House Buying - Moneysaving Tips

GDB2222

I am somewhat surprised by the solicitor's fee quoted above of only £200 + VAT. It seems, somehow, too cheap. For comparison, I have used the same one-man-band firm of solicitors for years. He works from home, so his overheads are pretty low. He charges £500 + VAT. I would have thought that is about the lowest economic rate for a conscientious job to be done by a solicitor personally. He is in London, so it may be a bit less for someone operating from a cheaper part of the country.

If a firm is doing it for £200, I would expect that the bulk of the work is done by secretaries/unqualified assistants. Of course, the solicitor takes responsibility, but it's not the same.

mmsparkle

slane wrote: »

It's good to get advice on how low to go with the first offer - we too are looking at houses around the £400k mark and I sometimes worry we are being rude if we offer too low.

Just wanted to add, in getting more background info about the seller's position, we've found it useful to find out how much they paid for the property. This can give you room for negotiation if you know they got a real bargain and are now trying to sell for a much higher price. If you register with Rightmove you can get sold prices for the last five years free, otherwise they are quite cheap from the land registry website, about £2 I think.

Try nethouseprices.com too, that's free and more informative on prices than rightmove or upmystreet.com

tinecu

Home.co.uk seem to have a good selection of quote engines...

http://www.home.co.uk/services/conveyancing_services.htm

SamG_3

Hi Everyone,

New poster here with a quick question.

My partner and I are looking to buy our first house in London in the next three months and we are in the fortunate position of being Cash buyers.

My question is: How much of an advantage do we have being cash buyers in terms of negotiations and generally being buyers with cash?

Thanks

Sam

shirlgirl2004

In this climate I'd say you have a massive advantage. Chains will be falling apart left, right and centre at the moment. Cetainly if I were looking to sell and a 1st time buyer approached me I'd be very generous in what I were willing to take to ensure the move proceded quickly.

mezelks

Last November, we bought a three bed house in Slough with garage and front and back gardens.
Was a bit of a do-er upper, and was up for 180k. For a laugh, we offered 170k. It was accepted!
I would say always go 10k less than asking price!

Mr_Mister

Can anyone point me to any websites which will give me a step by step process to buying a flat pls?
From making an offer to completion.
Thanks

Snarf999

When we relocate next year we plan on using http://www.propertysnake.co.uk to research how long the property has been on the market and also by how much the price is dropping. Houses that have been on the market longer may be more susceptible to accepting lower bids.

We'll also http://www.zoopla.co.uk to show what the house might be worth (emphasis on the might) and also what other properties in the same road have sold for.

agentyumi

SamG wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

New poster here with a quick question.

My partner and I are looking to buy our first house in London in the next three months and we are in the fortunate position of being Cash buyers.

My question is: How much of an advantage do we have being cash buyers in terms of negotiations and generally being buyers with cash?

Thanks

Sam

Being a cash buyer has lots of advantages because it’s easier to acquire a property when you have ready cash in your hand. Less things and documents to prepare and more agents would offer you nice houses. You can also avail your desired property in negotiated price. Here are some that I looked over the net:
*Speed of completion
*Certainty of sale price
*Certainty of completion date
*No chain, so no break in the chain and starting all over again!
*No agency fees (in some agency)
*Some agencies pay your legal fees which you can save your money
*Some agencies pay your survey and valuation fees

Rozlinda

Hi friend, since many days I was looking for such kind of information, and luckily I got it here, thanks for sharing.