and still the investor offered more than me.
Now I'm worried about the valuation!
But unfortunately in this market where stamp duty laws have changed and investors will now be setting their sights on smaller properties, it's going to be harder than ever. Money is king at the moment. The only thing you can do is keep going and eventually, it'll work out for you. But I really feel your pain, I do. Every single property I've gone for I've lost out to an investor.0 -
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