Am I right to be wary of reserving ‘plot’

lilsweetie

Me and partner been looking to buy for quite a while, restricted to local area (for school catchment) after a while we decided to check out the new build development down the road. After a month of looking at the development, watching the houses sell, talking to people in the properties and checking they seem happy etc, double and triple checking it is freehold and no service charges as council have confirmed they will be adopting roads and the park, we decided we wanted to go for it. However, we are quite fussy on plots, we want one with our own drive and a lot of them have either shared drives or parking spaces (I would say about 95% of them) there is about 4 houses on the whole development with its own drive.

Anyhoo the sales woman put our name on the plot (not paid any fee) and emailed at the weekend saying it was ready to reserve, completion expected to be December, they want exchange within 28 days.

I got cold feet and made some excuse not to go and reserve.

Now I’m spending obsessive amount of time looking online checking the plot hasn’t been taken off the website, as it is now available to reserve. I just feel so so uneasy about how easily things could go wrong.
We rang earlier this week when the sales woman we have dealt with wasn’t in and pretended to be interested to see when completion is due and she said between December and February.

The house has bricks up to the bottom of the upstairs windows I would say at the moment.

My cold feet only come from the fact I am having to exchange so early on the property and sit and hope nothing bad happens in the meanwhile like me or partner loosing job, mortgage offer expiring or drastic changes in the valuation price.
The house is £175 and we would be putting down £40k and mortgage for the rest. I want the house but hate the uncertainty and don’t know if my nerves could take being bound into a legal contract for months.

It has now caused a tension with partner as he is a lot more laid back than I am and we are both getting frustrated with the lack of available property in the area. I don’t want desperation to cloud my judgement though.

If you have read this far thank you, just wanted to know if I’m over thinking the whole thing or if things can and do go horribly wrong.

milliemonster

You’re going to be bound to a legal contract for a lot longer than a few months if you’re taking on a mortgage, the biggest issue for me is what is going to be next to/behind the house, we reserved and bought a new build at the same stage as yours, by the time we moved in, they had then changed the boundary which meant the plot we had was much smaller than anticipated and we sold up after a year as I hated it, I’d never buy an unfinished house (or even a new build) again

leix2012

We are in motions of buying our 2nd new build home, it was built just past first floor windows when we reserved in June, it has just been plastered we are looking at completion date of Sept (The window was sept-oct when we reserved)
We were meant to exchange in 28 days even though we are selling our house too it hasn't been possible, we have only just got to point with our buying solicitor says that we are now ready to exchange but currently having issues with buyer of our houses solicitor.
We have been told they are more accepting to exchanging later than 28 days if you have paid deposit on any extras you may want for the house and as long as we had done the searches.

AdrianC

If you want an off-plan new-build, then exchanging early is normal. If you don't want to be legally committed until the last minute, then buy an existing property, not an off-plan new-build.

Build dates can - and do - stretch. We're in August. It's four months to December. The shell isn't finished and watertight, so weather can delay. Even once it is, there can be a myriad of reasons for other delays - so "Dec to Feb" is much more accurate than a simple "expected to be December..."

Sounds like you might be a bit confused about how much money gets paid out when, due to the confusing terminology. You are buying a £175k property, with £40k equity and £135k mortgage.
10% of the purchase price - £17,500 - is due as the "deposit" (security against pulling out) on exchange in a normal purchase, a week or so before completion.
The rest of your £40k "deposit" (equity you're putting in) would be paid out at completion, along with the borrowed mortgage money.

On a new-build, you'd pay a reservation fee now, and the rest of the 10% goes in at exchange. If the house is delayed, you will eventually get the option to pull out. New-build mortgage offers are usually understanding of builder delays. All the rest, including downvaluation risk (which would happen prior to mortgage offer and exchange), is the same between normal and off-plan new-build purchases, but you're right - there is a longer period where you've committed to buy and are theoretically exposed. If you think job loss is a significant risk, then it's probably better it happens before purchase than after...

pinkteapot

As others have said you should be able to string out exchange a little longer. Six weeks would be end of September so you’re looking at 3-5 months between exchange and completion.

Is there a particular reason to think either job is at risk or is it a general ‘what if?’

If you lost a job, are you both easily employable again? You might lose your existing mortgage offer if you’re in a new job and on probation but there are a small number of lenders who’ll lend on probation periods, so a forced job change won’t necessarily mean you can’t complete.

Cakeguts

If having your own drive is important buy a house that is already built and you can see how big the own drive is.