Ruby's Bought a House, Now I want to Own It!

ruby_eskimo

Morning all!  So we decided to go with the Nationwide offer as it's a lower interest rate, we'll be paying more off the principle for the three years over the fix and we know we definitely won't be moving in the next three years so it just makes more sense.  Plus we'll be dropping the term so even better!  Have had to go back to the broker though as we were quite conservative with the initial valuation of the house but it appears that it could be worth £30k more (according to the Halifax) than what we thought so they're going off to crunch some more numbers for us.  If the Nationwide agree with that valuation then we'd be looking at about a 10% drop in the LTV straight away which would also be pretty amazing and maybe make us eligible for an even better rate (but not counting my chickens yet...)

Had a productive weekend where we "closed" down the garden by pressure washing a lot of stuff and covering all the garden furniture and storing away the umbrella etc that we had out there.  Then we went to the local recycling centre and got rid of the last of the stuff in the garage that wasn't ours / needed to go.  Also managed to finally get round to organising all our important paperwork and getting rid of the stuff we don't need to keep anymore.  Had a big pile of shredding now but that can wait for a little bit in the box we set aside for it.  

It's payday on Friday and I have money left over for the first time in a while.  Have put aside £150 to pay for train fares and food for a day out we're having in London next month and the rest will be going into the LISA on payday.  Might also start ordering Christmas presents then using the sinking fund money set aside for it.  I've already planned out gifts for a couple of people and might as well just get it ordered to make sure it gets here in time before I then have to post it off to the respective recipients.  

Hope everyone is doing well.

ruby_eskimo

Had a call from the broker last night and we chatted over the valuation for a bit and he agreed that probably we'd been a bit too conservative on our guess at a valuation so using the bottom end of Zoopla's estimate (which is still £13k less than the Halifax told us...) Nationwide are offering a 3 year fix at 1.59% 😲  Going to get the paperwork sorted this evening and fingers crossed it all goes through 🤞

LadyWithAPlan

ruby_eskimo said:

Had a call from the broker last night and we chatted over the valuation for a bit and he agreed that probably we'd been a bit too conservative on our guess at a valuation so using the bottom end of Zoopla's estimate (which is still £13k less than the Halifax told us...) Nationwide are offering a 3 year fix at 1.59% 😲  Going to get the paperwork sorted this evening and fingers crossed it all goes through 🤞

Wow great rate and nice your home is sneaking up in value 

Just put in an official offer for a flat this morning and my broker is quoting me 1.64% for 3 years as well with Nationwide - they seem to be the cheapest at the moment. 2.02% for a 5 year - but 3 years feels the way to go

ruby_eskimo

That's a really great rate too @LadyWithAPlan!  Agree that Nationwide appear to be keeping rates low at the moment, just makes me laugh that they totally ignored us when we went to take out our first mortgage and now they're like "come over here, this is where all the best rates are!" 😆  Also agree that 3 years is the sweet spot for a fix - we always thought we'd move after our 5 year fix was done but 3 years gives us enough time to work out what we want to do and hopefully build up even more equity in the house.  Will be interested to see what valuation Nationwide give us when they have the formal application.

LadyWithAPlan

@ruby_eskimo yes 3 years feels about right. My offer was rejected, I may go in £5k or £10k higher but looks like she was sold a higher amt by the EA  (these ones are renowned for overpricing) and not wanting to budge much ... but the saving continues...

ruby_eskimo

LadyWithAPlan said:

@ruby_eskimo yes 3 years feels about right. My offer was rejected, I may go in £5k or £10k higher but looks like she was sold a higher amt by the EA  (these ones are renowned for overpricing) and not wanting to budge much ... but the saving continues...

That's a shame, I remember trying to negotiate prices when we were looking to buy our first place - stick to your guns if you think it's overpriced because it probably is!

ruby_eskimo

It's payday and the manual bits of the money shuffle have been completed.  We finally got our much promised pay rise this month as well as the backdated pay to April, so the extra £500 has been transferred straight into the LISA because I'm a bit behind on that this year.  Also had some leftover money this month, plus the usual transfer so it's looking a bit healthier now, or it will be when the money is collected on Wednesday!

Just have today to get through at work and then we're off for a week.  Didn't really get much done in the office yesterday because we spent a lot of time talking about CPD (apparently I'm the expert on development opportunities in our department...) and now I really have a case of the CBA's but need to motivate myself to crack on.  Maybe a coffee will help!

LadyWithAPlan

ruby_eskimo said:

LadyWithAPlan said:

@ruby_eskimo yes 3 years feels about right. My offer was rejected, I may go in £5k or £10k higher but looks like she was sold a higher amt by the EA  (these ones are renowned for overpricing) and not wanting to budge much ... but the saving continues...

That's a shame, I remember trying to negotiate prices when we were looking to buy our first place - stick to your guns if you think it's overpriced because it probably is!

Especially as I went to a home renovating show yesterday ...the talks were great but what with building costs and labour increasing ... ouch . Think I will make a slightly 5-6k higher offer mid week

ruby_eskimo

Morning all!  Back from a lovely few days away in Wales - felt very nostalgic visiting places I hadn't been to in 15 years but also good to make new memories with DH.  Very relaxing time, especially helped by having a hot tub just outside the lodge which we took full advantage of, even if it was raining 😆  Lots of cream teas consumed so back on the healthier eating and exercise this week.

Re-mortgage application is ticking along nicely and they've even dropped the rate even more to 1.47% 🤷‍♀️🤯  Keeping everything crossed that there aren't any surprises but considering the case was opened with the conveyancer on Friday and we're already 20% of the way through the process this morning, I think things are going to be alright.  Made an OP over the weekend so we're now at £246500 on the balance and have worked out that we could be at under £200k by the time the new fix comes to an end.  And at that point we'll probably be looking to move and have to borrow a whole bunch more money 🙄

Raided a bit of the holiday pot to pay for a few things for our trip to Florida next year, namely lounge access at the airport (DH doesn't like sitting with all the people) and extra leg room seats on the flights (again DH's 6ft 3 so needs some space, and it's cheaper than booking premium seats).  Also bought our first Christmas present while we were away so will get on a roll and order the ones I know I want to get people this week and try and have a think about the others.  Just want to be organised for once!

Hope you're all doing ok, I now have to tackle my inbox.

jennystarpepper

You are doing an amazing job, I don't blame you for booking the holiday extras I would do the same as it is a long flight, I think it can work out to be money saving in the lounge because of the cost of food and drink in the airport.