My reposession experience - A FTB

woody252506

Me and the gf saved hard for 2 years and managed to hit out target of £14k savings, £10k deposit and the rest for fees/furniture/paint etc.

We saw the reposessed property on the market for £128k 8 months ago. Its a lovely 3 bed town house with a car part in a very nice cul de sac. 5 miles from our work, near the motorway and in a very quite nice area.

We viewed and put an initial cheeky offer of £96k after we had seen it reduced to £120k. This was rejected and our next offer of £97.5k was rejected and we were told they would accept £113k.

We walked away, went on holiday and came back 6 months later to see it had been reduced to £105k. We agreed a price of £100k and had to complete within 28 days.

All i can say to FTB when buying a repo is expect to be on the phone a lot and expect to be very busy. Luckily we arranged our mortgage face to face with a Natwest advisor in branch and she was superb. She got the survey and all paper work done within 2 weeks. I would certainly recommend going in branch and seeing someone rather than using call centres.

The EA also phoned us a few days after our accepted offer and said another person had offered the asking price but were in a chain. The asked us if we wanted to increase our offer and we said no. I am sceptical as to whether this other offer was genuine as we heard nothing about this been considered over the period in which the purchase took place. Id say expect something similar, however it could always turn out to be true and you could loose out! Stressful indeed!!!

We are now in our house and on the way to decorating it to our tastes. Luckily it was in decent condition for a repo. All the wiring, gas and water are fine with no leaks or problems. The only issue is an old combi boiler which a Gas engineer has recommended us replacing. However it is working so we will see how it performs over the next 2 months before deciding if its worth paying £2k for a new one in time for winter.

In terms of money and what to have saved, id say have 4k spare to cover solicitors fees/mortgage arrangment fees/furnishings.

Luckily our parents have bought us a mattress and 3 piece suite and we have had a pine bed frame and living room tv cabinet donated to us by family. The house also still had an in built cooker that worked. Over the course of our 2 years saving we have also bought as much as we can in preparation. All our utensils/crockery/accessories/pans/electrical items/bedding/curtains etc we had sat waiting to be used when we moved in. This has saved us a lot of money!!

So far we have spent £1000k on a new fridge freezer/wardrobes/dining table and chairs/paint/shelves and we now have everything we need to live on. All we have to pay for now are different paints for each room and some bedroom furniture. We are intending on keeping a minimum of £2.5k in our savings as backup money, especially if we do need a new boiler!

I thought it would be useful for me to share our experience with FTB on here :j:D

Hippychick

Congrats on your purchase, enjoy your new home.

You certainly were lucky that the previous owners decided not to tap holes in your water pipes!

woody252506

Hippychick wrote: »

Congrats on your purchase, enjoy your new home.

You certainly were lucky that the previous owners decided not to tap holes in your water pipes!

Thankyou!

We are very happy. Even more so as one on the same street that is just a 2 bed semi has just gone up for sale at £135k!

spuds_2

Congratulations, it's wonderful when you get your first home. I'm excited for you.

If there is something good to come out of the credit crunch (apart from affordable houses), it may be that we all will have to get used to good old-fashioned saving up for stuff again, instead of endless easy credit. You did it the right way - saving hard for a deposit, collecting house bits and pieces at good prices, then waited for a good deal on a house. Much better than a 100% mortgage and then credit cards to buy everything to furnish it like a show home.

woody252506

spuds wrote: »

Congratulations, it's wonderful when you get your first home. I'm excited for you.

If there is something good to come out of the credit crunch (apart from affordable houses), it may be that we all will have to get used to good old-fashioned saving up for stuff again, instead of endless easy credit. You did it the right way - saving hard for a deposit, collecting house bits and pieces at good prices, then waited for a good deal on a house. Much better than a 100% mortgage and then credit cards to buy everything to furnish it like a show home.

Thanks for your sentiments

I agreed entirely what you say about going back to old fashioned ways. If you cant afford it then you dont buy it.

Me and my partner's parents have always lived that way and we will do the same. We have both been brought up to save for what we want so that should stand us in good stead. We wont be using credit cards or silly loans with massive APR's.

We have only borrowed 2.3 times our salarys too. We set our limit to a £100k purchase and luckily got somewhere nice for that price and, barring any major changes, a house for life as it has 3 bedrooms. :cheesy:

For all those saving hard, keep going! At times you get frustrated, as we did, but it is well worth the wait knowing your financially backed up and not living so close to the edge