Buying a Bellway in Scotland

duncanstevenson

So I'm new to this, and I'm terrible at negotiating - I hate feeling awkward and demanding. I'd love any advice.

My husband and I are looking at a new Bellway home in South Queensferry. We currently own a home, but can achieve a mortgage without requiring to sell (and plan to so we don't have to rent while our new home is being built).

I'd never even considered the idea of negotiating on a house purchase. How naïve! Our current home was a new-build and was already built when we looked. We got a part-exchange and got WAAAAY more for our old house than it was worth (they sold it for about £30,000 less than they gave us for it, and they gave us £120k) and because it was built we got no other incentives - it was already carpeted, had appliances, and the rear lawn was turfed.

The new home seems to have nothing. When the plots are released early next year, we're very interested, but I don't want to be a complete mug. There's no PX available (I wish there was!) and as I've never bought a property before it was built I'm not super familiar with how/when the negotiations should happen.

The other problem is that the homes seem to be quite popular. All of the homes on the site have sold so far, and if you go to the office at the weekend there's a constant flow of people.

So basically what should I do, and when? What am I likely to be able to achieve. I've been told that the previous plots of the house style we're looking at went for £290k, but I won't know what they're asking for in the next release until I get that call.

They also said that in order to reserve they need a decision in principle from a lender, and it has to be done through this one guy at Mortgage First. I find that weird, but the guy seems nice enough and has said we have more than enough headroom to get the mortgage we need.

Anyway, sorry for rambling... I'd appreciate any advice offered and happy to answer any questions.

duncanstevenson

Just boosting this as I posted it at an awkward time and it's now buried.

sheff6107

I had a Bellway flat.

200 windows needed replacing in the development, one wall had to be torn down and rebuilt, the soil stacks soaked up water and made the whole place smell of damp and the caretaker said the whole development would be torn down in 60 years as that was its intended lifespan.

duncanstevenson

sheff6107 wrote: »

I had a Bellway flat.

200 windows needed replacing in the development, one wall had to be torn down and rebuilt, the soil stacks soaked up water and made the whole place smell of damp and the caretaker said the whole development would be torn down in 60 years as that was its intended lifespan.

Oh wow! What fun! I mean that's pretty shocking.

What was the development? How long ago was this?

Sounds like a pretty big controversy.

noseylurker

I have not long purchased a new build. Sometimes you'll see a post on here from people who have managed to negotiate a great deal, but in my experience that is few and far between. The developer will have an 'allocated' amount of money - usually a percentage of the sale price - that they will 'give' you to spend on extras. Depending on the developer, and what you need, this might include stamp duty paid, estate agents fees, or extras on the house like carpets, white goods and turf (yes, these are extras!). Whatever combination you choose/are given will be up to the amount they have already set aside. With my Bellway purchase, I think this was about 3-5% of the property value.


In terms of the house price itself, it is always worth asking, but on all of the developments I looked at both this time, and last time I bought a new build house, the price isn't negotiable - there are plenty of people willing to pay the asking price, and therefore they don't need to negotiate with you.

duncanstevenson

noseylurker wrote: »

I have not long purchased a new build. Sometimes you'll see a post on here from people who have managed to negotiate a great deal, but in my experience, that is few and far between. The developer will have an 'allocated' amount of money - usually a percentage of the sale price - that they will 'give' you to spend on extras. Depending on the developer, and what you need, this might include stamp duty paid, estate agents fees, or extras on the house like carpets, white goods and turf (yes, these are extras!). Whatever combination you choose/are given will be up to the amount they have already set aside. With my Bellway purchase, I think this was about 3-5% of the property value.


In terms of the house price itself, it is always worth asking, but on all of the developments I looked at both this time, and last time I bought a new build house, the price isn't negotiable - there are plenty of people willing to pay the asking price, and therefore they don't need to negotiate with you.

Thanks. I guess I simply have to ask. I just don't want to rush in with my deposit then, presumably, have no chance of getting anything after that point.

I'll just have to chat with them. I mean the price is the price, but if we can get a budget for some 'additions' it would help us immensely as those have to be paid in cash. As we're buying without having sold our current home, we really need all the cash we can get, at least for 18-months (hopefully maximum) once the equity in our current house is freed up.

So we're saving, saving, saving, saving, saving at the moment!!