Viewing / Buying a house

[peterms]

On lapalfan's tips, I strongly suggest before you slide down the banister, you check for splinters.

The advice on checking everything is good.

Also come back on Saturday evening, to see if the area is a party zone or if there are other things that might make you regret the purchase.

The big thing, which people often find it hard to do, is to look past the decoration and presentation  (and smell of bread and coffee) and look at the structure, layout, and condition of the building.  People's eyes are naturally drawn to things which are meant to be eye-catching, but you're buying a structure, not a lifestyle; so look at the structure, not the glitz.

And if possible, find a mate in the building trade who can come along.

[PompeyVillan]

Boiler, guttering and roof are good calls. We moved in and had to replace the boiler which is is couple of grand. 

Old solid brick houses tend to much more expensive to heat, bear that in mind as an ongoing cost. 

 

[Rodders]

2 hours ago, saturdaygig said:

I'd always do a driveby before booking a viewing, because you'll find it rules out a lot of houses. When you see the street, the neighbouring houses, what's on the opposite side of the road, how busy the parking is. All that stuff will impact your choice.

seems a little violent, but sure why not. 

[snowychap]

13 hours ago, Davkaus said:

Keep an eye out for any clearly new decorating, there's a good chance it's covering something up.

Indeed. New concreting in the basement or a recently built uneven patio (see attached example ) are things to be especially wary about.

Edited January 17, 2017 by snowychap

[saturdaygig]

23 hours ago, Rodders said:

seems a little violent, but sure why not. 

Funny you should say that, be do tend to refer to it as a driveby shooting

[Rugeley Villa]

 

Has anyone ever bought their council house before and how does it work regarding mortgage etc. We are entitled to buy our house now and we can buy it for 51k. We will need to extend at somepoint to make it slightly bigger but that's not too important yet.

[Xela]

This may help

https://www.gov.uk/right-to-buy-buying-your-council-home/overview

Quote

Right to Buy allows most council tenants to buy their council home at a discount. Use the eligibility checker on the Right to Buy website to find out if you can apply.

There are different rules for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

You can apply to buy your council home if:

it’s your only or main home

it’s self-contained

you’re a secure tenant

you’ve had a public sector landlord (eg a council, housing association or NHS trust) for 3 years - it doesn’t have to be 3 years in a row

 

Edited March 26, 2017 by Xela

[sidcow]

On 17/01/2017 at 21:20, peterms said:

On lapalfan's tips, I strongly suggest before you slide down the banister, you check for splinters.

The advice on checking everything is good.

Also come back on Saturday evening, to see if the area is a party zone or if there are other things that might make you regret the purchase.

The big thing, which people often find it hard to do, is to look past the decoration and presentation  (and smell of bread and coffee) and look at the structure, layout, and condition of the building.  People's eyes are naturally drawn to things which are meant to be eye-catching, but you're buying a structure, not a lifestyle; so look at the structure, not the glitz.

And if possible, find a mate in the building trade who can come along.

Our first house was an old lady who had died. It was the worst tatty 50's 60's style with the awful carpets etc. Not decorated in decades. 

Mr and the Mrs walked in and just saw the possibilities, visualised how great we can make it. 

We were still outside when the next couple arrived and 5 mins later when they came back out, the woman with a screwed up face. 

They probably went on to buy a house not half so good but well decorated. 

It amazes me that people look at current decoration and form an opinion. 

[Jimzk5]

Take someone with you, ideally someone with knowledge of the building trade, other than that, use your common sense, ask about the neighbors etc, and if there are any decent pubs near by

once the process begins though I'd give this advice if you decide to buy

sollicitors are bastards, you'll be quoted a certain amount and they will find away to bump the price up, when we brought our house we got quotes and one was £200 cheaper than the rest, so a more expensive solicitor matched the price, only to then charge an extra £200 for "additional paperwork"

the home buyers reports are bullshit, ours came back saying the house had settlement damage and suggested further checks at the cost of £600, our house is in the middle of a terrace, there is no way it could settle unless every house in the terrace has settled, luckily being a builder I saw right through that bullshit

abd finally, be prepared to be dicked around, solicitors won't answer your calls, your seller may change there mind etc

its stressful but worth it when you get the keys and it's yours though

[Rodders]

I'm at the beginning stages of looking myself now. It's happened quite suddenly, with some fortunate developments but I havent the faintest idea where to begin. But my current rental contract ends in June and so it's a case of also looking for temporary places too, maybe finding a flatshare in the mean time as I get varying ideas on how long the process can take!

But the idea of finally paying off my own mortgage rather than someone else's is rather attractive. 

[Xela]

3 hours ago, Rodders said:

But the idea of finally paying off my own mortgage rather than someone else's is rather attractive. 

That's the key bit for me. Approaching 4 years now since I got on the ladder (didn't buy until I was 34) and its nice to see the mortgage slowly coming down. 

I've actually been looking on rightmove a lot recently as keen to move to a house now. 

[Rugeley Villa]

It's about time I owned my own house and I'm looking forward to it tbf. Our house is a three bed but it's basically one main bedroom and two box rooms so it's a small three bed. Thought about swapping to a bigger place but we love the street and house so much it's worth extending in the future. 

[TrentVilla]

4 hours ago, Rodders said:

I'm at the beginning stages of looking myself now. It's happened quite suddenly, with some fortunate developments but I havent the faintest idea where to begin. But my current rental contract ends in June and so it's a case of also looking for temporary places too, maybe finding a flatshare in the mean time as I get varying ideas on how long the process can take!

But the idea of finally paying off my own mortgage rather than someone else's is rather attractive. 

Er rightmove?

Joking aside it can be daunting, first things first you need to work out what sort of property you want and where and then find out if you can afford it.

Starting point for working out if you can afford it is just do a mortgage calculation on a site like money supermarket or Martin Lewis to see what the month payments look like.

Oh and whatever you do don't be tempted by interest only!!!!! Oh and avoid new build flats!!!

If you've specific questions ask away... plenty of people in here with good advice and experience.

[Genie]

We're looking at moving and potentially to a new build house. I'm wondering what there is scope for in negotiations with house builder. We're looking at 4 bed detached in the £320k-£350k ballpark.

Do they tend to budge much on asking price?

Are there any things which are "don't ask don't get" that I'd need to be asking for?

 

[NurembergVillan]

2 hours ago, Genie said:

We're looking at moving and potentially to a new build house. I'm wondering what there is scope for in negotiations with house builder. We're looking at 4 bed detached in the £320k-£350k ballpark.

Do they tend to budge much on asking price?

Are there any things which are "don't ask don't get" that I'd need to be asking for?

 

I know a couple of folks who have managed to get the Stamp Duty paid by the builder.  You can get mortgage deposit contributions too.  Also, the Government's Help To Buy scheme supports people buying a new build, even if you're not a first time buyer so that might help you budget or even spend a bit extra.

One thing to look out for is whether you're getting a leasehold or not.  The freehold is often offered but as they're typically 999 years people initially turn it down to save a few quid.  Some of the building companies have then been selling on the freehold to a third party, so the homeowner is kippered when they want to buy it and have total ownership of the property.

The new-builds catching house buyers in a leasehold property trap

Quote

Recently built homes have been left unsaleable, with owners asked to fork out five-figure sums for freeholds. We investigate the latest leasehold scandal...

 

[Rodders]

17 hours ago, TrentVilla said:

Er rightmove?

Joking aside it can be daunting, first things first you need to work out what sort of property you want and where and then find out if you can afford it.

Starting point for working out if you can afford it is just do a mortgage calculation on a site like money supermarket or Martin Lewis to see what the month payments look like.

Oh and whatever you do don't be tempted by interest only!!!!! Oh and avoid new build flats!!!

If you've specific questions ask away... plenty of people in here with good advice and experience.

Cheers and will do. Fortunately my folks know a fair amount about it, so will lean on them and we will be doing plenty of viewings and weighing up the pros and cons - in the city or just outside, we shall see. Preference at the moment is for a house, a semi or terraced place rather than a flat, which will likely mean outside the more central areas, but that's fine by me. I think I've moved close to 10 times in the past 12 years, to think of all that money in agency fees / renewals and whatnot, I'm ready to drop anchor somewhere for a good little while!

[BOF]

On 26/03/2017 at 13:46, sidcow said:

Our first house was an old lady who had died.

I think you needed better advice.

[peterms]

16 hours ago, Genie said:

We're looking at moving and potentially to a new build house. I'm wondering what there is scope for in negotiations with house builder. We're looking at 4 bed detached in the £320k-£350k ballpark.

Do they tend to budge much on asking price?

Are there any things which are "don't ask don't get" that I'd need to be asking for?

 

As a generalisation, new build houses have poor space standards, poor storage, and are often shoddily built.

Don't buy new build, is my advice.  You will get a much better deal with an older property, on average.

[Genie]

8 hours ago, peterms said:

As a generalisation, new build houses have poor space standards, poor storage, and are often shoddily built.

Don't buy new build, is my advice.  You will get a much better deal with an older property, on average.

I can't argue with much of that tbh, the problem we have is that we want to move into a particular village and have been looking for ages for a nice detached 4 bed house without success. There's a small development of new build going up on the edge of the village so seems like a good compromise. We were sceptical initially but after looking at the show homes we were both impressed. 

Theres a few plots we have our eyes on and they seem to be getting snapped up really quickly. If we do take the plunge we'll have to move fast so wondered if anyone had experience buying new build and could pass on any do's or donts. 

[peterms]

Well, all I can say is that I would never buy new build, unless the magic fairy propelled me into the income bracket where you can buy a decent nb property.  For the vast majority of us, nb is a very poor shout. 

To any of my family, friends,  or anyone I cared about, I would say never buy a new build property.  Unless the architect is a personal friend and can personally guarantee standards  - possibly.  Even then, I'd be wary.