The nervous wait to exchange....

krooton · 7 Jan 2019 at 08:03

Clov!s said:
When you say proper help to buy, what do you mean? Is there another HTB scheme i don't know of?

Shared Ownership you own a percentage of the property, and pay rent on the rest.

Help to buy you own the majority of the house, and the government gives you an equity loan for the other 20/40%, which you don't pay interest on until year six

Captain · 7 Jan 2019 at 09:32

krooton said:
Shared Ownership you own a percentage of the property, and pay rent on the rest.

Help to buy you own the majority of the house, and the government gives you an equity loan for the other 20/40%, which you don't pay interest on until year six

The annoying thing is you can't apply for the equity loan without having a new build reserved on an estate.

POB · 7 Jan 2019 at 11:50

Clov!s said:
The annoying thing is you can't apply for the equity loan without having a new build reserved on an estate.

£500 deposit is 100% refundable.

If you use the governments spread sheet to calculate it all it will show you if it will be approved (debt ratios etc). But I don't know if they do any other checks.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...lp-to-buy-equity-loan-calculator-and-guidance

jimjamuk · 8 Jan 2019 at 15:21

Just looking into moving. Not moved for 18 years and am just wondering when you started looking for your next place - after you have yours on the market and have an offer for it or much sooner?? Seen a few nice places (moving up the ladder) but just not sure of the process these days. Also anyone used any of these online estate agents or people still using the high street ones?

Captain · 9 Jan 2019 at 09:39

Decided to forget the HTB, not worth it.

Have an appointment booked for next week, go through everything and get a mortgage in principle. Can I then start looking at houses?

Cleisthenes · 9 Jan 2019 at 09:42

Finally exchanging today/yesterday after 270 days of waiting, feels good!

Finally moving out of my folks place. Not my first purchase as I went halves on my sister's place but this'll be the first place of my own. Can't wait!!

Peerzy · 9 Jan 2019 at 13:40

We had an acceptable offer on our house and an offer accepted on a new place last month (8th Dec). Chain of 4 purchases completed on 11th Dec. Mortgage (Nationwide) approved and valuation done.

Very little progress has been made as solicitors have been closed over Xmas and NY so realistically hoping to be in around March sometime.

Solicitor has picked up on a very small amount of subsidence that occurred in 1990 (3 years after a two storey extension was completed). It was checked out in 1990 and monitored until 1991 with the owners at the time receiving a small payout to remove some trees deemed to be causing the issue and redecorate a few small cracks. As far as we can see there has been no further movement in the last 29 years but I'm having a surveyor go round this week to check it our further (initial survey didn't spot or mention anything).

fastwunz · 9 Jan 2019 at 14:20

Peerzy said:
We had an acceptable offer on our house and an offer accepted on a new place last month (8th Dec). Chain of 4 purchases completed on 11th Dec. Mortgage (Nationwide) approved and valuation done.

Very little progress has been made as solicitors have been closed over Xmas and NY so realistically hoping to be in around March sometime.

Solicitor has picked up on a very small amount of subsidence that occurred in 1990 (3 years after a two storey extension was completed). It was checked out in 1990 and monitored until 1991 with the owners at the time receiving a small payout to remove some trees deemed to be causing the issue and redecorate a few small cracks. As far as we can see there has been no further movement in the last 29 years but I'm having a surveyor go round this week to check it our further (initial survey didn't spot or mention anything).

To be fair it’s probably fixed then but worth checking - trees are one of the biggest causes of movement in property due to their indiscriminate drinking of moisture in the ground thus causing heave or subsidence.

When you remove a tree you have to monitor for a season to make sure the ground doesn’t swell.

With things like this it usually doesn’t impact anything other than a slightly raised or modified insurance policy.

Peerzy · 9 Jan 2019 at 14:41

fastwunz said:
To be fair it’s probably fixed then but worth checking - trees are one of the biggest causes of movement in property due to their indiscriminate drinking of moisture in the ground thus causing heave or subsidence.

When you remove a tree you have to monitor for a season to make sure the ground doesn’t swell.

With things like this it usually doesn’t impact anything other than a slightly raised or modified insurance policy.

We'll plan to be in the property for many years so my only real concerns are higher insurance quotes (Google seems to suggest 5x-10x more if you've had subsidence) and the ability to resell (will it put buyers off, reduce price in say 5-15 years).

DJMK4 · 10 Jan 2019 at 19:17

Clov!s said:
Decided to forget the HTB, not worth it.

Have an appointment booked for next week, go through everything and get a mortgage in principle. Can I then start looking at houses?

There is a little leeway when viewing..I purchased using a standard repayment in 2018. If you let agent know your mortgage in principle is being sorted out as you speak usually they will let you have a look if you ask..

Mine wasn't quite ready but they let me have a look around a few places whilst the paperwork and contacts between underwriters were being done

Captain · 10 Jan 2019 at 19:53

DJMK4 said:
There is a little leeway when viewing..I purchased using a standard repayment in 2018. If you let agent know your mortgage in principle is being sorted out as you speak usually they will let you have a look if you ask..

Mine wasn't quite ready but they let me have a look around a few places whilst the paperwork and contacts between underwriters were being done

Can you explain the process for me please? How do they calculate what you can afford? Is it 3 times your salary? 5? If i'd have applied for one last year when i was earning £1500+ a week it would have been easy but now i'm not, i don't know what's going to happen lol.

How much do you pay per month if you don't mind me asking?

blueboy2001 · 10 Jan 2019 at 20:03

I wouldn’t get a decision in principle until you’ve found somewhere to purchase. It’s fairly meaningless until you know your loan to value ratio and which lender you are going with.

You don’t need to have finance in place for viewings. The agent may ask for proof when you make an offer, but I’ve never been asked.

RDCorporation · 10 Jan 2019 at 20:46

We started looking at properties as soon as we started the process, in fact we found and viewed the house first and went off that to get mortgage in principal and now in process of purchasing the property.

If I remember correctly we did a "budget plan" to see how much we can afford / how much money we have left after bills a month and if we were to pay for mortgage how much money we will have left over a month.

Once you know roughly your budget plan and what kind of deposit you can put down start looking for a property.

We got our mortgage all sorted, the offer from the lender is out and all is ready...apart from solicitors.
Sellers solicitor hasnt even sent the contract yet and its been a month. Apparently it got sent to the wrong address...long process

Captain · 10 Jan 2019 at 21:13

What % deposit can you put? Will no lender accept less than 10%?

fastwunz · 10 Jan 2019 at 21:55

Clov!s said:
What % deposit can you put? Will no lender accept less than 10%?

Most wont and those that do will give you a terrible rate. Effectively if you don’t put 10% minimum down then you probably can’t afford it in the banks eyes and become a real risk.

Skillmister · 10 Jan 2019 at 21:57

Clov!s said:
What % deposit can you put? Will no lender accept less than 10%?

95% mortgages are getting a bit more common. As above though, you're probably scraping the barrel and getting on the worst rate.

Although I'd rather have a mortgage on a bad rate than rent!

Captain · 10 Jan 2019 at 22:03

I reckon I'll be looking to borrow around £150k as a first time buyer, I'll know that figure when I have my meeting next week.

I have £9000 in my bank now and can get that up to £14,000 by May.

It all depends on what i can borrow, if I can only lend £120,000 then I can cover the 10% no problem.

Will take me a while though if I need £18,000 or something.

Skillmister · 10 Jan 2019 at 23:12

Clov!s said:
What % deposit can you put? Will no lender accept less than 10%?

95% mortgages are getting a bit more common. As above though, you're probably scraping the barrel and getting on the worst rate.

Although I'd rather have a mortgage on a bad rate than rent!

blueboy2001 · 10 Jan 2019 at 23:34

Do an affordability check to get an idea of what they will lend - Nationwide have a decent one on their website, there’s no credit check or anything.

Bear in mind on £160k you’ll have £700 stamp duty, legal costs around £1000, potentially surveyors fees, removal costs etc that you’ll need to fund as well as the deposit. It soon mounts up!

The other thing worth doing is get a copy of your credit report and check it. Keep your bank statements as clean as possible - they won’t check credit card statements so any spending you don’t want them to see the details of put on a credit card. Make sure your payslips are clear - depending on how payments are shown can affect if the lender will count them as income.

There’s a lot of useful information on the lenders Intermediaries web sites like https://www.nationwide-intermediary.co.uk/ if you want to know detailed lending criteria etc.

Captain · 10 Jan 2019 at 23:42

Cheers.

No stamp duty for first time buyers