Great 'What I wish I’d known before I bought my first home' Hunt

afmfifgh

ixwood wrote: »

Sorry, but if I'm spending £100,000's on a property, I don't care whether it's got a sky dish or not. Stuff like that is completely trivial.

I wasn't saying don't buy a property that doesn't have one I was saying if it doesn't have one and you are planning on getting Sky budget for the install. If you are an existing customer and move house they will charge you to install it again. The property I am looking at has Sky multiroom already saving me a little over £200 in installation costs.

Given the name of this site I would have thought this was a valid point to put forward, especially when people are talking about budgeting for lightbulbs etc.
If you don't care about £100 here, £200 there it soon becomes £1,000's that you have not taken into account when moving. So I stand by my point and budget for things like a new TV aerial (the whole country is moving to Digital but still a lot of aerial won't get Digital) or having Sky installed on your new property as it all adds up!

ali.edge_2

I wish I'd realised that my boyfriend (now husband) would never change his ways and would always be like the teenage boy he was when we met ... think very carefully before you take the plunge!

cabusty

A mortgage is a posh word for a loan.

Borrow £100,000 from mortgage lenders & end up paying them back £380,000+ over many many years. Just be prepared for the reality.

mlz1413

ali.edge wrote: »

I wish I'd realised that my boyfriend (now husband) would never change his ways and would always be like the teenage boy he was when we met ... think very carefully before you take the plunge!

Do you remember the old tv series 2.4 children?
I think it perfectly summed up the average man - 0.4 of a child, forever!

Fire_Fox

I wish I'd read the Leasehold Advisory Service website inside out and back to front before I bought my flat, so that I fully understood my rights and responsibilities as regards service charges, repairs and maintenance.
www.lease-advice.org

giddy-aunt

Bought our house 5 years ago.
Lovely neighbours who had right of way though our side gate...They had been there for 20 odd years and werent intending on moving.They stated that they only used the side gate when taking bins out and mower.
Grown up children,no pets,great.
......until their circumstances changed and they decided to move and sell up.
Oh boy,did we have a shock!
No more quietness,strangers walking through our gate,leaving gate open,slamming gate,scrapes to our side of house etc.etc.
My advice is avoid if possible,buying a house with a R.O.W.
My next house will be all mine!

ab7167

Check the parking - one we looked at had ample parking in front of the house. On closer inspection, parking was limited to 1 hour between 8am and 6pm 7 days a week. Vendors stated that this was not enforced, but a week after we had made the offer, enforcement in our district was contracted out to a civil enforcer. We did pull out for another reason, but the parking would have become a big issue, I believe. I can put up with a lot, but not getting a parking ticket in front of my own house on a Sunday! Ended up going for a house that has no restrictions in front and potential for off street which we will be doing in the near future.

marich

1) The house , roof and bounds should be checked over thoroughly (with you nose too !) .
2) You should drive around the area at different times and days .
3) Most importantly , you should make a point of knocking on the neighbours' doors and asking what it's like living there . You can learn in five minutes what it would take you five years to digest , and you'll get a preview of your local support network !
4) Yes - don't believe anything you are told about the house . Especially ask for current electrical and gas installation checks/reports - refuse to buy without these being satisfactory (and remember to verify their authenticity with the firm that supposedly carried them out !) .

riffraffsgirl

One thing I wish my husband and I had known about was Life Assusrance. We got ripped off by being sold 2 decreasing death benefits, instead of one joint policy, 1st death, which meant that whoever may die first the mortgage gets paid off.

Also, ensure that you agree a time that the keys to your property will be handed over to the estate agent, we were left wondering on the day of completion if we would be able to move house. The people we'd bought the house off waited for their children to come home from school, fed them and only then did they hand the keys into the estate agents - at 5pm!!!! Needless to say a mad dash to the estate agents ensued so we could pick our keys up before they closed at 5.30pm.

Meyamoo

1. The length of the lease
I was orginally told mine was 99, 3 days before exchange and completion, found out it was 79. 3 and a half years later, trying to organise lease extension, freeholder from hell (more later) wants £15k

2. Who the freeholder is
Both vendor's solicitor and my solicitor claimed she could not be found, so the sale was "absent freeholder" purchase, which apperantly was common. a week after completion she turned up on my doorstep demanding service charges payable by the previous leaseholder.

If I hadn't been so naive, I would have written a letter to the freeholdersr home address myself, which was noted on the title deeds (I didn't know it was ok to do this, as my solicitor told me it was up to the vendors solicitor to get in touch with her). How I rue the day.

3. Who pays service charges
Under my lease, I don't. I started paying £50 per month when I moved in, and stopped after 2 and a half years (I know, I know) when I saw that the ciommunal areas were still a mess and the freeholder refused to produce accounts. 3 and a half years later, I'm still waiting for accounst for what I paid, and having taken her to the LVT, it turns out she isn't due service the County Court to get my money back.

4. Know when to walk away
My purchase dragged on for 6 months. It completed on the last day that the mortgage offer was still valid. How I wish it had been allowed to expire. I would have walked away at that point, despite the fact I should have done so 4 months earlier.

5. Terms of the lease
The freeholder is all powerful.

6. Don't ever buy a leasehold flat
It will ruin your life. The end.