First Time Buyer - is it meant to be this hard!?

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24

Hi all,

I really hope someone may be able to give me some advice. I am totally at my wits end with buying a house 😞 

My question is a very long winded one but I’m really heartbroken after 2 house purchases falling through and I would really appreciate some advice. 

Some context: 
my partner and I are first time buyers. We have a 10% deposit saved and are in a good financial position thanks to both working 2 jobs. We have been looking to buy a house for the last year. We are in the South East of England so house prices are incredibly high. We are still relatively young (24 and 28) so aren’t in any particular rush but would like to buy a house to have base in the next couple of years. We are currently renting a really lovely house with a lovely landlord and are happy here, but are very aware that we are paying someone else’s mortgage rather than our own! 

We first put an offer on a house in April 2021. All went well, mortgage accepted, all sorted and then came the survey… it was horrific! We were advised to pull out as the sellers weren’t willing to negotiate on price and offered us £400 off for a dodgy roof, dodgy solar panels, dodgy electrics, dodgy plumbing, damp, substandard conservatory… you name it! So, we pulled out. This was in October 2021 so we had wasted a lot of time and money and it was heartbreaking…

So, we began our search again. Early Jan 2022 we found our dream home… again. After lots of negotiation we had our offer accepted. We were so excited! We had all the searches done, survey booked, so excited! Then… we had a call from our bank that they didn’t want to lend us the right amount as it had been valued by them as £30,000 less than the price we offered (which was lower than what it was on for)! 

So, we don’t have an extra £30,000 to put into the house, so again we’ve had to pull out. 

I’ve been told that the valuation coming up lower could be a sign that the market is about to change and that prices could drop in 2022? I am aware I’ve probably dodged 2 bullets and saved lots of money in the long run but this process is heartbreaking and I don’t know where to go next!

Do I wait and see what the market does, as it’s at an all time high current? Or do I keep looking and buy because I’m spending money renting instead of putting money into my mortgage!

To add another complication, I am a self employed business owner and am currently not being very tax efficient at all, waiting to go limited! As soon as I can buy a house I can go limited and save a lot of money long term… 

Thank you so much if you’ve read all this. I would really love some advice. I feel so stressed out and helpless! 

TCPIP_Fox

The whole chain I'm in has been downvalued and people I know their chain got downvalued, too.  Yeah the media is making it sound like prices are going up, but lenders are saying the opposite.  The good thing is, if the property is down valued, you can ask the seller to re-negotiate and save a good chunk of money.

With covid and everything else that is happening, it is a bit of a mess.  But, my advice would be if the lender downvalues the property, ask the seller if they'll accept the valued price don't pull out straight away.  I saved 8K because of the down valuation and the top of the chain in my purchase got down valued by 40K and they had to take it on the chin. 

RS2OOO

Problem is when there's someone else offering above valuation and the vendor goes with them rather then drops the price.

The viscous circle continues until such a time either the price has to drop or someone else has a big enough deposit that the down valuation is absorbed into the LTV.

[Deleted User]

Sadly this is normal for the UK. Most houses here are badly built and maintained, so the survey will very often turn up major faults.

Prices are stupid too so down valuations are normal. They hurt FTBs the worst because that group are the least likely to have tens of thousands of pounds lying around.

canaldumidi

First Time Buyer - is it meant to be this hard!?

Back in the 14th century, land was mostly in the hands of Lords of the manor and other dignitaries. The last thing they wanted was 'common people' getting their hands on it, so they designed a system that was, yes, as you say- 'hard!

K_S

@FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24 All I would say is don't spend any money on searches or a survey until you have a mortgage offer in hand. With most mainstream lenders offering free vals (and allowing you to add any lender product fee to the loan as opposed) for purchase apps, at least you can get to that stage cost-free.

CustardApple

we found our dream home

I never understand this - how can this be your dream house as a first time buyer.

When I bought my first property, we went through the same thing you are going through now, but I never once thought it was my dream property.  I wanted to get on the property ladder and was able to purchase the best property that suited my pocket.

Once you life in your first house or property, you will understand and realize what to look for, so that hopefully the next property will or might be or dream house

getmore4less

That first one sound like quite a bit could have been seen during viewing.

Get someone with experience to have a look at place you think you like a lot.

Look for cheaper places.

Mahsroh

CustardApple said:

we found our dream home

I never understand this - how can this be your dream house as a first time buyer.

When I bought my first property, we went through the same thing you are going through now, but I never once thought it was my dream property.  I wanted to get on the property ladder and was able to purchase the best property that suited my pocket.

Once you life in your first house or property, you will understand and realize what to look for, so that hopefully the next property will or might be or dream house

I think it depends how you define “dream home”. I say that we’ve recently bought our dream home. But the truth is to get my “true” dream home I’d need a euromillions win. 

I call this home our dream home but that’s relative to our current budget. I’m 50/50 whether this will even be our forever home, but for what we could afford I don’t think we could’ve found anything better and more suited to our current needs. 

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24

CustardApple said:

we found our dream home

I never understand this - how can this be your dream house as a first time buyer.

When I bought my first property, we went through the same thing you are going through now, but I never once thought it was my dream property.  I wanted to get on the property ladder and was able to purchase the best property that suited my pocket.

Once you life in your first house or property, you will understand and realize what to look for, so that hopefully the next property will or might be or dream house

Any house I’m going to purchase is my “dream home”… 
I feel really lucky to be able to afford what I can at my age (due to stupidly long hours) so the houses I am viewing are dream homes for me. It is all perspective. 

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24

Mahsroh said:

CustardApple said:

we found our dream home

I never understand this - how can this be your dream house as a first time buyer.

When I bought my first property, we went through the same thing you are going through now, but I never once thought it was my dream property.  I wanted to get on the property ladder and was able to purchase the best property that suited my pocket.

Once you life in your first house or property, you will understand and realize what to look for, so that hopefully the next property will or might be or dream house

I think it depends how you define “dream home”. I say that we’ve recently bought our dream home. But the truth is to get my “true” dream home I’d need a euromillions win. 

I call this home our dream home but that’s relative to our current budget. I’m 50/50 whether this will even be our forever home, but for what we could afford I don’t think we could’ve found anything better and more suited to our current needs. 

Yep, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve always been so excited to buy a house of my own so it really is a dream come true to even be considering it. Whilst it might not be aspirational for some, it’s a lot more to me than just getting onto the ladder. Buying my first house is a dream that’s come true!