Advice for first-time buyer - offers, etc

dannin

ok so i'm looking to buy my own place for the first time. despite working in retail and being poorly paid i have managed to save in the region of £65,000 over the years. i am now at the age i planned to move out of my parents home and with the drop in prices it seems a pretty good time to go ahead and buy my own place. having had a look about at properties on the market, there are several in the region of £110,000 that would suit my requirements and be the kind of thing that i am looking for. seeings as i have such a large deposit my parents are willing to lend me money of theirs to cover the full value of the house, rather than me get a mortgage. the total of my money saved and the money that they are able to lend me would come to around £100,000 in total. of the houses that i have viewed online the one that seems best suited to my needs is listed at £109,950. i think it has probably been up for sale for 2-3 months now. basically i wanted some advice as to what my next (or indeed first) move should now be. arrange a viewing? view a few? if having viewed one or two and the one i liked still seems best would £95k-£96k be a reasonable opening offer or too low? and what about solicitors? would it be best to find one, to simply show them proof of the money in my accounts and let them bid on my behalf? the only other point i wanted to make is that i can't access about 20% of my money until mid-may. would it still be reasonable to put in a bid before-hand if i see an ideal place, and just make it clear that it wouldn't be able to go through until may, or would it best to leave everything until may when the money is in place and everything is ready to go? any help or advice would greatly appreciated! thanks in advance

Swipe

Leave it until May, you may find that sellers may be more open to even lower offers by then.

LeonandAlison

I agree, you can afford to wait, disappearing 10-15% mortgages wont effect you as you have a really good deposit. You can wait for the prices to really bottom out, and it also gives you more time to find somewhere you really want to buy.

dannin

well the one listed at 109,950 does look particularly ideal, which is why i was thinking of getting a move-on with things and at least looking at it and then thinking about putting an offer in. but if it were to sell then i guess i would hopefully be able to find something else... there certainly seem to be a lot more options around that price range than there were a year ago

Saver-Rob

We are in a similar position - we have found a property we are very interested in before we have an actual mortgage offer in place (though, like you, we have saved hard and shouldnt have a whole lot of trouble getting a mortgage).

We are also in a similar predicament regarding money being locked away. I can access the majority of it by mid March but that would lose me all of my interest.

Bearing in mind how long these things take I wouldnt worry if you dont have access to it for a few weeks. Is it actually impossible for you to access the 20% of your money until mid May? Are you able to withdraw it with a penalty such as loss of interest or is there no way of getting at it?

dannin

its actually 11,000 that i absolutely cannot touch until about may 10th. everything else is now in current accounts ready to go. if this is a problem it seems that i may be best to wait until may, but i didn't know whether i should at least get the ball rolling in some shape or form now. and that if it would be worth putting in a lowish offer such as 95k now, knowing it leaves me time to leave them to think about it, etc.

bob79

You only have to hand over the final amount of the money at completion (when you get the keys). At exchange of contracts (when the deal becomes final) you usually have to pay 10%. May 10th is only 2 months away, completing in 2 months time is reasonably fast, it usually takes longer. So part of your money being tied up until May 10th really shouldn't stop you from getting the ball rolling now already.

ad44downey

dannin wrote: »

ok so i'm looking to buy my own place for the first time. despite working in retail and being poorly paid i have managed to save in the region of £65,000 over the years. i am now at the age i planned to move out of my parents home and with the drop in prices it seems a pretty good time to go ahead and buy my own place. having had a look about at properties on the market, there are several in the region of £110,000 that would suit my requirements and be the kind of thing that i am looking for. seeings as i have such a large deposit my parents are willing to lend me money of theirs to cover the full value of the house, rather than me get a mortgage. the total of my money saved and the money that they are able to lend me would come to around £100,000 in total. of the houses that i have viewed online the one that seems best suited to my needs is listed at £109,950. i think it has probably been up for sale for 2-3 months now. basically i wanted some advice as to what my next (or indeed first) move should now be. arrange a viewing? view a few? if having viewed one or two and the one i liked still seems best would £95k-£96k be a reasonable opening offer or too low? and what about solicitors? would it be best to find one, to simply show them proof of the money in my accounts and let them bid on my behalf? the only other point i wanted to make is that i can't access about 20% of my money until mid-may. would it still be reasonable to put in a bid before-hand if i see an ideal place, and just make it clear that it wouldn't be able to go through until may, or would it best to leave everything until may when the money is in place and everything is ready to go? any help or advice would greatly appreciated! thanks in advance

You're 2 years too early, prices have so much further to fall. You won't need to get money off your parents if you wait until then.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

Advice for first-time buyer

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WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT until the 1st quarters dire economic figures are released in April/May...


Then decide. Prices will have dropped another 5% by then..

dannin

ok well i would like firstly thank everyone for their responses and advice given in this thread. with great interest i've now read all of your post saver-rob! there's a lot of interesting stuff in that thread! i myself, at 25, am somewhat older than rob is now and really don't feel i could wait another 2 years before buying! i never wanted to be living at home when i was pushing 30! for those saying now is a terrible time to buy, surely its a better time to buy than a year-to-two years back when lots of my friends did so? i think i will at least wait until may as 1984ReturnsForReal has suggested, and then decide my next step!

Saver-Rob

dannin wrote: »

ok well i would like firstly thank everyone for their responses and advice given in this thread. with great interest i've now read all of your post saver-rob! there's a lot of interesting stuff in that thread! i myself, at 25, am somewhat older than rob is now and really don't feel i could wait another 2 years before buying! i never wanted to be living at home when i was pushing 30! for those saying now is a terrible time to buy, surely its a better time to buy than a year-to-two years back when lots of my friends did so? i think i will at least wait until may as 1984ReturnsForReal has suggested, and then decide my next step!

My thread has grown rapidly. I hate to think how many pages it will take up by the time I get a house but I am sure nobody will want to read it all!

Good luck with what you choose though. I am not really much further ahead than you. We are both looking around - if something comes along then great, if not then we will wait. There is no immediate rush.