The FTB club

starbump

I just wanted to say that we exchanged today! Completion is not till next month but... we officially have a house!

Best wishes to all the other FTBs. It's a long process but you get there in the end.

Framps

Well done everyone on completing!! :j

We're into week 10 now and still not got an exchange date. Hoping to get it sorted tomorrow, but I've been saying that for 2 or 3 weeks!

kirstypea

Sigh... received mortgage offer on house purchase attempt number two today...

...and the mortgage adviser has got her addresses mixed up and processed the application on the estate agents office, rather than the house we're actually supposed to be buying. :rolleyes:

Hopefully the surveyor doesn't go out until we've sent the offer back, as he & the staff at the office might be a little perplexed.

homehunter

kirstypea wrote: »

Sigh... received mortgage offer on house purchase attempt number two today...

...and the mortgage adviser has got her addresses mixed up and processed the application on the estate agents office, rather than the house we're actually supposed to be buying. :rolleyes:

Hopefully the surveyor doesn't go out until we've sent the offer back, as he & the staff at the office might be a little perplexed.

You just don't need this do you, it's complicated enough as it is
I'm sure it'll get sorted soon...! Good luck.

Heard today that mortgage approved subject to valuation. Having a building survey so hoping to hear from surveyor soon before they do it, so we can ask them to look at certain things.

mahoney

homehunter wrote: »

Let's hope our surveyors are kind, do a good job and don't undervalue :rolleyes:

This is probably a very FTB question , but what would be so wrong about a lower value being given? I'm sure there is an explanation, but I can't think what it is.

I'm waiting for a response from the surveyor. I'm not sure what to expect really, will I get a letter regarding the survey, or directly the mortgage offer?

Congratulations to all who have completed! What brilliant news!

homehunter

mahoney wrote: »

This is probably a very FTB question , but what would be so wrong about a lower value being given? I'm sure there is an explanation, but I can't think what it is.

I'm waiting for a response from the surveyor. I'm not sure what to expect really, will I get a letter regarding the survey, or directly the mortgage offer?

Congratulations to all who have completed! What brilliant news!

Oh,it's fine if it happens...as long as they are reasonable about it, and the seller is willing to renegotiate!Personally, I think we got this house for a good price. We're putting down as big a deposit as we can, and we know we can afford the repayments, and we've fixed for 5 years for extra security. The only way it is worth less - I think - would be if the building survey throws anything up. I'll deal with that if/when we come to it

hopsicle

Framps wrote: »

Your situation sounds very similar to ours.

I wouldn't say that you have less bargaining power necessarily, but certainly it could be used as a counter to your attempts at renegotiating.

A full mortgage offer just means that the surveyor has agreed with the valuation of the property in it's current state. Which is all well and good, except when your offer has been made on the basis of a different understanding of its current state. In that case you are well within your rights to renegotiate, assuming that the items were not ones recognisable to a lay person at the time of viewing. Of course the vendor is well within their rights to say no!

Definitely look at it from the inverse angle and see what you would think / do if you were in the vendor's position. Most people are reasonable folk - if you're being reasonable with them, there is a good chance they will be reasonable with you. And if they're not... well. there's no legislating for that!! Good luck and keep us posted!

Sorry so late to update...

We took all the points from the survey and went to look at the house again and chat to the vendors. EA's informed us before they definitely wouldn't renegotiate price, and in fact would probably pull out if we tried (yeah, i know, EA would say that). But it seems that most of the survey points weren't that bad (surveyor covering himself to a very large extent maybe?), we had no retention on the mortgage offer, and too be honest, we just wanted to get on with it. The vendors agreed they would leave us some furniture which we had our eyes on though!

We have now exchanged and will complete in two weeks

sacred_2

Congrats to all who have exchanged and completed recently.

Had an offer acceped on a repo this morning *yay* trying not to get excited but its hard, now begins the task of buying!

Sacred

panther83

This has been a fairly inspirational thread and this forum has been of great use and comfort over the past weeks.

To any FTB out there, single or couples, I'd say that if you want something bad enough you'll get it.

I get the keys to my house tomorrow.

I'm 26, I earn in the 15-20k pa bracket, I have taken a 90% mortgage with NatWest and the purchase price of the house was 70,250, significantly less than it was on the market for. There have been ups and downs along the way and over the last 2-3 years I've had to make dramatic changes to my life and lifestyle in order to scrimp and save every possible penny I can towards the deposit, setup costs (don't ever forget those), solicitors costs, mortgage costs (where applicable) and cost of living.

I have been lucky in the respect that family and friends have been extremely generous as well as managing to negotiate many of the high cost items into the purchase price of the house.

I realise that the real challenge begins tomorrow, surviving on the bare essentials.

Incase any FTB out there have missed some of the great advice I have taken into account I will add a few things here I have learnt from this forum:

*Council Tax - If you're living there alone - go claim your reduction. 25% is some saving

*Water meters - good for some, but not for others. Read the debate then head over to uSwitch to see how it will pan out for you. Over-estimate your usage though so you don't get any shocks - that way when the bill comes you be smiling.

*Dual fuel - again have a look around this site for the best deal on gas and electric combined, usually from the same provider.

*You don't need SKY. It's a luxury. Get a freeview box. If friends and family have Sky, great, if not head to the local to watch the football.

And finally, if you're trying hard to save, don't be seduced by shopping or an excessive social life. You have to learn to budget. Living abroad taught me that. You can have plenty of fun for free or at very little cost. You have friends and you have family. Don't fork out £15 at the gym for a run/walk, goto your local park or nature reserve for a brisk walk, jog or run. Get a low-cost hobby too - I started to play ice-hockey a few years ago and gradually built up my equipment from gifted/second-hand to new/newer kit. Now it costs me £10 a session. Who said something awesome can't be affordable?

Good look to all the FTBs and Congratulations to those who have completed

tek-monkey

Some good points there panther83. I'm going into this in Student mode, despite graduating 10 years ago. I know I can live on pasta if necessary, although I do have a few hundred headroom each month before I have to resort to that!