House Buying - Moneysaving Tips

[Deleted User]

Busyizzy wrote: »

Hi all. We're first time buyers with young family who have always rented. Anyway my dad has kindly given us 15k for a deposit. We have found a house that we really like. Its been on the market for 3 years, started off at 195k, which even the agent said was unrealistic. Vender then reduced to 135k and 2 months ago was reduced to 115k. The vendor lives aboard, only occasionally coming back. The property itself needs a lot of modernisation, new windows, kitchen, etc but is liveable in. Realiscatically what kind of price should we be offering? is it the norm for the vendor to then barter with our offer?

Sounds like the vendor is becoming more realistic. Ask yourself how much will it cost to get the house up to an acceptable standard and what will be its value then if you needed to sell. If for example you need to spend £20K (we spent £15K six years ago on Kitchen, bathroom, Floors and Re-wiring). If for example you buy for £110K, spend £20K and the house is then worth £150K, :jyou're quids in.

robatwork

piggeh wrote: »

The interest only is a waste of cash much the same as renting, but renting is twice what I'd pay interest only.

Not quite as you haev the burden and expenses involved with a mortgage that you wouldn't have when renting. I would personally avoid the interest only ones - if you want it cheaper go for a "low start" that has lower interest for 2 or 3 years then jumps back to the standard rate - check the terms carefully to see what the lock in period is - shorter is obviously better!

good luck

trickycomper

Hi, I am looking to buy a house. I am renting currently but its annoying for me, i feel like i am paying off someone elses mortgage and my landlord aint exactly a dream to deal with. Also the rental prices in my area are pretty expencive. i.e. £700 a month for 3 bed semi, and just out the area i could be paying £300 a month mortgage repayments.
Our landlord wont even look at serious mould or repair anything and moving to another rented house is so much hassle.
The thing is i dont quite have enough for a deposit. Is it possible to take out a loan for e.g. £20k for a minimum deposit?

samtoby

I am not 100% sure but if you take a loan out before a mortgage sometimes this is looked at as exactly what you would be doing borrowing for borrowing if that makes sence. I am not expert though

s30jok

Just spent 25 years in the forces and lived in forces quarters. Married and we have no savings, however i have a gratuity of £30k and a pension of £900 a month. I also start a new job next week paying £25000 a year. My partner earns £40k a year, but we both have credit card debts of approx £15k each.

Financially would it be better to take a chunk out of one of the credit card debts or just to continue paying them off (we are paying more than the minimum).

Reason being we have seen a house we both like at £155k, it needs some decorative work doing and a few small minor jobs doing on it. On Zoopla other houses in that area have sold for on average £127k. What would people. Onsider to be a reasonable but cheeky offer?

On the proviso that our finances check out, we are seeing a financial advisor next week, but would be keen to buy this house.

Thanks for bearing with me.

GreenBee_2

Any success stories with the online only estate agents service where you post up all the details and do the viewings?

Little_Monkey_2

Thanks for that info Andrew.

I am currently in the process of purchasing a house and felt that my experiance thus far may be of benefit :-)

I visited an IFA (independant Finantial Advisor) before moving forwards with any actions. These individuals usually are paid not by the lenders marketing spends and therefore tend to be unbiased about the type of product you buy (what morgage). In essence they have little or no alterior motives to sell specific products which earns them more money. They are in place to look after you and help you make the correct decisions.

Something to consider as well is the amount of morgage products on offer. dependant upon the size of the deposit over that of the borrowings, 10/15/20% the range of morgages on offer increases and the rates of interest decrease.

I hope this has been of help :-)

b3ckford

Hi,
Say for instance you have a budget between £152,000 to £155,000. Would you look at houses in the region of £170,000 with a view it's a buyers market and houses might be over priced?

sirloin

Saw a house for £255k which had just been reduced by £30,000 ! Looked at it twice and offered £240k, which vendor grabbed at. I was the only interested party in over 6 months. Another I looked at in Easter last year was up for £240k, vendor said he'd accept £200k as he was keen to sell; but decided not to buy. It eventually went to auction for £152k, which for a very large 4 bed house with double garage , etc. was a real bargain.
So moral ? offer a very low figure, you'll be surprised !
Also look for a deal on a surveyor. I employed a RICS one and he quoted £360 + VAT, he agreed on £260 which INLCLUDED VAT. They too are suffering from no work. Did the same with removal company. Got quotes between £1788 and £2250, eventually got an agreement for £1500.
I needed to transfer some money from Building Society to my Santander account (for the house deposit). I tried to do it by cheque, but Santander said it was too large an amount to go through normal BACS and would take upto 10 working days. I had to get B.S. to send it by CHAPS for which they charged me £22.05. I complained to Santander as nowhere in their conditions did they say this. After 1.5 hours on the phone (they were paying for the call), they eventually admitted that they'd received other complaints about this and so put a nice rounded figure of £30.00 into my account straight away.
So...............keep at 'em

drummer_666

I've just seen a house on the market for £84,950, it's only been on the market a few days. I'm a first time buyer with a decision in principle.

I want to make an offer but I'm not sure what. Because if I take 10% off it that's only £76,455 but would £76/77k be too low?

It is totally full of junk. It has one room nicely done, and packs of floorboard etc so it looks like they were doing it up but got bored. I.e. the bathroom has had all the tiles pulled off and is a total mess and there's a new bath downstairs. It also needs a new kitchen, which they've started - new plaster that's about it.

The houses for sale on the same road and that have sold recently are so varied. There's another one I viewed for £75,000 but it is smaller but needs more work. There's others for £100k, £104k. Ones that sold in 2011 have been £100k, £107 and £125k