FTBs need advice on this house!

screamer

Link removed.

We put an offer in of £108,000 on this house yesterday and that, and the 2 consecutive offers were refused. We left them with an offer of £115,000 and the vendor is "thinking about it." Apparently they were hoping for the asking price which just isn't going to happen. The only improvement that doesn't need doing in this house are the windows, but even at that the patio door needs replacing. OH has a total of £15,000 saved with another £12,000 owed to him, and this needs to pay for the deposit, legal fees, mortgage arrangement fee and anything else that might crop up. This is based on an 80% mortgage though and I'm trying to get him to look into an 85% mortgage over a shorter term. He's currently doing 80% over 30 years. The repayments would be a little over £400 a month excluding all the insurances.

Are there any 85% mortgages out there for FTBs or will we have to stick with the horrible old kitchen for a while as the boiler is first on our list of things to do.

The downside is that there is a house a few houses up the street which is a tiny bit larger, doesn't need a new kitchen or boiler, fire and fireplace, doors etc, the gardens are immaculate, and it's on the market for £135,000. He says with an 80% mortgage we can't afford the deposit. Again, an 85% mortgage would sort everything. Is it worth looking out for one or should we be content at being able to get on the property ladder at all?

Appointment with mortgage advisor is at 4pm!

lowtidesurf

You might find it hard to get a 85% mortgage on a property that requires alot of work. The bank could majourly de-value the property on the estimation of the work needed.

screamer

Thanks lowtide, it's good to know. I guess I'm getting carried away because we don't NEED to spend money doing it up, it's perfectly habitable right now... If we were about 70 years old that is! We've discovered that we can't find a house in a nice area for that price that doesn't need decorating. Technically, it's well worth the asking price, it just needs updating, something we wouldn't be able to do if we spent every penny on the deposit. Already coming up with new ideas though and the value will shoot up with a new kitchen and boiler.

I'm hazarding a guess at £3k for a kitchen. OH is making plans for a range cooker. He's clearly insane though, so I will just choose to ignore him. :-)

LilacPixie

see what your mortgage advisor says. I looked t the piccy of the kitchen and I personally would have that ripped out ASAP as it really is not my taste.

gemstars

85% mortgages are possible for FTBs, I got one recently. I've got 2 comments:

1) Have you looked into what the house is actually worth on mouseprice and looking at recent sales in the area etc? A mortgage company will only lend on what they think it is worth not what you offer, so regardless of what the current owners think it's worth you need to keep your offer realistic unless you have the spare cash to pay over the odds and are prepared to put yourself straight into negative equity.

2) I looked at the kitchen too and although it's not my taste please remeber that changing (and anything else) it may not necessarily add value to the property. Putting a kitchen into a property that had NO kitchen would add value, changing it because it's not to your tastes may not work the same.

Good luck!

GSXRCarlos

i don't think the mortgage co would under value the property

When my mum and dad bought, the Mortgage lender retained £6,000 for works to be carrier out (ie they had to find another £6k) then when the works were complete the £6k got added to the mortgage and they were reimbursed, but this was for required works - not desireable.

i just bought a repo and i thought they might do the same, they didn't and i'm currently beating the crap out of my house ;o)

screamer

Thank you all for those great pieces of advice. I looked on mouseprice (had never heard of it until now so thank you for that :-) and the last house to be sold on that street was 2 years ago for £125,000. There are only 40 houses on the street and the average house price for 2 bedroomed houses in that particular area is £167,000 (That street and the streets surrounding it) So I think it's starting to look really good! :-) If our offer doesn't get accepted we'll concentrate on the one a bit further up the street, that's on the market for £135,000.

Am glad for some outsider input, thanks for the advice.

screamer

Update, kind of.

The vendors are still thinking about it. Is this normal? We've found a new way to have a new kitchen and have the finances in order for that but now our problem is will they accept our offer of £115,000?

They've been thinking about it since Thursday and it's killing us. We want to know one way or the other, yes or no. Are we just being impatient?

tek-monkey

Maybe they're waiting deliberately to see if you'll up the offer? Wind you up a bit, then ask for a little more.

screamer

Hi tek-monkey. We've already upped the offer from £108,000. We've told them we're not going to go any higher than that because of the work that needs doing to it.

Maybe I should get the OH to look at the house further up the street.

tek-monkey

Is that house up with the same EA? View a few others through him, and it'll let him know you're happy to walk away.