Property viewing update.

Bun

Hi Tom,

Just noted from your post that the flat you like is next to a communal stairwell. I would view again or at least have another word with the neighbours as to how much noise this may generate. Don't know which room this will be next to, but keep an eye on any noise from main entrance doors and people coming back from a night going to their own flats. May not be a problem in a new build, but could be a problem.

tomstickland

The bedroom is next to the main door, but the stairs go up the other wall. Something to consider, I agree. Then again, I sleep like a log, so I'm not too bothered about door noise.

nmiah786

tomstickland wrote:

The bedroom is next to the main door, but the stairs go up the other wall. Something to consider, I agree. Then again, I sleep like a log, so I'm not too bothered about door noise.

Your avatar is testament to that :rotfl:

No joking aside, I think your approaching the "buying a property" the right way, glad to see that your putting so much effort and time into it. After all this is the most largest financial commitment anyone is likely to make and you cant simply jump in without dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's!

Good luck and take your time and make the right decision for yourself. Will be keeping a close eye on this.

tidyfinance

Hi Tom,
Great thread mate.
I bet your mum will agree with your thoughts on Flat 1. That will be the decider for you I reckon. Good old mums eh!
I think you'll be on the property ladder before your holidays and you can chill and not worry about starting all over on your return.
Best of luck Tom.

tomstickland

Thanks for the support people! It helps when you have a community of people online sharing the decision somewhat.
I agree, estate agent of mum will be the deciding factor. If she says yes without hesitation then I think it's a go go go situation. I'll talk to the EA tomorrow; I might call in for a face to face with them. Hopefully I can talk to the chap.

tomstickland

Well, I've spent 25 minutes talking to my trusty mortgage advisor about properties etc, thought about it for a bit longer and just phoned the EA and left an answerphone offer of £80K on the flat. Asking price is £89,950, so it's a cheeky offer. The thing is, I want to be able to have an LTV ratio below 85%, and to do that I need a £12,750K deposit on £80K property.

I'm off to do some building work with my friend now, and then I'm off on holiday on Friday. Whatever happens can happen.

mummytofour

Good luck! great thread by the way hope you find the place of your dreams soon.

Vxx

tomstickland

1151 views!

I had a phone call from EA today, saying that she'd been out yesterday, so had only just got the message about the offer. She checked on a few details, like deposit, mortgage in principle and when I could move. She seemed to take my offer seriously (it is, but a bit on the cheeky side of low). She did ask me why I had chosen £80K and I said "that's my offer." I didn't see why I needed to justify it. After a bit of thought I said "combination of factors: location, condition of flat, service charges and trying to dip below an 85% LTV ratio").

She's going to phone back later today with more news.

Doozergirl

fingers crossed for you

tomstickland

Busy day. I've looked at another 2 properties, one very close to a previous flat. Same design, same location in building, better condition internally etc. None as big as no1 favourite.

I was also shown a 1 bed flat in a listed building conversion. "it needs a bit of work" said the EA. LOL, it's what they leave out of the description that counts. I didn't warm to that flat, despite it having potential. £99K + £8K of work I reckon.

I met up with my mother and showed her my favourite flat. She liked it. We were looking round when one of the neighbours waved to us. My mother recognised him as her driving instructor. Turns out that the house next door belongs to his brother.
Small world. He said that it was a nice place to live.

So, I'm still liking it.

EA on flat no1 phoned me back tonight and said that my £80K offer had been rejected and that the vendor was looking more towards the high 80s. This is fine - I personally think that the flat would be reasonably priced at £86-87K. The EA was very good and said that she'd explained my plus points to the vendor. I asked her to try £84K. There's room for negotiation on the white goods and carpets. Oddly it seems that the vendor wants to remove the carpets. What use are they to them?

I'm off on holiday tomorrow night, so I want to take this to some sort of decent position before I go. So I'm probably going to advance my offer to £87K tops before I go and then let it sort itself out whilst I'm on holiday.

I'm off to talk to mortgage advisor no2 tomorrow for some more mortgage offers.