The FTB club

JellyIcecream

Hi everyone!

I can't believe I'm saying this - I'm/we're buying a house! Still feels so surreal!

We have been looking at properties for a few months, been a bit hard as the area we honed in on has few properties that come onto the market and when they do, they seem to sell very quickly. Coupled with the fact that ideally we wanted something under 250k to avoid heavy stamp duty costs!

anyways, got notified by the EA about a property that came on the market on 11th august. We viewed it on the 15th, put in an offer which was rejected on 17th, viewed it a second time on the 18th and then put in our final offer on the evening of the 18th and the offer was accepted by the vendors on the afternoon of the 19th august!

we went off the the bank on the 20th and got a MIP. by the 24th we received a text saying mortgage ok so long as valuation ok. valuation carried out on 28th and mortgage offer came through the post on the 1st sept!

we only had 10% deposit but house is just under 250k so only 1% stamp duty. we decided on a fixed rate for 5 years (for security) but could only get 6.59% as we only had 10% deposit.

It's only been 3 weeks since we first saw the house!

Has it gone too quickly and smoothly?!?!

And what happens now? We commissioned a homebuyers report which we have yet to receive, our sols have been doing searches etc....

Our plan at the moment is to wait for Homebuyers report to see if anything major crops up - have also been told to send a copy to our sols - and hopefully if the report is ok, i guess we then just have to exchange contracts? is that right?

as i am renting at the moment, i am in a quandry about when to put in my notice! also stressed about when to complete as to minimise financial disruption with 1st mortgage payment etc. we set up the mortgage to come out on the 3rd of each month, so does that mean if i complete on say the 10th oct, my first payment comes out on the 3rd nov and would effectively be 'double' payment?

so excited and yet so scared! as well as stressing about giving notice to landlord, moving, decorating etc etc etc!

homehunter

mistrihelen wrote: »

My first buy has halted. Our solicitor and the estate agent keep saying different things about the various problems we are having with the title deeds and the vendor's solicitors (an online outfit) are so useless I don't think they will do anything at all. I'm beginning to think it's time to walk away and look for another house, which is disappointing as I did really like this one and it was a bargain (a repossession, which is probably why the vendor chose cheapo solicitors).

Argh, you really don't need the hassle do you? If you walk away, remember, it's their loss not yours!

VKay

So excited and scared. Am putting in an offer this morning. We can afford to pay full asking price if we have to and I think we may have to as it's 'offers over'.

This is the first house we've been excited about since we lost out in a bidding frenzy in March!

In a way I feel about annoyed that the EA knows our budget pretty well by now - I've refused to tell them exactly what our budget is now but we have been looking at houses up to £175k and this house is 'offers over £149k' so they must know we can afford the full price. I think that might weaken our position really.

There seems to be no HIP or details printed up yet.

I'll stop gabbling, get dressed and phone the EA!:o

Dunc6

I put my first house offer in yesterday, still waiting for a reply.

The property is up for sale for £254,950 I put an offer in for £247,000

I haven't seen any HIP details either

Framps

JellyIcecream wrote: »

we went off the the bank on the 20th and got a MIP. by the 24th we received a text saying mortgage ok so long as valuation ok. valuation carried out on 28th and mortgage offer came through the post on the 1st sept!

... Has it gone too quickly and smoothly?!?!

And what happens now? We commissioned a homebuyers report which we have yet to receive, our sols have been doing searches etc....

Our plan at the moment is to wait for Homebuyers report to see if anything major crops up - have also been told to send a copy to our sols - and hopefully if the report is ok, i guess we then just have to exchange contracts? is that right?

as i am renting at the moment, i am in a quandry about when to put in my notice! also stressed about when to complete as to minimise financial disruption with 1st mortgage payment etc. we set up the mortgage to come out on the 3rd of each month, so does that mean if i complete on say the 10th oct, my first payment comes out on the 3rd nov and would effectively be 'double' payment?

Hi Jellyicecream!

It all sounds very exciting so far, congrats!!!! But, wait for your homebuyer's report before you do anything.

We were in a very similar boat to you. We got our mortgage offer in the post in week 5, and were thinking about giving notice on our rental property (we have two months notice), but under advice, decided not to. Sooooo glad we didn't, we're now in week 12 and are looking to exchange any day now.

Basically, the homebuyer's report showed some high damp readings and recommended we get a specialist in to take a look. Contacted three firms and all showed up several k's worth of work. As the damp had not been visible to the untrained eye, we had not taken it into account in our offer... negotiated a discount by week 7 or so with the vendor, and then the fun started!

Advised mortgage company of the discount; they requested a copy of the survey plus specialist surveys. They subsequently lost this in their system, costing us a week. It then took them a week to make a decision as to what to do. They then came back and said all was okay and we needed to confirm to proceed with a revised mortgage offer. Another week was lost as the mortgage offer was delayed due to them not having confirmation to proceed (I gave it twice and even had a target date, yet somehow they had no record...). It then took a further week to get the offer drawn up, audited and sent out... the solicitor now has it and we are looking to exchange in the next few days. We are giving notice on our rental property today - we have about four weeks of work to do before we move in hence the buffer...

Hopefully you homebuyer's comes back okay and you are home and dry! If you're using Britannia (looks like you might be), did you use their surveyor, Connells? If so, you should have had the homebuyer's within a week or so of survey. They send you a letter agreeing to them issuing you the report first - if you have not had this, give Britannia a call and don't let them palm you off!! I did that for several weeks before realising that you have to hold their hand's through every stage to get them to do anything!

Hope it all goes well!

Dunc6

Dunc6 wrote: »

I put my first house offer in yesterday, still waiting for a reply.

The property is up for sale for £254,950 I put an offer in for £247,000

I haven't seen any HIP details either

Had my offer declined

Estate agent said that there was not an issue with the price offered.

He said that the decision was purely down to the fact that the other buyer put in an offer first!

Don't understand some people I am a first time buyer and the other buyer is in a chain.

VKay

Put in an offer this morning and now have the long wait til monday for the vendor's response. it is a probate thing so all parties have to agree. Could be tricky!

LiGhTfasT

I'm due to complete next week, cant believe how quick the last leg is. Spend forever waiting for the mortgage offer and the solicitors manage to get a completion date within 2 weeks

One word of advice is avoid Abbey, complete waste of time.

Does anyone know anything about setting up electric/gas once we move in?? Quidco are doing some great deals on energy and cable tv etc but im not sure if you can create accounts online?

VKay

Hooray! Had offer accepted today on a house which had so many of the things we wanted. Really glad.

The EA is not being forthcoming with the HIp have asked on Sat and today and still not emailed it- the house is very new on the maarket, we had the first viewing on Fri evening. I think it isn't ready but the EA just tries to put my off.

Would I be silly to instruct my solicitor before I see it? It doesn't seem the right thing to do!

Think I'll keep reminding them everyday til they get sick of me.

JellyIcecream

Framps wrote: »

Hi Jellyicecream!

It all sounds very exciting so far, congrats!!!! But, wait for your homebuyer's report before you do anything.

Hopefully you homebuyer's comes back okay and you are home and dry! If you're using Britannia (looks like you might be), did you use their surveyor, Connells? If so, you should have had the homebuyer's within a week or so of survey. They send you a letter agreeing to them issuing you the report first - if you have not had this, give Britannia a call and don't let them palm you off!! I did that for several weeks before realising that you have to hold their hand's through every stage to get them to do anything!

Hope it all goes well!

Cheers for the advice! We are with Natwest but the survey was done by Connells. We did send off that letter (signed and dated) saying we were happy to receive their report - but its been a week now and still not gone anything back!
I'm going to give it till thurs at the latest before i ring up and ask them where the hell the report is!
As it stands, if the report is ok, we are hoping to move on quickly with things and hopefully be looking at exchange by end of month? is that too optimistic?
also - how long can we complete after exchange?
so many new things - so stressed?!?!?!

HELP!