House Buying - Moneysaving Tips

limotek

AndrewSmith wrote: »

Thanks Doozergirl, must learn to keep my mouth shut sometimes, a point that I am sure Martin himself will gladly welcome

So, how to sucessfully negotiate with an agent or seller on the property you want, and how to get it for the price (or as near to it) that you want.

Selling or buying a house is ranked amongst one of the most stressful things that one will do throughout their lives. Think about it, you are talking about something that will be where your family memories and possibly members will be born and will bear special meaning to different people. Needless to say it is an immotive time at best.

I do not have all the answers, no-one does as it will vary from property to property, and person to person.

What I can offer however are some tips that I have picked up and still use from the 8 years I spent sat as a broker in an estate agency office.

1) Know Your Budget
Sounds obvious but there are buyers out there today who have no idea how much it is likely to cost them to buy a home, or what they can afford. Work out what you have coming in, and what you can afford to spend each month including all the household bills.

2) Know What You Can Borrow And It's Cost
This goes hand in hand with the above. If you aim at nothing, you will hit nothing. Visit or speak to a broker to establish what you are able to borrow, how it works, what's involved and how the costs will fit in with your monthly spending budget. This is the point at which you will know whether your plans are, in fact, do-able.

3) Get The Funding In Place
If taking a mortgage, get an agreement in principle or mortgage promise from the broker. This will be invaluable when you come to actually begin bidding on a property as you will be taken far more seriously by the agent and seller if your finances have already been agreed. Never forget though that an agreement in principle is only as good as the information you provide to obtain it. Be honest from the start and it will prove worthwhile. Make sure that you have the necessary funds inplace for the deposit, mortgage fees (survey etc) and, as I will move on to, the Legal fees.

4) Get 3 solicitors quotes and decide which one you will use in preparation
Get at least 3 solicitors quotes based on the figures and budget worked out with your broker. I always suggest 1 Local firm, 1 Distant firm, 1 online form. See how they compare but remember that cheap is not best. Paying a little more could make the difference between a swift trouble free transaction, or having a solicitor who leaves your case till 'tomorrow'. If yu have the solicitor firm in mind, it will benefit you again when bidding.

5) Make Yourself Known To The Agents
Call the agents on a regular basis. On the desk of every decent sales negotiator there will be a small index card box called his 'hot box'. This is a list of people, usually first time buyers who are looking for property and are ready to proceed. Your aim is to be at the front of his 'hot box'. This requires a certain amount of persistance on the part of you and your broker. Call the agents at least once if not twice a week. Ask if there are any new properties on their books, have any sales fallen through. Get your broker to call and tell the agents that you rmortgage has been approved (in principle) and you are now keenly looking to move ASAP. Don't however let your broker tell the agents how much you can afford. Keep the pressure on the agent to find you somewhere, once they know you are serious you will be the first one to get a call when they have a new instruction.

6) Finding The Property
Once you have found the property you like, never seem over eager to the agent initially. View it more than once at different times of the day. What seems like a quiet suburban street at mid-day can become a rush hour ratrun at 4.30. The first time you view will be with your heart, the second time will be with your wallet. On the second viewing make sure it is in the evening after the agent has closed. This will allow you to be unhurried and have the current owner on hand to get honest answers to the inevitable questions you will have. The remainder of this bit is, Im afraid, down to you as you are the only one who knows what you are looking for.

7) Pre Offer Information
Before considering what to offer you need to find out as much about the situation of the seller as possible. Find out if they have found a property. Is the chain above you complete and how long is it. How stable is the chain and how well established is it. Are there any other viewings booked or other offers on the table? Do you think there is any wor needing doing to it? Armed with this information you will then be able to present yur offer in the best possible light to the agent and seller. After all the name of the game is giving the seller what he wants, and that is allowing him to move upwards. It is not always about finances alone.

8) Submitting The Offer
There are many different schools of thought as to how much you should offer on a property. Never forget that the seller will have a level he needs to achieve to make his move possible, and that he will not have seen blistering increases in the value of his own property, which will reduce the available room for manouver.

This is where i personally take over for the buyer and begin submitting offers to the agent on their behalf. The offer must be presented confidently and with supporting information. Example:
" Mr & Mrs x have decided that the property 'x' is the one they wish to purchase. They have their funds in place with the mortgage agreed in principle, and are in a position to instruct a solicitor immediately upon the offer being accepted. They are in an excellent position and can close the chain above and get it moving swiftly. Bearing that in mind they wish to offer 'x' subject to the following conditions.
All future and current viewings are cancelled
The property is withdrawn from the open market immediately and they have exclusivity over it
The sold board goes up within 48 hours
They receive weekly updates on the progress of the chain.

An example of 'the norm' would be something like an asking price of £120,000 with your opening offers beginning at £105,000 - £108,000.

9) Know Your Limit
Always keep in mind the amount you are prepared to pay for the property. Increase your offers by small increments say £500-£1000 on a value as above. The worst they will say is no. This is the point where it is actually better to ask your broker to bid for you as they agent is then less likely to try to play any 'games' to increase the price. If you are offering yourself it is better to go into the agency office and place the offer in person. You are then more likely to actually witness the offer being put forward to the seller and there will be less likelyhood for mis-trust. It also helps build rapport with the agent.



If you are seen by the agent as serious, they will take you seriously. If you overcome the potential problems such as cost, mortgage etc before you even look, again you will be seen as serious about buying.

Build a relationship with the agent who is selling the property you wish to buy. You want your name to be at the forefront of his mind when he is on his way to value a property suitable. This way you may even get to view it before it goes to the open market.

Once the offer is accepted it is then down to you to fulfill your side of the deal. Instruct the solicitor without delay and get your broker to submit the full mortgage application without delay.

A good broker / solicitor will hold your hand until the day you move in.

This is not a definitive guide and I will add to it when i think of more ideas. However the basic model is something that I have used with all my clients and has, until now, proved very successful.

Hope this helps and apologies for the length of the post

Andy

Hi Andy just want some adivce as I've bought a house a little while back and was told that there was a boiler fitted, I've just found out that they have not done the job correctly. Is there any way I can get composation from the previous owners?

loki_791

chriserenity wrote: »

I'd just like to say that a big moneysaving tip when considering a house is the information contained in an Energy Performance Certificate provided for free (or a small surcharge) to the buyer by the seller in the Home Information Pack (currently only 3 bedrooms and above).

If you have a choice of five properties all with different price tags the EPC can help you decide if that pricetag is worth it in terms of how much the home will cost you in your gas/electric bills and how much work might be involved in bringing the place up to scratch in terms of energy efficiency and limiting the amount of carbon the home produces.

The EPC breaks down the property and tells you how much you can expect to save over a year if for example you filled your cavity walls with insulation or if you swapped the clapped out old open flued coal fired boiler with a new energy efficient condensing natural gas one.

It lays out your options after a thorough inspection by a qualified inspector and gives you an idea on whether its worth doing the improvements. Again, this information is in most cases free for the buyer so ask for it and read it!

Most of us look at the 'A-G' scale when considering which lighbulbs to buy or whether the new washer is worth it, why not a home?

Speaking of inspections and saving money, skimping on home inspections when you're shopping for a house is never a good idea. A qualified inspection is absolutely necessary, not just for finding out whether or not its worth doing an improvement to a home you're considering, or finding out how energy efficient a house might be, but most importantly, how safe the house is for you and your family.

While energy efficiency and cost-saving is an important consideration, safety is always number one, especially if you have children. So, house inspections should be on the top of any prospective buyer's list of things to do before they make a decision about buying a home.

twilight101

thanks to the Tips!!!!

jimmi

As estate agents usually give vague or differing information as to how long a house has been on the market for, is there a website that can tell you this for free? and one that tells you how much a house originally went on the market for? I think this could be a great bargaining tool.
I had found one, which told you using graphs. But after searching and searching I havent been able to find it again and cant remember what its called. I havent found property snake to be very reliable (e.g. said it was updated 1st feb but gave out of date price info for my mums house, and also many properties arent listed on there)
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give
:j

Jenni363

jimmi wrote: »

As estate agents usually give vague or differing information as to how long a house has been on the market for, is there a website that can tell you this for free? and one that tells you how much a house originally went on the market for? I think this could be a great bargaining tool.
I had found one, which told you using graphs. But after searching and searching I havent been able to find it again and cant remember what its called. I havent found property snake to be very reliable (e.g. said it was updated 1st feb but gave out of date price info for my mums house, and also many properties arent listed on there)
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give
:j

Hi Jimmi,

I personally have become totally obsessed with Propertybee! http://www.property-bee.com/ you need to install it first but once you have done it, log on to Rightmove.co.uk and voila, you can see the history of any property on their books, when it first came on to market, how much they have dropped the price etc. I have saved my properties I'm watching in my favourites and log in to check on them few times a week. Good luck!

Claremac

Just to add that you need to download and install the Firefox browser if you don't have it in order to use PropertyBee. It's easy to do though and well worth it as PropertyBee is brilliant in showing the price and date history of a house.

GDB2222

If you are after more than the arest minimum service just to satisfy the lenders, you may be better off choosing a small local solicitors. The large-scale operations work by having unqualified staff doing the work, under qualified supervision of course, but mostly unable to advise (or not allowed to).

smickster

Hi,

looking for advice on where\who to find £15k mortgage on a £175k property.
My problems is im looking for this finance but all mortgages i see have £1500 booking fees.
Im looking to borrow this then 1-2 remortgage and fix for 5-10 so parting with this fee seems a little harsh.

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Gareth83

There's nothing in this thread about what websites to use when searching for a property???

Any ideas?

SelenaLouise

Gareth83 wrote: »

There's nothing in this thread about what websites to use when searching for a property???

I started with www.rightmove.co.uk but then I moved onto www.globrix.co.uk because they have a better search feature for me.

On Globrix you can search by list and then by map if you want to. I prefer the map function