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

ixwood

killerkaterina wrote: »

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Have to disagree with the person who said don't get a flat if you plan to have kids, though. There are lots of people who will never be able to afford to buy a real house, and kids can survive in flats.

Sure, Kids will survive in flats, but it's not ideal. I don't know anyone that lives in a flat and most people I know own their own houses. You can usually get a nice solid terrace for about the same as shiny new "Luxury apartments" around here.

I guess you must be in London to never be able to afford a "real house"? If you can't afford to buy where you are, move. Or be patient and save a big deposit for the next downturn in the market.

BB78

1 other thing, make this site (MoneySavingExpert), Freecycle, cashback sites, comparison sites and HotUkDeals your new best friends!! Buying your first home is only the start of your expenses, the more you can save on running costs the better!!

marcg

Ok, I don't think anyone has said this:

The costs to refurbish a do-er-upper come out of your pocket at 100%, not on the mortgage at 4% (or whatever). This means if you need to spend £10k to sort the house you'd better be able to afford it as well as your other living expenses. The days when you could remortgage to recoup your costs may be gone as well.

Consider buying a place that is fairly up-together for a stress-free life.

Oh, and artex is made of asbestos.

BringtheStoneshome

warehouse wrote: »

CHECK OUT THE NEIGHBOURS.

Even the best house in the world will be utterly ruined by bad neighbours. Visit at different times of day/night. Overgrown garden next door, junk outside, badly maintained? Beware. If you suspect then knock on other doors and ask about noise, neighbours, dogs etc.

Next time I buy a place, (last 2 have had awful neighbours one side), I will draw up a legally binding questionaire for the sellers regarding the neighbours. If they don't want to complete it then you know why.

Absolutely spot on. We too have had rubbish neighbors two houses running. I bought my present house with a view to running a massage business from it (sports not saucy I hasten to add). I have lost that venture and £2k of training because we had divvies with barking dogs (never barked on the many occasions I looked around!) and music on when they felt like it.:(

danandgeorgie

Despite visiting at different times and checking police stats we arrived to find our estate is locally notorious for anti social behaviour. The bungalow was real cheap and now we know why. We have had 2 cars written off by vandalism in the 5 years we've been here.

we thought we had been vigilant - we suggest you are more vigilant and that such info needs to be readily available and accurate.

ali-t

Don't buy a house you don't have a good vibe about and if something niggles you when you visit - take note. the house I live in just now I bought as I had sold the last one and needed to be in somewhere in 6 weeks and didn't want the hassle of renting with pets. Getting in somewhere with a smooth transition became more important than buying a house I loved - big mistake!

There was an annoying child on the trampoline in the garden next door and I should have listened to my inner voice that said 'that little !!!! will be the bane of your life' but I didn't and how I lived to regret it.

Neilus1

LoobyLuce wrote: »

If you are buying a leasehold flat, make sure you check the length of the lease before you put your offer in, as it needs to be beyond your lifetime (my solicitor suggested 70+ years is best). If the flat is on a short lease (less than 50 years) you may find you have problems.

Your solicitor sounds as though he may have been a bit slack there. The rule of thumb is that no mortgage lender will lend on a property that has 70 years or less to run, and so you cannot proceed with the purchase without a Deed of Variation to lengthen the term of the lease (typically to a 99 year or 999 year lease). As you point out though, this usually comes at great expense, especially if there is a management company involved, and it is necessary if you want to be able to sell.

Personally, if your solicitor finds that a property has 72 or 73 years left to run, even though you may get a mortgage, Id consider whether you wanted to proceed. If you know youre going to be in the property for a few years, you can guarantee you'll end up having to pay for a Deed of Variation to sell it. If you really are that keen to buy it, then perhaps you should negotiate on the basis that you will only purchase if the seller contributes to half of the cost of a Deed of Variation.

beaufort_2

If you are buying a 'new build' property or any property with a management company, find out who they are and check there history.

I bought a new build apartment from a certain house builder with a labrador as it's logo and was told my management fee would be only £800 a year. In three years, it increased to over £1200 and the company didn't do any work for this money!

This also applied to new 'house' owners too and now appears to be the norm with new builds. Whereby Council's approve developers plans for new builds, but are not responsible for the upkeep, because the developers sell this to property management companies, to make the developer's plans appear more attractive to the council.

Resulting in everyone paying in some cases (I was one of them) more money to the PM company, than my council tax. House owners, were paying yearly fee's to get access to their home via the road!

Do some research and if any of the following names crop up, consider your options:-

Peverel OM Ltd
OM Property Management Ltd
Peverel Group
County Estate Management Ltd
Solitaire Property Management Ltd

Google any of the above and you'll find the website "The Truth About Solitaire", which details many people's experiences of these companies.

Fortunately, our estate has managed to replace Solitaire Property Management with a local one, which reduced my fees to under £600 a year for a flat / apartment (saving of £600), in addition to actually getting services for our money.

In hindsight, had I known about the above, I would never have bought my property, but now things have changed, I'm more than happy!

System

warehouse wrote: »

CHECK OUT THE NEIGHBOURS.

Even the best house in the world will be utterly ruined by bad neighbours. Visit at different times of day/night. Overgrown garden next door, junk outside, badly maintained? Beware. If you suspect then knock on other doors and ask about noise, neighbours, dogs etc.

Next time I buy a place, (last 2 have had awful neighbours one side), I will draw up a legally binding questionaire for the sellers regarding the neighbours. If they don't want to complete it then you know why.

I agree with this 100%. I viewed my flat just once before buying, and within an hour of actually moving in the music started thumping through from upstairs. This ended up being an ongoing problem (and still is!) with both the upstairs and downstairs neighbours. You need to view a place at least three times, and it needs to be at different times of day. I went just once, during the day, and it was quiet so I assumed there was no problem. Be wary of buying somewhere that was rented out beforehand as the vendors can say they are not aware of any noise/neighbour problems, even if they are, and legally get away with it.

I would also recommend knocking on the next door/upstairs/downstairs neighbours and having a wee chat. Sometimes you can tell that people are trouble just by looking at them, so it's worth it even if you only get to see the neighbours.

If you are buying a leasehold flat make sure you find out thoroughly about service charges and if anything major is in the pipeline that you may have you fork out for. I didn't do this and just after I moved in my service charge leapt from £90 a month to £150 a month to pay for some major building works. Had I known this, I may not have bought.

Do not get caught up in a bidding war when buying a flat. Choose your budget limit and stick to it.

Also be careful of leases in flats. Make sure there is plenty of life left in it. I knew nothing about this when I bought and there was just 71 years left on mine (which seemed like loads). Three years later and I've been told I will have to fork out £14k to extend it, or will struggle to sell (and will have to sell at a major loss). My solicitor did not say anything to me about the length of the lease being short, which I am now told that he should have. Wish someone in the know had warned me.

deeheg

I think that you should really like your home and potentially love it, not think of it as a stepping stone to bigger things you never know when your circumstances change, so be happy to be stuck there (but not feeling stuck), and without a doubt buy where you know and like and not somewhere because its more sqft but miles away from where you are used to, i know so many people who trying to move back and with the property crash now it wont be possible, no point having an extra bedroom if your miserable