Cost of NOT buying a house after the preperations (i.e. mortgage, survey, solicitor)

Money_saving_Martyn

Hi all

I'm new to property buying and I'm a little worried about how it all works.

It seems to me that you pay out loads of money just for the chance of buying a property. Is this so?

I'm interested in a property now, but haven't yet arranged a mortgage (it's all happened a bit suddenly - a property both me and the OH like has appeared on the market at a good price!). It seems other people are interested (or so the estate agent tells us!!) so by the time we have a confirmed offer of a mortgage - other people might have nipped in and bought it?

I understand that, even if we make an offer (subject to finance) it's not until the contracts are signed that it goes ahead - could we have spent money on mortgage arrangement fees, solicitor's fees, surveys, estate agenents admin fee (etc etc) and actually NOT end up buying the house?

Since we're being fairly picky with where we want to live, could we end up arranging a mortgage that we don't use and wasting at least the arrangement fee (of up to £999!!!)?

Thanks for any adivce!!

MSM

TEDDYRUKSPIN

The FTB.. don't worry about it. Worse case scenario you could lose money on solicitor fees (i.e. legal fees), survey fees, land registry fees, and the dreaded arrangement fees. Overall worse case scenario from £800 to as much as £3k depending on the company you use.

I would never let this worry you. I myself nearly purchased a property in 2006 and backed out in the last minute. Reason being the property had so many snags! The dread B%rr%tts homes. LOL. Lucky as well. Todays market I would have lost around £30k and straight into negative equity. Them dreaded days.

Ok. Not to scare you. The above is the worse case scenario. Everyone goes through this unfortunately. Part of the package.

Trying_to_be_good

Yep, as TeddyRukspin says, this is the way house buying works! Welcome to the world of real estate, now you know why it features up there with bereavement and divorce for stressful life situations.

But we all get through it.

unite79

Or as a side to what Teddy has put - Place an offer, but tell them it is dependant on the property being taken from the market, allowing you time to get finances in place - as long as a survey is arranged quite quickly most agents expect this!

Then Add the Arangemnt fee to the loan (so you dont lose in event something happens(Also check small print that lender can not claim this anyway) - Use a no buy no charge solicitor and Bobs your uncle - Risk dramatically reduced.

poppy10_2

House prices are falling at £2k a month - if you pull out you'll make your money back in acouple of months anyway.

herbiesjp

Ways to save money:

1) Use no completion, no fee solicitors
2) Add the arrangement fee to the mortgage

Just a quick post