The real cost of it all

stratdude

Hi all,

My partner and I are looking to buy our first place this year. Not a great time I know but its been on the cards for a while. We will be buying a place for aroud £120K. My question is what is the real cost of moving? I know I have the 10% deposit (probably be 15% later on!) etc bu what do the other things cost? I have a van and very little stuff between us so moving will be cheap. How much are estate agents fees for a buyer? How much is a solicitor for moving? Initial bills? etc so what is the real cost (except deposit)

Sonofa

Buyers don't pay estate agents. Although we might see estate agents paying buyers sometime soon.

SavingSteve

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1419025

Above thread has all the answers you will ever need IMO, read the 6th post by moongarden, very useful.

natman

We are currently part exchanging our house and cant beleive the add on's that are charged when moving -

Solicitors -
Buying fees - £400
Local searches - £100
Land registry - £8
Bankruptcy Search - £6
Land registry fee - £220
Stamp Duty - nil for you guys as your house under £175k
Drainage search - £100
Other searches may be up to £100


Like Mortgage Fees - up to £1000 in some cases
Home Buyers survery - £300
Mortgagae admin charge - £300
You may also have to pay indemnity insurance( to protect the mortgage comany if you are borowing close to say 90%) £500
Removals - £500

Bills
BT - To put your line back on £100
elect - £30 a month say
BT Bill say £20 a month
gas £30 a month say
tv licence - £20 a month
Council Tax - £100 a month
Mobile phone???? = £20 a month
House insurance -£300 a year
Internet??? - £15 a month

So yeah ts wel worth trying to budget.

A tip from me - only an opinion mind
We bought our first house some time ago and just for ease of working out lets say our house was £100,000.
I was putting a deposit down of £30,000 ( this basically was all my savings)
We needed a mortgage for £70,000.

The mortgage company carried out a survey and stated that the house was only worth £99,000, because of some mortar that needed replacing in a section of brickwork.
I was ok with this - well so I thought, but the Mortgage company said the £70,000 Mortgage i wanted would be dropped to £69,000 becasue of the valuation.

I asked the seller to drop £1000 - they wouldnt
I asked the Building society to give me the £70,000 mortgage as the house was still( in their eyes) worth £99,000, but they refused.
I had no spare money to add as i had used it all with the initial deposit.

I think alL i am saying is - give yourself some financial flexibility - if you have 10% - 15% deposit, maybe use 11% as a deposit, and once you move in, see about making a few overpayments if you wanted............
Hope that makes sense.
Like i said i am in the process of selling / moving
I have £110,000 deposit from the equity in my current house to put down on a £206,500 new house.
I would like to add £10,000 to the deposit from savings - but i am keeping hold until all the paperwork and valuation is done, then when all is well, i wil either ask for a £10,000 less mortgage or make pverpayments to the mortgage.

Good luck.