Advice required (First Time Buyer)

Mattmuzz

Hi,

We are waiting on a house offer of 190,000 that we put in for a house we love. Our savings are in a Lifetime ISA totally £15,176 (across 2 accounts). We need to put £3056 in to make it to £19000 including the bonus. We can do this over our next 2 paydays (June and July 25th) however the bonus won't be fully in the account until August 29th as it is paid monthly. If the offer was accepted today when would we need to pay our 10% deposit by? Is it optimistic to think we can ensure it drags out until August 29th?

Thank you:j

spadoosh

You usually pay the deposit on exchange of contracts. For us this was the same day as completion. Theres pros and cons of this as there is no contract in place until the day you get the keys. Which means the buyer could pull out after youve spent money sorting things out leaving you out of pocket. True the other way round. You could turn up on the day and change your mind with little recourse.

Typically they say up to 4 weeks before completion for exchange of contracts, as a rough guide about 8 weeks from offer to completion (but anything between days and years). On that basis its going to be a bit tight to blag it. The easiest thing to do is simply say 'i cannot exchange contracts until 29/08 due to finance only being in place from then'.

Otherwise i think you just risk annoying your seller, much better being honest than thinking your just time wasting without knowing the reason why.

Mattmuzz

Thank you for the response, I am seeing the vendors today so I will mention this to them then. Thank you.