Can we make offers for buy off plan?

poppysarah

When did they buy offplan? 4 years ago?

Do tons of research. List every new build development within a mile or two of you. Look up sold prices on houseprices.co.uk (by street or postcode) and then see how many have resold (ie: repossessed) - visit them. See whether you actually like the areas - have people settled in well, or are there lots of empty properties (bought by BTL/spectulators or REPOS) - are the streets all finished and adopted by the council?

Collecting the figures in a sensible way could also be a brilliant bargaining tool when you come to buy - so perhaps consider printing prices out, creating stats etc (Can you tell I like playing office!) -

House prices have fell 17% in the last year - the recession is now upon us and isn't going to get better anytime soon. You've got to consider your own financial position, as well as that of the builder.

Also go view some old-builds. See lots of different styles of houses so that you can see which you realy like best. Visit all the new build showrooms. Take brochures and info (Stick them in your folder)
Get property bee for rightmove- and see what prices are really doing in your area.

poppysarah

And ...
Find out what percentage of estates are social housing - and bear in mind some estates are being taken over for social housing when developers can't sell. And although the vast majority of people in social housing are nice - some people don't like the idea of buying next to them - so potentially resale will be affected.


And
Look up crime stats if they're published for the areas - read the local paper, and if possible speak to people who live there, or PCSOs who know what problems some new build estates have.

And
bear in mind they might build yours but leave you on a wasteland building site for years.

wsharp

Thanks Sarah. My colleageus bought theirs about a year ago and got 95% mortgage. We only need about 50% mortgage, and we are FTB, so we believe we are in a very strong position, although we are not in a hurry, we are worried if I fell pregnant one of these days, what can we do as we are planning to start up a family... so decisions, decisions...:mad:

QTPie

wsharp wrote: »

Thanks Sarah. My colleageus bought theirs about a year ago and got 95% mortgage. We only need about 50% mortgage, and we are FTB, so we believe we are in a very strong position, although we are not in a hurry, we are worried if I fell pregnant one of these days, what can we do as we are planning to start up a family... so decisions, decisions...:mad:

I am in a similarish position to you (i.e. trying to start a family).

We exchanged contracts on selling on Thursday and will rent back from the (investment) buyer for the next 6+ months. During that time, we will be looking to buy (if we can). If we can't we will probably rent for longer. If I get pregnant AND we can't find somewhere to buy, then we will probably move to a larger rental property in the interim (don't have room for a nursery here). We want to be settled from 7 months pregnant until the baby is 6/12 months old.

If I was you, my big concern - about buying off plan - is that you REALLY don't know when it will be completed (they are often delayed for a few months, could be delayed for a year or so in the current climate - they wont tell you that now). So, if I was you, my concern would be "if I got pregnant tomorrow, where would we be living for the next 7 to 18 months?" (since you don't really want to be moving between when you are 7 months pregnant and the baby is 6/12 months old). If you did get pregnant tomorrow, then the chances of being in new build home in 7 months are non-existant. One scenario could even be that you find yourself 9 months pregnant or with a newborn and under pressure to complete from the developer. Developers are not flexible on completion dates: they will insist on completion as soon as the house is ready and will not delay for you.

When you do get pregnant, the nesting instinct can be very strong (you want everything sorted out for your baby). Being under contract to a new build with a very uncertain and increasingly elusive completion date could be very frustrating...

Good luck
QT

wsharp

QTPie wrote: »

I am in a similarish position to you (i.e. trying to start a family).

We exchanged contracts on selling on Thursday and will rent back from the (investment) buyer for the next 6+ months. During that time, we will be looking to buy (if we can). If we can't we will probably rent for longer. If I get pregnant AND we can't find somewhere to buy, then we will probably move to a larger rental property in the interim (don't have room for a nursery here). We want to be settled from 7 months pregnant until the baby is 6/12 months old.

If I was you, my big concern - about buying off plan - is that you REALLY don't know when it will be completed (they are often delayed for a few months, could be delayed for a year or so in the current climate - they wont tell you that now). So, if I was you, my concern would be "if I got pregnant tomorrow, where would we be living for the next 7 to 18 months?" (since you don't really want to be moving between when you are 7 months pregnant and the baby is 6/12 months old). If you did get pregnant tomorrow, then the chances of being in new build home in 7 months are non-existant. One scenario could even be that you find yourself 9 months pregnant or with a newborn and under pressure to complete from the developer. Developers are not flexible on completion dates: they will insist on completion as soon as the house is ready and will not delay for you.

When you do get pregnant, the nesting instinct can be very strong (you want everything sorted out for your baby). Being under contract to a new build with a very uncertain and increasingly elusive completion date could be very frustrating...

Good luck
QT

Thanks QT.

I got your point there about the completiong date, can I ask my solicitor to put a date on the contract tho? Yesterday when I talked to my colleague she said their solicitor has put down a completion date on theirs.

I have seen quite a few recent built ones, only 2 of them we liked, and one sold, the other one was very cheeky and greedy, so put us of to buy a 2nd hand.

Good luck with your house hunting too! :beer:

Feline_friendly

As i have mentioned in your other thread..we have bought off plan and my house is due to have its roof on in 3 weeks time. It is going by with no problems and on our weekly visit today we have seen that most plots are now reserved.

When we did our deal we didnt speak with the sales person on site it was with the financial man at Wimpey...i assume it will be the same with your biulder....and like i said we got a good deal.

It's worth a try. However, you do need to know whn it is being biult. Our house was just starting to be biult when we reserved...i am not sure i would be brave enough to reserve a house that is not due to be biult for several months...not at this present time.

NoDebtForMe_2

Hi
We ae also buying off plan. We reserved first week of January on a plot that had just got its foundations in but wasnt due to be started until March with a completion date of July/Aug. We move in before end of April!
Yes they brought the release forward as soon as as we reserved. We have had no problems whatsoever so far with anything. We are part exchanging and got more from the builder than what they sold it for (they were well aware when they offered the money what they were going to put it on the market for) I got 30 grand off the new build. The exact same houses on the street sold a year ago for 100 grand more. We are happy.:D
We also used the builders reccommended solicitors and they have been fantastic. She got a clause in the exchange papers for it to be built within a year. The development I am buying on is thriving and they have sold the rest of my street and are starting another part already. The thing is with new builds is when things go wrong it isnt minor issues, it is problems that cost people a lot of money due to them being tied into contracts thats clearly why people are warning you off. It can ruin peoples lives when they owe x amount to a builder and they take too long to build and the buyer ends up out of their mortgage offer and unable to get another.
It is a hard decision to make.
Sarah x

GDB2222

wsharp wrote: »

Thanks Sarah. My colleageus bought theirs about a year ago and got 95% mortgage. We only need about 50% mortgage, and we are FTB, so we believe we are in a very strong position, although we are not in a hurry, we are worried if I fell pregnant one of these days, what can we do as we are planning to start up a family... so decisions, decisions...:mad:

You get about 9 months notice before the baby arrives.

wsharp

Feline_friendly wrote: »

As i have mentioned in your other thread..we have bought off plan and my house is due to have its roof on in 3 weeks time. It is going by with no problems and on our weekly visit today we have seen that most plots are now reserved.

When we did our deal we didnt speak with the sales person on site it was with the financial man at Wimpey...i assume it will be the same with your biulder....and like i said we got a good deal.

It's worth a try. However, you do need to know whn it is being biult. Our house was just starting to be biult when we reserved...i am not sure i would be brave enough to reserve a house that is not due to be biult for several months...not at this present time.

Thanks for sharing. The ones we are interested actually the plots are already released, and they told us if we want to go ahead, they will just build it for us straightaway.

wsharp

NoDebtForMe wrote: »

Hi
We ae also buying off plan. We reserved first week of January on a plot that had just got its foundations in but wasnt due to be started until March with a completion date of July/Aug. We move in before end of April!
Yes they brought the release forward as soon as as we reserved. We have had no problems whatsoever so far with anything. We are part exchanging and got more from the builder than what they sold it for (they were well aware when they offered the money what they were going to put it on the market for) I got 30 grand off the new build. The exact same houses on the street sold a year ago for 100 grand more. We are happy.:D
We also used the builders reccommended solicitors and they have been fantastic. She got a clause in the exchange papers for it to be built within a year. The development I am buying on is thriving and they have sold the rest of my street and are starting another part already. The thing is with new builds is when things go wrong it isnt minor issues, it is problems that cost people a lot of money due to them being tied into contracts thats clearly why people are warning you off. It can ruin peoples lives when they owe x amount to a builder and they take too long to build and the buyer ends up out of their mortgage offer and unable to get another.
It is a hard decision to make.
Sarah x

Thanks Sarah, your experience is the most positive one I have heard on here:beer: Good luck with your move.

As we want to start up a family, surely we wont buy anything that they are not going to build straightaway... just had a very interesting phone conversation with my mum as she's cant wait to be a grandmother, so she's keep giving us hint to make her one (also due to my health problems the sooner we have a baby the better for me), but I have to tell her in reality we cant as we dont have a house yet, so we'd better to get the house sorted quick before we can get on with other things in life(I know lots people here would say not a good time, lol)