Buying our first house - Would you wait?

kford224

Hello all,

My boyfriend and I are looking to buy our first house. We shall have a 10% deposit ready by (hopefully) the end of May, so can potentially put an offer in somewhere at the end of March/April

We have seen a house we really like, that we are going to view on Saturday, but obviously we run the risk of it being sold before we have the deposit up together and a mortgage sorted.

What is the average amount of time houses are on the market these days, or does it vary quite drastically? If there is no onward chain, do you think this means that the owners are likely to be more flexible with timings? If they are in/around the house on Saturday, is it appropriate to ask them/the agent how long it's been on the market and explain that we won't have a deposit ready for a few months? How honest should we be?!

I don't expect them to 'wait' for us, but it would be good to know about some of the etiquette!

Thanks in advance.

CloudCuckooLand

Personally, I would not risk falling in love with somewhere that sells before you can make an offer.

By all means watch the market to keep an eye on price movements. But I would not view properties.

Use Firefox with Property Bee to find dates that properties have been on the market. Rightmove's Price Comparison section may also be helpful.

poppysarah

How much deposit do you have now?
9.5%?

evoke

Sort your finances out and be in a 'proceedable' position before you fall in love with a property and make an offer on it. There is nothing worse for a seller to have someone make an offer, accept the offer and then find that the buyer was never 'proceedable'.

I have told both of my EAs not to forward offers from any buyer who is not proceedable as I don't want my time wasted - i've had two sales fall through already due to dreamers and timewasters.

Put aside emotion when buying or selling a property.

hazyjo

Definitely think you should wait a few months to view. You can't wait until completion day to have that deposit available - I should imagine your mortgage offer will depend on what you have when you apply - so this will be weeks into the purchase, not months. Cut back drastically if you can to speed up the saving process, that's all anyone can advise if you want it all quicker.

Call the agent or check property bee to see how long it's been on the market and how many price drops it's had (if any).

No idea what the average would be as too many deciding factors (location for one, price for another, etc). A house near me sold in an hour, other people have been on these boards saying their property's been on the market 2-3 years!

We offered on a house a year or so ago. They wouldn't drop and we wouldn't go up any more. It's still on the market - now for a fair bit less than we offered. But someone else might have come along and loved it and paid the asking price. No way of knowing who's looking for what at the time a property goes on the market.

No, I doubt 'no onward chain' would mean they'd be flexible in that they'd wait several months to complete (know you weren't expecting them to, but if you love it, you'd probably be thinking along those lines). It could actually mean that they need the money as quickly as possible! They might be going into rented accommodation (as many do) to make them more attractive buyers for when they do buy something else. Until you know why they're moving, it's impossible to speculate so I won't bang on about any other possibilities.

You can ask sellers how long their house has been on the market - but I'd probably do my own homework beforehand rather than ask them direct. Doesn't mean they have to take an offer any more than it does if they've only been selling for a week. Again, you'll have to do your own homework to establish the price. EAs often put properties up for what the vendor's asked for - their own valuations are sometimes ignored, so definitely look into local pricings - that's actual 'sold' prices, not necessarily 'for sale' prices.

If you do view, I'd not say too much about your current situation. Many are advising you not to view. Whether or not you take the advice is up to you. The EA will probably ask you what your current position is if they haven't already and that information will be relayed to the vendor.

Jx

DVardysShadow

Some say don't view. Personally, I would suggest you start viewing a few months before you are fully ready in order to

• get your eye in
• get a feel for the market
• iron out the issues of working as a team on a viewing.
• Get a feel for dealing with Estate Agents

You need to be aware that if you do this, you will be putting someone to the trouble of giving you a viewing when you are unable to purchase. But if you will be ready in May, then start viewing very selectively from late March, without letting on that you are not quite ready

missile

It is a big decision and one you need to think about very carefully. In your position I would be viewing suitable properties. Do not rush and do not feel tempted to offer before your finances are arranged. You need to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince.

thebfg

personally we are going through the stage of purchasing our first house. its a long process as much as the lenders and brokers say it is not.

i was told i could do it all in 6-8 weeks. its taking around 3 months.

i would say go and view it and put offer in if you think that you will have the deposit secured in the next 4 weeks, because that is the minimum amount of time required for the legal side of things.

as for the lender checking your deposit, i doubt it will be a condition on the offer.

we have an offer and also the valuation went through fine, i didnt have the deposit money sitting in my account during the application.

you have to also remember that to include the other fees and account for them. we have to source another 5k for this. Also another 5k due to the fact that the lender gave us an AIP for 223k but only offered us 217k, nothing changed in our circumstance, and be careful this could happen to anyone, so dont could on an agreement in priciple (AIP).

the legal part of it once you put the offer in begins with the whole process the main bit is the enquiries, draft contracts, exchange, completion all in all the last two stage can take upto 4 weeks.

so you have more time than you realise, we were short of about a grand for the deposit, and thought we would have to have the money there as we apply, but because it took so long we were able to save it by now. and also bear in mind the DEPOSIT will not need to be paid till very late in the process atleast not till exchange.

regards,
F

kford224

Thank you all for your comments!

We currently have £13k saved, and are putting away £1000 a month between us, so should have the full £20,000 we want to save six months or so. As this property was £170,000 we figured that we could put in an offer earlier, as we were told by a mortgage advisor that the process takes about three months, and we would not need to hand over the deposit until towards the end of that period (hence being able to put offers in around three months before we have the money - in this case when we have £14,000)

I do totally agree that we shouldn't get set on houses before we have the money, and I am now looking at it with my head more than my heart. However, I agree with DVardysShadow that we need to get an idea for real as to what sort of house we want in the future and we are starting to look around different ones (town houses, semi's, terraces...etc) so that when we do come to buy, we already know exactly the sort of things we like/don't like, want/don't want.

I think we shall continue to look, but keep our position quiet as it is true that it may put EA off of showing us properties if they know that we are unable to make an offer yet.

Thanks again for your advice, it has been very valuable and fully taken aboard!!

evoke

Start off by using the property search sites (findaproperty, rightmove and primelocation) to see what's out there and save the properties that grab your attention. You can use the 'request more information' features on those sites to send an email directly to the estate agents for more information. I've got saved properties that are still on the market from three months ago so I could always view them once I become 'proceedable'.

rosspwilliams

Me and my girlfriend started looking at houses when we had about 2/3 of our deposit (although we did have the option of a gift for the rest if we needed it). We found somewhere within a couple of weeks, made an offer, got the mortgage in place etc and as it has been going on for so long (5 months I think it is now), we have been able to save the rest of the deposit in the meantime.

I would say that it's worth looking at places, but resist the temptation to make an offer unless you know you can get your hands on the rest of the money should you need it.