Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Poppycat1

Great news, such a relief.

Also fantastic about new job going well, feeling your normal self and coming off the medication.  

SandyShores

Great news!

themadvix

Excellent news! Must be such a relief for you!

Kittenkirst

Thank you all, yes very relieved. We have good credit history/ files but you still begin to panic when it takes a while and in case girlfriends flat (which is also on the market to be got rid of!) caused any issues.

We’re now waiting for our solicitors to share the draft contracts; they’ve said it wont be today as are awaiting something from the buyers solicitors so it may be a few more days.

We have decided to move into the in-laws on Saturday (we’re here working hours at the moment anyways) and that gives us almost a week before the removal people come in on the following Friday to put our stuff into storage.

We got lots packed up and passed out via Olio this weekend, including 12 crisp boxes annoyingly. When the removal man came to do the quote he advised that the crisp boxes are great for temporary moving, but not for 3-4 months in storage as they tend to collapse etc. They said not to worry and to use what we have already packed, but to use double-walled boxes for all future packing. 
Fortunately some of our neighbours on the estate are also moving (but not going into storage) so the boxes are perfect for them!

Our removal quote has come back and I’m paying the deposit today to earmark the 7th May- it came to 
£420 for the initial move out to storage facilities.
£100 a month for the secure storage (no access).
£342 from storage to the new house later in the year

Then for dismantling our 4 double wardrobes and our treadmill (& re-assembling them when move in) it is £30/ half hour.

This is within the estimated budget we put together which is great. It will be very odd as I’m used to packing and removing all myself as Ive moved a lot in my life (dad in the armed forces, and I moved out alone at the age of 19): girlfriend wanted them to pack everything but Ive said no, I want to pack it so i know what is where (I have a box inventory spreadsheet!) and then they can do the removals/heavy lifting.

We have had confirmation of our furnishing the buyers want to keep; all of our statement mirrors, dining table & chairs, Fancy light shades & curtain poles, hot water tap & Nest thermostats. They will be paying us £1520 extra for all this combined which helps the finances a little

Girlfriend had her second vaccine on Friday after work, such a relief as that now means she has 80% better protection in a few weeks against catching Covid! That has definitely put my mind more at ease; we are obviously not going to start going out to any raves or anything (probably wont ever dare the pub) but at least going to Tescos wont be as worrying so we can have a little more freedom, and can catch up with friends outside (following guidance obvs). She was pretty wiped out all weekend so slept a lot, whilst i pottered and sorted more stuff out. Our Vinted/EBay pile is burgeoning and I really need to get on with it but i keep putting it off

Fingers crossed we get to exchange this week

themadvix

That does seem like a reasonable price for the removals and storage - I'm totally with you on packing yourself though and it's a relatively easy way to save some money too.

South_coast

You have 4 double wardrobes 🤯😮!

Kittenkirst

Ha ha so I mentioned to the girlfriend and she corrected me; we have a double wardrobe in our bedroom, one double in the spare room, and then a shallower wardrobe that has shelving inside. Not quite four double wardrobes; sorry for the confusion  

The solicitors called yesterday as they started sending all the search information over, but also ping ponging emails that got rather confusing.

As we are doing the sale and the purchase as separate transactions the solicitors have to send us the remaining equity after they have sent the 10% deposit to Redrow, and paid off their fees and the estate agents!!! We hadn’t quite realised we would end up with a substantial amount of money in the bank.

A quick check on MSE.com yesterday and the Marcus account is one of the top savings account for instant access (as its only for 3-4 months) which we already have for the kitty fund so we are going to put the cash in there for the few months so its out of mind, and hopefully earn between £45-£60 interest (better than nothing!)

We have all the search documents to read through and now waiting on the draft contract for exchange on the current house; our solicitor is waiting on the buyer solicitors for something; as soon as we get the call Ill have to drive over and collect it; get it read, signed and dropped back off. Exciting times!

Removal guys we thought were earmarked for Friday next week but they called and said they could only do the Thursday or Saturday; we’ve both now booked Thursday off work (as we both have holiday to use up) and waiting for them to call this morning to pay our deposit; then they will drop off lots of loan boxes and we can get finished with the packing! 

Freezer and fridge use-up is going well; we dropped a crate of various spirits off at a friends house last night as they will kindly store in their garage for us (as we are running out of space at the in-laws), and last night had “picky tea” of lots of chicken and veg pastry type Christmas nibbles the in-laws got us from the company shop for ridiculously cheap. They were all Thai inspired and lovely with a little sweet chilli dip; not the healthiest but three small boxes out of our freezer!

Meal plans this week include sea bass with something (90p sticker special frozen some time ago), pulled pork (olio & frozen), something with pastry as we have two frozen rolls and then some eggs and bacon.

Prolific was a bit odd last night; i had a survey rejected which I have queried, and two surveys both said I was ineligible, although I had already completed the first parts (they were £8 & £2 so worth doing if i could). I have raised it as a help request so will see what they come back with, but after that I then couldn’t get access and the password resets wouldn’t work. Ive managed a password reset this morning before work so fingers crossed it was some weird glitch yesterday: I did have £6.86 clear so sent that over to the mortgage straight away.

I also found out on Friday my new company match pension contributions up to 7.5% (I thought it was 5%) so I have been into the pension portal and uplifted it to the 7.5% to hopefully help build my pension pots. Should take effect from next month I hope, and because I had a pay rise taking the new job I wont miss the small percentage difference.
I’m not 100% sure of pensions, and that will be my next thing to tackle for us both once the house stuff is all sorted.

Payday tomorrow so todays task is to check pay-slip and adjust budgets if needed. Then its reading all the house stuff tonight! 🏡

themadvix

It all sounds good/exciting here. Just make sure you're not exceeding the FSCS limit for the cash stored in Marcus - it's highly unlikely, but it would be awful to lose it if something happened while you were storing it there.

Kittenkirst

Good shout @themadvix Double checking the figures and we’ll be below the FSCS limit; the solicitor will take out the 10% deposit and pay straight to Redrow at exchange (£39,495 ouch!!!) and then pay us the remainder after they take their fees and pay the Estate agents, so my rough estimations it will be around £45k so we should be safe

I’m glad i disputed that rejected Prolific survey as the provider double checked and admitted it was an error and the £2.50 has been marked as paid also had a response from Prolifics help desk that they did have an error that they think have fixed; I don’t think ill get those 2 surveys back that totalled £10 though annoyingly.

Ive been and got the contracts from the solicitors at lunch time- we need to read, sign and get them witnessed tonight and then post back to them for the morning. Eeeeek!! 

Ive also started making lists of things for us to do on Fri, Sat, Sun & Mon this week and then Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday next week with regards to the packing/ cleaning/ making good on holes to the house etc as we keep saying “right, we’ll get that done on Friday/sat/sun/mon” and you know we will clean forget half of it with the move to the in-laws, the removals peoples, the cleaning up, the solicitor and paperwork stuffs. So, this is my way of feeling a little more in control ❤️ 

debtfreeoneday

I had exactly the same with two surveys and one was £8 something. Just said ineligible. I also got rejected from a completed survey which I’ve queried. Great news on the mortgage.