Buying a house without a mortgage

Frugaldom

Milly1974 wrote: »

I actually broached with my OH the subject of getting a real fixer-upper the other night. Just starting by joking about living in a caravan on the front lawn, but the idea wasn't rejected out of hand!

I have grown up doing up houses, so it doesn't scare me, but OH isn't really a DIYer.

Congrats on having a bath to put in your future bathroom! :rotfl:

I'm planning on mine being a joint venture with OH2B who has NEVER attempted DIY but, like you, there was always a fixy-up element to most places I have lived (some much more than others :eek: ). So, it's a learning curve with a difference - he's getting the manual for Christmas, complete with geometry set, pencils, a pad of paper with nice little squares and perhaps even one of those fancy straight line hi-tech whatchamacallit theodolite thingummyjiggerypokeries. :rotfl:

As for the bathroom - we do have a pot to pee in, we even have a sink and all the pretty accessories to go with it, but no bath. We're opting for an eco-friendly shower room, which will also avoid the long term hassle of removing the bath to replace it with a shower once we're too old and infirm to climb into a bath. This fixy-up could take a looooooooong time!

Edited in: Unable to get any response from civil engineer because there was NO REPLY! Not even an answering machine or recorded message stating when to call back and I refuse to call a mobile number!

pavlovs_dog

nykmedia wrote: »

he's getting the manual for Christmas, complete with geometry set, pencils, a pad of paper with nice little squares and perhaps even one of those fancy straight line hi-tech whatchamacallit theodolite thingummyjiggerypokeries. :rotfl:

posh man's spirit level?

Frugaldom

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

posh man's spirit level?

That would do it! :rotfl:

I discovered the ebuild.co.uk forums and have been spending hours in there comparing prices for renovations, conversions and self-builds. I have to say, I've been quite surprised by the costs as some are estimating at an average of £1000 per sq.mtr whilst others are claiming under £700 per sq.mtr. Keep in mind that these figures are for complete build (and don't include the cost of the plot) and that my future proposed project is a conversion or renovation only. Working to a very, very frugal budget, how much less do you reckon a conversion/renovation would cost? Would it be ridiculous to attempt £450 per sq.mtr to completion? I feel another MSE-style challenge coming on.

Have a good weekend everyone, don't miss MSE too much tomorrow - we're FREE TO SPEND! :rotfl:

Frugaldom

The house project is looking a bit distant again. According to the EA, they are expecting an offer in that the sellers have already agreed to accept, so I'm not going to waste good savings on legal fees trying to get around problems with access, no services connected, no firewalls and everything that goes with planning & building regs only to find out they've sold the place privately. Apart from that, there have been several conflicting pieces of 'important information' but who should we believe? The sellers or the council? :rolleyes:

pavlovs_dog

at least you've had a good practice run ready for the real thing :j

Frugaldom

Thanks Pavlovs, that's what I keep telling myself each time a project casts itself adrift after weeks of research and planning. Fortunately we haven't incurred any vast legal fees or survey costs. It's amazing how much of the groundwork can be done for yourself when it's stuff like budget planning, estimates, building regulations and H&S etc. A few phone calls and asking plenty of questions usually help you complete your own financial risk assessment of the situation. You really would laugh at some of the projects I've considered in the past! :rotfl: Some have been verging on the surreal! :rotfl:

setmefree2

nykmedia wrote: »

The house project is looking a bit distant again. According to the EA, they are expecting an offer in that the sellers have already agreed to accept, so I'm not going to waste good savings on legal fees trying to get around problems with access, no services connected, no firewalls and everything that goes with planning & building regs only to find out they've sold the place privately. Apart from that, there have been several conflicting pieces of 'important information' but who should we believe? The sellers or the council? :rolleyes:

I'm sure something better will turn up;) It's karma ...or something:p

Walshyboy84

I've found that even I could save this amount of money, a dream flat in SE1 in London is still £775,000 :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

So yeah... but hopefully the Docklands seems to be coming down nicely! A flat which I almost mortgaged for £280,000 on 100% last september is now worth £235,000 on the market! The same one nonetheless! :rolleyes:

And my OH laughed when I said we should've bid for £220k on it!

Should we make this a challenge for some of us. Actually see if we can be MFi3 but without a mortgage?!

It might get my proverbials into gear and start saving! And not spend on frivilous things like... Shiny shoes... Or... £100 a month gym memberships...:eek:

Frugaldom

Hi Walshyboy84

This is one of my challenges - to become a mortgage free homeowner, I just haven't set a date on it yet and I didn't have the space in my signature after the last lot of MSE rule changes because I have several other challenges I take part in this year.

To me, all the figures are relevant regardless of house price or location. Someone looking to buy a place valued at £250,000 would possibly need at least 15% deposit and would need an annual income of between 45k & 50k to obtain the resulting mortgage. Similarly, a basic earner could possibly raise £47,250 as a mortgage against, say, a £55,500 property, but saving the 15% deposit (and, ultimately, paying off the mortgage) would take just as long.

So... I'm aiming to buy a [strike]house[/strike] home without a mortgage as soon as is financially possible, mainly because I'd like some longterm security. Even if I have to fix it up brick by brick myself, if I can do that within the next 3 years, I'll be extremely happy.

The saga of the previously mentioned 'plot with a roof' continues. Spoke to the farmer and he certainly wouldn't sell any land for alternative access and I'm not convinced there's enough space between the property and the boundary to sink a sewage treatment unit because of the river - insufficient soakaway. The bridge prices are coming in at between £2,500 and £4,000 depending on civil engineering & groundworks, but that's just for pedestrian access. I told you I liked a challenge but I'm not spending a penny on any of the research on this - some rich 'dude' will probaby swoop with cash and buy blind - then find out the downside. :rotfl:

Pavlov, I meant to ask - how come you added an extra grand to your furniture and decorating budget? I've rejigged stages 1 & 2, so they now look like this:

STAGE 1 - TARGET TOTAL £2,000
Mortgage arrangement fee - NIL (No mortgage to arrange)
Basic lender's valuation fee - NIL (No lending involved)
Survey Fees - £1200
Land registry - £100
Local authority search - £100
Other search fees - £100
Conveyancing - £500
Stamp duty - NIL (it's going to be a cheap property)

STAGE 2 - TARGET TOTAL £8,000
Moving Allowance / Removals - £1000
Immediate essential repairs - £3,500 (Remember it's going to be a fixy-up)
Central heating system/wood burner - £3,500 (Grant available)

Total for stages 1 & 2 = £10,000
COMPLETED

I've changed my predicted purchase price figure (STAGE 3) so many times that I'm not even going to report it here. Suffice to say, I am only 17.05% of the way there. I also have a major confession to make... I have transferred money into Premium Bonds rather than fixed rate bonds because I didn't want to risk anything being locked away for a year when property prices are beginning to come within my reach.

Walshyboy84

I see well it looks like a fantastic challenge!

Something which I would be very interested in if I were in the homeland of the OH in Leicester! :rolleyes:

But alas, I'll be happy if I've got a £30k deposit by the end of September 2010! That's the aim and I'm sticking to it...

Just gotta complete all these little 'challenges' on my signature first! :rotfl: