Buying a house without a mortgage

Frugaldom

Hi Toto, thanks for joining in this wacky challenge, congratulations on all your causes of celebration and very best of luck with your house savings. As you'll see by my signature, I have now joined a couple of the challenges on here and love taking part in anything that sets me a target. Saving for a house is no different, in my mind, and I have banks for everything - all homemade. For this one, however, I intend saving what I can tax free BUT I have a partially constructed "house bank". Rather than feed the money through the slot, I'm feeding paper with notes typed on. I'll open this sealed 'house bank' next year to see how far I have progressed with saving. For my signature, I am using percentages of what I need, as everyone will have different aims.

My 'house' bank already has a couple of notes in it - one says 'survey fees', one says 'legal fees', etc. These are amounts that I have already saved so far that cannot be touched for any other reason and are safely stored in ISAs. I'll edit in what I have actually done so far and then update my signature now I know there really are others out there with a similar interest in going for gold and buying a property outright Thanks Toto!

Edited in: I have now completed my 'house bank' - a completely sealed wooden box made from offcuts of MDF (part of my 'start a cottage industry' challenge) with a slot cut in the top, and it's shaped like a brick! This is the first brick in the wall that will grow into my mortgage free house.

I've estimated the costs of buying a house (when I've saved enough to start looking) at the following:

STAGE 1 - TARGET TOTAL £2,100
Mortgage arrangement fee - NIL (No mortgage to arrange)
Basic lender's valuation fee - NIL (No lending involved)
Survey Fees - £1500
Land registry - £100
Local authority search - £100
Other search fees - £100
Conveyancing - £300
Stamp duty - NIL (it's going to be a cheap property)

STAGE 2 - TARGET TOTAL £7,100
House viewing allowance (meals, B&B, travel if in different area) - £1000
Removals - £1000
Immediate essential repairs - £3000 (Remember it's going to be a fixy-up)

STAGE 3 - THE HOUSE FUND
Having spent many, many hours online researching fixy-up house prices in various parts of the country, it is not unrealistic to expect to find a house in need of renovation for around £50,000. Once it's bought, it will have to be lived in regardless of condition and repairs carried out as an on-going project. I'll add savings stages as percentages of £50,000 just as soon as I complete stage 2, which should be very soon, depending on what interest I make at the end of this month. I've used up my current ISA allowance, so need to look for the best place to save between now and April 08 without getting into the 'regular savers' market. Being self-employed, my income is not guaranteed from one month to the next.

Frugaldom

Hi Toto and whoever else reads this. I decided to try my luck with one of theses ICICI accounts that are featured on the main MSE page and have applied for that. It looked like the best option to suit my circumstances and, assuming my application is accepted, it's where I'll put anything over and above my ISA allowance

I'm going to update my signature to include £57,100 as my house target - I have no other way of keeping track of all these challenges LOL If I think of it as debt that I have to get rid off then it might make me economise even more!

setmefree2

Well done-:jkeep us posted - I'm fascinated.:money:

Frugaldom

Has anyone else got financial OCD? It's the silly nimbers that do it to me... my current signature is driving me nuts because of the odd number! Check it out... one of them doesn't end in a 5 or a 0!!!! Aaaaaaaaarg!!! I MUST pay in that extra £123.66 and FAST! :mad: Is this obsessive compulsion normal, do you think?

£2 savers club - £60 (banked)
House challenge - £57100 £50123.66
Sealed pot challenge #066 - Phil the Pig weighs 150g 1675g
Live on £4000 a year challenge #001 - 01/01/08 £4000

I am planning on getting this number rounded off before the end of this month. I simply CANNOT begin 2008 with an untidy number! Problem is, ISA is now full, so can't put it in there. I have now applied to ICICI for the 6.41% but need to wait 2 full working days for their security checks before they'll let me pay in! Ugh!! :eek:

~daisy~_2

bear in mind as well it can take up to 2 weeks for them to process your first transfer

good luck on your challenge

Toto

Nyk, I've got it too. I've been trying to scrape some money together because on my spreadsheet I'm showing my savings at 29.98% of target, that .02% is driving me bonkers.

Frugaldom

2 weeks to process a payment??????????? :eek:
In that case the cheque will be for £3.66 and the £120 can stay in my normal bank account with a 'do not touch' sticker until such times as I can transfer it online to the new higher interest account Thanks for warning me about that, I'd have been going daft wondering how long, how long, when, when, when?

~daisy~_2

i phoned and emailed a few times and they told me 8 working days to process first transfer

been much quicker since tho

Frugaldom

~daisy~ wrote: »

i phoned and emailed a few times and they told me 8 working days to process first transfer

been much quicker since tho

My security checks have been completed already and opening deposit cheque sent. :beer: Now I know what I said, but that nmber REALLY was annoying me and the only way I can get rid of it by New Year is to get the cash away from me and into my savings... so I am classing it as officially PAID even although it looks like I won't be able to see it in the new account for a week or more. I know I cannot spend it, so that's as good as close to 'money in the bank' as I'm going to get during the festive holiday period. Don't care, that pesky number is GONE, GONE, GONE!!! Going to update my signature now too. :T

Toto, it's quite a good type of OCD to have because I used it to pay off the debts quicker... HATED seeing balances that were odd and would do anything to scrape up that last couple of pounds to round them off :rotfl: It played its part in my minimum spend year, too! If my budget looked like £76.50, which is a fairly round figure in itself, I wasn't happy unless I could round it down to the £75. All the extras went into a pot and got saved for a particular Christmas present for a family member

Came back because I found my favourite smiley to reflect how I feel at completing STAGE 2 of this challenge

Frugaldom

Remember my post explaining about my homemade wooden brick? You know, the sealed wooden one that I write each item I complete saving for... lawyer's fees, surveyors etc? Well, I have just had to pick out all those little pieces of paper with a tiny fondue fork because I accidentally binned the note that had them ticked off and couldn't remember what I had put in it! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Let that be a word of warning to anyone doing similar. Don't seal the note and pop it in the box until you have recorded it safely. Doh! Just feeding the notes back in through the slot now LOL