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Diary of a first time buyer
peterae
Posts: 79 Forumite
Hi Everyone
I thought i would document our experiences with getting our first mortgage.
We have never had a mortgage before and are both first time buyers.
We have saved quiet a nice pot of gold over the last 5 years which has ended up at £70000.
We are not going to have kids so only really need a 2 bedroom max.
I wanted a large garden so i could grow some veg and spread my legs a bit as we have been cooped up in a small 1st floor flat for 12 years.
We knew the exact area where we wanted to buy, which is not far from where i work and a town that has loads of care homes where my partner can find work easily.
We had initially been aiming for August time, this would be when i have my accounts in order and when our regular savings account matures and have been monitoring Rightmove for some months in advance, looking to find one in our price range matching our criteria.
Then in mid June we saw exactly what we wanted, and fell in love with it, 2 bed bungalow with big garden, had a new kitchen and carpets but needed a redecorate, we didn't go see it as we were not ready to buy unfortunately and within a week it sold, but we now knew what we wanted and was sure more would come up for sale when we were ready.
Mean while this made me pull my finger out a bit, i decided i was going to use Britannia building society which had recently joined up with the coop, so i switched to a Coop current account to get the deal lined up for the future, their mortgage rates looked pretty good and they both had local branches to our current rented property and the area we wanted to buy in, we also decided we wanted a life tracker, this had no exit or over payment fee's so at a later date if we wanted to go fixed we could switch fairly cheaply.
Then On Friday the 9th July
The same property came back on the market with a different agent £5000 cheaper.
On Monday morning we shot down to the Britannia with a bag full of information and statements, and walked out 45 minuets later in shock that we had been given the go ahead for a £246000 mortgage.:T
We then went home and rang the estate agent for the property and went and viewed it.
It was basically a 70's built bungalow, Owned by an old lady who had been put in a home and the daughter had put it up for sale.
It needed some work, a rewire, and a total redecorate.
The new estate agent didn't know what happened with the last sale.
Anyway next day i went to view it again.
It had a problem, the 2nd bedroom was only half functional, it was a walk through to the conservatory which had been tagged on the back of the property, the other room at the back was the main bedroom, so there was no way of getting around this.
I decided that the best option is to swap the front room and the main bedroom over and then use the access from the new front room to the conservatory, which would then make the 2nd bedroom more private.
It was going to cost a bit, but i could do most myself, the current front room was the largest room in the property and really too big for a new bedroom, so i decided that i could build a false wall and have a walk in wardrobe, i could also do the same the other end and use that for storage and an extension cupboard for the kitchen next door.
We would also need to extend the current conservatory so it was wide enough to put doors on the main bedroom into it.
So i now knew what i could do with the property and roughly what it would cost, i was ready to put an offer in.
On Tuesday 13th i put an offer in £15000 lower than what they were asking, they then came back to me and said they would meet me half way and £7500 reduction.
I rang the next day 14th and said i offer £12500 of their asking price.
A day passed and they came back, the response was they wouldn't go below £10000 below their asking price.
I said we wont increase our offer because it needs money spending to get it how we want, we are only just starting to look and there will be others, they said they have someone else interested :eek:
I knew we were in a strong position being first time buyers.
Anyway on the Friday 16th they got back to us and asked us if we were still interested, i offcourse said yes :rotfl:
When i got home from work they rang having checked with the seller and said they had agreed to accept our offer of £12500 below their initial price, but they said they want a fast turnaround of 4 weeks:j
On Monday the 19th i found a solicitor and instructed them that we were first time buyers and that we had found a property and wanted them to do the conveyancing, my brother uses them (but he's rich LOL) they will probably be a little more expensive than usual but i know they do a good job and will be fast, we took some id round to them with a cheque for the initial searches of £200
I passed all the details to the estate agent, and vice verse and things were under way.
Next day 20th we had a letter from the Solicitor we had to sign basically saying we agree to their terms and charges.
We now needed to go back and see the guy at Britannia to get things rolling so we booked an appointment.
I was still waiting for my accountant to finish this years books which was a bit of a worry as i had only put them in on the Monday that we got the agreement in principle, and she was saying i will be off soon on maternity leave
and was finding it hard to say yes she could do them fast.
Thursday the 22nd July
We had a letter from the estate agent basically saying our offer had been accepted.
I met the Britannia guy at the local branch, we filled all the paper work in, was basically told all the checks on us had been done and we were pretty much there, he needed reference from my partner current work place, and needed reference from my accountant but he did say dont worry too much we are in a good position with our deposit and they are not going to be too worried about it, funny really he was quiet a laugh, i spent 2 hours in his office talking about golf and anything other than mortgages 
That is it for now as it happens from here i will keep the thread updated.
I thought i would document our experiences with getting our first mortgage.
We have never had a mortgage before and are both first time buyers.
We have saved quiet a nice pot of gold over the last 5 years which has ended up at £70000.
We are not going to have kids so only really need a 2 bedroom max.
I wanted a large garden so i could grow some veg and spread my legs a bit as we have been cooped up in a small 1st floor flat for 12 years.
We knew the exact area where we wanted to buy, which is not far from where i work and a town that has loads of care homes where my partner can find work easily.
We had initially been aiming for August time, this would be when i have my accounts in order and when our regular savings account matures and have been monitoring Rightmove for some months in advance, looking to find one in our price range matching our criteria.
Then in mid June we saw exactly what we wanted, and fell in love with it, 2 bed bungalow with big garden, had a new kitchen and carpets but needed a redecorate, we didn't go see it as we were not ready to buy unfortunately and within a week it sold, but we now knew what we wanted and was sure more would come up for sale when we were ready.
Mean while this made me pull my finger out a bit, i decided i was going to use Britannia building society which had recently joined up with the coop, so i switched to a Coop current account to get the deal lined up for the future, their mortgage rates looked pretty good and they both had local branches to our current rented property and the area we wanted to buy in, we also decided we wanted a life tracker, this had no exit or over payment fee's so at a later date if we wanted to go fixed we could switch fairly cheaply.
Then On Friday the 9th July
The same property came back on the market with a different agent £5000 cheaper.
On Monday morning we shot down to the Britannia with a bag full of information and statements, and walked out 45 minuets later in shock that we had been given the go ahead for a £246000 mortgage.:T
We then went home and rang the estate agent for the property and went and viewed it.
It was basically a 70's built bungalow, Owned by an old lady who had been put in a home and the daughter had put it up for sale.
It needed some work, a rewire, and a total redecorate.
The new estate agent didn't know what happened with the last sale.
Anyway next day i went to view it again.
It had a problem, the 2nd bedroom was only half functional, it was a walk through to the conservatory which had been tagged on the back of the property, the other room at the back was the main bedroom, so there was no way of getting around this.
I decided that the best option is to swap the front room and the main bedroom over and then use the access from the new front room to the conservatory, which would then make the 2nd bedroom more private.
It was going to cost a bit, but i could do most myself, the current front room was the largest room in the property and really too big for a new bedroom, so i decided that i could build a false wall and have a walk in wardrobe, i could also do the same the other end and use that for storage and an extension cupboard for the kitchen next door.
We would also need to extend the current conservatory so it was wide enough to put doors on the main bedroom into it.
So i now knew what i could do with the property and roughly what it would cost, i was ready to put an offer in.
On Tuesday 13th i put an offer in £15000 lower than what they were asking, they then came back to me and said they would meet me half way and £7500 reduction.
I rang the next day 14th and said i offer £12500 of their asking price.
A day passed and they came back, the response was they wouldn't go below £10000 below their asking price.
I said we wont increase our offer because it needs money spending to get it how we want, we are only just starting to look and there will be others, they said they have someone else interested :eek:
I knew we were in a strong position being first time buyers.
Anyway on the Friday 16th they got back to us and asked us if we were still interested, i offcourse said yes :rotfl:
When i got home from work they rang having checked with the seller and said they had agreed to accept our offer of £12500 below their initial price, but they said they want a fast turnaround of 4 weeks:j
On Monday the 19th i found a solicitor and instructed them that we were first time buyers and that we had found a property and wanted them to do the conveyancing, my brother uses them (but he's rich LOL) they will probably be a little more expensive than usual but i know they do a good job and will be fast, we took some id round to them with a cheque for the initial searches of £200
I passed all the details to the estate agent, and vice verse and things were under way.
Next day 20th we had a letter from the Solicitor we had to sign basically saying we agree to their terms and charges.
We now needed to go back and see the guy at Britannia to get things rolling so we booked an appointment.
I was still waiting for my accountant to finish this years books which was a bit of a worry as i had only put them in on the Monday that we got the agreement in principle, and she was saying i will be off soon on maternity leave
and was finding it hard to say yes she could do them fast.Thursday the 22nd July
We had a letter from the estate agent basically saying our offer had been accepted.
I met the Britannia guy at the local branch, we filled all the paper work in, was basically told all the checks on us had been done and we were pretty much there, he needed reference from my partner current work place, and needed reference from my accountant
but he did say dont worry too much we are in a good position with our deposit and they are not going to be too worried about it, funny really he was quiet a laugh, i spent 2 hours in his office talking about golf and anything other than mortgages That is it for now as it happens from here i will keep the thread updated.
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Comments
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That was interesting - thanks for sharing!:)Squish0
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Errm maybe i should have put that another way:rotfl:0
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One other thing i forgot to mention.
I was made Bankrupt a long time ago in 1993 and was worried whether to tell them or not, i opened another thread on here asking the question should i mention it or not, the general consensus was to tell them and it would not make any difference, the problem was that if i didn't tell them and they found out our mortgage could fall through
Anyway the first thing i said to the Britannia guy was i was an ex Bankrupt in 93, he didn't bat an eyelid, said everyone makes a mistake at some point and it has no bearing on our mortgage whats so ever
The only thing i could see on the forms was 'Have you had any adverse credit in the last 6 years'.0 -
Friday 23rd
Just had an email from my accountant saying my accounts will be ready late monday 26th
This was a potential worry because if it held my morgage up it could have all fallen through and i would have lost the searches money and the house as they wanted a fast turnaround.0 -
Ok here's the deal.
Mortgage amount 129,500
20 years repayment
Total amount to pay back 165,280.13
The overall cost for comparison is 2.6% apr
1st payment variable rate including broken interest 774.12
239 payments at a variable rate currently 2.49% 685.59
Fee's payable valuation fee 2000 -
im borrowing 108,500 with britannia but got a nce 4 percent 5 year fixed :0. We just exhcnaged... so good look.0
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Hi neas
Thats great news :T
Partys at your place _party_
Good luck, it's a hard call to go Life Tracker or Fixed right now.0 -
Hi Peter, I am also a FTB and if you don't mind could you tell us: where did you buy your house (as the price seems similar to what I am looking for)?Ok here's the deal.
Mortgage amount 129,500
20 years repayment
Total amount to pay back 165,280.13
The overall cost for comparison is 2.6% apr
1st payment variable rate including broken interest 774.12
239 payments at a variable rate currently 2.49% 685.59
Fee's payable valuation fee 200
From my calcs:
Original AP: £217K
Reduced to: £212K
Offer accepted at: £199.5K
Offer/Orig. AP: approx. 92%
Offer/Red. AP: approx. 94%
This helps to have an idea of negotiation.
The problem is: if you borrow the whole amount would you still be able to "live" or would you just have money to repay the mortgage? i understand this is one of the main problems with loads of people.peterae wrote:On Monday morning we shot down to the Britannia with a bag full of information and statements, and walked out 45 minuets later in shock that we had been given the go ahead for a £246000 mortgage0 -
tldr
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