Things I learnt..

antcurious

I thought I'd bullet point some of the more interesting things I picked up as a first time buyer, things that might just be of interest to someone else currently going through the process. These points will be obscure, and potentially irrelevant to most standard house buying transactions, but there might be something in here that could prove useful. I am going to present them here as “tips and tricks”, but with the disclaimer that I’m just some guy on the internet, do your own research.

• When making an offer on a house, you might want to consider pretending to have a bigger deposit than you actually have. I say this because we lost out on our dream house to another party who offered the same, but with a bigger deposit. The agent quite rightly advised the vendor to go with their offer as they seemed to be the stronger offer due to being less sensitive to a low valuation come mortgage time. In fact, you could go as far as to say you are a cash buyer, even if you’re not, just to get your offer accepted above that of another. It was my experience that not a single estate agent asked for evidence of financial position, which means that you can potentially go through the motions of arranging a survey, dealing with queries etc. all the while arranging your standard mortgage at 90% LTV or whatever your case may be. I know some agents DO ask for evidence of deposit, but I never came across this myself dealing with over 10 different agents in the Bournemouth area. At SOME point you will have to come up with something of course, but by that stage the seller will have had some time and effort invested and might not care how he gets paid for the house, just that he gets paid! It’s a risk, but one you might consider taking.

• Following on from the above, what you could also do if you’ve lost out against another bidder, is to write a heartfelt letter tugging at as many heartstrings as you can, asking if you could get some kind of first refusal on the house. Human nature will often mean that the seller promises this, not thinking he would ever have to come back to you. But the fact is that around a third of all property transactions fall through and you could be in with a shot later on.

• If you’re not in a hurry, be patient. Having had my eyes glued to rightmove for the last 4 months, I can tell you that LOTS of houses go back on the market, the current one that is. If you found a house you love, start getting to know the agent working for the seller. And I don’t mean phoning them a lot and making small talk over the phone. I mean physically going into the agents offices, introducing yourself and making a connection. Get them on your side. This is the only reason we are moving into the aforementioned dream house in 7 days time.

• If you have a recommendation for a solicitor, great. Even then, keep in mind your case worker might not be the same as the one from the referrer. In my case I had none, got about 9 quotes ranging from the online warehouses to the high street ones. Ultimately I went with one that was close enough that I could if needed go and sit in their reception and throw my toys out of the cot. Learn the language of your solicitor, do they respond best to emails, or phone calls? It becomes a dance, 2 emails unanswered over 3 days results in a phone call etc. Feel your way through, but again if you can see them once face to face it can make a difference. Unless you make a bad impression, then…don’t. It is reasonable to assume they have severe case loads so learn to walk the line between being on their mind, but not annoying.

• Shop around when getting surveyors quotes, some do a full building survey for the price of others’ Homebuyers report. I agree with most posters on here in that these reports can be quite alarming at first glance, but speak to your surveyor and you might find there is a lot of waffle and perhaps only a few real issues and no deal breakers. Your mileage may vary of course.

• Same with movers. Quotes on moving our 3 bed terraced to a 4 bed semi, ranged from 1400 to 4500. Yes you read that right. Some movers want to do it over 4 days, some over 2. Some smaller trucks, some bigger, some insist on their insurance etc. Interview them and find out how their price is arrived at.

Again, this might mean nothing to most, but someone might find it useful!

dc197

Did the heartfelt letter succeed for you? What is the story there?

househuntingmad

As a FTB a few things stood out to me that a more seasoned buyer might be more prepared for.

1. The survey will probably sound like your house is about to fall down tomorrow. It most likely won't. They are just covering their own backs.

2. Expect the unexpected (what's that - there's a supposed onward purchase I knew nothing about until a week before due to exchange? where did that suddenly come from?)

3. Despite the bad press that EAs get (often justified) but use them as you need to - getting them to negotiate any issues with the seller is far easier than solicitors taking forever to talk to each other. After all it's their commission on the line!

frugalsmurf

Personally I wouldn't say you were a cash buyer if you aren't.
We bought our house from someone who had a buyer do this, then when there were delays caused by getting a mortgage they were really annoyed as the buyer had lied and they relisted the house.

Person_one

I think your first point is actually really bad advice.

People really really don't like being lied to, and if you're buying your house from somebody who has lived in it themselves and has an emotional attachment to it, you don't want to give them a reason to dislike you!

Ithaca

dc197 wrote: »

Did the heartfelt letter succeed for you? What is the story there?

We weren't quite in the "heartfelt letter" territory, but we had our second viewing with the vendors themselves at a weekend which helped swing it in our favour - it was a couple in their 50s selling her old family home after her dad had passed away (probate sale), and seeing our two young children (6 & 2) running around the garden which hadn't see kids for many years really tugged at their heartstrings. She felt a lot better selling her old childhood home to a young local family who would also use it as a "home" rather than an investor who would see it as an "asset".

danslenoir

antcurious wrote: »

• When making an offer on a house, you might want to consider pretending to have a bigger deposit than you actually have. I say this because we lost out on our dream house to another party who offered the same, but with a bigger deposit. The agent quite rightly advised the vendor to go with their offer as they seemed to be the stronger offer due to being less sensitive to a low valuation come mortgage time. In fact, you could go as far as to say you are a cash buyer, even if you’re not, just to get your offer accepted above that of another. It was my experience that not a single estate agent asked for evidence of financial position, which means that you can potentially go through the motions of arranging a survey, dealing with queries etc. all the while arranging your standard mortgage at 90% LTV or whatever your case may be. I know some agents DO ask for evidence of deposit, but I never came across this myself dealing with over 10 different agents in the Bournemouth area. At SOME point you will have to come up with something of course, but by that stage the seller will have had some time and effort invested and might not care how he gets paid for the house, just that he gets paid! It’s a risk, but one you might consider taking.

So your advice is to lie to vendors about your financial position in order to dupe them into thinking you are the most proceedable buyer, and hope that things move on too far before you get found out?

It's one thing to advise being strategic during negotiations, quite another to advocate barefaced lies.

I assume that you would be OK for other people to dupe you in this way if you are ever in the positioning of wanting to sell your property?

TBagpuss

Yes, I think the recommendation to lie is a really bad one. And I'm surprised that you were not asked for evidence of your financial position, as it is very common (particularly in hot spots) for agents to want some proof that you are able to proceed.

My neighbour wa lied to in this way by a prospective purchasor. They ended up with a lot of hassle and expense (I believe they lost their proposed purchase, after paying for surveys etc, because the 'buyer' had lied and wasn't actually in a position to proceed.

I put muy house on the market shortly afterwards. I thought that one of the potetntial buyers' name sounded familiar so checked with my former neighbour and confirmed it was the same person, so I turned down their offer. For me, it wasn't worth the risk of getting involved in a transactin wih someone I already knew was dishonest. I explained to my agents why I was turning the offer down, so they could be aware of the issue for other sellers.

giddypenguin

Our buyer told us they were a cash buyer - this was fab news for us as previous buyers had to pull out due to mortgage retentions. We were buying a new build (completed) so was looking forward to a quick process.

Exchange was delayed 3 times (At very last minute) turns out he did need a mortgage after all and had to keep delaying to get the funds in place. We were pretty upset, and had to explain to our builders why it was taking so long - not really a problem for us, but had we been in a chain would have caused problems.

It caused us a load more stress at the end of a long process (18 months from going on market to move) and would have preferred him be honest from the start.

Cakeguts

We had a sale collapse because someone said they were a cash buyer. What they really meant was that they didn't need a mortgage after they had sold the house that they were living in. This is not the same as a cash buyer. A cash buyer has all the money in cash ready to pay for the house.

Buying a house as a cash buyer is different as there is no involvement from a bank or building society. As long as the survey comes back with no big problems on it then the sale will proceed. I would be extremely annoyed if someone lied about being a cash buyer.

AlanCD

Surely this depends on how good the Estate Agents are?

I submitted my bid on a house and advised how much deposit I had etc and they wanted proof, so I did this and it got accepted and everyone knew where they stood from step 1.

Also before I accepted the bid on my house, my estate agent asked for proof before removing as STC.

Was all pretty straight forward in that respect.

There were 3 bids on the house I have bought, I had the largest deposit and my MIP was in place. So they picked me and my GF, they did also say that they liked us best too so I imagine when you view the house first impressions count!!