Want to sell up for a bigger house - help needed please

willowfred

In 2008 at the height of the housing market my partner and I took the not so wise decision to buy a 2 bed property. I was pregnant with our first child and we wanted to ensure we had a settled home before he arrived. However less than a month later the credit crunch hit leaving us in the sh*t! We paid 126,000 for a house that was valued this week at between 110,000 and 119,950 from several agents. We have 122,000 left on the mortgage, so either way we are left in negative equity. We have however saved a good chunck of money to enable us to a) pay a deposit on a new house and b) pay off at least some of the negative equity (we have a parent who is prepared to take out a loan to pay the short fall if needed). My questions really relate to conveyancing etc. and all those extras that we didnt even think about before.

We have a valuation from an agent who charges 1.25% +vat fees. This appears to be our best option as they do not ask us to tie in for a long contract, they are a local independent and well respected agent - is this reasonable?

We obviously need to pay for conveyancing fees - this is where we are lost! Who do we go with? How much is reasonable to pay? Can we negotiate costs? When we find a property we want to buy we will need a solicitor again - can we use this to bargain with? i.e. can we say we will use the same company if they are prepared to cut us a deal?

Finally, what else will we have to pay for? We obviously know about moving costs and we need an EPC but have we missed anything?

Sorry I sound like a bit of a dope but we dont want to make any mistakes this time round!

Any advice/comments would be great

SmlSave

Dont forget removal costs (vans etc) and stamp duty if buying over 125,000

Do you have any family/friends that could recommend a local solicitors? Get a few quotes and compare them.

We are in the same position as you and have put aside 6000 for solicitor, estate agent, stamp duty, removals etc.

Dont just take up the estate agents epc - you can def find cheaper!

The solicitors fees will depend on how much you are buying for too. 450-500 for sol fees (lets say purchase)+ vat + local land search + land registry fee + land charges/bankruptcy searches + post/admin + tt fee = about 600-700 and maybe 500-600 for your sale. This is in the south west - london prob costs more!

But think of this.....you are paying an estate agent 1.25% of your sale price to find a buyer, the solicitor gets less than this and to my mind if you choose a cheap one you risk a great deal more than you would if you have a bad ea.

googler

You may be in NE, but that doesn't mean you're in the doo-doo, unless there's a compelling reason to move that you haven't told us.....

1.25% isn't unreasonable.

Round my way, high-street solicitors charge about £800 all in for a sale, and the same again, or a little touch more, for a purchase.

hazyjo

I've paid 1% on my last few moves. Always try to negotiate. Just say 'is that really the best you can do?'. Or get a lower quote and say 'so and so can do it for 1% (or whatever) - would you be willing to match that?'. Alternatively, you could try an online agent - housenetwork and emoov get okay reviews I think.

Probably not wise for a relative to take out a loan for you. Presuming you'd be paying them back, the bank would probably deduct that and possibly more from what they'll lend you. Or they might decline it totally. The deposit shouldn't really be borrowed money. A broker might be able to help find a Lender who wouldn't mind, but I know it's fairly frowned upon these days.

Remember a lot of sales fall through - you might end up with a bigger solicitor's bill than budgeted for.

There will probably be a fee to fix your mortgage. Plus the valuation and survey. Can all add up to over a grand.

Also (minor amounts, but just so you're aware), remember around £20 (maybe more) for bank transfers. You'll prob need a couple of those for deposit and on completion.

Will prob also need to pay for buildings insurance from exchange. Plus you might end up overlapping on mortgage due dates so allow a bit extra for that.

Jx

BitterAndTwisted

Keep saving and don't allow a relative to take out a loan for you to pay off the negative equity. That's a really, really unwise and risky thing to do. And quite unfair to the relative if they're not wealthy enough to be able to gift you the money.


You're a family of three in a two-bedroomed property, so you're not likely to outgrow it for ages yet.