First time buyer - baby on the way

MrChips

I have a thread running in the mortgages and endowments board but I think this is probably a better place for it, so starting a new one here. Old thread here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2669727

In summary, my wife is expecting our first child in January and we currently live in a small 1 bedroom flat. We've been looking for a new place to live a couple of years (probably without enough focus!) but knowing the baby won't wait we have stepped up our efforts with the result we've made offers on two places over the last couple of months.

The first place we made an offer for was on the market at £530k and we had offers of £480k and £490k rejected before we got fed up and moved on. We recently found another place we like even more which is also on the market at £530k. We were going to start the bidding at £490k and be prepared to go up to £500k. However the agent told us that an offer between £490k and £500k had already been rejected so we decided yesterday just to go straight in at £500k but be firm that this was the top end of our range. At the time, the agent implied that this may well be accepted because of the stamp duty issue (although of course he couldn't guarantee).

Got a call today to say that the vendors have found somewhere they want to move to, but are looking to get £510k to £515k to be able to fund the move. The agent feels the house is worth more than £500k (possibly true) - "are we prepared to increase our offer?"

This sounds like the agent trying to squeeze a few extra pounds out of the deal to me.

My wife and I have decided we will wait for them to ring us back and then say we can't go any higher (which is basically true), and that we need to agree a price before mid October or we'll be forced to look for rental properties as we need to move before Christmas (baby due in January). We had agreed to do this anyway if we hadn't found anywhere we liked by late October.

We are hoping no one else will want to go over the stamp duty threshold. From Property Bee, it seems a lot of houses in the area are having to drop asking prices so it does feel like a buyers market.

Any thoughts or suggestions re tactics? This is all doing my head in!

p.s. having never bought a house before, how much time should we allow between agreeing a price and moving in? We don't want to be moving stuff around when the baby is due!

lincroft1710

Perhaps ask EA to politely remind vendor that over £500K means increased stamp duty and will put buyers off. As you are FTB get EA to make this point very strongly to vendor.

If vendor won't/can't come to £500K and you can't go to £510K, then move on.

Baby could be born by the time you move. Or you could be in before Xmas, but period from about 23 Dec till early Jan is no go.

pinkshoes

Have you looked on houseprices.co.uk and seen what they bought the house for, and what similar houses have sold for recently?

I wouldn't budge on the £500k price due to stamp duty. Just be firm with them. I presume you're first time buyers, thus in a good position with no chain?

MrChips

Thanks guys. We know what they paid for it (don't want to be too specific with details here as you never know who is reading!) and they have made a return of about 5%pa over 10 years based on a price of £500k. They haven't done too much structurally in that time, but it is in good condition.

Not too many other houses in that street have sold recently (perhaps one or two per year) and I'm not sure if they are comparable or not.

We are in a great position for them - no chain, big deposit, ready and keen to get moving! We are fairly strong minded that we won't go over the threshold.

Is 6-8 weeks a reasonable period to expect the transaction to take place? If so, I guess we really need to agree a price in the next fortnight or just walk away.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Don't get rushed into buying somewhere you don't really like, or that you think is overpriced- it won't be the end of the world to stay in a 1 bed for the first few months of the baby's life, as it will be in your bedroom anyway.

Niv

If your max if 500k then dont go above it. As 500k is your max then it is irrelevant if the place is worth more (in the EA's or vendor's opinion) as you cannot pay more. When the EA comes back to you simply say '500k is my max i cannot afford to go above this level'. If you lose it, move on and find something else, with a budget of 500k finding a place you like should not be hard.

tyllwyd

MrChips wrote: »

.... Is 6-8 weeks a reasonable period to expect the transaction to take place? If so, I guess we really need to agree a price in the next fortnight or just walk away.

Six to eight weeks is the least it could sensibly take, but it could easily take a lot longer, especially if the vendors need to find somewhere to move to etc. Unless they are the end of the chain, you should plan for several months.

BTW I moved house when I was heavily pregnant and it isn't easy - trying to sit on the floor to pack boxes, and reach into cupboards to clean. A friend of mine did the same, and ended up going into hospital with high blood pressure on the day of the move, so her parents had to step in and sort out the removal. If you do try to move before christmas, make sure you have plenty of help on hand.

Chinkle

It also might be worth reminding the EA that you aren't in a chain and that not many other people are FTB's at £500K level. So if the vendors have found somewhere else then they won't want to be sitting round waiting for a chain to form below them.

pinkteapot

tyllwyd wrote: »

BTW I moved house when I was heavily pregnant and it isn't easy - trying to sit on the floor to pack boxes, and reach into cupboards to clean. A friend of mine did the same, and ended up going into hospital with high blood pressure on the day of the move, so her parents had to step in and sort out the removal. If you do try to move before christmas, make sure you have plenty of help on hand.

We moved in August and paid the removal company to do all our packing. We were moving out of a two-bed flat and it probably added £2-300 to the removals quote. Some of the best money I've ever spent and I wasn't pregnant! They packed all our stuff in one morning and moved us in the afternoon (weren't going far). Highly recommended and I'm making the assumption that on a £500k purchase you've got a reasonable budget for the actual move process.

MrChips

Thanks tyllwyd - really good advice there.

Re the vendors, we've met them twice. The first time they hadn't settled on anywhere as they didn't feel they could make any offers before their own place had had any offers itself. The second time they were also keen to move before Xmas and were willing to move in temporarily with relatives or rent if that helped secure a sale. Now the agent says they have found somewhere and would be willing to settle for £510k!

All in the space of a week and a half....!

MrChips

While moving house is never easy, as first time buyers who have always rented furnished accommodation we don't have that much stuff to move. I think when we moved into current flat, it only needed two journeys in my small Punto! We'd probably need to hire a white van now, but I think I could do it all myself in a day. I'm probably underestimating the hassle factor though...

But we don't have any beds/sofas/tvs/kitchen ware etc. It will be mostly clothes, some electrical goods and nik naks (and I don't mean the nice 'n' spicy crisps!).