House buying - extra costs

Piggywiggy

Hello.

Basically me and my partner are looking to buy our first home next year sometime with around a £30,000 deposit for a house up to £150,000. What I want to know really is how much everything else will cost ie solicitors fees and any other costs as we have never done this before and were wondering how much more we would need put aside for it.

Thanks in advance.

G_M

Nip down to your local library and borrow (free) a book on house buying.

It will answer this and 101 other questions you have not yet thought of.

kinger101

Some stuff here.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/estimate-your-overall-buying-and-moving-costs

It's not exhaustive. And then you need to consider whether you need furniture. Or immediate repair work. So this stuff depends on what you already have, and whether you are buying a project, a new build, or more probably, something in between.

Of course, you can furnish on a shoestring if necessary, using freecycle etc.

ACG

Stamp duty
Solicitors
Valuation (basic/homebuyers/building survey)
Moving costs
Any extra surveys that may need doing (Damp/rot etc).

hohum

Some actual figures that I have budgeted: we are FTB based up North, purchase price £96k. Not paid much of these fees yet.

Conveyancing fees £1113 (inclusive of VAT. Not cheapest but they've been super good so far. Paid on completion and no purchase/no fee basis)
Property searches up to £295 (non refundable)
Mortgage broker £500 (paid on completion)
Lender's valuation fee plus homebuyer report £465 (non refundable)
Mortgage arrangement fee £0 ( can be up to £900 but you can add to mortgage)
Wills for both of us (we're doing tenants in common rather than joint purchase) £150
Deed of trust £0 (but still thinking about this. May still do due to property share and deposits. Would be up to £400)
Moving costs £250 (we're moving ourselves, hiring a van, moving about 15 mins away from where we live)

So all in all that's £2773. You could do this cheaper by:

-using a fee free broker or not using a broker at all
- using cheaper conveyancers
- not doing tenants in common so not requiring deed of trust

But I'd still say £2500 is about what you're looking at - you may have more expensive surveys, moving costs etc etc

I'm also prepared that our completion dates may not completely be convenient with our tenancy notice dates, so we could end up with some overlap. If that's the case we could end up with two-three weeks paying for both properties.

But for our circumstances I'm happy with what we've decided to pay for. We have some circumstances (small income, self employed, healthy gifted deposit) where having someone else to do all that chat with lenders has been gold, and I suspect in our case it's about getting a mortgage at all rather than getting the best deal.

Plus then on moving in I suspect we'll have another few £k on the immediate jobs needed.

Also don't forget that your monthly running costs will go up with buildings/life insurance. Plus of course putting aside for inevitable house maintenance.

Piggywiggy

hohum wrote: »

Some actual figures that I have budgeted: we are FTB based up North, purchase price £96k. Not paid much of these fees yet.

Conveyancing fees £1113 (inclusive of VAT. Not cheapest but they've been super good so far. Paid on completion and no purchase/no fee basis)
Property searches up to £295 (non refundable)
Mortgage broker £500 (paid on completion)
Lender's valuation fee plus homebuyer report £465 (non refundable)
Mortgage arrangement fee £0 ( can be up to £900 but you can add to mortgage)
Wills for both of us (we're doing tenants in common rather than joint purchase) £150
Deed of trust £0 (but still thinking about this. May still do due to property share and deposits. Would be up to £400)
Moving costs £250 (we're moving ourselves, hiring a van, moving about 15 mins away from where we live)

So all in all that's £2773. You could do this cheaper by:

-using a fee free broker or not using a broker at all
- using cheaper conveyancers
- not doing tenants in common so not requiring deed of trust

But I'd still say £2500 is about what you're looking at - you may have more expensive surveys, moving costs etc etc

I'm also prepared that our completion dates may not completely be convenient with our tenancy notice dates, so we could end up with some overlap. If that's the case we could end up with two-three weeks paying for both properties.

But for our circumstances I'm happy with what we've decided to pay for. We have some circumstances (small income, self employed, healthy gifted deposit) where having someone else to do all that chat with lenders has been gold, and I suspect in our case it's about getting a mortgage at all rather than getting the best deal.

Plus then on moving in I suspect we'll have another few £k on the immediate jobs needed.

Also don't forget that your monthly running costs will go up with buildings/life insurance. Plus of course putting aside for inevitable house maintenance.

THANK YOU! Shouldn't Need to pay anyone for moving costs as we can do that ourselves and with families help etc just wanted that breakdown of all the other costs to know how much extra to have set aside in the home fund.

ManuelG

kinger101 wrote: »

And then you need to consider whether you need furniture.

Kind of key.

Having decided what sofa I wanted at any cost, now regretting that as I sit on a floor or a rock hard kitchen chair... with no cash to buy a new armchair, so a futile hunt every weekend for a half decent secondhand armchair that needs to match the as-yet-undelivered sofa:wall:

Hindsight says I'd have been best off just buying any old second hand three piece then upgrading at leisure

Piggywiggy

ManuelG wrote: »

Kind of key.

Having decided what sofa I wanted at any cost, now regretting that as I sit on a floor or a rock hard kitchen chair... with no cash to buy a new armchair, so a futile hunt every weekend for a half decent secondhand armchair that needs to match the as-yet-undelivered sofa:wall:

Hindsight says I'd have been best off just buying any old second hand three piece then upgrading at leisure

Yes but those costs are readily available but it's hard getting an answer on the fees you pay when you purchase, also a lot of temporary furniture can be found on gumtree and ebay to be gradually replaced later on.

ManuelG

Piggywiggy wrote: »

Yes but those costs are readily available but it's hard getting an answer on the fees you pay when you purchase, also a lot of temporary furniture can be found on gumtree and ebay to be gradually replaced later on.

It can... but it still needs a budget, and sticking to said budget.

My house price, after all, wasn't just the house itself plus solicitors. It was also white goods and beds etc. I could have moved in without anything, but as the house had lain empty for a while beforehand, it would have been more crack den than first home!

FWIW I came out about as expected on basic furniture, but I'm still lacking that armchair, still having to set aside my dishwasher until I save some cash again... and this is after getting the bonus of stamp duty giving me a thousand quid back I wasn't expecting.

So even after setting myself a budget, I'm still over!

So it'd definitely worth seeing what you *need* (washing machine and fridge/freezer for me, along with bed!), what you can live without (for me this is the dishwasher, and the things such as kitchen table where I was prepared to wait until a decent second hand one cropped up on ebay or in a charity shop for the right price), what you want as your own non-negotiable 'luxuries' (said sofa)

It soon adds up!

ManuelG

I'd also have a reserve fund for unexpected costs after moving in too.

So far I've:

Had a new TV aerial (didn't expect that to be needed!) £100
Had the central heating serviced (peace of mind) £250 (added thermostats to each radiator while I was at it, and the hot water tank thermostat turned out to be faulty)
Had a man up some guttering! £50
Cost of paint for the walls £50
A plumber in for a mysterious overflow drip I couldn't find what was causing it £50

To come will be some fence panels and creosote (or whatever the creosote substitute is nowadays)

Now some of those can be saved easy enough if more DIY proficient / less afraid of heights than me (I'd have still had to buy a ladder, mind you!)

Then some costs that are easy to forget. Everyone knows you need heating, light, water... but remember to add wifi and TV License (how very first world and decadent!)

hohum

Piggywiggy wrote: »

Yes but those costs are readily available but it's hard getting an answer on the fees you pay when you purchase, also a lot of temporary furniture can be found on gumtree and ebay to be gradually replaced later on.

The thing is, the fees can vary a lot depending on circumstance which is why people are a bit wary of saying 'you will need x'. even with the costs I gave above, it will vary depending on where you are, what you're buying etc etc.

But still, I did think that they should really highlight how much you can potentially pay out when you're buying because it is something you need to budget for - plus you need the cash for fees on hand so it's something that should be added in to savings targets I think/

I would also say do have money for moving costs. Even if your friends will be helping you, it's stuff like boxes to move things in, lightbulbs etc etc that you will spend a fair bit on.