Own Home Scheme Pros and Cons

jmerle

Hi all,
We got our letter from ownhome today after 12 weeks of waiting. The letter states that due to exceptional demand we will not be able to even have an interview for the scheme. It went on to say that all funding has now been allocated in our region (Yorkshire and Humberside) and there will be no further funding available for this programme.
Luckily for us we had already hired a very good mortgage advisor and he found us a mortgage for the property we had already had our offer accepted on. So, we had already decided not to use the scheme and had forgotten about it!
Sorry for all those who had their hopes up. My advice would be to set yourself a realistic budget and get yourself a mortgage advisor and save save save for a deposit. Ours managed to find us a mortgage when I couldn't!
We have had the survey done and are looking to move in at the start of September.

sontoon

Hi All,

We had our phone interview on tuesday and were accepted yipee :-) first question I asked was whether there was still funding and P4P said yes (we are in cambridgeshire). We have been on the house hunt since viewing properties, quite exhausting really lol.

I have a question we have found a dream house, has everything we want where as the previous houses all had just one draw back with them. The house is on the market for 180k but mouseprice is valuing it at 121k. Which now concerns me with the bank valuation process. Anyone have any thoughts please, want to really have an offer on a place by the end of the week if we can to get on our way, at last. Cheers guys

Steven.Morris7

sontoon wrote: »

Hi All,

We had our phone interview on tuesday and were accepted yipee :-) first question I asked was whether there was still funding and P4P said yes (we are in cambridgeshire). We have been on the house hunt since viewing properties, quite exhausting really lol.

I have a question we have found a dream house, has everything we want where as the previous houses all had just one draw back with them. The house is on the market for 180k but mouseprice is valuing it at 121k. Which now concerns me with the bank valuation process. Anyone have any thoughts please, want to really have an offer on a place by the end of the week if we can to get on our way, at last. Cheers guys

With ours, as there have only been 5 sales within the last 5 years on the street. The Valuation websites were all weird!

I'm sure its going to be worth near the asking price! However if it was valued at 121k... even it if was your dream house you would walk away as you would be in negative equity of 60k lol!!

Ours actually came in 2k below the Homebuy Survey Valuation!

Good Luck!

sontoon

thank you for your thoughts Steven, we can't work out why it is so low. Checking nethouseprices there have been only 9 sales on the street, 2 of which are the house we want. It last sold on 2005 for 126500 and a year earlier for 119000. Do you know if house prices are still at 2004 level? from asking the questions the current vendors have done a fair amount in there, they have put a good quality kitchen in and really looked after downstairs the upstairs really needs decorating but whats a lick of paint lol. There would be no chain as they are moving to cyprus.

Steven.Morris7

sontoon wrote: »

thank you for your thoughts Steven, we can't work out why it is so low. Checking nethouseprices there have been only 9 sales on the street, 2 of which are the house we want. It last sold on 2005 for 126500 and a year earlier for 119000. Do you know if house prices are still at 2004 level? from asking the questions the current vendors have done a fair amount in there, they have put a good quality kitchen in and really looked after downstairs the upstairs really needs decorating but whats a lick of paint lol. There would be no chain as they are moving to cyprus.

Is the general area around the 180k?

sontoon

the average house price is £183k but thats alot of 4 bed properties this one is a 2 bed, do you think that makes a huge difference?

tressls

Hey everyone

Ok so I have read a fair amount of this thread but just wanted answers to basic Q's about OwnHome.

We applied online aaaages ago (can't remember date) and got a letter in March to call for an interview. Only just called today as I had forgot all about it what with having our 2nd child in March. Interview in a week and a half.

Basically my other half is applying on his own (I have bad credit and am a student anyway). He works full time, earns £18500 and had been in current job about 2 months (moved from an almost identical job on slightly less money). We have 2 daughters.

We don't have any savings and with renting just can't see a way to save up the amount needed for a deposit and all the rest, hence why I looked at this scheme.

We live in South Yorkshire.

He has no bad credit.

So...
What happens on the interview? What do they ask?
When do you find out the result of the interview?
What happens then?

Sorry to ask such simple questions but I am a complete novice to househunting, homebuying etc etc and just want to understand simply what this all means.

Basically we want to move out of Council Accom. into our own home. I doubt we will get much mortgage but maybe enough for somewhere we like? We want this to be a long-term thing, don't plan anymore kids.

What sort of money are we talking- do you have to have a fair amount of savings for stuff anyway?


Thanks in advance.

T x

zoomy

sontoon wrote: »

the average house price is £183k but thats alot of 4 bed properties this one is a 2 bed, do you think that makes a huge difference?

In a word yes!

When the valuer does the valuation he will base the price on recent sales of similar properties (same size, same type, same sort of decorative order) in the local area. Try finding some similar properties locally and finding out when they last sold and what for...

zoomy

tressls wrote: »

Hey everyone

Ok so I have read a fair amount of this thread but just wanted answers to basic Q's about OwnHome.

We applied online aaaages ago (can't remember date) and got a letter in March to call for an interview. Only just called today as I had forgot all about it what with having our 2nd child in March. Interview in a week and a half.

Basically my other half is applying on his own (I have bad credit and am a student anyway). He works full time, earns £18500 and had been in current job about 2 months (moved from an almost identical job on slightly less money). We have 2 daughters.

We don't have any savings and with renting just can't see a way to save up the amount needed for a deposit and all the rest, hence why I looked at this scheme.

We live in South Yorkshire.

He has no bad credit.

So...
What happens on the interview? What do they ask?
When do you find out the result of the interview?
What happens then?

Sorry to ask such simple questions but I am a complete novice to househunting, homebuying etc etc and just want to understand simply what this all means.

Basically we want to move out of Council Accom. into our own home. I doubt we will get much mortgage but maybe enough for somewhere we like? We want this to be a long-term thing, don't plan anymore kids.

What sort of money are we talking- do you have to have a fair amount of savings for stuff anyway?


Thanks in advance.

T x

At the interview you have to provide details of income, family size and the area you want to look in. I was told onver the phone that I was approved and given a minimum mortgage ammount (ammount I had to take as mortgage from the co-op), maximum number of bedrooms and maximum value.

You would need to have enough money to cover legal fees (£1k ish) valuation (£500ish) Places 4 people fee (£can't remember but think 150 ish!), and up front mortgage fees and of course anything you need to spend on furniture etc.

Also, if you look back through this thread you'll see lots of cases where the co-op have not been happy to lend the ammounts they were origionally offering in principal...

Good luck!

herbertthehelper

It seems to be the kinda scheme which might help some, but might be really bad for others!