House Buying advice please

seafarers_wife

Hiya

Well OH and I are considering buying a house, we are renting at the moment and just need to give a months notice to end the contract. Its been on the market on right move since May of this year and its at a pretty decent price.

Its an ex-council house by the looks of things in a pretty decent estate, and is a 4 bed semi with ensuite and family bathroom, living room, dining room and kitchen. It also has an attached double garage. I have no concerns about the area having visited at various times of the day, just concerned why its not selling really.

My OH isnt due back till mid January and my inlaws have advised to go view it and if i like it make a stupidly low offer and then stall till oh comes back and we can do mortgage thing.

Now my concerns are my credit rating is rubbish and defaults wont be clear for another 3 years, he earns a very good salary, its tax free due to his job, do you think we would get a 90% mortgage on the basis of that, he takes home between £2800 - £3400 a month depending on where he is sailing and danger pay, but his basic is £2800 a month? He does have a car loan that has another 18 months to run at £250 a month and his credit rating is impeccable, no late payments, mobile phone paid on time each month, car loan paid each month, credit card paid in full each month (only used for section 75 protection on big purchases). I wouldnt be named on mortgage obviously with my credit history. We will have approx £20K saved as its been an expensive year with things cropping up.

How does housebuying work in england? is the following the "right" way to do things?

Get mortgage in principle agreed
choose solicitor
start viewing house
make ridiculously low offer and start negotiation
once offer accepted do survey and what survey do we choose?
then negotiate again based on survey results
once negotiation done exchange contracts
then complete contracts and we (along with the bank) own the house

Also how much is it for solicitors and how to I pick one?

Im used to the scottish system and have no knowledge of this system and non of our friends have been able to buy yet so just wondering where we go really.

thanks

nearlyrich

seafarers_wife wrote: »

How does housebuying work in england? is the following the "right" way to do things?

Get mortgage in principle agreed
choose solicitor
start viewing house
make ridiculously low offer and start negotiation
once offer accepted do survey and what survey do we choose?
then negotiate again based on survey results
once negotiation done exchange contracts
then complete contracts and we (along with the bank) own the house

Also how much is it for solicitors and how to I pick one?

Im used to the scottish system and have no knowledge of this system and non of our friends have been able to buy yet so just wondering where we go really.

thanks

Looks about right to me, been a while for me bu DD put an offer in last week and it's all coming back to me LOL. It appears that solicitors charge on a scale depending on the price you are paying for the house plus disbursements, get at least three quotes and try to get a solicitor who comes recommended. Good luck...

Mrs_Z

Hi, you've pretty much got it - except that you can start viewing houses at any time. Get your finances sorted (ie. mortgage in principle) so you know what your budget is. Once you find the one you like, put in an offer, once that's been accepted - get a solicitor. Survey gets done and based on the results, you can negotiate the prices again if necessary. After that step, it'll be exchange of contracts usually followed by completion 2 weeks later (time can vary). Anything can happen up to the exchange of contracts as only at that point the sale becomes binding with penalities if you pull out.

On finding solicitors - ask for recommendations, or phone a few for quotes. Personally I prefer smaller firms to larger firms (on the basis that your business matters to them more).

hazyjo

You talk about debts and loans... can I just ask where the 10% deposit is coming from? Savings? How come you have savings if you have debts? Something doesn't add up and I'm wondering if you're presuming you can get a loan or something for the 10% deposit (not possible).

Thanks,

Jx

poppysarah

How much deposit you got saved?

seafarers_wife

hazyjo wrote: »

You talk about debts and loans... can I just ask where the 10% deposit is coming from? Savings? How come you have savings if you have debts? Something doesn't add up and I'm wondering if you're presuming you can get a loan or something for the 10% deposit (not possible).

Thanks,

Jx

It does all add up to me anyways , at this point in time we have savings in OH name of 17K and his car loan has approx £6500 left to pay off. By the time OH is back from sea at the end of January, we would have had two paydays so we would have around £20K saved and his car loan would be down to £6000.

Last time we spoke to the bank about a year ago, even with his car loan running they were happy to lend him £155K, but at that point in time we had 25K in savings, but they have reduced as we had to pay for a few courses that he needed to do if he was going to be looking to progress his career hence only having 17K now.

That is why im sounding out the possibility of getting a 90% mortgage when he is back, the house we are looking at is now on at 110K so 10% depoist would be 11K, leaving 9K of savings, less another 2K for furniture leaves 7K in savings for solicitors fees and a small cushion for savings.

If we cant get a 90% mortgage then we go back to our original plan of paying off the car loan in May 2011 year and staying put here until October 2012 and then looking to buy when we would have a 40 - 45K deposit and no debt. That option was our original plan but with the house that we like reducing even further it has put everything into the air hence me asking if 90% mortgage would even be possible.

Thanks

geoffky

wait until he is home..go and find a house together as that's what's its all about,, is he rfa?