Costs of buying a house-FTB

DopeyDora_2

Hello,

I hope that before the end of this year we will be in a position to start looking to buy a house. After renting for 6 years, plus living in university accomodation for the 5 years previous to that, I am more than ready to have somewhere to call my own.

Before we go jumping in, I hope someone can give us some help with regards to some mortgage advice/costs of moving. As you will see from my signature, we will have a deposit of around £20,000 which is money left to me by my grandfather in his will last year. His property/land has recently been sold so this money will filter through to me some time this year & I plan to use all of it for a deposit. I am also saving for moving costs.

Can anyone give me any help regarding costs/budgeting/general advice?

Dora x

claire123

we too are in the process of buying our first home(fingers crossed touch wood). anyway things to think about in terms of cost are Stamp duty if it is over 125K mortgage arrangement fees ours was £600 valuation fee ours was £260. solicitors fees ours has quoted 1200 as ours is a leasehold for which they charge more. Moving costs, we are buying from our landlord so don't have to worry and anything you may need to buy e.g washing machine if you don't have them already. we have budgeted 3K for costs which looks ok at the moment. Good luck with it all

Daddy_Bear_2

DopeyDora wrote:

Hello,

Can anyone give me any help regarding costs/budgeting/general advice?

Dora x

Mortgage rates have already started to increase from a low at the beginning of the year. This is because it is expected that the Bank of England will start increasing the base interest rate, perhaps as soon as July/August.

Therefore, be aware that the interest rates you are using for your calculations may change.

My sister/boyfriend are looking to buy. They thought that it would be a good idea to get a 10-year fixed mortgage but these generally require a 10% deposit (90% LTV) so you would need this.

If you get a 2-3 year fixed mortgage be aware that when the deal expires interest rates could be higher than when you took out the mortgage.

Deals today on fixed rate mortgages (2-3 years) are around 4.5% interest (the Bank of England base rate is 4.5%)

As interest rates are likely to rise, would you be able to afford the mortgage in 2-3 years time if the interest rate was 5, 6, even 7%.

Hope this is of some help,
DB

FTB83

Hi DopeyDora

We have just moved into our first house. As an idea, our costs were as followed (the house was £175,000)

Mortgage arrangement fee £599 (can be added to your mortgage if desired)
Valuation fee £250 (through mortgage provider i this case)
Homebuyers survey £350 (full survey would have been around £500)
Solicitors fees were £1,200 (this included all searches and a trust deed)
Stamp duty £1,750

Total = £4,149

There are also things like buildings and contents insurance and also life and critical illness cover (the latter many people say is a must, and the B&C was a criteria of us having our mortgage). The cost of these depends on your circumstances, but we are both in our early twenties in good health and life and critical illness for us is £39 per month (that was the cheapest and best quality I could find).

You may need to hire removals vans aswell, though if you have good friends with vans (or in our case a Land Rover with a trailer!) this would help.

Hope it all goes well for you. I found it so stressful to begin with, but then I think you just start to sit back and let the solicitors etc. do their job (with a few phone calls to give them a gentle push of course! ).

FTB83

happenstance

Daddy_Bear wrote:

Mortgage rates have already started to increase from a low at the beginning of the year. This is because it is expected that the Bank of England will start increasing the base interest rate, perhaps as soon as July/August.

Therefore, be aware that the interest rates you are using for your calculations may change.

My sister/boyfriend are looking to buy. They thought that it would be a good idea to get a 10-year fixed mortgage but these generally require a 10% deposit (90% LTV) so you would need this.

If you get a 2-3 year fixed mortgage be aware that when the deal expires interest rates could be higher than when you took out the mortgage.

Deals today on fixed rate mortgages (2-3 years) are around 4.5% interest (the Bank of England base rate is 4.5%)

As interest rates are likely to rise, would you be able to afford the mortgage in 2-3 years time if the interest rate was 5, 6, even 7%.

Hope this is of some help,
DB

Sort of a good idea to get a 10 year fixed mortgage, but if rates do go up to 7% it's likley that many new buyers and new btl people wont be able to afford their repayments. Causing prices to come down.

tomstickland

I'm just in the last stages of buying an £87K flat.

-mortgage broker fee: £0 via fee free broker (London and Country)
-mortgage arrangement fee: £499 (Halifax), added to mortgage
-valuation fee £250, paid up front
-search fee £250, paid up front
-solictor's fees: £600, paid just before exchange

DopeyDora_2

Thanks for all your help. We will be looking at places £125,000 & under so should not have any stamp duty to pay.

It's very helpful to know average costs of solicitors, searches etc. Savings are getting there for these costs, so by late summer when we will be in a position to seriously start the search, we should have a good amount.

Hadn't thought of need to buy a washing machine. The flat we're renting has a fitted one, so thanks for that. We have a fridge, & as I've never had a dish washer, I'm sure I can live without. There's only 2 of us!

Dora x