The Skylarks Journey

Firsttimebuyer2021

Hi everyone! 

So after 7 very slow moving months and then 4 very fast moving weeks we finally received our house keys! 🎉

Moving in day went very smoothly with the key handover happening at 10am. We had all the flooring and furniture apart from the couch and blinds in and built for 3am Saturday morning…Shattered can’t even describe how we all felt towards the end but it’s amazing what 6 people can do in a 2 bedroom house starting from scratch! 

So, It’s just my partner (G) and myself (K) moving into our first property with a mortgage amount of exactly £158k outstanding over a 40 year term. I’m hopefully going to be using this diary to help us both stay on track and get the mortgage paid down with overpayments before our fix ends in 2026 

jenni_fer

Congratulations on the new home and happy new diary! 

Question if I may, what's your target for 2026? The full amount or something else? 

twinklie

Exciting times. My advice is to give yourself a few months to settle in and discover what you’ve not budgeted for that it turns out either needs repairing or buying. 

Moneyminded

Congrats on your new home! Good luck with your MF journey 

Nurse2047

congratulations on your new home and your MF journey 

Firsttimebuyer2021

@MFW2026 @Moneyminded @twinklie @jenni_fer

Thank you all for your comments! 

After a very stressful weekend we are back to work today, Need to phone the mortgage provider to change DD details to another bank account that’s been set up to pay house bills - More than a 30 minute wait to get through currently 

We don’t have a set target amount yet, We will give ourselves a few months for everything to settle and then start paying a regular amount - For now Iv set up for all our “save the change” to go into a savings account and what ever is saved will get transferred over at the end of the month and also rounded up to the nearest £10

powerspowers

Happy new house!! Good luck for your MF journey, the first year is the most expensive!

Firsttimebuyer2021

Little update - First mortgage payment was taken off on Friday  however, it was less than we were told so will need to contact them and find out if it’s split over 2 payments. We wont overpay anything until the end of this month however already have a small amount sitting ready to go. Woo!

Also according to the Council Tax office the property hasn’t been valued and allocated a council tax band - Something that can take several months according to them so for now we are putting money aside for tax band D (Similar houses in the area). Very frustrating! 

CCW007

Congratulations on the new house and planning to start paying it down immediately - start as you mean to go on!

Firsttimebuyer2021

@CCW007 Thank you very much! It’s still all very exciting. You’ll be very excited to start clearing your mortgage- I’ll be sure to follow! 

Phoned Halifax yesterday as the app was showing the contracted monthly payment being around £250 higher than expected- Turns out the app takes a while to update from the first payment taken and should show the correct monthly payment for May. I was also advised that any overpayment made I would need to phone up and speak to an advisor to shorten the mortgage term - Now, Do I overpay every month and then phone every month to shorten the term or do I save and make lump payments every 6 month and then phone and re-adjust? 

Mickyh-s

@Firsttimebuyer2021
The quicker you op, the less interest you pay...i think!