Homeowners report??

Sara784

Hi everyone,
me and my boyfriends are FTB's and have had an offer accepted on a house, the mortgage is nearly sorted, the valuation has been done and is fine...the thing is, obviously the mortgage company advise us to get our own survey done for our piece of mind, but when i asked the estate agents (my dad's away at the moment so can't ask him ) they said that there's no need, everybody goes on the survey done by the mortgage company, and it'll be fine....so now i don't know what to do :eek: The properly is only 20 years old so can't imagine any problems apart from what has been said on the mortage survey.....any advice would be gratefully received!!

Confused first time buyer (haha )

torapoole

I'm a first time buyer too but I would strongly suggest you get a homebuyers report- the estate agents probably don't want you to because it can highlight problems with the house that may cause you to negotiate down the price or even pull out- our survey highlighted lots of damp all over the house to such an extent that we pulled out, and was honestly the best £400 quid we've spent, given the problems and cost it might have caused further down the line.
(Our property was about 100 yrs old so I don't know how much age plays a part, but I'm sure that there is a lot that could be wrong with a property even only 20 yrs old)

Sara784

Thanks, i've got a good quote from a local company who have good reviews on reallymoving.com, so definately going to do it. Seems ridiculous to spend so much money on a house and not get it checked out first!

Hailstorm

Torapoole has given very good advice. The estate agent is thinking of their back pocket, not you. When they say everyone goes by just the mortgage valuation they are definitely talking out of their rear end.

The agent would rather you didn't have a survey because that might reveal problems that cause delays to the sale, causes you to renegotiate the price or even pull out alltogether (the agent gets their comission when the sale goes through). If such problems do exist though you want to find out about them before you buy the house. The last thing you need after spening a lot of money buying the house is that it needs thousands of pounds worth of repairs.

20 years is not too young to have a survey. Have one done regardless of the age of the property. I went for a full structural on the house I bought last year and it was 24 years old. I will say though that at that age you could argue a full structural is paying extra for belt and braces and a homeowner's report is likely to be sufficient.

mqandy

An estate agent saying there's no point would be the very reason I WOULD get the survey done.

What do they not want you to know?!

(I'm sure it's not that bad, but I'm dead suspicious of anyone with a job ending in 'agent'...)

Sara784

Thanks everyone, i did think it was a bit odd but hope theres nothing wrong with it cos we love it!! Its getting done on thursday morning now anyway, and the report should be with us on friday. They can't complain thats its holding it up anyway! haha