First time buyers request advice

TrickyDicky

Well, me and the wife are about to set out looking for houses. We think we can afford a 2-3 bed terrace/semi where we live (we have a mortgage broker friend looking into what we could get). We have our first booking to look round a house (3 bed semi) tomorrow, and so was just after advice as to what to ask/say/not say.

Unfortunatly the only camera we have is a mobile phone camera. As this is the first first viewing, is it worth doing things like talking to the neighbours already, or is it worth leaving that to a 2nd viewing?

Also, if people could let us know how much to set asside for fees and stuff, that would also be very useful. We are on the understanding and have set asside around £5k for fees + stamp duty. We're trying to keep under the £250k stamp duty threshold.

Bufger

You should be fine with 5k for fee's, its more like 1k for solicitor, 1 - 1.5 for bank depending on what the arrangement fee is like. You're probably looking at max 3k if there are no problems but its always better to be safe!

I would first research what areas you are interested in and what kind of house you might like. My criteria for my first house was a garage or off street parking, 3 bedrooms, reasonable kitchen and garden. I gave this info to estate agents in the area of interest and had a look at what they came up with (also looking on rightmove etc at the same time).

The first viewing is always quicker than any other. Just check the general condition, reason for sale, what the neighbours gardens and cars etc look like (sometimes an indication). You are likely to see some terrible houses at first but its not unusual to have lots and lots of viewings until you narrow it down.

Second viewings i usually check the condition more closely. Try and see if they're hiding a damp patch with oddly placed furniture. I drive by the neighbourhood on a weekend night at this point to get a good feel for the area and i have a look at prices within the location to see how reasonable the asking price is.

I dont speak to the neighbours at all. I can usually judge what they're like by their garden! I do always ask the vendors but its normally pretty apparent from either well tended gardens with excellent flowerbeds (usually older people!) to trampolines, basketball nets etc (family) to half a car and scrapyard or lots of beer bottles and mess.

So ask about:

Reason for sale. Its a personal question but can help you understand how serious they are and may even give you a hint as to how low they're likely to go in price.

Features: who did what, where and when. Its likely the owners will know which previous owner had the extension or the boiler replaced or uncovered the original flooring etc. Thats why i like vendors showing me round.

Neighbours: who they are and what they're like.

Car parking - whats the arrangements if its not apparent?

any other local arrangements with neighbours (party wall agreements or 'we usually help the old lady next door with her gardening/shopping).

The more information you find out the better picture you can make of the vendors and therefore how they're likely to look after their house and how serious they will be about moving.

TrickyDicky

We already have the area covered, and the type of house we want. We are looking to settle and start a family, hence the reason for wanting 2-3 bed houses with a garden (ideally we'd go for a 3). We've basically narrowed down to 8 interesting properties on rightmove and asking to view them via the site.

We've even gone as far as getting an A-Z map (not a book one - a fold out map) and drawn large circles where we want and marking where the houses are on the map - the next stage is to actually look at them.

Bufger

thats a good start. Out of interest what area are you looking in and what sort of deposit and mortgage in principle do you have? i just wanted to get an idea on how limited you are and how forceful you could be.

Everything depends on what percieved position you're in to the vendor and EA :-)

TrickyDicky

We're looking around woking and should have around a 20% deposit.

Having watched rightmove for the last 12 months, it appears the market is starting to pick up. A few houses we've seen recently appear to have been sold within 2 weeks of going on rightmove, whereas before there have been houses on there that have remained unsold for anything up to about 9 months (having used property bee).

We want to try and find somewhee and finalise within the next 7-8 months. We dont have alot of free time over the summer.

Bufger

i would say the next 7-8 months will be the best time to buy anyway so it should work out ok for you. Although there is alot around at the moment many people expect the last decline in the double dip to happen soon and then the market to flood with properties and start to pick up (this will be over a large period of time i would expect).

20% deposit is great if you have a further 5k for fees. You're in a strong position from what i can see. It will be important for you to get across that you have a good deposit and will have no problem with the mortgage and that you're also a first time buyer. This will show them that you're serious about a house (ie have the deposit etc ready) and that you can suit the vendor when it comes to timing.

I would also take this time to find a good solicitor and get yourself on their books. I contacted mine whilst viewing houses and asked if it would be possible that i can put them on standby until i had an offer accepted. I then told the EA of the house i was putting an offer on that i already had a solicitor and AIP which showed my commitment.

Alot of it is how you appear to the other people :-)

TrickyDicky

Well, we've seen 6 houses now, and like 2 of them, and going to request a 2nd viewing if they havent gone already. Nice houses seem to be dissapearing inside a week at the moment. Apparently theres alot of FTBs on the market. Of these 2, one needs a new kitchen - will we be able to take extra mortgage to help cover this, or would we have to save/take unsecured loan to cover it?

On the mortgage front - we're not sure what to go for. With a LTV coming to between 15-20%, we're only being offered just over 6% on fixed rates and around 4.5% on trackers. Our broker friend is hinting us away from trackers as the BOE rate is only going up in the next 2 years, but is it really going to shift more than 1.5%? We could afford it to go over, but we'd rather not.

Another question - will EA's want to see a AIP letter before we can put offers in?