Lolu's Mortgage Free odyssey

misslolu

Hello guys and welcome to my mortgage-free wannabe diary! I wanted to start one of these ever since my offer was accepted on a lovely two-bed property in Kent but I thought maybe it was slightly too early. I've always been fiercely independent and want to finally move out of my parents' house where I was paying not-so-insignificant rent and had a lot less freedom than I would've liked in exchange. I hate being in any kind of debt or feeling like I owe anyone, so even though I decided to purchase a flat near the top of my affordability I definitely want to pay it off as soon as possible.

I'm Gearing up to exchange and complete in the coming weeks and couldn't hold myself back any longer. I'll give you a timeline on what's happened so far:

30/01 Offered on a property
01/02 Offer accepted
18/02 Sellers found property
25/02 mortgage application submitted
26/02 Denied & submitted with another lender
01/03 Hard search & valuation booked
03/03 Valuation
08/03 Valuation accepted
17/03 Searches instructed
22/03 Mortgage Offer Received

There are one or two other properties in my area being sold so I'm hoping searches won't take super long and I'll be able to move into my new house way before the stamp duty holiday ends. Then the real graft begins! I hope you decide to follow on with my journey.

Chiglepig

Good luck, @misslolu, a very exciting time. Following.

misslolu

So the property is £215,000 and I'm getting a mortgage from digital mortgages for £192,375 at 3.49% fixed for 2 years. I'm not sure why it's slightly under 90% maybe to get me a better rate? Either way, it meant I had to cough up an extra 1K for my deposit which was slightly annoying. Luckily I've been able to save enough to cover it, but it has depleted my emergency fund a bit. Ah well I guess that's what the emergency fund is for!

caeler

Good luck on your mortgage free journey! Ps. Digital don’t offer anything over 90% so that might be it or have you added a product fee to the mortgage? 

misslolu

Chiglepig said:

Good luck, @misslolu, a very exciting time. Following.

Thanks! Do you have a diary too?

misslolu

caeler said:

Good luck on your mortgage free journey! Ps. Digital don’t offer anything over 90% so that might be it or have you added a product fee to the mortgage? 

No product fee, they've just decided to lend me 89.5% instead of 90%. Very weird, I thought it might be affordability related, but i'm not even getting the full 4.5x multiplier and I have minimal loan payments. 🤷‍♀️ 
Thanks for the well wishes!

powerspowers

Good luck misslolu!
we are buying as well, I think I’m on page 5 of my diary and still don’t own the property 😂 
are you going to have a lot of costs in order to move in? 

Chiglepig

misslolu said:

Chiglepig said:

Good luck, @misslolu, a very exciting time. Following.

Thanks! Do you have a diary too?

I do misslolu, I've been overpaying for a while, but only started my diary last month

misslolu

powerspowers said:

Good luck misslolu!
we are buying as well, I think I’m on page 5 of my diary and still don’t own the property 😂 
are you going to have a lot of costs in order to move in? 

😂  that's hilarious! Well hopefully you get it soon, I'll come over and check your diary in a bit.

Funny enough I'll have minimal costs to move in, the house is buyer-ready so I won't need to do anything before I get there and I live at home now, so I'll probably just need a man and a van to fit my suitcases, desk and chest of drawers. The downside is that I'm going to have to buy everything else myself 😢. The house is definitely going to be empty for the first few months!

misslolu

Chiglepig said:

I do misslolu, I've been overpaying for a while, but only started my diary last month

Nice! I'll come and have a look too.

South_coast

misslolu said:

I'll probably just need a man and a van to fit my suitcases, desk and chest of drawers. The downside is that I'm going to have to buy everything else myself 😢. The house is definitely going to be empty for the first few months!

Gives you time to decide what you really need though - and you'll appreciate it so much more when you get it! When I moved into my last rented flat, it was my first time unfurnished and I literally had nothing. The joy of a mattress on the floor after months of an air bed on the floor was EPIC 🤣🤣🤣!!!