Greying's Gaining Ground - with Gratitude & Grace

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks peb - you just prompted me to do a 'simple' sum to work out a 'notional' mortgage amount divided by the (possible) months available to repay it.  Now, it's MOST unscientific, as OBVS, there is no interest percentage in this sum, but the monthly sum came out at less than we are currently paying in rent........ So food for thought!

Yes, looking at the bathrooms that were in the 2 'dated' houses, it would be easier to get a complete bathroom refit - which probably wouldn't be too onerous timewise, and I suspect more tradespeople would want to take the job on.  From experience, I find that it's the little jobs that no one wants to do for you, or wants to charge a sky-high fee for........

Thanks for making me 'think' - appreciated.

Greying X 

beanielou

Was also going to suggest a mortgage broker.
Worth their weight in gold.

Greying_Pilgrim

Hi Beanie - do you pay a set fee for their advice?  I'm trying to work out how best to find out the 'ball park' figure we could afford, whilst appreciating that 'the' house might not be available for sometime.......

Greying X

beanielou

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Hi Beanie - do you pay a set fee for their advice?  I'm trying to work out how best to find out the 'ball park' figure we could afford, whilst appreciating that 'the' house might not be available for sometime.......

Greying X

My DS & his GF did not pay last year.
The fee is paid by the lender.
You get an agreement in principle which gives you a clear indication of how much you can borrow & buyers like you to have one in place before you make an offer.
Hope this helps   

Greying_Pilgrim

Ah yes, I understand Beanie - thanks.  

*EDITED TO ADD* - I found the MAS mortgage calculator and their affordability calculator.  The mortgage calculator indicated that it is 'possible' that we could borrow the ball-park figure I had in mind for the (smallest) timeframe I had in mind.  It put the interest rate at 3%. It wouldn't be a walk in the park, and it is marginally above what we pay in rent now.  BUT it wasn't totally outlandish, so it's got me thinking about what we MIGHT look at property-wise, and what we'd be seeking from a lender IF we saw a property that we really liked. 

THANKS for making me think - as ever, appreciated.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Isn't there a mortgage calculator on the MSE site?? I'm pretty sure it links to actual products, or it did when I was looking for ours. 

I must tell you our broker was rubbish He was great when we first met, and we did (eventually) end up with the product he recommended, but he was impossible to get hold of, missed my student loan off the application (which resulted in failing eligibility checks over £13 a month and having to pay the lot off in one go), and completely ignored me when the house was valued at £0 because it was over the number of acres the lender would lend on - a fact I myself pointed out to him when he suggested that lender in the first place, and he said not to worry about as he'd spoken to them. We ended up having to split the title deed and buy a couple of fields worth for cash and the rest on the mortgage, and he never ONCE returned a phone call

In fact after our initial meeting the only time I heard from him (rather than his secretary) was when he rang after 2 years to see if he could find us a new fix!! I told him I had NOT been impressed, and in fact figured he must have died, since he never returned my calls Needless to say I renegotiated my own damn fix.

Sorry, still cross about him and the fact he would have got a referral fee (even though we didn't pay him ourselves). But plenty of other people have excellent experiences with brokers navigating tricky conditions for them, so do shop around!

Anyway, I do apologize for waffling on your diary. Sounds like you've had a reasonable day, and hooray for at least finding a couple of houses to look at! Xx

Cheery_Daff

Ah, yes - there's a "how much can I borrow?" calculator, and a 'mortgage best buys' list

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/best-buys/

Although obviously they'll make quite a few assumptions about you.

Because of our age difference, we had to find a 25 year one that would run til Mr Cheery was 80, which narrowed us down rather a lot! But these things are usually possible I think, just require a bit of looking, which it sounds like you're on the case with

Greying_Pilgrim

Aw hey Cheery - I remember the fandango you had with that broker!  Bloomin' cheek though, ringing up, touting for business 2 yrs later!  

I think that at this precise moment in time, what both DH and I wanted to try to assess is what is feasible, and what we might be looking at for a 'ball-park' house price (capital + mortgage), to give us our top end, and what we could afford to buy without a mortgage (a chi-chi garden shed.....🤣)  At the moment, there isn't actually alot of choice in our target area that is affordable, but by having the 2 guide figures, we do know what sort of house we might be able to afford, and certainly in the area we are primarily looking, there is quite a turnover of housing, simply because it falls into the first time buyer houses/family houses that are sold to either upsize to 'forever' or downsizing when necessary............ 

I'm still reluctant to plunge in and buy - despite the very good rental payment versus mortgage payment argument.  But with so much hinging on where you live as to what services you can access, then at the moment, renting gives a flexibility that owning does not.  DH would prefer to own........but doesn't really like all that goes with home ownership..........

But still I can more confidently start to look at a range of 2 or 3 bedroom houses now, and now that if ones start to appear that meet our broad criteria, well then we could definitely start to look into brokerage.  Two of the houses that I saw yesterday were already towards the top of our limit and would need work doing, so that makes them unaffordable by the time you've added in costs of moving, costs of buying etc etc.  It good to be able to discount them with 'logic'.  And yes, of course that's where negotiation of the price comes in, but I didn't love them 'enough' to pursue for a viewing IYSWIM.

All food for thought!  Thank you as ever, everyone! 😊

Whilst I'm here, I may as well add in the house-keeping details of the day........ 

Tea this evening will be vegetarian Bobotie, which is just spiced lentils, basically.  It will be served with rice.  I shall dig out a veg accompaniment - most likely cauliflower.  Today should be a NSD. 

Today is another day for a Mr Wicks broadcast, but I'm sure he said on Monday, that Wednesdays are Quiz days?  Does anyone know what he does?  Does he not do the exercise routines?  He is gamely donning Fancy Dress on Friday again - he was asking for suggestions on Monday - good on him for even attempting what he does in fancy dress!  

Right, best get a cup of coffee and make DH's snap.  It's all go....... 🤣🤣🤣

Ta, as ever, for popping by, reading and commenting  - greatly appreciated.  By me. No Doubt.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Mr Wicks does quiz questions among the exercises - there are always exercises! Not that I've done lots of the PE workouts, but I did do some a few months back, and it's definitely not a sit down quiz...

Good that there are some houses appearing in your price range! Making initial decisions based on logic is excellent, especially at the minute when the viewing regime isn't as straightforward. 

Hope you have a cheerful one today GP xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery - you're a star!  Thanks     LG is already asking 'what time is it?' as they sooooo want to do the workout.  i'm up for (trying to) 'answer & perspire' sessions   

Funnily enough, I was just having a ganders at a couple of EA's that don't routinely post on R1ghtm000v3, and although the one site was full of 'look we sold THESE', I was pleasantly surprised at how much variety there was - within our notional budget range, and there were quite a few that 'had we the money' I would have wanted to investigate.  Now, of course, the note on this is that many of these houses were sold WELL before we sold Greying Towers, so this is only a 'theoretical' exercise.  But it was interesting none-the-less, as it certainly (theoretically) broadened the target area that we could search for a new home.  Plus, I forgot to say last night that the monthly mortgage figure that I got from the MAS site would (notionally) afford us a 3 bed home, whereas our rental payments are for 2 bed houses in this area, so a mortgage should afford greater choice than a (broadly) similar rental payment gets you.  So certainly a plus in favour of buying over renting.

Have a cheerful day too Cheery 😘

Greying X