The expectations & reality of buying your first home

NervousHomeowner

I'm a FTB and buying a house is nothing like what I thought it would be Owning a place has been my dream since I was a child. When my partner and I finally decided to buy a house, I was absolutely elated and couldn't wait to get house hunting.

However, It wasn't exactly what I had expected. The estate agents were lousy, the properties we could afford weren't what I had hoped for and we ended up having to fire our first mortgage broker for holding our purchase up for 4 weeks. Although we have now found a fantastic place to live, we got an electrician out to give it the once over yesterday and it turns out that a lot of the electrics are totally unsafe & need replacing!

I thought I was totally prepared for the process of buying a house and wouldn't be like those naive first time buyers who go in expecting everything to be rosy & easy. I expected it to be hard.. just maybe not this hard

So, I thought I'd ask everyone else in the hope that I'm not alone! How did your expectations of buying your first house compare with the actual reality of it?

princeofpounds

I had less rosy expectations than you (too long hanging around on this board!) but most things went rather smoothly. The main error I made was moving in and then thinking about all the much-needed refurbs. Should have done it whilst still renting the old place.

hazyjo

The first one was easy (five weeks start to finish) and pretty hassle free.

The other six (and several broken chains/lost houses along the way) have been HELL!

My list is just way too long to go into - but, safe to say, if something can go wrong, it has done with me lol!

The EAs I bought my last house through held me up by a month or so - I was desperately trying to offer/negotiate, but they were having none of it. Ended up getting it in the end, but not through want of trying (they even had me in tears at the end of one phone conversation!). Arrogant t*sser, the EA. Hope I never have to deal with them again.

The worst was probably one that took five months to buy - the vendors had to get a deed of variation, but there were other issues along the way. Oh, and I once sold a flat that took pretty much a year as we lost two houses along the way and everything kept going wrong!

Jx

RupertTheCat

I didn't have any expectations. It was just a purchase. I've always been quite happy renting so I wasn't that bothered about buying a place, and I wasn't prepared for how expensive maintaining a house was either. At least with rentals someone else pays for the repairs! I don't quite understand this burning desire to own your home thing.

I'm on house 2 now and both purchases have been straight forward with solicitors taking months to do anything. I don't plan to move again for a very long time - too expensive.

RupertTheCat

I do some work for a company that renovates houses, and the most problematic property purchase I have seen was where the solicitors advised completion and we started work on it. The owner wasn't living in the property as it was a tip. Six weeks later and after £20k worth of work, the conveyancing solicitors got in touch to say that actually our client didn't own the property as they hadn't filed all the paperwork. Oops. The property went back to the bank which refused to complete the sale to our client as they figured they could get more money for it now our client had had all this work done on it!!! Someone then entered the property and removed all the white goods and other items our client had had installed.

The conveyancing solicitors had the cheek to say it wasn't their fault despite the fact they failed to file the paperwork correctly. Good thing our client wasn't living in the property as he would have been turfed out.

zzzLazyDaisy

NervousHomeowner wrote: »

IAlthough we have now found a fantastic place to live, we got an electrician out to give it the once over yesterday and it turns out that a lot of the electrics are totally unsafe & need replacing!

So, I thought I'd ask everyone else in the hope that I'm not alone! How did your expectations of buying your first house compare with the actual reality of it?

Buying a house is a stressful business. It is worse for FTB's because the process is unfamiliar, and you don't know what to look for or what to expect. The basic rule is that if something can go wrong, it usually will !

Re the electrics - you can and should go back and renegotiate the price, unless it is very realistically priced to include major refurbishments. Also make no mistake, rewiring is a messy business, especially in older houses. The dust gets everywhere, and even with conduit the chances are you'll want to reposition/add sockets so every room will probably want redecorating. So be clear about what you are looking for - if you want a home to move into and live in, this may not be for you. If you have somewhere else to live while the work is being done, or if you don't mind roughing it for a while, then it could be an opportunity to stamp your mark on the place.

Good luck

NervousHomeowner

RupertTheCat wrote: »

I didn't have any expectations. It was just a purchase. I've always been quite happy renting so I wasn't that bothered about buying a place, and I wasn't prepared for how expensive maintaining a house was either. At least with rentals someone else pays for the repairs! I don't quite understand this burning desire to own your home thing.

I think my desire to own a house is because I moved so much when I was a teenager. I have moved 7 times in the last 8 years and I just want somewhere that I can live in without having to worry about when I'm next going to move!

Also, the repairs issue can be a double edged sword. While you don't have to pay for any repairs, you have to wait for the agent or Landlord to get around to doing the repairs & deal with the stress of having to pester them non-stop until they get round to it! Honestly, I'd rather just pay to do it myself and know it'll be done in a timely manner

NervousHomeowner

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Buying a house is a stressful business. It is worse for FTB's because the process is unfamiliar, and you don't know what to look for or what to expect. The basic rule is that if something can go wrong, it usually will !

Re the electrics - you can and should go back and renegotiate the price, unless it is very realistically priced to include major refurbishments. Also make no mistake, rewiring is a messy business, especially in older houses. The dust gets everywhere, and even with conduit the chances are you'll want to reposition/add sockets so every room will probably want redecorating. So be clear about what you are looking for - if you want a home to move into and live in, this may not be for you. If you have somewhere else to live while the work is being done, or if you don't mind roughing it for a while, then it could be an opportunity to stamp your mark on the place.

Good luck

Thanks for this! Very helpful I've gone back to the vendor today to try & see if she'll be willing to do it before we move in, as otherwise we'll have to rough it & live there while they do the work! She's been very reasonable so far so I'm hoping the worst she'll say is that she wants to go halves on the cost.

I'm really worried how bad it's going to be with the rewiring - it's a 1950s flat rather than a house & apparently a lot of the wiring is set in concrete, so I can only imagine the hell that's going to come with drilling into concrete. We have the money & time to do the redecorating but we did initially like the place because it didn't need any redecorating.. But it's an otherwise perfect place for us so I don't think we'd pull out over this.

RupertTheCat

I moved 11 times in 9 years in my 20s and god knows how much as a child. I loved being able to move so easily and it stopped me amassing clutter. I miss not being able to move at the drop of a hat...

Believe me, when you have to pay for the repairs yourself it often takes even longer to get them done as you have to find the money for it!

Dan-Dan

i found that when we worked out our budget and then applied it to our house search (in our area) it was really hard not to be totallu underwhelmed on what we could afford

There was the option of (as advised by a couple of mates!) really overstretching myself and affording something bigger and better , but i am not a gambler and would not be comfortable close to the line , have just had a mortage offered at a fixed rate that i am very happy with

Basically if i can pay it if i get laid off by working at tesco or similar , thats the peace of mind i needed , it means though that you have to keep your expectations in the real world

One thing though , you doint really get a lot for your money , thats one thing that hits me when viewing!

We have only just started the convenyancing process so mayeb will report back on that at a later date , so far , am happy enough and am very pleased with my broker/solicitors chosen so have my fingers crossed other links in the chain are as motivated to make things happen as we are

At the end of the day though , the minute i dont have to deal with this sort of thing and can go back to normal family/work life , the better

Luke273

RupertTheCat wrote: »

I moved 11 times in 9 years in my 20s and god knows how much as a child. I loved being able to move so easily and it stopped me amassing clutter. I miss not being able to move at the drop of a hat...

Believe me, when you have to pay for the repairs yourself it often takes even longer to get them done as you have to find the money for it!

As a student who is about to move for the fourth time in as many years (that's not including moving stuff back and forth from my parent's home), I wish I could settle down for a few years in one place! I'm quite far from being a homeowner yet, but I'm looking forward to renting in one place for a few years after graduation.