Arranging first viewing & buying a house 'on bog land'

WasntMe_2

We've seen a house that we're very interested in. We're first time buyers (or soon to be) so this is all new to us.

We've seen a mortgage advisor who's explained mortgages to us, told us to go & basically find a house, view it & then get back to him when we have a house we want to buy & he'll take us through the step-by-step & he'll do the negotiating for us etc.

So right now we need to arrange a viewing. Silly question perhaps, but how do these things pan out when the house is still occupied?

Everyone tells me this is the bit they like the most - seeing other folks houses. This is the bit i am dreading (unless we were viewing an empty house). I have visions of the owner hanging on your shoulder as you examine their house.

* Does the owner stay with you? Does the owner show you around? Does the owner vacate whilst the EA shows you around? How do these things go? I'm really hoping we're not to be hawked by the owner.


* Also, what's advised when you're actually viewing? Do you guys ask whether you can open cupboards/cabinets, turn on taps, maybe fire up the shower, test the radiators, or do you just do it? What level of testing is seen as ok (cupboard opening i imagine?) & what is taking it too far (radiators/showers etc)?

* Taking photos, tape measures & notes - is this generally acceptable practice?



I think that's it as far as the viewing goes.

However, the house we're interested in i think was built in 2001 on a plot of land which they started erecting houses on in the early 90s. It's local to me, but i was a kid when all of it was being put up. I'm told that it's boggy land & that there's subsidence on houses there. This isn't coming from people who KNOW People there i should add. They just seem to be making the statement. It seems to be all he said she said.

Is it generally bad news to be building on 'boggy land' or do builders know this early on & make provisions for it?

I would imagine/hope it'd be something a survey would pick up on anyway if there was a problem?


So, aside from that it's just the viewing questions above that concern me.

Oh also the time of day you can view at. Are these generally done during 'normal' business hours (i'd guess 9-5) or are they sometimes done later than this or at the weekend? If 9-5 then we'd most certainly require leave from work. Outside of this & we should be ok without having to involve our employers.

Talc1234

1) There are other mortgage providers as well as the agency. They might be cheaper!

2) The owner might be showing you arround, or might be absent or in the background, as might be the agent. However the owner 'wants' to sell their house and usually should be friendly, helpful and give you a little time to view on your own.

2) Save taps, cupboards, radiators etc for the second viewing. The first viewing is to decide if the place is worth a second viewing.

3) Ask before you take photgraphs. Most sellers will say yes

4) Survey should dectect subsidance but check with neigbours etc. Builders likley to pay as little they can get away with to 'solve' a problem. Also get the post code and do internet searches for building insurance. Anthing more than say £500 per year might hint something is wrong. I pay £200 per year for my modern house.

5) Viewing can be early evening, saturdays are popular but might be with other prospective purchasers. Also at other times if viewing conducted by the owner.

I hope this helps

Yorkie1

Who conducts the viewing, and the time of the viewing, will be entirely up to the estate agent (EA) and the seller to decide. There's no hard and fast rule. You can certainly ask for evening or weekend viewings, and this would not be unusual I feel.

The first viewing is really to get a feel for the house, do you think you could live there; what do you think of the street / neighbours / area, etc. A brief look for obvious structural issues which occur to you. The first viewing is not the one to use for the detail you mention in your post.

If you are sufficiently interested and think this house is a real possibility, you can book a second viewing and look with a much more critical and detailed eye at things.

G_M

WasntMe wrote: »

...
However, the house we're interested in i think was built in 2001 on a plot of land which they started erecting houses on in the early 90s. It's local to me, but i was a kid when all of it was being put up. I'm told that it's boggy land & that there's subsidence on houses there. This isn't coming from people who KNOW People there i should add. They just seem to be making the statement. It seems to be all he said she said.

Is it generally bad news to be building on 'boggy land' or do builders know this early on & make provisions for it?

Some good advice above on viewings.

Yes, builders make provision.... to some extent.

eg
* they'll ensure the foundations are appropriate for the type of ground.
* and they'll install drainage intothe roads they builds etc to carry water away.

But that does not get away from the fact that ex-bog land is, by defintion, low-lying and prone to water collecting.

So 'exceptional' weather (rain, snow,storm) which we have seen increasingly, may cause flash floods or a gradual build-up of flood water, which we have also seen increasingly.

Much depends how well they have managed drainage....

Old_Git

THIS
house was built on bog land around 2002 .
It Appears This Property Has Suffered From Structural Movement And As A Result Offers Will Be Invited On A Cash Basis Only

I wouldnt touch anything built on bog land .

WasntMe_2

Currently on my break at work so I'll keep this brief until I get home.

Thanks for the replies. Is it a must to have more than 1 viewing out of curiosity?

To be honest, unless anything crops up as really negative (survey mentioning the poor land for e.g) then we'd be looking to buy this place. I know it's only our first one (we've short listed 2-3 others) but it ticks almost every box (except an area with fast broadband which is the ONLY negative we have so far). In addition, houses in this area don't come up very often at all. I live about 1 mile from this house if that so I know the area. It hasn't suffered so far from the poor weather. This one is only 12 years old but others in the same section are slightly over 20yrs old & still seem to be doing well. Not that they ARE though. As I say, houses in this area aren't often for sale because it's a really nice quiet area.

Don't get me wrong though, I haven't made my mind up already. I'd happily walk away if the big flashing warning signs came. Just, if they don't then I'd quite like to go for it.

DaftyDuck

WasntMe wrote: »

Currently on my break at work so I'll keep this brief until I get home.

Thanks for the replies. Is it a must to have more than 1 viewing out of curiosity?

Would you marry your girlfriend without a second date?

More seriously, what you miss on one visit, you see on the second. Pros and cons. You'll be more relaxed on the second visit, and know what you want to check. You'll have formed sensible questions to ponder. Ideally, visit at a different time of day... sunny midday, gloomy evening.. those midges and mosquitos only come out at dusk, the dodgy roof is only clearly visible at mid day.

I think a second visit (and a third, at that) an essential myself. As a seller, I'd be more worried by a buyer who didn't want a second viewing, as I'd wonder if they'd pull out on a whim at a difficult stage.

G_M

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Would you marry your girlfriend without a second date?

:rotfl:

Brilliant! Spot on!

But sadly some people actually do.

Indeed, you hear of cases where people 'meet' on the internet and get engaged, and only meet on the day of the marriage!

But would you recommend this to a friend/relative, or provide some friendly wordsofadvice......

DaftyDuck

Depends if she ... was well endowed, had her own hair, and looked cheap... One date might be enough at my age.

Same with a house, really, two generous double bedrooms, roof in good condition, and no rising damp, and I've lost my self control...

I'd offer at the first viewing, full asking price. I wouldn't even remember to ... take precautions, like .. subject to survey... in either case

WasntMe_2

Right, now i've a bit more time to reply.

Firstly, i'm aware it'll come across like i've basically made my mind up. This certainly isn't so. If anything cropped up that was to put us off, or we saw something there that we didn't like or some reason we decided this was a bad idea - then we wouldn't continue, but at the same time i wouldn't need to ask the question "what do we do if we don't think it's a good idea" would i

Regarding the 2nd/3rd viewing etc...

I totally understand the POV of viewing at a different time of the day. You could view at night & not know how much natural light gets into the house for e.g. Or the neighbours could be quite rowdy from 8pm. Whatever. So i get that point.

Beyond this i don't understand much need for it though. If you're viewing a house, you're viewing because you're interested in buying (unless you're just nosey) & as such you should be thorough. I believe i am - looking for fine detail & being quite critical. I struggle to see what (beyond the different time of day) i'd see on a 2nd view that i wouldn't on a 1st. All the while the clock is ticking.


But let's say we go for a 2nd. Question here is - how soon after the 1st view do you go for the 2nd?

I'll be honest - this house is just about as ideal as we're going to get so i would like for it to work (though am prepared for it not to). Aside from the broadband issue, there's nothing else to compromise on, unlike the other houses in another area we were looking at.

So, IF we still like it after the first viewing, we're going to want to get this 2nd viewing done with (at different time of the day) so the ball can get rolling & not waiting on anyone else getting there before us. If we like it still after the 2nd viewing then we'd like to go for it. These are all IFs.

But how long do you leave it? You can't leave it too long because everyone else is in it to win it too. What's too short, what's too long?

Talc1234 wrote: »

1) There are other mortgage providers as well as the agency. They might be cheaper!

I'm either being dim or new. I'll opt for new I thought you got your mortgage from the banks? Or at least your IFA sorted it out for you. People get mortgages from the EAs?

2) Save taps, cupboards, radiators etc for the second viewing. The first viewing is to decide if the place is worth a second viewing.

Point noted

3) Ask before you take photgraphs. Most sellers will say yes

Tbh i'm not sure we'd take photos. I just threw it out there. We'd more likely want to measure things though.

4) Survey should dectect subsidance but check with neigbours etc. Builders likley to pay as little they can get away with to 'solve' a problem. Also get the post code and do internet searches for building insurance. Anthing more than say £500 per year might hint something is wrong. I pay £200 per year for my modern house.

I did a quick quote with the info i had & what i thought was right & the cheapest was under £100. Think it was about £80.

5) Viewing can be early evening, saturdays are popular but might be with other prospective purchasers. Also at other times if viewing conducted by the owner.

Had an email back from the EA. Very helpful - offering Saturday afternoons & all day Sunday. Means i don't have to inform work.

Yorkie1 wrote: »

The first viewing is really to get a feel for the house, do you think you could live there; what do you think of the street / neighbours / area, etc. A brief look for obvious structural issues which occur to you. The first viewing is not the one to use for the detail you mention in your post.

Thanks. We have the added bonus of actually knowing the area since we only live about a 5-10 minute walk from it & i've grown up in this area. The area is really nice, really quiet, cul de sac. It's not infested with yobs. As i say, we were looking about 10 mile down the road in the city as we didn't think anything here would come up because it never does & the last time something did, it didn't last long at all.

G_M wrote: »

So 'exceptional' weather (rain, snow,storm) which we have seen increasingly, may cause flash floods or a gradual build-up of flood water, which we have also seen increasingly.

Much depends how well they have managed drainage....

This area has been fine with those. It's the other side & into the village that didn't take to the rain we had. It flooded in about 1999 IIRC. This house we're looking at was built 2001 & has been fine with the recent silly weather we've had over the past few years.

Old_Git

I viewed my new home in February ,put an offer in at the first viewing .to be honest I wasn't that bothered if I got it or not .It wasn't a must have house at that stage,I was the first to view.
I didn't arrange a second viewing until my offer was accepted which was a month later.

First viewings there's lots to take in and you always miss something .
Second viewings are for checking cupboards ,taps ,heating,windows ,guttering,doors and floors ,number off sockets ect.

I never met the vendor ,but I met his wife (they separated ) after I had moved in .