Buying a house without a mortgage

travelguide

Its really difficult to find a house without mortgage in this part of the country

Frugaldom

Is anyone else finding it infuriating at the increasing length of time a bank transfer is taking? :mad: I did an online transfer on 10th Sept and have just checked and found out that the cash STILL hasn't reached the other account, which means that every transfer is costing me a full week's interest. This week, I have set the transfer a different way, asking account 2 ro collect from account 1 and the date for collection was yesterday. I'l let you know how long it takes to leave account 1 and arrive in account 2.

With all the talk of Lloyds TSB and HBOS, I'm now wondering where I'll be able to bank my money! I left Clydesdale after they were taken over and my local branch was shut down, then moved to TSB. Wasn't happy there and vowed I would never knowingly pay another penny into their business and promptly switched to Bank of Scotland. Then it merged with Halifax, which I was already with, but now my only local bank is HBOS and it's reduced it's opening hours to 3 days per week - surefire sign of closure in the pipeline, IMHO, especially in the wake of the recent 'merger' talks.

I NEED to buy something - I just don't trust the banks with my money and would feel far happier knowing it was in something I had access to instantly, like a house! What happened to the old saying, 'as safe as the Bank of England'?

People are offloading property everywhere I look or, at least, attempting to offload it! Just spotted a small detached bungalow fixy up with a guide price at auction of £14,000! However, I do know that area was recently really badly flooded, so maybe not such a bargain. However, someone else nearby has just put another plot on the market at o/o 20k! Might I be cheaper building?

I'm kind of wishing I was already a mortgage free wannabe, at least I'd know exacly how much it was going to take! Mind you, anything with the word 'mort' puts the fear of death into me! :rotfl:

kbarty

I'm nowhere near where you are on this journey (i.e no savings at all yet!) but can understand the wanting your money in a house and even more so without a mortgage. All you can do is keep your eyes open, the perfect thing will come along - even if it doesn't look perfect and needs lots of work!

Frugaldom

Hi kbarty, I'm doing everything I can to scrape together enough to buy a place but it's a long, slow process. I've set myself a mini-challenge to raise an extra £500 this month, as I knew there was a few extra pounds coming in from various sources (birthday, cashback, winnings, general savings on special offers and discounts). If I succeed, I've estimated that I should be close to 35% of my overall target by the time the interest gets added, which isn't too bad at the rate I save. Just need to watch the stooze pot as it's looking less likely I'll be able to switch the balances next time they are due! I fear I may be all stoozed out for this year! :eek: :rotfl:

Some of the extras that have gone straight into savings:
Free bingo winnings - £60
Cashback #1 - £50.01
£2 savings tub emptied - £12
Birthday money - £120
Misc savings - £25 + £35 + £28 + £12
Other winnings - £38.75
Reduction on Internet - £5
Total to date: £385.76
Balance to find: £114.24

Hoping to accumulate this from having drastically cut back on electricity consumption, telephone calls & mobile plus a few more pounds from cashback that's due to arrive plus some eBid sales after they neutralise my recent purchases I'm also awaiting a tax rebate; it would be nice if that could arrive this month as I was informed about it by HMRC in May.

Sad but true - it's exciting enough when the savings pot increases by a round fraction of a percentage point, but better still when it reaches a full figure ending in a 0 or a 5! :rotfl:

pavlovs_dog

wherever you do bank nyk, make sure you dont keep all your eggs in one basket. no more than £35k with any one institution/group of banks (see martin's article HERE)

Frugaldom

Thanks Pavlov, but I have accounts all over the place for all my different challenges and ISAs and can't see me ever having 35k within one establishment for a long time yet. However, I'm guessing there will be quite a few people annoyed at the HBOS/LLoysTSB merger proposals as they'll need to start shifting money if they saved with both. I read earlier that Northern Rock could be top benefactor from the resulting scenario. I wonder if we'll see a brief flurry of interest rate increases in high interest accounts to attract the resulting cash withdrawals?

kbarty

hope you get to that 35% mark! You're doing really well. Have you remembered the £60 tax rebate we'll mostly all get this month?

I've an evening on my own tonight, so I'm going to try and have a look at some figures for my own house fund!

travelguide

One more thing to keep in mind before getting into a house nowadays is to look if they are free from insects or else we may regret.

Frugaldom

travelguide wrote: »

One more thing to keep in mind before getting into a house nowadays is to look if they are free from insects or else we may regret.

:eek: Insects? You mean like real, live insects, like fleas from animals or something like that? Or mites?

carrottopsuk

nykmedia wrote: »

:eek: Insects? You mean like real, live insects, like fleas from animals or something like that? Or mites?

NYK I wouldn't worry, if you look at their other posts, they seem to have an interest in insect life. :rotfl: