Persimmon - First Time Buyers

lottie199

Hello Everyone


Can anyone please give me some tips and advice, me and my fianc!e have only just reserved out plot for a new home on the help to buy scheme the housing estate only has 1 road up to now its brand new and we are waiting for our appointment with persimmon, I just have a few questions...


Do we have to get a mortgage through persimmon and there financial advisors?
When we actually apply for a mortgage .. before its built? a couple of months in?
When do we have to put our deposit down?


If there are any first time buyers or help to buy customers out there


PLEASE HELP!!

lee111s

My advice is to avoid persimmon.

Their build quality is slap dash at best and their after sales service is none existant.

There's a reason they're cheaper than other builders/developers.

fairygoodgirl

Hi Lottie

They do have their own financial adviser's but you do not have to use them (even though they will try and persuade you to use them because their is commission involved) It is probably worth having a chat with their adviser as they can give you advice on other questions you may have. We were going to buy with Redrow and the lady that assisted them was really helpful. Just make sure whoever you use, that they are getting you a good deal and they do not charge for the service.

On reservation most developers want to get the ball rolling straight away so they have you in their pocket, I have heard 28 days to exchange. So on exchange your deposit will be transferred.

Hope this helps! Good luck

kirtsypoos

We have just bought a Persimmon house Lottie and were actually very pleased with the recommended Mortgage Advisors - they were quick, thorough and got us a good deal. That being said you don't have to use them, even if you are pushed to do so.

We also used help to buy and received our Authority to Proceed within a week so all round it was very quick. Depending on how long until your build date you may have to extend your mortgage offer, but this isn't unusual.

Mortgage has to be applied for and offered before you can exchange contracts (we had to exchange within 35 days of reservation, but it actually ended up being longer and we didn't have any issues with it being extended).

RockOnZombies

Best thing you can do is don't buy Persimmon as one of other posters said you will have a complete nightmare, and probably be liable for all sorts of maintenance charges, they don't often get their estates adopted by councils hence the householders are responsible for those costs via management company's.

kirtsypoos

RockOnZombies wrote: »

Best thing you can do is don't buy Persimmon as one of other posters said you will have a complete nightmare, and probably be liable for all sorts of maintenance charges, they don't often get their estates adopted by councils hence the householders are responsible for those costs via management company's.

Whilst I agree that Persimmon seem to have had that problem (along with other builders) it's not always the case - ours is freehold and the roads have been adopted. It's best to check though Lottie, was one of the first things I asked

lottie199

Ok thanks so much for the help!

We only reserved our plot 2 weeks ago and there's not even a road in place so I'm assuming its going to take a while :rotfl:

x

MrsElliot

Just thought I would share my experience. We bought a Persimmon House off plan as FTB in 2015 (it wasn't built when we signed up), You don't have to go through Persimmon for a mortgage we had an independent mortgage broker, we had a mortgage application in place as they wanted to see proof that we weren't messing them about however the mortgage offer was valid for only 6 months and we reserved around June 2015 and ordered extras before exchange as the house was getting finished. Persimmon wanted to complete in 28 days however our solicitor dragged it on as there was an issue with the adoption of the road and a few other things and we exchanged and completed in the same day in late October 2015!! I don't remember much of Summer 2015 as I was so stressed. As for our deposit, we gave it to our solicitor in July 2015 and they sat on it for a few months until we exchanged (which added to the stress!)

It was nice getting the keys to a shiny new house and the home demo they give you before you get the keys is very useful but I will admit I burst into tears when I examined the house on my own as my husband was at work and saw the level of snagging that need done (missing/broken items/leaks etc)- I appreciate this is the same for all new builds but still I got my sister round who helped examine the place more thoroughly with me as i was in a state. However the sangs were eventually dealt with but it delayed us moving in. BE WARNED: we missed something which was broken on the exterior of the house which we only noticed in Summer 2016 when the weather was better and they refused to fix it. Its not a massive issue but annoying.

Overall I would give them 7/10, and I would probably buy a new build again from Persimmon again. Some of the Aftersales is hit and miss but generally I do love our little house. I hope you have a smoother transaction than what we had and make sure you examine the interior AND exterior of the house thoroughly when you send your snag list back to them.

ps Enjoy your new home x

lottie199

Thank you that really helped!

Well over the past day we've been told persimmon to exchange contracts within 30 days, but our completion date isn't till December the site hasn't been started yet!! .... so our adviser said she didn't want to apply for everything till May at least.... has anyone had this problem with extending a mortgage offer or re applying?

THANKS AGAIN

kirtsypoos

That's definitely quite a long wait and I'm pretty sure will require an extension but I think New Build mortgages are used to that.

You won't be able to exchange without a mortgage offer so you will need to apply now in order to exchange and then either re-apply or extend your offer.

It's exciting, I would be a nightmare with that long waiting though, we reserved October and exchanged and completed in December and I was so impatient :rotfl:

lottie199

Ohhhh god I know and I'm so impatient! Do we have to exchange within the 30 days and if we don't can they sell the plot to someone else?

Thanks again!