Diary of a Scottish house move....I hope

MissE001

I know that people don't normally post diaries on the House Buying, Renting & Selling forum but I'm just starting out on this house move journey and think it would be useful for me to track progress (or otherwise!) on here.

So, a bit of background. I've lived in my 3-bedroom house since 2006. It's ex-local authority (already ex LA when I bought it) and I paid £93000 with £10000 deposit resulting in a 25-year mortgage of £83000. I've been locked into a fixed-rate which seemed like a good idea 5 years ago when I took it out at 5.69% :eek:. Thankfully, that comes to an end at the end of next month and my mortgage balance currently stands at £70000 with 18 years and 1 month left to pay.

When I started looking tentatively at mortgage deals, it soon became apparent that I can afford a bigger mortgage for the same monthly payments....which led me to think about moving house.

Having spring-cleaned the house to within an inch of it's life, I invited estate agents to come and value it this week. And this brings me to the first dilemma and the reason I think I'm going to want to keep the diary....

3 different estate agents have valued the property from between £89000 to £100000. Obviously, I would prefer the higher option but I'm not sure that's realistic....that estate agent doesn't have a local presence. I'm not sure how relevant that is in the current market where most property searches are done on-line. There's also the difference in fees:

Estate agent 1 - valued property between £95000 and £100000. Fees of £50 marketing fee (because they're outside the area and trying to get a foothold), £700 fee when the property sells and £250 for the home report (more on home report later!)

Estate agent 2 - valued property between £93000 and £95000. Fees of £300 marketing fee, 0.7% commission on completion of the sale and £300 for the home report

Estate agent 3 - valued property between £89000 and £93000. Fees of £300 marketing fee (haggled down from £350), £900 fee when property sells and £400 for the home report

Estate agent 4 is coming tomorrow and is the husband of a friend so I'm hoping he'll be able to cut through the numbers for me

Home reports didn't exist when I bought my house in 2006. They were introduced in Scotland in 2008 and I paid no attention whatsoever as I had no intention of moving house. However, there's a very helpful bit on the Scottish Government website explaining all about them - attaching the link in case it's of any use to anyone :
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/BuyingSelling/Home-Report

On reflection, I'm not too worried about paying that upfront as when I go to buy, I won't need to pay for surveys as I did when I've bought in the past. Being a good MSE addict, I googled for the cheapest way to do the home report and found a website offering all of the required legal documents for £192....when I did a bit of research though, it transpired that although the legal documents are included, there is no valuation report. Since the introduction of the home report in Scotland, it appears that buyers expect the valuation report to be included as lenders accept that to approve a mortgage. So false economy going for the £192 option methinks.

I've got a mortgage broker coming to speak to me on Monday (whole of market, no fees) although I haven't even started looking for somewhere to buy yet. I don't want to fall in love with a property and then be desparate for my house to sell. I'm enjoying the position I'm in of wanting to move rather than having to move.

Thanks for reading to the end . I'll post tomorrow after esate agent number 4 has been with my first decision - which estate agent to use

MissE

MissE001

Estate Agent 4 (friend's hubby) came out today and I've decided to give him my business. Self-employed but works for a national EA and going on for fixed price of £95000 (not sure if that's a Scottish-only concept??)

Fees matched with EA number 2 although worked out slightly differently so it'll be £635 outlay to get the house on the market compared to £600 with EA 2.....

I just need to get a quote to repair faulty double-glazed window, replace the locks on my back door (long story!) and then the Home Report and photos will commence.

Looking forward to it

doni

Sounds interesting - I'm following the story

I_have_spoken

Buyers will still offer under the fixed price, I did when buying in Scotland last year.

jamja

Good luck! We are starting the process of buying and selling in Scotland at the moment...

googler

What will happen to your Fixed Price if the Home Report valuation comes out lower than £95000 ?

MissE001

I live in a pretty standard 3-bed ex-LA property and the Home Reports are all coming out at just over £95k. If mine doesn't it'll be back to the drawing board but I'll worry about that if it happens

Thanks I have spoken - EA warned me that FP will probably still attract offers. I know that I'm willing to accept £93 as an absolute minimum but hoping to get more than that.

I had a mortgage broker out to speak to me today just to check what size of mortgage I'll be able to get when I do get round to actually moving. He wants to charge £295 on completion of whatever mortgage deal I take. Does anyone have any idea whether that's reasonable?

jennifernil

Unless you are self employed, or have a poor record, do you really need to use a broker? You could research the market yourself. Some of the better deals are apparently only available direct from the lender.

I would investigate first, then,if you don't find a good deal, go back to the broker.

MissE001

Just about ready to get the Home Report organised. Estate Agent suggested getting a quote to repair a "failed unit" on one of my double-glazed windows. I've been quoted £70 to fix it - think it's worth repairing it so it doesn't come up as something to be fixed when the HR gets completed - any thoughts?

Hoping it's dry at the weekend as I want to have a quick tidy in the garden and then get the HR done next week....exciting :j

chucklesister2

Thanks for your excellent posts, will follow this thread with great interest.

csh_2

Get the glass replaced as if you don't it will be a big red flag on the HR for any buyer and they will be thinking they need to replace all the double glazing.



Eta: my own house went up for sale last June for FP £95k and i wanted £92k and had no interest until end October when I changed the price to Offers Offer £89,500 and had 20 viewings and an offer of £92k.