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

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24

Ramouth said:

I’d second the smaller, further, uglier sentiment.  I would look particularly for something with a poor layout that you can improve - a lot of people can’t see beyond what is already there and it is amazing what moving walls or stairs can do.  Especially when you have a builder in the family!  Post plans on here and you will get some great suggestions of things to do.

Thank you for this! I think I just need to keep being patient. Nothing much on the market that needs renovating - think a lot of people have done this themselves in lockdown!  🤣

thank you!!

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24

comeandgo said:

Why are you scared of negative equity?  The only time a house value has any bearing is when you are buying or selling and if it’s your dream house then surely it’s where you will be staying for years.  

No we definitely won’t be staying for years. We plan on being in this house for a while (5-7 years potentially) and then selling and moving back to my home town, near Gloucestershire. We can’t move because of work at the moment but want to move back closer to my parents before we have children, which won’t be anytime soon but we don’t want to live in the expensive South East forever! 

It’s so tricky! 

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24

Mahsroh said:

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24 said:

K_S said:

@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.

Thank you! Sorry for sounding stupid but is that the agreement in principle? We had this but it was on the final valuation it fell short. Luckily the surveyor felt pity on us and refunded the survey money which was so unexpected.

No, not agreement in principle. Wait until you have your FULL Mortgage offer.

Going back to the original post I wouldn’t work on the assumption that undervaluations mean prices will start falling this year. They might of course, but the problem with under valuations has been commonplace for the last year due to the general sharp rise in asking prices, but house prices have still continued to rise steadily so far. 

Okay thank you! Sorry, my partner deals with all the mortgage side being in a similar industry himself so I’m not too sure on all the processes. Will make sure we do that next time. 

Yep that is so true. The market will always be driven by demand and at the moment demand is crazy!

Hedgepigs

FedUpFirstTimeBuyer24 said:

comeandgo said:

Why are you scared of negative equity?  The only time a house value has any bearing is when you are buying or selling and if it’s your dream house then surely it’s where you will be staying for years.  

No we definitely won’t be staying for years. We plan on being in this house for a while (5-7 years potentially) and then selling and moving back to my home town, near Gloucestershire. We can’t move because of work at the moment but want to move back closer to my parents before we have children, which won’t be anytime soon but we don’t want to live in the expensive South East forever! 

It’s so tricky! 

Ok, but in 5-7 years time you should have payed enough into your mortgage to make the risk of being in negative equity still really quite small, as long as you buy sensibly in the first place.