House Buying - Moneysaving Tips

TheMiner

dannyboyleeds wrote: »

hi im currently looking at a property i really want to make a offer on

the property lists

"offers in the region of 280,000"

been to see the family, theres no chain as the husbands been relocated for work so they are leaving the property at the end of august .

theyve had 9 viewings but no offers, the house has been on for a month ,

the house seemed good inside but needed a tad cosmetics, nothing major at all!

my situation is i can get immediate access to 15% deposit but i have 35k equity out of my own house , ideally id like to keep my house and rent it out , but if i sell it i can get a smaller mortgage at a better rate


The average price of the street is 248,000

im stuck in limbo , will i struggle to get a mortgage at 15% , our joint income is 60k a year

please help what should i do..... offer wise etc

Similar situation - can you release some of your equity? I just did and managed to get an offer accepted - admittedly not at your level but it was doable.

Wouldn't offer anywhere near what they want - try £240k? If they want to move at the end of August then they need to start selling very soon!!

zoe123

Hi there,

My partner and I currently have a 10% deposit, and are thinking about applying for a mortgage. We will be first time buyers. The situation is this:

We moved back to the UK 2 years ago. I have been in the same job since October 07. My partner has had 3 jobs. With his current starting in March. Will this be a problem?

Also, what information will we need to provide?
bank statements/payslips..?
Finally, we both have overdrafts, and sometimes he goes into his - will this be a problem?
We have also moved several times, but in our current flat since March and are on the electoral register.

Thanks for your help and advice - this site is a very useful read!!

charles02

Thank you for sharing this guidelines and tips. It was really a big help.

sallycanwait

AndrewSmith wrote: »

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.

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

Just out of interest we are deaing with a broker that is sitting in the EA office. We put a cheeky initial offer in on a property on sale for £150-£175k on Fri after the EA told us that an even cheekier one had been rejected outright. Then the broker called us to say that the vendor had a minimum they wanted to achieve which was nearer the £160k mark. Asked if £155k would be a waste of time and he said it could work. So went away, thought about it, crunched our numbers and went back with it yesterday. He told us he wouldn't be able to get an answer over the weekend so we'll hear tomorrow. However, we are now suspicious that they're just taking time to get in as many offers as possible to get into a bidding war. Surely if he works for the EA it's in his interest to get the highest price possible for the vendor - similarly the higher the mortgage he secures, the higher his fee (especially as we have a 50% deposit for £150k)?

Are we being taken for a ride. If the offer is still rejected what do we do next? This whole £150-£175k price range is totally confusing!

Thanks in advance for any help (and thanks for all the tips and advice here - been making lots of notes so we're ready to go!)

Hurdler

I had a similar issue when I put in an offer for my house... the EA, whilst telling me that the house had been on the market for months so the vendor was having to drop his price, did try and get me to go for something quite a bit higher than I initially wanted.

Interestingly - when I was putting the offers in, I got to MY preferred price (top price was £10K lower that the sale price) and the vendor was either getting greedy, or being egged on by the EA. But when he refused it, I took a deep breath and walked away - saying that I'd need to think about it for a week. I didn't call them, and 2 days later... he took it.

sallycanwait

Thanks for the reply. We haven't heard back yet (they are definitely playing us!) so have called and left a message and are going to mention the other property we're interested in that we need to offer on if this is a no go. There is no other property but they don't need to know that and it might get some answers sooner. Also prepared to walk away if they keep pushing - we really don't believe the house is worth much more than we've offered so if it's not meant to be...

shanewhittington

Hi all,

My OH and I are starting to look into buying a house for the 1st time. We're earning around 35-40k between us and have about 8k saved for a deposit. We have spoken to an independent broker who was very helpful but he suggested that we wait until we can afford a 15% deposit. We're looking at houses in the region of 100-120k so we're looking at a deposit of 15-18k (I think!) although we have been tole that we only need to come up with 10% ourselves and we can negotiate the other 5% from the vendor I think (is this right?)

I'm getting frustrated though as I'm nearly 25 and don't want to be living at home any more (I just don't want to be told off for having an untidy room anymore!!!) and so I was wondering if every one agrees with the broker and I should wait or can I get a decent house/mortgage with what we have already?

Any and all advice on this greatly appreciated as I'm new to all this and I'm trying to take as much info on board as possible.

Thanks for reading!

Doozergirl

Shane, you'd be far better posting on the main board. Most of the regulars don't read this thread at all. I've only opened it because it was the last post made on the main forums list.

Itis not normal to negotiate a 5% deposit from anyone other than a developer and to be frank, they have a big mark up to start with. Your regular vendor will not really understand the concept of it and many of them won't be knocking 5% off their asking price.

5% deposit paid has to be declared to a lender and they will value with that 5% taken into account. If it is a new build then I understand that lenders are looking for a 25% deposit anyway.

You earn enough that you can save that extra money very quickly, considering that you live at home as well!

shanewhittington

Thanks for the reply doozer. I will repost on the main board.

I was told that you could do this with regular vendors by paying full price but asking them to 'gift' you 5% back (or something like that, it made sense when it was explained to me) so you don't really save any money on the asking price but because you are putting a bigger deposit down you can get better rates on the mortgage. Have I get this wrong?

cutepoolgirl

I am thinking of buying an off plan new apartment, but it has very high property and ground maintenance charges.


Do I just have to accept what they charge or is there room for negotiation? It seems like an unspoken tax for the property developer, and I am absolutely sure I could have the same work done for less than a quarter of the price.

Part of me is wondering about the legality of anti-competition law if one just has to accept their contract? What if everyone in the block agreed to a lower provider?

Many thanks