looking at moving home, although i think were out of our depth!.

stolt

We currently live in a detached 3 bed which has been vauled around 300k, the only problem is that its a small close which has 14 houses in total, ive just found out that a developer plans to build seven flats and a detached house on the grounds of one large house at the beginning of the road. this will obviously have a impact on the price of my house I'm assuming it will go down because the road wont be classed so exclusivley. So we have decided to sell up and move on, we do actually need more space because we have three young daughters, and space is a little tight now. Plus the disruption the year build on the proposed flats has jsut encouraged us to move that little bit quicker.

long story short, we were just driving round today looking for any suitable houses, and stumbled cross a lovely house that we have both fell in love with, perfect for us in nearly everyway, apart from yes you guess it price wise!!

the house is a 4 bed house for 415k its been on the market since november and they have had a few viewings, apparently another couple were also there this morning and showed some interest aswell.

we will have to get an mortgage of around 194,000. I earn 34k a year plus bonuses, and my wife is currently at home looking after our youngest.

I was looking on egg.com they will only give 2.5times my salary, is this a no no from the start, is there somewhere that will lend more at a decent rate.

also one more question looking at other threads on here I was going to make an offer of 400K, do you think thats too cheeky i dont want them to think were not serious.

also at the moment he has a estate agents board up but he said they have failed to tie him down to a contract and i half mentioned we could come to an agreement, and therefore he would save his fees which could be passed onto us. is there any risks involved with this rather than using a estate agent.

thanks for taking the time to read this

Rick62

How much you can borrow will also take into account your bonuses (usually at 50% a few lenders take 100%). How much bonus do you receive?

I don't think £400k is too cheeky vs asking £415k. Personally I would start lower, also I would go for a more specific amount (eg £391,000) and make it look like you have calculated and offerred the most you can afford, rather than £400k looks like it is plucked out the air.

stolt

thanks for the reply, i get on average about a 3k bonus plus a inflation wage increase.

i like the idea of 391k I suppose they can only say no, we got on really well with the couple that were selling it (and i forgot to mention that they are moving to australia to tie in with he husbands job, so they said there in no rush to move, within 3 months or so would be good for themi suppose that means they might take lower because they havent got to keep up with the house prices in the uk

stolt

ok just an update the estate agent contacted us this morning to see what we thought of the house, explained the problem that yes we want the house but after working out all the costs etc it doesnt look good on paper and was thinking around 393k, he said that someone had made an offer on the house yesterday but it was under that offer. I said that maybe if we could sell through him (estate agent) that we could get a better price.

stolt

another update, estate agent just phoned to say that the vendor had turned down my offer of 393k, and woudl i like to make another offer, at the moment i said no not at the moment, he said the vendor is looking for over 400k.

I had a look on nethouseprices website and the vendor paid 382k for it 3 years ago when it was built.

not sure what to do, maybe an offer of 399K!! any suggestions.

Jockthearab

Stolt, my advice would be for you to slow down! Have you arranged a meeting with an Independent Finacial advisor to see what mortgage you can get yet?

Don't let the Estate Agent push you into making a quick decision-tell them your offer still stands but perhaps arrange another viewing of the house? This time be far more critical & look for all the 'bad points' that you may have missed with your 1st viewing. Then you can decide how much you really want to buy it.

It can be very easy to get sucked in & swept along by the whole house buying experience! Just don't let it take over & control you!

stolt

Jockthearab wrote:

Stolt, my advice would be for you to slow down! Have you arranged a meeting with an Independent Finacial advisor to see what mortgage you can get yet?

Don't let the Estate Agent push you into making a quick decision-tell them your offer still stands but perhaps arrange another viewing of the house? This time be far more critical & look for all the 'bad points' that you may have missed with your 1st viewing. Then you can decide how much you really want to buy it.

It can be very easy to get sucked in & swept along by the whole house buying experience! Just don't let it take over & control you!

ha ha yes I understand what your saying, I haven't spoke to a finacial advisor yet, I've only done some online mortage calculators just to work out the monthly figures. I obviously wanted to keep costs down, would it not be that the advisor would offer a slightly cheaper rate but then i will have to pay his/her fees for the service.

at the end of the day 415k is too much for us really, we would be cutting very close to the bone as far as our standard of living is concerned, especially when we have three children aswell, I dont want them to suffer just because we want a bigger house.

I was trying to get another viewing for this afternoon, told the estate agent that we have another house to view, trouble is he doesnt sound to bothered either way.

stolt

well been for another viewing the house is more impressive than we thought yesterday, really dont want to lose it but were in a bad position, we havent sold our house yet (estate agent coming tomorrow afternoon) and we will have a massive mortgage (to us) of around 195k, the mortgage alone will be half my salary and thats something which i'm worried about, how about if the rate rises again then we might lose the house etc.

the family are really nice an dsaid they striuggled when they first moved in but after a year or two it even out.

do you think thats a big mortgage for a couple, my wife wont be going back to work for another 4 years or so, so it is only one wage coming in.

Mrs_Optimist

Is your house on the market yet? Do you have a buyer? I can't see how you can offer on a house when you haven't sold your own. Sorry I have missed this somewhere in your thread.

ALSO local Searches will show up the development plans for the house near you which MAY put prospective buyers off. PLEASE think very carefully before jumping in feet first with a big mortgage and only one salary. Take Independant Financial Advice and work out your commitnments down to the last penny. See if you can afford a bigger mortgage after that. I agree that it is too easy to get swept up with the whole romance of buying your dream home but if you don't do your research now that dream could become a reality nightmare!

Mrs_Optimist

sorry, crossed posts - yes I think it is a huge amount of money when you have only one salary coming in. Interest rates only need to rise a couple more times and you would be in dire straits and if your wife isn't planning on returning to work for another 4 years you will not have a Plan B to assist you. Also with bigger houses come bigger running costs - have you factored this into your finances?

We are taking on a bigger mortgage for us which isn't even a quarter of our joint take home salary and we have really, really researched what could go wrong, it was that daunting a prospect. If interest rates went up to 10% we could still comfortably manage - could you? I am really sorry if this post sounds negative, but I am trying to save you from making a huge financial mistake. Carry on looking at other houses whilst you are marketing your own. Seek financial advice. Don't rush in feet first. You may well find that you find a better house at less money and so not have such a financial burden on your shoulders. Alternatively your dream home may not sell and the price may drop anyway.

stolt

Mrs_Optimist wrote:

sorry, crossed posts - yes I think it is a huge amount of money when you have only one salary coming in. Interest rates only need to rise a couple more times and you would be in dire straits and if your wife isn't planning on returning to work for another 4 years you will not have a Plan B to assist you. Also with bigger houses come bigger running costs - have you factored this into your finances?

We are taking on a bigger mortgage for us which isn't even a quarter of our joint take home salary and we have really, really researched what could go wrong, it was that daunting a prospect. If interest rates went up to 10% we could still comfortably manage - could you? I am really sorry if this post sounds negative, but I am trying to save you from making a huge financial mistake. Carry on looking at other houses whilst you are marketing your own. Seek financial advice. Don't rush in feet first. You may well find that you find a better house at less money and so not have such a financial burden on your shoulders. Alternatively your dream home may not sell and the price may drop anyway.

dont worry about sounding negative, i think I'm more cautious than the wife, yes we got the monthly running costs from the people that live there and there a few pounds different (higher) to what we are paying now so its not a problem in that respect, we have sat down last night after viewing it and typed up a spreadsheet showing all our outgoings, obviously the mortgage is a big concern its a grand house but to be thats a massive mortgage and like you say if the rate rises to even 10% we will really struggle.

hopefully nobody else will put in a decent offer and they will have to drop alittle on there asking price. i do believe in fate and like you say we havent sold our house yet, although i'm confident that our house will sell, i;m sure everyone thinks that we they put them on the market. who knows perhaps were get more for our house (fingers crossed)

frustrating really, wish we hadnt look at the hosue now, i thin were punching above our league.