How you begin to plan to move house, advice etc

DannyCarey

I am hoping for some advice from folks to have moved house and how you made it happen.

Background:

I am 40, in a 3 bed semi with my wife and two kids.... its gotten too tight now, and after thinking about extensions, I just don't think its worth it and I kinda have my heart set on moving to a 4 bed detached. This would tick all the boxes for what we would want in our forever home.

Our house is worth about £220,000 and today we owe £67,000 on it. We have been overpaying on it since we moved in. Mortgage is up for renewal in May.

We have one child in full time nursery for another 18 months, which is £1000 a month. My wife is very reluctant to move until our child is out of nursery, which makes sense... although I do admit to struggling with FOMO with house prices only going up it seems.

The "forever home" new builds are about £440-£500k in my area. New builds somewhat appeal to me as there would be no bidding war (which every house seems to have now), and of course they are brand new and in theory turn key. We bought our semi ten years ago and it needed a lot of modernising, which I don't really want to do again in another house.

We went yesterday to view a new build area just to get started thinking about it all. The agent claimed that they could handle the mortgage transfer and getting the house bought.

I have only ever bought one house and having never moved before I have a few questions.

1. Is that a common thing in new builds? That the agent acting on behalf of the building company transfers your mortgage and helps you secure the help build? Where would our broker fit in this, or not at all?

2. How do you know when to put your house on the market? Presumably to secure a new build like in my example, you would have to have your house listed first, mortgage in principal on the new house and be ready to go even if the new house isn't built yet?

3. Any advice for my circumstances? Deep down i know waiting is probably the smartest thing to do, but I would love to be in the new house by summer of 2026.

4. Should we stop overpaying now and focus on building cash funds? We have about £120k that we can take from ISA investments, right now, but I would only want to use £50k of that really as ISA money is part of retirement plans / emergencies.

   1. I think the max mortgage I would want to the new house would be about £200k, as over 25 years at current rate would be £1100... we pay £800 right now with overpayments, so it seems affordable, especially once little one out of nursery.

For those who have moved, please tell me your dos and donts, what you learned, what you would do differently... any advice at all is welcome!

Thanks

gwynlas

There is always a premium to be paid on new build houses and it would take a few years to recoup this.

If you are set on a detached do look at new builds as there is often very little space between them/

As for overpaying you neeed to decide if you would earn more on saving cash or overpaying

jonnydeppiwish!

You need to be realistically on he market in order to consider a new build but you can get some ‘deals’ if you are under offer. Some money off, stamp duty ‘paid’ and upgrades etc. 
I would serious consider older builds (ie over 20 years old) as you tend to get a lot more for your money - garden size, driveways etc but this is different everywhere.

As for nursery, you need to be living in a catchment area for the schools that are ‘outstanding’ so perhaps moving before the application deadline (October of if I remember correctly) would be the best thing to do.

for me, the less mortgage I have would be better - great to have the cash in ISAa but unless you’re great at moving etc, you might find it more be too have less monthly payment and more money to save.

NanookOfTheNorth

Also factor in with many new builds these days there are management fees which you have to pay monthly/yearly in addition to the usual council tax etc.  Even where the estate has been adoped by the council, there are still areas that need a management company to manage - seems a complete rip off to me, but there you go!  It would certainly put me off buying another new build. It may be OK now and payments managable, but for your forever home and in 20-30 years time who knows how much that will have gone up eating in to your pension.

Albermarle

If you are set on a detached do look at new builds as there is often very little space between them/

Plus often the small gardens are overlooked, sometimes from more than one side 

1. How do you know when to put your house on the market? Presumably to secure a new build like in my example, you would have to have your house listed first, mortgage in principal on the new house and be ready to go even if the new house isn't built yet?

2. The builder will give you an estimated date when the property will be ready to move in, so you can work around that. If it is not built at all then at that stage you maybe will have to pay a small reservation fee, but not put your house on the market. As the build progresses the builder will start pushing for starting the conveyancing process and eventually to exchange even before it is finished. The problem can be that there are delays and you get a bit stuck in the middle between your buyer and the builder.

3. Often developers will have a part exchange scheme.

swingaloo

A  new build loses vale as soon as you move in and takes a while to recoup the value.

If you want small rooms, small gardens, no character and bad soundproofing then go for a new build. but, you look at houses which are perhaps 30 years old and you get so much more for your money.

Bigger, established gardens and a bit of character.

Yorkie1

If buying off-plan, be aware that estimated timelines for completion can be fairly unreliable. You may be required to exchange contracts at an early point, but with no deadline for completion. If significant delay occurs, your mortgage offer can expire before completion, meaning you have to obtain a new mortgage offer based on whatever your circumstances are at that later point. And/or you have to move out into alternative accommodation in order to keep your chain complete.