AVOID My Choice Homebuy!!!

HJS86

Well, finally got through to our caseworker yesterday and managed to ask what it is that he is waiting for.

So the thing that has been holding us up for the last 7 weeks?

He wrote to my fianc!'s work for confirmation that he worked there and they haven't replied. 7 WEEKS!!!

Why didn't they have the decency to call us and let us know?

So via a lot of faxing etc yesterday we got that all sent off to our caseworker then asked again, well what is it you need now?

Your account details to set up a mandate.
..ok....send us them then?
er...ok...yeah I'll put them in the post tonight.

So fingers crossed that should be here in a few days and then the next stage is this heavenly 'releasing of the funds'.

My advice to others sitting around with not a clue as to what you're waiting for, keep hitting that redial all day until someone answers. Ask them exactly what it is you're waiting on and don't be fobbed off with 'well you're in a queue'...

xx

brit1234

HJS86 wrote: »

My advice to others sitting around with not a clue as to what you're waiting for, keep hitting that redial all day until someone answers. Ask them exactly what it is you're waiting on and don't be fobbed off with 'well you're in a queue'...

My advice is to stay well clear of the scheme. Why buy one of these overinflated properties and go into negative equity when you can buy it whole for the same price in a couple of months?

I can understand that maybe a small minority need to buy now for some reason but surely for the majority it is better to hold off.

Lauz45

Well even though there's been delays, i'm still glad we're on the scheme. We're getting 16.4% from them (£23,000) and if it all goes through, it'll be worth it as we wouldn't have been able to get on the property ladder without it, we are using that 16.4% as our deposit.

Swaythling Housing Association (who are dealing with our case) have been fairly good - when I call them I can speak to someone immediately, it's our caseworker who is impossible to speak to, but she is getting better with her emails. She said she alone has 170 active clients! Our money is reserved, but we have gone past our deadline, which was saturday (15th nov) That is Nationwide's fault, but that's another matter!

After emailing Swaythling pretty much daily, our caseworker has said they can be flexible with our deadline, as we've commited to the property. I really hope this doesn't all fall though because of our mortgage provider's delays, and we will end up as positive users of the scheme!

HJS86

brit1234 wrote: »

My advice is to stay well clear of the scheme. Why buy one of these overinflated properties and go into negative equity when you can buy it whole for the same price in a couple of months?

I can understand that maybe a small minority need to buy now for some reason but surely for the majority it is better to hold off.

We are one of the few who this is our only option.

My job is classed as 'temporary' - I go from 6 month contract to 6 month contract and because of that the mortgage companies will not take my salary into account.

Therefore, our mortgage allowance is solely based on my boyfriend's salary; meaning we literally can afford nothing flat/apartment wise.

This scheme has allowed us (fingers crossed) to get on the property ladder - there doesn't seem to be another way for us.

Our apartment has already dropped 10k since we applied, and Nationwide have said that they can't see it dropping any further as now its only worth 80k.

Lauz - we also went past our deadline and Barratts were very accomodating - it seems as though its the norm for these things to go past deadline days.

xx

Lauz45

HJS86 wrote: »

Lauz - we also went past our deadline and Barratts were very accomodating - it seems as though its the norm for these things to go past deadline days.

xx

That's reassuring to know, thank you!

brit1234

HJS86 wrote: »

Lauz - we also went past our deadline and Barratts were very accomodating - it seems as though its the norm for these things to go past deadline days.

I wonder why. Today Barratts admitted prices would be down 20% by Christmas 2008 however they are not passing that 20% to you. Instead they are pocketing the extra money. Whilst getting you to pay their ramped up 2007 peak value in a rapidly crashing market.

Wake up. Read their statement from today below.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/18/house-prices-falling

You are being ripped off. :mad:


Remember they are prepared to give landlords big discounts (30-50%) but you have to pay full price with this 25% 10 year latter repayment rubbish.

Sorry but they are treating you like mugs and I advise anyone here not to even consider this scam deal, its almost criminal.:mad:

HJS86

Hi Brit

I completely understand and take on board what you are saying.

The wool isn't being pulled over our eyes here - we know we're going to be in negative equity from the get go and that huge profits will be made from our sale to Barratts etc.

But like I said in my earlier post, unfortunately for us its our only option. The temp nature of my work contracts have for a long time been making it impossible for us to get anywhere.

In addition, as our apartment is only worth 80k to begin with, its not going to be 100's of thousands of pounds that we will be losing should the market plummet.

Also, fingers crossed, they are building a huge new business centre about 2 mile from our apartment and we are hoping that this will make the price of luxury apartments in our area go up slightly when it comes time to sell.

I'm open to all advice as to what other routes we can go - our hinderance is my temp contracts, not that we are impatient.

Cheers

Maseillo

Oooh I didn't know anything about an extra grant - they haven't mentioned it to us - I'm assuming that seen as they haven't mentioned it and we have no idea about it that that means it's a no for us? but I might ask them just in case. I'll let you know - a week today until we complete!! For us it is definitely the best option - we don't want to move out of our village as my children have just started good schools here and my husband and i both work here - rental prices are really expensive so if we rented we wouldn't be able to sae a penny so would be not better off even if the houses did come down a lot further as we would have no deposit. The ownhome scheme has allowed us to buy a house for our family - I'm not buying it to make a profit - I'm buying it as a home for us to live in and make our own. We will own 100% of it, and we could choose any property we wanted. So when we move house we have to give them 40% of the value back - to us that's not a bad deal. We have our home now and I'm sure that prices will come up again before we have to move - so we only get to keep 60% of any profit - that's so much better than not having any equity at all surely? I would rahter be in the position to wait and buy outright without the aid of these schemes - but unfortunately we're not in the position to do that. I understand what people are saying about staying clear / keeping prices artificially high / etc but the people on these schemes are on them for a reason - because they are unable to buy normally. For most of those people this is the best option. I just think that as we are all in a stressful process of buying our first homes it would be nice to have a bit of support rather than the "don't bother, stay away, its a con.." attitudes that are on here.

Sorry if I'm speaking out of line here but I'm really happy with our situation, I'm so pleased that at last I can provide a secure home for my children that is our own home, and I'm pleased that we are going to have some equity in a property - even if it is less than in the ideal situation. I complete next week and I'm over the moon about it - I hope people can be happy for us too rather than telling us we have done the wrong thing.

SJ x

Maseillo

Londongirl - just to let you know I just rang Ownhome and asked them about the grant and they said that they think we will probably just miss out - they are literally in the last few remaining and they are due to run out on the 21st - we complete on the 26th! Ah well! Apparently they don't tell you about it and don't advertise it or anything - they just give you the extra money as a surprise!! There was only enough for the first 800 completions. That would have been a lovely surprise if we were completing a week earlier!

SJ x

HJS86

SJ I completely agree.

Whilst I appreciate the comments of others and take on board there views, it can be incredibly daunting when your doing something as huge as buying property to be told so strongly that you are making a big mistake

I think its all about circumstances. For some of us the bad points do not out weigh the good with these sort of schemes as its our only chance to get on the property ladder.

So SJ you complete on Friday? Congrats!! Hopefully us too! Have they told you how long before you get the keys? They have told us three weeks roughly from completion date.