FTB found a house we like but a bit short!

Zeni

Hi, I'm hoping anyone can give some advice as not sure what do!

Me and my OH have just seen a house pop up with the right amount of bedrooms and great location come up for sale in our town but we don't quite have all the money yet. (we weren't going to start looking properly until next month as my OH would get his yearly bonus to top up our savings pot in 3 weeks) While we could pay the deposit right now we wouldn't have the extra few k to cover the solicitors fees just yet for another few weeks.

My question is how long does the initial process take i.e making an offer, going to a mortgage broker etc and what kind of fees could we be looking at the beginning of the process?
I don't think we can wait around a few weeks to make an offer as this kind of house in our area does go quickly but I'm guessing for solicitors etc we will have to pay some costs up front?

Thanks!

POPPYOSCAR

Have you got a Mortgage in Principle offer in place?

No point in making an offer if not.

ACG

It normally takes around 6-8 weeks until completion takes place.
You can drag it out a bit. There are some lenders who will not want to see proof of deposit so would not get picked up assuming you can get the difference in time.

Zeni

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Have you got a Mortgage in Principle offer in place?

No point in making an offer if not.

Not yet, we were going to see a broker in April as weren't expecting this house to just pop up! We do have one lined up though so could get a MiP going if we like it after our viewing tomorrow.

PasturesNew

From when you walk in to view it to when you get the keys in your hand it is often 3 months. You will only need a small amount of money up to the exchange point (2½ months or so).

But, there's no point viewing/offering if you've not even had the chat with anybody re mortgages and amounts.

casper_g

You don't need all the cash for the deposit sitting in your bank account before you speak to a mortgage broker. Just tell them the situatiom - they work for you.

alex_163163

Just to give actual figures for you, we had to pay £300 up front to the solicitor when we instructed them to act for us. The rest is due on completion.
We have also spent £500 on a survey on the property.
I think this is all we have had to pay out so far on our purchase. We haven't exchanged yet.

beccyboo

My partner and I are also FTBs. Like you, we found our Dream House (which was also the top top end of our budget) before we'd saved the full deposit - we were £4k off. Our seller was happy to wait the couple of extra months so we thought it would all be fine.

However, our lender wanted to see proof of the full deposit and explained that we couldn't proceed with our mortgage before they'd seen the proof. Unfortunately, we've ended up temporarily borrowing the £4k from parents to tie us over! Ask your lender what their policy is on this, as they do differ.

omariqy

You can get an MiP online through any of the big banks. You don't have to go with them for the full mortgage but it just means you're in a good position when putting offers in. You should be fine to look at a house now and make an offer if you are getting the rest of the money in 3 weeks time. That is unless the vendor wants to sell for cash in the next 2 weeks! Either way a solicitor won't get through all of the work needed in time.

Hoploz

As long as you can get your mortgage in principle then go for it. You don't know the seller's position yet. They may not have found anything, in which case it could reasonably take a few weeks for them to find .... Then their seller may need to do the same ... And up the chain it goes.

It's impossible to say how long it would take, but the likelihood is that it's going to be at least a couple of months before you have to part with a large sum, so go view the house.

You might not even like it when you see it!

Zeni

Thanks for the replies just really interested in seeing in reality how much had to be paid up front.
I know we could get the MiP online but would much rather go through a broker and see the options and pick the right one we would go through to mortgage with as I know to many MiP checks can hurt your credit score.