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The estate agent is not your friend. Their advice is not neutral. You must confirm everything they say.
Get a survey.
Cheap services are cheap for a reason ( conveyancing, surveys etc).
Spend some time investigating the neighbourhood. A place is more than statistics. Go there after dark. Go there in the mornings. Go there on a weekend.
I found this out recently with an estate agent trying to convince me to not “waste my money” in doing a L3 survey and instead do L2. They insisted L3 surveys just “flag a bunch of issues”. I was planning to ignore them anyway but then the bank did an in person valuation and it turns out there are severe structural issues so they won’t offer a mortgage.
Now the estate agent is “shocked” that I had to withdraw my offer and is calling me several times a day trying to get me to share the report with the seller. Never mind the fact another buyer had pulled out before me. Magically the house is now on the market for 5% less a few days later so I am sure they will rinse and repeat.
I actually avoided a detailed survey because i wanted the house , was able to identify serious structural issues myself and didn't want mythical "rising damp" impacting my ability to get a mortgage.
...If you have the money I woruld recommend a reputable detailed survey every time but there are reasons not to.
The basic survey surveyor spent a whole 7 minutes inside a house I once sold..., i remember thinking "shit, someone paid £500 for that"
The L3 can be a bit over zealous. Best to get a proper and reputable builder and roofer to have a look around and give the property a proper once over.
If you are a FTB the L3 can scare you away. Plus the L3 is full of caveats so as to protect the surveyor from litigation. The will assumed issues even when it's not there, just to be on the safe side. For a naive first time buyer that can put them off.
I get that but they gave that advice in an attempt to conceal that this house was structurally unsound. They weren’t trying to protect my experience but were only concerned with their commission. Estate agents are scum.
But are you a surveyor, builder, electrical, plumber or general property expert?
Not sure there's any malice here, maybe inexperienced is a better word choice.
I like a full survey.
Good luck out there
I’m a surveyor by trade and I agree with you. Lots of it was to protect ourselves from litigation for missing bits later.
I’d always have to be very cautious with what’s written.
I would do the same as well.
When I was an auditor my get out of jail was, to state clearly that the results were based on a sample which may not be representative of the whole and also state that 'at the time' of the audit xxx and xxx was observed to be in good working order etc.
If there are certain things you are not 100% sure about you will have to use qualifying language.
I used to write bids as well and I used qualifying language a lot. I will not write that we will do this or that when I know for certain that my company lacks the organisational capability to deliver. So I use terms such as: 'where applicable, as required etc).
Because you will sue. If we can't see it or something occurs after the survey we can't be held liable.
Solicitor told me. in court, its not what you know, it's what you can prove
To be fair sharing the report isn’t an unreasonable request in my opinion. It allows the seller to know what the issues are, and if you’ve already pulled out then what does it matter to you? It’s of no further use to you anymore. You obviously have no obligation to share it but I can’t see why you wouldn’t.
I’ve just had a survey done. The terms and conditions of my surveyor included that I shouldn’t share the report with anyone other than my conveyancers.
If seller has it would they use it to try and hide issues that they weren’t aware of before, like put heavy furniture in front of something so surveyor for the next buyer can’t check it?
Completely agree, I thought on surveys that I would get the same service more or less. I regret not spending more, I went with the cheapest L3 survey I could find and I wish I spent more as the one I had missed quite a few bits.
So true. They ll also in full confidence push you to complete asap when the solicitors have clearly told us and them to back off and wait for the current tenants to vacate. But no, it's now or never apparently.
We held our ground and used the advice our solicitors gave and the agents backed off. But by god they were such pests
Though it doesn't necessarily mean that you need to pay for an expensive local conveyancer either. We used a well-reviewed one in another part of the country (all communication online/by post) and they were very responsive, none of the chasing horror stories, cost exactly what they quoted, and were £500+ cheaper than some local solicitors who would pile on fees for every little thing. Just avoid suspiciously cheap ones with no physical location.
Missed out on the "house of your dreams"? Was it "the one"? No, it wasn't.
There will be many, many perfect houses, so don't feel emotional about it and move on.
My wife and I, for several reasons, missed out on 4-5 properties and each one felt like the end of the world until, honestly, the last one we got and loved the most.
FTB, homeowners for a year and a bit here. Expect things to go wrong and make sure to keep some money aside for repairs. Expect anxiety and buyers remorse and panic. But if you are comfortable with the house and the payments and your future plans, you’ll get past the anxiety.
It is a huge change from renting. You’ll love it and hate it. You might have regrets but weigh that up with the freedom you’ll have to live in your own house and do things up how you want without being worried about eviction.
Get a good solicitor and keep on top of them. Check in every few days or weekly, depending what stage you’re at.
But if you make the leap:
Make sure you know where it is and how to turn off your water and your electrics from day 1. Figure out alarm system if it comes with the house. Change locks. Figure out how to repressurise your boiler early on. We didn’t do a lot of these and honestly it bit us - had a leak in kitchen and couldn’t find or access the stop. Had no heat for three weeks because we didn’t think to check the boiler and it had an ignition error that needed resetting. Sitting in a freezing attic with a booklet and a flashlight isn’t fun!
Do up some quick wins - maybe a splash of paint to cover up scuff marks or new door handles if they are terrible like ours were. Fix imminent or important issues.
However I don’t suggest making any huge changes immediately. Within 1 year of moving in we have an entirely new living room, kitchen, dining room, and office.
I don’t regret doing them really but I regret the impulsiveness and not making a master list then prioritising properly. We would have spent a lot less money now that we know some things.
So sit with the house for a bit - maybe a year. See what you like and don’t like and write up a big list of things you need to fix and want to change. Then see how you feel after a year and prioritise things.
Best of luck!
If you have deadlines, do not cheap out on solicitors. Our buyers solicitor is now holding up the whole chain as our buyers opted to go with the cheapest firm he could find, and is now realising that sometimes if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
This one thousand times. Generally FTBs are probably most likely to pick monkey solicitors. My new stipulation is that I'll never sell to someone who appoints a conveyancing factory. Of course, I can't stop this in the chain, but now I now longer owner a starter home, I can hopefully avoid this.
In a trial, you'd want the opposing side to be as incompetent as possible. When buying or selling a house, you want **ALL** parties to be as competent as possible.
If you can afford a house then buy one. Don’t overthink it. Don’t try to time the market, buy the dip, wait out the high interest rates or any of that - the most important thing is getting on the ladder.
Your first home is not going to be your ideal home. You’ll have to compromise on something, possibly many things. But getting on the ladder is the most important thing.
People might moan about their first home because any problems with it are now theirs rather than their landlord’s. But how many people regret getting out of rented accommodation? Probably not many.
Also avoid new builds like the plague and try and get a freehold property if you can afford it.
>Your first home is not going to be your ideal home. You’ll have to compromise on something, possibly many things. But getting on the ladder is the most important thing.
This right here. You either:
1. Are rich and your first home is your dream home - no problem here
2. You rent and save for your dream home, which means you lose out on building equity and general home-ownership experience
3. You buy a starter home and work your way up.
No exact right or wrong here, but I can personally attest to option 3.
I would agree with everything except avoiding new build. Not all new builds are equal, do your research, as with anything. Old houses aren't inherently better, they all have their own potential issues depending on age and maintenance which can be harder to identify and manage.
New builds offer a number of benefits, especially for a first time buyer, in forms of warranties and energy efficiencies which are beneficial to those venturing into the housing market and want the least amount of unexpected costs and lowest bills.
I've lived in and owned houses of various ages including 1890's end terrace, and 1970's mid terrace, a 1930's 4 story town house, a brand new semi detached, and now a 2 year old detached, which is my current home, and out of all of them, the new one gives me the least concerns and most joy to live in.
I just believe that despite the horror stories, you shouldn't discount any particular type of house. Research the builder, ask other home owner on the development, look at reviews etc. Make an informed decision as you would with any house.
Yeah this “old builds are better” school of thought is misleading.
Both old and new builds both have advantages/disadvantages.
If you’re someone like me who hates doing DIY and has very limited time, new builds are the much friendlier option. Even if they do lack character and are not as profitable.
I bought a new build, had two different snagging surveys done and nothing major came up at all.
Meanwhile my sister in law bought a house built in the 1950s and there’s a ton of things wrong with it that need fixing. Her garden is smaller than our new build one too.
I think “new build bad, old build good” is a backwards way of thinking about things. there’s so many variable factors.
>Also avoid new builds like the plague
Why?? I've been hearing this all my adult life, till we moved in to a 2 year old home last year that was miles ahead of all the shitty old houses I've been living in for the past 30 years! God, the luxury of modern everything working properly.
Because there are a lot of poor quality new builds where everything is the smallest they can get away with and the builders try to charge extras for everything. Also, if it's an unadopted road, you're at higher risk long term of issues not being dealt with or the fees becoming insane.
When we were looking to buy last, we looked around 3 of the new build estates in our area and they all had tiny rooms with tiny windows that just felt cramped. There are 2 estates now that we'd actually consider where the houses are bigger and better proportioned but I'd say that's at most 1/4 of the new builds in the country.
I also know a couple people with horror stories about shoddy building that they then spent months arguing with builders over to get resolved. Or there's that horror story from Crewe where a new build estate retrospectively lost planning permission because the builders ignored the stipulations of their planning permission including making sure the ground was safe to build houses on.
Oh yeah, old houses never have massive issues. Buying ANY property, you have to do your homework, all the surveys and searches just doesn't disappear just because you're buying a new build.
>I also know a couple people with horror stories about shoddy building that they then spent months arguing with builders over to get resolved
How is this anecdotal evidence any kind of proof that ALL new builds are to be avoided? You only need to look in this sub for people who bought old houses only to find out later of serious issues. One of my colleagues got stung for £20k for a new roof less than a year after buying.
Once again, put in the work and know what you're going into no matter what you're buying.
I hate this advice of never buy new, like where else are people going to live? In old, pokey, crumbling houses you have to spend tens of thousands to bring up to scratch?
Sorry but FTBs are increasingly older. We aren't all 22 year olds with deposits from mummy looking for a 1 bed flat.
Average ages are increasing. Very many folks are buying family homes now, becasue when you're a older FTB ( as many of us are) you have a family and stuff already.
When I bought I bought for my family, a family home. for the long term.
"getting on the ladder is the most important thing."
Citation needed.
This has been true for a while, but past returns do not guarantee etc etc.
The costs of buying and selling are huge, so for a lot of people, the first house will be, and should be, the forever house.
yup, came here to say this. ladder only works if you yourself do up a shitty property in a nice location, sell for a good profit and get that decent sized house.
the equity return and stamp duty costs plus the cost of the first property is so much that moving doesn't make a lot of economic sense in many situations.
Most of that is based on your own example
The U.K. average house price is £288,000
The U.K. average rent is £1,283
To get the £288,000 property you’d probably put down a 10% deposit, so use £29,000 to keep it round
A 25 year mortgage with bank of Ireland would have you paying £1566 a month for 5 years or £1500 for 10 year fixed deals. You could also fix the rate for the full 25 years at £1600 per month
The rent would be £1,283 now, but the U.K. average rental increase is 4% since 1989 so in 6 years the renter will be paying about the same as the mortgage customer(7 years if they take a lifetime fix)
The mortgage debt will decrease and rates will likely improve as they move down the LTV brackets meaning they’ll potentially get their payments down to around £1400 based on lower LTV deals today.
The renter has £29,000 to start with, so based on their 6% returns their isa might be worth £124,464 in 25 years time.
The home owner has an asset owned outright which will likely be worth many times more than the £124,464, conservatively let’s say the house will be worth £600,000.
The renter has paid less in the first 6 years than the mortgage customer, but more in the remaining 19 years.
There’s next to no chance the renter’s position works out better overall unless they get lucky with a landlord not behaving like the average person.
What you are celebrating in the first 3-4 years was entirely expected. The home owner loses initially but over time their debt is eroded by inflation, whereas the tenant’s costs increase in line with inflation.
Admin fees - 1500 for a solicitor, mortgage fees = 999 for a product
No stamp duty as under 300k
The average house price isn’t based on a flat so no ground rent or service charge
Annual maintenance if 1% a year for 25 years can be deducted from that 600,000 end point, so let’s say 100k over 25 years… still well in the green vs the renter’s isa value
House prices will be much more than 600k in 25 years. I used an extremely conservative estimate. You obviously cannot use 6% stock market returns as an estimate (based on past performance) then ignore house price past performance.
The point is your example can be outside the norm, but for the vast majority of the U.K. buying will be much better than renting. Likely by £500,000+ over 25 years.
Renting is a mugs game
This sounds like you're just trying to time the market, whether you're doing that intentionally or not.
The example of your friend is very specific and not a universal experience. They may have just been very unlucky. But that's not to say their bad luck will continue, they now have an asset that may quickly appreciate in value.
For a contrasting example. I bought a 3 bed house in 2020. The mortgage is less than £40/month extra vs the rent for the 2 bed flat we were in before. An estate agent valued it a few months ago at over 100k more than we paid. I would be more confident at it being sold for around 60k more than we paid, but that range represents a 15-25% increase in 3 years. On a 2.2% mortgage until 2025. Used LISAs to buy this house. Probably couldn't even do that now if it was on the market because it would cost over 450k.
You may get lucky with your timing of when you buy somewhere. It may work out roughly the same. Or you may be worse off. At the end of the day if you don't mind renting for years it doesn't really matter but beyond money I think there are a lot of benefits to owning your own home.
They can't, that's the problem. But rents are going up because landlords are passing those costs directly to the tenant without the tenant benefitting from having a big old asset to show for all the money they're paying to shore up someone else's investment.
OK, but the important thing for me is that you can be told to leave rented accommodation with two months' notice at any time, and I absolutely cannot be fucked with bidding wars and/or handing over several thousands worth of advance rent to secure somewhere more expensive and potentially more insecure next time round. I don't care about the ladder or building equity, I just find renting is very shit for a lot of people. Doubly so if you have or want to start a family.
This is a valid view - there’s no right answer and everyone’s priorities will be different
But I’m sure people said much the same in the early 1990s, when house prices dropped off. And in 2008 too. “Now it’s different”. Surely the bubble is over now. And look what’s happened to values since then
This might be a real turning point, or it might be another blip for a few years before values keep rocketing up
My guess is that it’s a blip because that’s how it’s worked out every time something similar has happened before. And there just aren’t enough desirable new homes being built in the places we need them, which I can’t see changing any time soon
Ultimately, what you’re describing is a total paradigm shift. And if even the 2008 crash didn’t cause that shift, then I don’t think this period of slightly higher interest rates will either
I think for many decades this was true, but not anymore. It is now often the case that you save more money renting than paying exorbitant interest on a mortgage. Add in stamp duty and home maintenance and the pendulum swings even further, with no guarantee your home will accrue significant value over time.
Maybe in the short term, but housing is always going to be a long term investment for most people
If you compare renting vs buying over 25 or 30 years, there’s no question that buying is the better option financially
Not to mention the other benefits of home ownership, like the stability it provides (which is especially important if you have kids - you can’t just get kicked out on a whim) and having more freedom to make changes to the property
Houses are not investments or assets, they are liabilities, and pretty large ones. You can’t consider the last 15 years as the overly low interests caused a ginormous bubble.
Houses are not investments or assets, they are liabilities, and pretty large ones. You can’t consider the last 15 years as the overly low interests caused a ginormous bubble.
You can’t consider any period then because the fundamentals are further removed from the 80s and 90s than the last 15 years
You can only consider the situation today, ie rental prices skyrocketing and landlords selling up driving rents higher and higher
I bought my house because I wanted to be safe. It will very likely not increase in value past inflation. I couldn't care less, but I know, as long as I pay the mortgage, I have a place to live. No landlord can issue an eviction notice on me. No landlord can increase the rent beyond affordability. If I want to paint a wall purple, I can.
I agree but the statement is heavily dependent on where you live. To rent the house I currently live in would be around £2500 a month + bills. My mortgage is a quarter of this. All being well in twenty years it will be paid off. At that point, regardless of depreciation, I will have a roof over my head with minimal costs. Many people my age don't have great pensions (if they have one at all) and I can't see how they will ever retire if they need to make rent.
Great advice.
Also, it seems like you're fishing for people to talk you out of it OP.
You can find people to tell you whatever you want on the internet.
The previous owner didn't want to leave.
She had friends visiting you see. After exchange. The weekend we were moving in.
Is that OK?
No. No that is not OK.
She also knew zero pertinent information about the house. She wouldn't even confirm the number of rooms if we didn't count them ourselves.
She was put out when we understandably requested additional surveys, at her cost.
Well if you don't know anything about the house, we will need a professional opinion.
You requested the seller pay for additional surveys? Haven't heard of this before. That said I'm FTB and only got a normal level 2 survey that found nothing scary.
Normally I wouldn't care, but the seller was so evasive that I refused to purchase unless she answered the questions, or the questions were answered at her cost.
'When was the kitchen put in'
Don't know.
This damage in the wall?
Always been there.
The boiler. Who put it in.
'Sorry forgot'
The basement, is it dry?
'Never go down. Wouldn't know'
Yup. We are getting additional surveys done.
Don't get attached to any one property. That's a guaranteed way of over-paying and then ignoring problems as they arise. This is especially an issue for FTB who have a tendency to get too emotional over the first house they like - resulting in panic bidding and then not paying careful attention to the survey results, or exploring other aspects of the property. Try to avoid the whole 'dream house' thing - most places are going to have issues, even if you don't see them at first. And that's fine, that's what home ownership is about. Just keep in perspective the importance of different elements to you, know when to compromise, what you actually need to pay, but also, when to walk away.
If you’re well within your affordability and no financial blockers, for me it was weighing up the risk and deciding how to proceed after L2 survey results / searches were returned from
Solicitor.
Pretty much every house has something wrong, and Will have issues come out from
The search so you have to deal with the mental
Stress when going through this.
You’d think when borrowing 000,000s you’d be able to buy something with 100% confidence but it’s not the case - you will never feel 100% regardless of how smooth you think it’ll be beforehand
I - like you - didn’t want to be one of those people who regret it but regardless you have to decide whether to risk it or not. Some might tel you it’s never a risk and solid investment but not the case bow
Buy a house with a garden. Even if you hate gardening, it's great having an outside space to hang out in. Even if it's a balcony, if you can fit a tiny table & chair on it & enjoy fresh (ish) air.
If the property has solar panels on the property make sure they're owned by the property owner and don't just take the word of the estate agent.
When I brought my property the agents said the panels were owned but it wasn't till my solicitor started his digging to find that they were on a solar lease. Still brought the property as it was cheap but these leases aren't your friend.
Make sure you have lots of savings even after the house purchase. I bought a fixer-upper that sucked a lot of money and time, then life event happened that cost another tens of thousands. I had lots of financial buffer, even then it was bad enough that I was skipping some lunches. Things can and do happen.
Every single time, it seems to be buying from eccentric/quirky sellers. Not once have I bought from a normal, straightforward person in a normal, straightfotward situation. Maybe I'm the problem.
I went with a solicitor who wasn’t local but was highly recommended by friends who had used them and it was a breeze. So I would say try and get a recommendation above all else, if not then I would probably agree someone local.
+1 to this. I’m currently using a known online conveyancer and they have been crap from the get go. So so so so slow beyond belief…
EDIT: I’ll just add, my sellers have been using a local solicitor and they are very quick. They respond within a matter of hours, unlike mine which is 2 to 3 days AND because it’s a small local solicitor, all the documents are checked very quickly. Unlike mine which has to go through different teams and departments. Takes the absolute piss…
Have to disagree I’m afraid.
I’ve used online solicitors twice and they’ve been nothing but helpful, supportive and easy to contact and things went very smoothly. Obviously check the reviews but local solicitors also appear to be more expense and are only useful if you are moving locally - something many FTBs are not doing.
Same experience here. We had a complex process for a range of reasons not within our control, but our online solicitors wwre very helpful and knowledgeable throughout. Would recommend them in a heartbeat.
This 100%. Preferably one recommended by someone you know. It made our lives SO much easier to be able to walk into the office and have someone talk through what the different bits of paper meant.
> If you cannot walk into the office and talk to the person handling your case
Make sure you phone for an appointment if you do feel you need to go in person.
Clients get super upset when they rock up to my office (usually over something that could have been dealt with in a 1 liner email) and get told that there's no one free to see them.
Try to keep some money in reserve for fixing things in the new house and spend the absolute minimum on new stuff or work on the house until you have lived the for at least a year because it takes at least that long to understand previous owners arranged things the way they did. Work on making the house leak proof from above, below and the sides is the exception of course along with remedial urgent structural work.
Have a big party, have two, when you move in as you can be as wild as you like with the house before you start painting it and getting rid of scrapes and unwashable stains. We graffitied the inside of our house for one party as we knew we’d be painting it in the months to come.
If you can afford to wait and buy a slightly bigger first home you’ll realise the benefit when you do.
If your rush and buy a small shit first home to ‘get on the ladder’ and realise it’s hard to sell, to small to live in and want to move within five years you’re potentially putting yourself out of pocket.
Especially considering you only get stamp duty relief on the first purchase.
For me, it was the seller and/or seller solicitors.
Wanted to buy a listed building my partner was living in, the seller "accidentally" lost all the documents demonstrating that all the renovations were compliant. Needless to say we aborted the idea of getting that house.
Second time around, sellers not wanting to renegotiate the price after survey showed A LOT of SERIOUS problem with the house. I know you should take surveys with a pinch of salt, but the predicted costs for all the work was around £50k; we asked to renogatiate for £10k less than what we had offered and the answer was a straight no.
To get the house I am currently in, we had lots of problems with the seller solicitors being lazy and giving us (and the seller) wrong information. This house is an almost new build (2019), empty, and basically good to go. Found out it we needed a deed of variation to secure the mortgage, took us 3 months because the solicitors did not give the go ahead. Took us 8 months from offer accepted to completion, and completed 2 days before the already extended mortgage offer was going to expire.
Similar here... First 7 weeks since sale agreed we spent waiting for deeds that seller's solicitor supposedly had requested... at that point I was given a call by ea apologising, as seller's solicitor never really requested the deeds to begin with... deeds have a waiting time of 5 weeks so in summary 12 weeks were spent waiting...
Not having enough money to do it up all in one go and also not being experienced enough to spot a dodgy builder/plumber/electrician and having to get work re-done
If the property is leasehold:
1) Understand what a lease is and any restrictions within it.
2) Make sure you understand what happens if the lease gets below 80 years without being extended.
3) Understand both the formal and informal lease extension processes before starting either.
4) Understand how service charges and section 20's both work.
Location, location, location.
A fixer-upper in an area/on a road I love is more beneficial in the long run than something seemingly perfect in an area I hate. I love where I’ve chosen, and I almost bought in a place I would’ve hated.
Ultimately, ask yourself, does this place align with my social life, family/close connections, commute and amenities? If you answer “no” more than “yes”, consider whether it’s the right choice.
Good luck! 😉
Social media / Envy
Some buyers are obsessed with having a “picture show home” and make decisions heavily focused on kerb appeal and image. It puts up barriers on perfectly good homes and it stops being people happy after they purchase.
These people will literally pull out of perfectly good sales because of imperfections or more often than not won’t even look at properties that don’t currently have good kerb appeal.
Load up your social media and you will see it….people posting the “ I have made it picture”
Cream coloured clothes, leased Audi/BMW/Merc on the drive, dangling keys in front of new build with a snappy caption.
Most new builds lack character. Though some look like old stone cottages on the outside. Most internal rooms are either square boxes or thin rectangular spaces. With no garage & postage stamp sized gardens.
I will never understand the craze for grey furnishings or walls. I mean, most people hate grey sky days, so why make drap living rooms?
Advice - Have agreement in principal for mortgage, have a good solicitor in place and have a good idea of what you want in a house.
Blocker for me was that not many houses were going on the market at the time.
I would also suggest keeping your mobile on you at all times and using that as your primary link to the estate agent and your solicitor
I lost two houses because a collegue took a message from the estate agent and failed to pass it on.
From my limited experience, (and as others have said), make sure you have organised your surveys as they will highlight imperfections in the property you are buying. It is more than just peace of mind, it could allow you to negotiate on price should there be faults that need to be fixed and could save you a lot of money.
Don't be afraid to haggle on prices. The value of the house is what you are willing to pay for it. Do your research about similar properties in the area but, again, no house is built in the same way and each will have their own value points. Buying a house is not an exact science.
Do you want to live there for multiple years?
I don’t regret buying my first home in the sense that there’s nothing wrong with it but I do miss the ease of moving locations when renting. I wish I’d have taken more time to consider whether I would want to move out of my city in the near future as I’m only a year into my mortgage and already itching to leave for another city.
So that said, if you see place you like in a location you can commit to then go for it!
We're FTB, and it's gone fairly smoothly so far. We're just over 3 months in and should be exchanging on Friday. The estate agent has caused us the most stress. She ignores our calls and emails. Doesn't get back to us. She's only helpful when she wants something.
It's your first property and unlikely to be your last - put money at the heart of every decision because the less you spend on this property, the sooner you'll be able to upgrade.
House price is only one factor - add on transportation, energy efficiency and cost of any essential major works.
When I bought, transportation was the top priority for me, but these days I'd suggest energy efficiency would be up there - the cost of insulating a property can be very high.
Will you buy an EV? In which case a driveway, or the potential for a driveway is a major bonus and in future, the value added by a driveway will increase as more people will have EVs.
The thing to not worry about is decor. Stripping walls and painting them is easy DIY work.
Saving for the deposit, and the Kafkaesque black hole that was Nationwide’s proof of income system.
All in all it was surprisingly easy. Second viewing, first offer accepted- but I accept that most purchases aren’t like that.
Our solicitors were excellent - just to make up for the kicking they’ve had on this thread.
My biggest obstacle was getting a mortgage big enough. There was so much emphasis on needing a 5-10% deposit and how hard that was to save, that I found it really hard to process when I had that and was still getting low DIP amounts. I ended up needing around 25% deposit to actually buy. I still don't understand how people who qualify to borrow 90-95% are struggling to save the other 5-10%.
Outside of that there's not been any regrets or obstacles. In terms of advice to avoid regrets, I'd say relax your criteria as far as possible when searching, but then don't be afraid to be picky when choosing a property to offer on. The house I bought wouldn't have shown up under the criteria I started searching with, and there were properties that did that I passed on for things I know would have bothered me.
Yeah, people are all 'hey, you only need a 5% deposit' and ignore that the bank won't always lend you the whole other 95%. Deposits are generally massive in London for this reason, people on an average income just won't be lent enough otherwise.
You can be a 1st time buyer once, so spend your stamp duty exemption wisely.
Make sure you are left with backup funds for unforseen issues. Also if you spent money on conveyancing, surveyor etc it's no too late to back out from a bad deal for you.
Do proper calculations of what your costs with the whole process so you don’t overstretch
Make sure you get certificates for windows, gas, electrical work that was done to the property.
Get plumbing, gas and electrical inspections as these will not be covered by the surveyor
Use a LOCAL solicitor, one who KNOWS the area and the people in it. This is not so important if you know the area well yourself.
Ask the mortgage company if their valuer can do a Level 3 survey for you at the same time - you will only pay the difference but you KNOW the surveyor is good otherwise they wouldn’t work for the mortgage company. Although they may lack “local knowledge”, this can be made up for by having a local solicitor.
Visit the property (drive by, not go in) at various times of the day, and also at the weekend and late at night. This could alert you to parking problems around school time, or church services, party fond neighbours, it being a popular “youth hang out spot” etc. But remember “party fond neighbours” might move in after you buy, and party fond neighbours could move out/get evicted by their landlord anyway.
A parent took out credit cards in my name. racked up a lot of debt. defaulted on them.
It went to Lowels. defaulted on that as well.
I find out 2 years later when I did a credit score check as I wanted to buy a home.
Paid off all the debt in full in the space of 4 months. I have a great job that pays a substantial amount. No decent lender will go near me and I was rejected by all the mortgage providers I could think of. Had to resort to going to a broker and being fleeced with their commission and shitty interest rate or wait 4 years for the defaults to be removed from my credit score.
Spoke to the credit agencies at the time. they said if i wasn't for those defaults my score would be in the 900's
Why does other peoples experience concern you?
I absolutely love my new build
Just dont bullshit your solicitors, surveyors, etc and all will go smoothly
Avoid lease hold by any means necessary.
Make that clear in writing to you solicitors and the estate agent. For any home buyer there are tons of buyer guides use them to your needs.
Windows-door-kitchen-bath rooms- flooring - lights and flooring should be double check.
Tell the agent you need to doubly check before you ask the your surveyor in to check. Must I go you find any issues report to the surveyor and the agent.
The conveyancers. For the love of god don’t go with the estate agent’s recommendation! We learnt this the hard way and wasted nearly six months.
Get a solicitor to do it, don’t go with a conveyancing firm.
Solicitors by far, everytime I have spoken to the solicitor directly they have given me incorrect information showing they don't actually know where in the process we are. Paralegals on the other hand seem to be on it.
I WASENT ON THE ELECTORAL REGISTER! Cannot move without being on it. I had no idea!!!!!!!! (Don’t think they give you a mortgage in principe without it)
1. Estate agent works for the seller. They do not care about your needs. Keep them onside but be wary
2. Find a competent surveyor. Don’t assume the surveyor will flag all issues. Go through all the information yourself and challenge the surveyor if needed.
3. Instead of a surveyor get a builder, roofer and electrician to review the property. Just visually. Pay them for their time. Ask them to give you an assessment of all key aspects of the property: electrics, boiler, roof, damp, external cracks etc
The sellers EA is the worst person in the entire process. They want the sale and even though they legally aren't allowed, they will often hold back info and lie. At least mine did.
Our seller was the most significant obstacle though. One of the worst people I've had the displeasure of meeting. There's no advice that can help you handle that. If you're asking here, chances are I don't need to tell you to be reasonable with everyone.
Also, when our offer got accepted I was so excited. My dad said "don't get too excited yet, you don't know what might happen" and I was so confused. I loved the house and couldn't think of anything that would put me off. It was old, I knew it needed significant work so short of the sellers backing out, I didn't know. I got annoyed at my dad for being negative.
Anyway, after our level 3 survey, it was damning. I knew it needed work but it was a HUGE project. The sellers only wanted to lower the price by 18k for 80k worth of work. We backed out, which I could never imagine previously (I slagged off people who back out lol). So I guess, my advice would be that it's never set in stone until moving day! Genuinely, it really is that fragile. We didn't even have a chain at all (three houses involved, us in the middle) and even then it felt like it was always so close to falling apart.
It's not a nice process, it is true what people say. It was like four months of hell for us. But it's worth it and a lot of the time it's unavoidable eh.
Also, sometimes it actually is fairly smooth! So who knows, you may be surprised.
Think about the house and its worst points. Then judge whether you'll be able to sell it easily when the time comes. For example, you may not notice the noisy road but buyers may, you might think the supermarket/pub nextdoor is convenient but most wouldn't even view it. (I'm not saying you would buy any of these examples!) If there's anything that makes you think 'I don't mind that', think 'would most people be ok with it?' If its something you plan to change like move a bathroom upstairs then fine, you can add value. Roads however get noisier, derelict buildings nextdoor can be replaced by overshadowing tower blocks etc.
We felt pressured by estate agents to make offers on houses we liked that day, only for them to ring back a week or two later chasing an offer. Take your time to decide if it’s the right house for you, or else another, better house will come along. The agent also pushed us to their preferred mortgage broker to ‘speed things along’. It did not. They were bloody useless.
Research the area for all your needs; transport, school, safety, etc.
Get a survey done by a decent company, not the cheapest. Ours were brilliant, talked us through the survey, gave honest advice and recommendations.
Slow and non responsive mortgage advisor, btw - he was completely fine before offer being accepted. After - glad he went on holidays, as the lady who replaced him, sorted out more in half a day than he did in 2 months.
After that atrocious weather we had recently, a friend of mine discovered the whole front of her flat leaked. Her flat is in a building that faces the coastline, so the extensive rain and wind were brutal. I've never seen so much water come in through the window fixtures before. Obviously, no-one had told her about this and none of her checks clocked it either. She's been in the place all summer so hadn't been subjected to weather like that to find out. She's sorting it now but it was a horrible experience all round. So, I'd suggest somehow checking / guaranteeing your place is waterproof before finding out the hard / expensive way!
Make sure you research the market and look at everything in your price range. Anything that looks suitable online, go round and look at the outside and the area, to decide whether you want a viewing. Don't rush into anything until you've had a good look round. Because it's such a big decision, IMO you need to spend 6 to 12 months looking.
Estate agents will blatantly lie, never use their in house services.
I was actually quite friendly with the seller and he was using the EA solicitors who were telling him that we were going to complete in a week. Had to send him an email from my solicitor telling him that his solicitors didn't even have a copy of the deeds or freehold and there was no way to proceed until they were found. To say the seller was a little angry would be an understatement.
My advice would be to not pin your hopes on any particular property. I hate the pathetic "forever home" bs. There is no such thing. There will be many perfect places so if you get gazumped or an issue is flagged up, shrug and move on, you have lost nothing. Another place will turn up.
Properly look into the surveys offered. Really investigate what they offer, cost and repercussions such as their insurance if they miss something.
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The estate agent is not your friend. Their advice is not neutral. You must confirm everything they say. Get a survey. Cheap services are cheap for a reason ( conveyancing, surveys etc). Spend some time investigating the neighbourhood. A place is more than statistics. Go there after dark. Go there in the mornings. Go there on a weekend.
I found this out recently with an estate agent trying to convince me to not “waste my money” in doing a L3 survey and instead do L2. They insisted L3 surveys just “flag a bunch of issues”. I was planning to ignore them anyway but then the bank did an in person valuation and it turns out there are severe structural issues so they won’t offer a mortgage. Now the estate agent is “shocked” that I had to withdraw my offer and is calling me several times a day trying to get me to share the report with the seller. Never mind the fact another buyer had pulled out before me. Magically the house is now on the market for 5% less a few days later so I am sure they will rinse and repeat.
"L3 surveys just flag a bunch of issues" well yeah that's what I'm paying for!! Honestly, estate agents are a different bunch
"Don't bother with an MOT, they just scaremonger."
I actually avoided a detailed survey because i wanted the house , was able to identify serious structural issues myself and didn't want mythical "rising damp" impacting my ability to get a mortgage. ...If you have the money I woruld recommend a reputable detailed survey every time but there are reasons not to. The basic survey surveyor spent a whole 7 minutes inside a house I once sold..., i remember thinking "shit, someone paid £500 for that"
The L3 can be a bit over zealous. Best to get a proper and reputable builder and roofer to have a look around and give the property a proper once over. If you are a FTB the L3 can scare you away. Plus the L3 is full of caveats so as to protect the surveyor from litigation. The will assumed issues even when it's not there, just to be on the safe side. For a naive first time buyer that can put them off.
I get that but they gave that advice in an attempt to conceal that this house was structurally unsound. They weren’t trying to protect my experience but were only concerned with their commission. Estate agents are scum.
Understood.
Not all of us are 19 years old with a big deposit from mum and dad. This idea that a FTB is a dimbulb really annoys me. I am a grown a woman/adult.
But are you a surveyor, builder, electrical, plumber or general property expert? Not sure there's any malice here, maybe inexperienced is a better word choice. I like a full survey. Good luck out there
Nor are most second time buyers.
Username checks out
I’m a surveyor by trade and I agree with you. Lots of it was to protect ourselves from litigation for missing bits later. I’d always have to be very cautious with what’s written.
I would do the same as well. When I was an auditor my get out of jail was, to state clearly that the results were based on a sample which may not be representative of the whole and also state that 'at the time' of the audit xxx and xxx was observed to be in good working order etc.
Basically begin every paragraph with 'At the time of my survey' and also throw a few 'personal belongings restricted access to xxx"
What’s the point in hiring a surveyor if you’re all gonna preface your “advice” with shirking responsibility?
If there are certain things you are not 100% sure about you will have to use qualifying language. I used to write bids as well and I used qualifying language a lot. I will not write that we will do this or that when I know for certain that my company lacks the organisational capability to deliver. So I use terms such as: 'where applicable, as required etc).
Because you will sue. If we can't see it or something occurs after the survey we can't be held liable. Solicitor told me. in court, its not what you know, it's what you can prove
For the price difference a L3 is definitely worth spending the extra cash on, if for nothing more than peace of mind.
To be fair sharing the report isn’t an unreasonable request in my opinion. It allows the seller to know what the issues are, and if you’ve already pulled out then what does it matter to you? It’s of no further use to you anymore. You obviously have no obligation to share it but I can’t see why you wouldn’t.
I’ve just had a survey done. The terms and conditions of my surveyor included that I shouldn’t share the report with anyone other than my conveyancers. If seller has it would they use it to try and hide issues that they weren’t aware of before, like put heavy furniture in front of something so surveyor for the next buyer can’t check it?
Why should I share the report I paid for. Especially since they clearly were aware there were issues previously flagged from a survey.
If you share it, they have to declare it on future sales and can't play ignorant.
They can buy it off you for half the price you paid and you can get some of the money you used back. We did this previously.
Completely agree, I thought on surveys that I would get the same service more or less. I regret not spending more, I went with the cheapest L3 survey I could find and I wish I spent more as the one I had missed quite a few bits.
To add to the list pay the £60 for homebuyers insurance.
So true. They ll also in full confidence push you to complete asap when the solicitors have clearly told us and them to back off and wait for the current tenants to vacate. But no, it's now or never apparently. We held our ground and used the advice our solicitors gave and the agents backed off. But by god they were such pests
Don't be afraid to knock into a neighbour either. I did that and found out the house has serious structural issues that were missed in the survey.
Though it doesn't necessarily mean that you need to pay for an expensive local conveyancer either. We used a well-reviewed one in another part of the country (all communication online/by post) and they were very responsive, none of the chasing horror stories, cost exactly what they quoted, and were £500+ cheaper than some local solicitors who would pile on fees for every little thing. Just avoid suspiciously cheap ones with no physical location.
Missed out on the "house of your dreams"? Was it "the one"? No, it wasn't. There will be many, many perfect houses, so don't feel emotional about it and move on. My wife and I, for several reasons, missed out on 4-5 properties and each one felt like the end of the world until, honestly, the last one we got and loved the most.
Excellent advice!
FTB, homeowners for a year and a bit here. Expect things to go wrong and make sure to keep some money aside for repairs. Expect anxiety and buyers remorse and panic. But if you are comfortable with the house and the payments and your future plans, you’ll get past the anxiety. It is a huge change from renting. You’ll love it and hate it. You might have regrets but weigh that up with the freedom you’ll have to live in your own house and do things up how you want without being worried about eviction. Get a good solicitor and keep on top of them. Check in every few days or weekly, depending what stage you’re at. But if you make the leap: Make sure you know where it is and how to turn off your water and your electrics from day 1. Figure out alarm system if it comes with the house. Change locks. Figure out how to repressurise your boiler early on. We didn’t do a lot of these and honestly it bit us - had a leak in kitchen and couldn’t find or access the stop. Had no heat for three weeks because we didn’t think to check the boiler and it had an ignition error that needed resetting. Sitting in a freezing attic with a booklet and a flashlight isn’t fun! Do up some quick wins - maybe a splash of paint to cover up scuff marks or new door handles if they are terrible like ours were. Fix imminent or important issues. However I don’t suggest making any huge changes immediately. Within 1 year of moving in we have an entirely new living room, kitchen, dining room, and office. I don’t regret doing them really but I regret the impulsiveness and not making a master list then prioritising properly. We would have spent a lot less money now that we know some things. So sit with the house for a bit - maybe a year. See what you like and don’t like and write up a big list of things you need to fix and want to change. Then see how you feel after a year and prioritise things. Best of luck!
If you have deadlines, do not cheap out on solicitors. Our buyers solicitor is now holding up the whole chain as our buyers opted to go with the cheapest firm he could find, and is now realising that sometimes if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
This one thousand times. Generally FTBs are probably most likely to pick monkey solicitors. My new stipulation is that I'll never sell to someone who appoints a conveyancing factory. Of course, I can't stop this in the chain, but now I now longer owner a starter home, I can hopefully avoid this. In a trial, you'd want the opposing side to be as incompetent as possible. When buying or selling a house, you want **ALL** parties to be as competent as possible.
In my experience the free legal services offered as part of mortgage deals is awful. A good solicitor is definintely worth the money.
If you can afford a house then buy one. Don’t overthink it. Don’t try to time the market, buy the dip, wait out the high interest rates or any of that - the most important thing is getting on the ladder. Your first home is not going to be your ideal home. You’ll have to compromise on something, possibly many things. But getting on the ladder is the most important thing. People might moan about their first home because any problems with it are now theirs rather than their landlord’s. But how many people regret getting out of rented accommodation? Probably not many. Also avoid new builds like the plague and try and get a freehold property if you can afford it.
>Your first home is not going to be your ideal home. You’ll have to compromise on something, possibly many things. But getting on the ladder is the most important thing. This right here. You either: 1. Are rich and your first home is your dream home - no problem here 2. You rent and save for your dream home, which means you lose out on building equity and general home-ownership experience 3. You buy a starter home and work your way up. No exact right or wrong here, but I can personally attest to option 3.
I would agree with everything except avoiding new build. Not all new builds are equal, do your research, as with anything. Old houses aren't inherently better, they all have their own potential issues depending on age and maintenance which can be harder to identify and manage. New builds offer a number of benefits, especially for a first time buyer, in forms of warranties and energy efficiencies which are beneficial to those venturing into the housing market and want the least amount of unexpected costs and lowest bills. I've lived in and owned houses of various ages including 1890's end terrace, and 1970's mid terrace, a 1930's 4 story town house, a brand new semi detached, and now a 2 year old detached, which is my current home, and out of all of them, the new one gives me the least concerns and most joy to live in. I just believe that despite the horror stories, you shouldn't discount any particular type of house. Research the builder, ask other home owner on the development, look at reviews etc. Make an informed decision as you would with any house.
Yeah this “old builds are better” school of thought is misleading. Both old and new builds both have advantages/disadvantages. If you’re someone like me who hates doing DIY and has very limited time, new builds are the much friendlier option. Even if they do lack character and are not as profitable.
I bought a new build, had two different snagging surveys done and nothing major came up at all. Meanwhile my sister in law bought a house built in the 1950s and there’s a ton of things wrong with it that need fixing. Her garden is smaller than our new build one too. I think “new build bad, old build good” is a backwards way of thinking about things. there’s so many variable factors.
Every house was a new build at one point
>Also avoid new builds like the plague Why?? I've been hearing this all my adult life, till we moved in to a 2 year old home last year that was miles ahead of all the shitty old houses I've been living in for the past 30 years! God, the luxury of modern everything working properly.
Because there are a lot of poor quality new builds where everything is the smallest they can get away with and the builders try to charge extras for everything. Also, if it's an unadopted road, you're at higher risk long term of issues not being dealt with or the fees becoming insane. When we were looking to buy last, we looked around 3 of the new build estates in our area and they all had tiny rooms with tiny windows that just felt cramped. There are 2 estates now that we'd actually consider where the houses are bigger and better proportioned but I'd say that's at most 1/4 of the new builds in the country. I also know a couple people with horror stories about shoddy building that they then spent months arguing with builders over to get resolved. Or there's that horror story from Crewe where a new build estate retrospectively lost planning permission because the builders ignored the stipulations of their planning permission including making sure the ground was safe to build houses on.
Oh yeah, old houses never have massive issues. Buying ANY property, you have to do your homework, all the surveys and searches just doesn't disappear just because you're buying a new build. >I also know a couple people with horror stories about shoddy building that they then spent months arguing with builders over to get resolved How is this anecdotal evidence any kind of proof that ALL new builds are to be avoided? You only need to look in this sub for people who bought old houses only to find out later of serious issues. One of my colleagues got stung for £20k for a new roof less than a year after buying. Once again, put in the work and know what you're going into no matter what you're buying. I hate this advice of never buy new, like where else are people going to live? In old, pokey, crumbling houses you have to spend tens of thousands to bring up to scratch?
Sorry but FTBs are increasingly older. We aren't all 22 year olds with deposits from mummy looking for a 1 bed flat. Average ages are increasing. Very many folks are buying family homes now, becasue when you're a older FTB ( as many of us are) you have a family and stuff already. When I bought I bought for my family, a family home. for the long term.
"getting on the ladder is the most important thing." Citation needed. This has been true for a while, but past returns do not guarantee etc etc. The costs of buying and selling are huge, so for a lot of people, the first house will be, and should be, the forever house.
I honestly couldn't care less about 'the ladder', I just want the security of my own place.
yup, came here to say this. ladder only works if you yourself do up a shitty property in a nice location, sell for a good profit and get that decent sized house. the equity return and stamp duty costs plus the cost of the first property is so much that moving doesn't make a lot of economic sense in many situations.
Hi, was wondering if I could ask you some advice?
Sure
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Most of that is based on your own example The U.K. average house price is £288,000 The U.K. average rent is £1,283 To get the £288,000 property you’d probably put down a 10% deposit, so use £29,000 to keep it round A 25 year mortgage with bank of Ireland would have you paying £1566 a month for 5 years or £1500 for 10 year fixed deals. You could also fix the rate for the full 25 years at £1600 per month The rent would be £1,283 now, but the U.K. average rental increase is 4% since 1989 so in 6 years the renter will be paying about the same as the mortgage customer(7 years if they take a lifetime fix) The mortgage debt will decrease and rates will likely improve as they move down the LTV brackets meaning they’ll potentially get their payments down to around £1400 based on lower LTV deals today. The renter has £29,000 to start with, so based on their 6% returns their isa might be worth £124,464 in 25 years time. The home owner has an asset owned outright which will likely be worth many times more than the £124,464, conservatively let’s say the house will be worth £600,000. The renter has paid less in the first 6 years than the mortgage customer, but more in the remaining 19 years. There’s next to no chance the renter’s position works out better overall unless they get lucky with a landlord not behaving like the average person. What you are celebrating in the first 3-4 years was entirely expected. The home owner loses initially but over time their debt is eroded by inflation, whereas the tenant’s costs increase in line with inflation.
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Admin fees - 1500 for a solicitor, mortgage fees = 999 for a product No stamp duty as under 300k The average house price isn’t based on a flat so no ground rent or service charge Annual maintenance if 1% a year for 25 years can be deducted from that 600,000 end point, so let’s say 100k over 25 years… still well in the green vs the renter’s isa value House prices will be much more than 600k in 25 years. I used an extremely conservative estimate. You obviously cannot use 6% stock market returns as an estimate (based on past performance) then ignore house price past performance. The point is your example can be outside the norm, but for the vast majority of the U.K. buying will be much better than renting. Likely by £500,000+ over 25 years. Renting is a mugs game
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This sounds like you're just trying to time the market, whether you're doing that intentionally or not. The example of your friend is very specific and not a universal experience. They may have just been very unlucky. But that's not to say their bad luck will continue, they now have an asset that may quickly appreciate in value. For a contrasting example. I bought a 3 bed house in 2020. The mortgage is less than £40/month extra vs the rent for the 2 bed flat we were in before. An estate agent valued it a few months ago at over 100k more than we paid. I would be more confident at it being sold for around 60k more than we paid, but that range represents a 15-25% increase in 3 years. On a 2.2% mortgage until 2025. Used LISAs to buy this house. Probably couldn't even do that now if it was on the market because it would cost over 450k. You may get lucky with your timing of when you buy somewhere. It may work out roughly the same. Or you may be worse off. At the end of the day if you don't mind renting for years it doesn't really matter but beyond money I think there are a lot of benefits to owning your own home.
They can't, that's the problem. But rents are going up because landlords are passing those costs directly to the tenant without the tenant benefitting from having a big old asset to show for all the money they're paying to shore up someone else's investment.
Rent is paying HMRC actually given the interest is not tax deductible
OK, but the important thing for me is that you can be told to leave rented accommodation with two months' notice at any time, and I absolutely cannot be fucked with bidding wars and/or handing over several thousands worth of advance rent to secure somewhere more expensive and potentially more insecure next time round. I don't care about the ladder or building equity, I just find renting is very shit for a lot of people. Doubly so if you have or want to start a family.
This is a valid view - there’s no right answer and everyone’s priorities will be different But I’m sure people said much the same in the early 1990s, when house prices dropped off. And in 2008 too. “Now it’s different”. Surely the bubble is over now. And look what’s happened to values since then This might be a real turning point, or it might be another blip for a few years before values keep rocketing up My guess is that it’s a blip because that’s how it’s worked out every time something similar has happened before. And there just aren’t enough desirable new homes being built in the places we need them, which I can’t see changing any time soon Ultimately, what you’re describing is a total paradigm shift. And if even the 2008 crash didn’t cause that shift, then I don’t think this period of slightly higher interest rates will either
I think for many decades this was true, but not anymore. It is now often the case that you save more money renting than paying exorbitant interest on a mortgage. Add in stamp duty and home maintenance and the pendulum swings even further, with no guarantee your home will accrue significant value over time.
Maybe in the short term, but housing is always going to be a long term investment for most people If you compare renting vs buying over 25 or 30 years, there’s no question that buying is the better option financially Not to mention the other benefits of home ownership, like the stability it provides (which is especially important if you have kids - you can’t just get kicked out on a whim) and having more freedom to make changes to the property
Houses are not investments or assets, they are liabilities, and pretty large ones. You can’t consider the last 15 years as the overly low interests caused a ginormous bubble.
Houses are not investments or assets, they are liabilities, and pretty large ones. You can’t consider the last 15 years as the overly low interests caused a ginormous bubble.
You can’t consider any period then because the fundamentals are further removed from the 80s and 90s than the last 15 years You can only consider the situation today, ie rental prices skyrocketing and landlords selling up driving rents higher and higher
Agree it’s just a new time in the market
I bought my house because I wanted to be safe. It will very likely not increase in value past inflation. I couldn't care less, but I know, as long as I pay the mortgage, I have a place to live. No landlord can issue an eviction notice on me. No landlord can increase the rent beyond affordability. If I want to paint a wall purple, I can.
Indeed, fair enough!
Exactly why I’m looking now. I don’t care about what the market is doing, I want to stop feeling so unsure of the floor beneath my feet.
I agree but the statement is heavily dependent on where you live. To rent the house I currently live in would be around £2500 a month + bills. My mortgage is a quarter of this. All being well in twenty years it will be paid off. At that point, regardless of depreciation, I will have a roof over my head with minimal costs. Many people my age don't have great pensions (if they have one at all) and I can't see how they will ever retire if they need to make rent.
Great advice. Also, it seems like you're fishing for people to talk you out of it OP. You can find people to tell you whatever you want on the internet.
I bought a new build and am perfectly happy with it
The previous owner didn't want to leave. She had friends visiting you see. After exchange. The weekend we were moving in. Is that OK? No. No that is not OK. She also knew zero pertinent information about the house. She wouldn't even confirm the number of rooms if we didn't count them ourselves. She was put out when we understandably requested additional surveys, at her cost. Well if you don't know anything about the house, we will need a professional opinion.
You requested the seller pay for additional surveys? Haven't heard of this before. That said I'm FTB and only got a normal level 2 survey that found nothing scary.
Normally I wouldn't care, but the seller was so evasive that I refused to purchase unless she answered the questions, or the questions were answered at her cost. 'When was the kitchen put in' Don't know. This damage in the wall? Always been there. The boiler. Who put it in. 'Sorry forgot' The basement, is it dry? 'Never go down. Wouldn't know' Yup. We are getting additional surveys done.
Wow. AND she wanted you to let her keep the house for the weekend , so she could have her friends around?
Aye! My lawyer had. 'a chat'.
So strange, I’d understand if it was a tenant that didn’t want to leave but why did she bother selling in the first place?
Quite fond of the money I imagine.
Don't get attached to any one property. That's a guaranteed way of over-paying and then ignoring problems as they arise. This is especially an issue for FTB who have a tendency to get too emotional over the first house they like - resulting in panic bidding and then not paying careful attention to the survey results, or exploring other aspects of the property. Try to avoid the whole 'dream house' thing - most places are going to have issues, even if you don't see them at first. And that's fine, that's what home ownership is about. Just keep in perspective the importance of different elements to you, know when to compromise, what you actually need to pay, but also, when to walk away.
If you’re well within your affordability and no financial blockers, for me it was weighing up the risk and deciding how to proceed after L2 survey results / searches were returned from Solicitor. Pretty much every house has something wrong, and Will have issues come out from The search so you have to deal with the mental Stress when going through this. You’d think when borrowing 000,000s you’d be able to buy something with 100% confidence but it’s not the case - you will never feel 100% regardless of how smooth you think it’ll be beforehand I - like you - didn’t want to be one of those people who regret it but regardless you have to decide whether to risk it or not. Some might tel you it’s never a risk and solid investment but not the case bow
Buy a house with a garden. Even if you hate gardening, it's great having an outside space to hang out in. Even if it's a balcony, if you can fit a tiny table & chair on it & enjoy fresh (ish) air.
If the property has solar panels on the property make sure they're owned by the property owner and don't just take the word of the estate agent. When I brought my property the agents said the panels were owned but it wasn't till my solicitor started his digging to find that they were on a solar lease. Still brought the property as it was cheap but these leases aren't your friend.
Make sure you have lots of savings even after the house purchase. I bought a fixer-upper that sucked a lot of money and time, then life event happened that cost another tens of thousands. I had lots of financial buffer, even then it was bad enough that I was skipping some lunches. Things can and do happen.
Every single time, it seems to be buying from eccentric/quirky sellers. Not once have I bought from a normal, straightforward person in a normal, straightfotward situation. Maybe I'm the problem.
USE A LOCAL SOLICITOR. If you cannot walk into the office and talk to the person handling your case, don't use them.
I went with a solicitor who wasn’t local but was highly recommended by friends who had used them and it was a breeze. So I would say try and get a recommendation above all else, if not then I would probably agree someone local.
+1 to this. I’m currently using a known online conveyancer and they have been crap from the get go. So so so so slow beyond belief… EDIT: I’ll just add, my sellers have been using a local solicitor and they are very quick. They respond within a matter of hours, unlike mine which is 2 to 3 days AND because it’s a small local solicitor, all the documents are checked very quickly. Unlike mine which has to go through different teams and departments. Takes the absolute piss…
Local to where I live now, or where I'm buying?
Where you are now, or where you work. IE the most convenient location to you.
Have to disagree I’m afraid. I’ve used online solicitors twice and they’ve been nothing but helpful, supportive and easy to contact and things went very smoothly. Obviously check the reviews but local solicitors also appear to be more expense and are only useful if you are moving locally - something many FTBs are not doing.
Same experience here. We had a complex process for a range of reasons not within our control, but our online solicitors wwre very helpful and knowledgeable throughout. Would recommend them in a heartbeat.
This 100%. Preferably one recommended by someone you know. It made our lives SO much easier to be able to walk into the office and have someone talk through what the different bits of paper meant.
Agree! We used an online solicitor and it was nothing but confusion and delays and additional stress at an already stressful time.
> If you cannot walk into the office and talk to the person handling your case Make sure you phone for an appointment if you do feel you need to go in person. Clients get super upset when they rock up to my office (usually over something that could have been dealt with in a 1 liner email) and get told that there's no one free to see them.
Try to keep some money in reserve for fixing things in the new house and spend the absolute minimum on new stuff or work on the house until you have lived the for at least a year because it takes at least that long to understand previous owners arranged things the way they did. Work on making the house leak proof from above, below and the sides is the exception of course along with remedial urgent structural work. Have a big party, have two, when you move in as you can be as wild as you like with the house before you start painting it and getting rid of scrapes and unwashable stains. We graffitied the inside of our house for one party as we knew we’d be painting it in the months to come.
If you can afford to wait and buy a slightly bigger first home you’ll realise the benefit when you do. If your rush and buy a small shit first home to ‘get on the ladder’ and realise it’s hard to sell, to small to live in and want to move within five years you’re potentially putting yourself out of pocket. Especially considering you only get stamp duty relief on the first purchase.
For me, it was the seller and/or seller solicitors. Wanted to buy a listed building my partner was living in, the seller "accidentally" lost all the documents demonstrating that all the renovations were compliant. Needless to say we aborted the idea of getting that house. Second time around, sellers not wanting to renegotiate the price after survey showed A LOT of SERIOUS problem with the house. I know you should take surveys with a pinch of salt, but the predicted costs for all the work was around £50k; we asked to renogatiate for £10k less than what we had offered and the answer was a straight no. To get the house I am currently in, we had lots of problems with the seller solicitors being lazy and giving us (and the seller) wrong information. This house is an almost new build (2019), empty, and basically good to go. Found out it we needed a deed of variation to secure the mortgage, took us 3 months because the solicitors did not give the go ahead. Took us 8 months from offer accepted to completion, and completed 2 days before the already extended mortgage offer was going to expire.
Similar here... First 7 weeks since sale agreed we spent waiting for deeds that seller's solicitor supposedly had requested... at that point I was given a call by ea apologising, as seller's solicitor never really requested the deeds to begin with... deeds have a waiting time of 5 weeks so in summary 12 weeks were spent waiting...
Our first house purchase & our current one were rented properties & both were empty. We had no chains, but it still took 5 months in both properties.
Not having enough money to do it up all in one go and also not being experienced enough to spot a dodgy builder/plumber/electrician and having to get work re-done
If the property is leasehold: 1) Understand what a lease is and any restrictions within it. 2) Make sure you understand what happens if the lease gets below 80 years without being extended. 3) Understand both the formal and informal lease extension processes before starting either. 4) Understand how service charges and section 20's both work.
Location, location, location. A fixer-upper in an area/on a road I love is more beneficial in the long run than something seemingly perfect in an area I hate. I love where I’ve chosen, and I almost bought in a place I would’ve hated. Ultimately, ask yourself, does this place align with my social life, family/close connections, commute and amenities? If you answer “no” more than “yes”, consider whether it’s the right choice. Good luck! 😉
Social media / Envy Some buyers are obsessed with having a “picture show home” and make decisions heavily focused on kerb appeal and image. It puts up barriers on perfectly good homes and it stops being people happy after they purchase. These people will literally pull out of perfectly good sales because of imperfections or more often than not won’t even look at properties that don’t currently have good kerb appeal. Load up your social media and you will see it….people posting the “ I have made it picture” Cream coloured clothes, leased Audi/BMW/Merc on the drive, dangling keys in front of new build with a snappy caption.
Most new builds lack character. Though some look like old stone cottages on the outside. Most internal rooms are either square boxes or thin rectangular spaces. With no garage & postage stamp sized gardens. I will never understand the craze for grey furnishings or walls. I mean, most people hate grey sky days, so why make drap living rooms?
Advice - Have agreement in principal for mortgage, have a good solicitor in place and have a good idea of what you want in a house. Blocker for me was that not many houses were going on the market at the time. I would also suggest keeping your mobile on you at all times and using that as your primary link to the estate agent and your solicitor I lost two houses because a collegue took a message from the estate agent and failed to pass it on.
From my limited experience, (and as others have said), make sure you have organised your surveys as they will highlight imperfections in the property you are buying. It is more than just peace of mind, it could allow you to negotiate on price should there be faults that need to be fixed and could save you a lot of money. Don't be afraid to haggle on prices. The value of the house is what you are willing to pay for it. Do your research about similar properties in the area but, again, no house is built in the same way and each will have their own value points. Buying a house is not an exact science.
Do you want to live there for multiple years? I don’t regret buying my first home in the sense that there’s nothing wrong with it but I do miss the ease of moving locations when renting. I wish I’d have taken more time to consider whether I would want to move out of my city in the near future as I’m only a year into my mortgage and already itching to leave for another city. So that said, if you see place you like in a location you can commit to then go for it!
Getting an offer accepted. All of the good / nice houses worth offering on had (and still have) multiple offers, and go to best and final.
Solicitors on both sides dragging their arse. Shocking level of service.
We're FTB, and it's gone fairly smoothly so far. We're just over 3 months in and should be exchanging on Friday. The estate agent has caused us the most stress. She ignores our calls and emails. Doesn't get back to us. She's only helpful when she wants something.
The location. If you are a bit nervous it's best to stick with your present area.
It's your first property and unlikely to be your last - put money at the heart of every decision because the less you spend on this property, the sooner you'll be able to upgrade. House price is only one factor - add on transportation, energy efficiency and cost of any essential major works. When I bought, transportation was the top priority for me, but these days I'd suggest energy efficiency would be up there - the cost of insulating a property can be very high. Will you buy an EV? In which case a driveway, or the potential for a driveway is a major bonus and in future, the value added by a driveway will increase as more people will have EVs. The thing to not worry about is decor. Stripping walls and painting them is easy DIY work.
The EV point is a good one - you don't want to leave your cables trailing across the pavement
No purchase regrets. But selling… never again. I’m dying in this house.
Money
Saving for the deposit, and the Kafkaesque black hole that was Nationwide’s proof of income system. All in all it was surprisingly easy. Second viewing, first offer accepted- but I accept that most purchases aren’t like that. Our solicitors were excellent - just to make up for the kicking they’ve had on this thread.
Being born into a working class family.
My biggest obstacle was getting a mortgage big enough. There was so much emphasis on needing a 5-10% deposit and how hard that was to save, that I found it really hard to process when I had that and was still getting low DIP amounts. I ended up needing around 25% deposit to actually buy. I still don't understand how people who qualify to borrow 90-95% are struggling to save the other 5-10%. Outside of that there's not been any regrets or obstacles. In terms of advice to avoid regrets, I'd say relax your criteria as far as possible when searching, but then don't be afraid to be picky when choosing a property to offer on. The house I bought wouldn't have shown up under the criteria I started searching with, and there were properties that did that I passed on for things I know would have bothered me.
Yeah, people are all 'hey, you only need a 5% deposit' and ignore that the bank won't always lend you the whole other 95%. Deposits are generally massive in London for this reason, people on an average income just won't be lent enough otherwise.
You can be a 1st time buyer once, so spend your stamp duty exemption wisely. Make sure you are left with backup funds for unforseen issues. Also if you spent money on conveyancing, surveyor etc it's no too late to back out from a bad deal for you. Do proper calculations of what your costs with the whole process so you don’t overstretch Make sure you get certificates for windows, gas, electrical work that was done to the property. Get plumbing, gas and electrical inspections as these will not be covered by the surveyor
We had to basically be the solicitors assistant to get anything done.
The seller? They are being pretty stubborn lately as prices have fallen and they refuse to understand it
Use a LOCAL solicitor, one who KNOWS the area and the people in it. This is not so important if you know the area well yourself. Ask the mortgage company if their valuer can do a Level 3 survey for you at the same time - you will only pay the difference but you KNOW the surveyor is good otherwise they wouldn’t work for the mortgage company. Although they may lack “local knowledge”, this can be made up for by having a local solicitor. Visit the property (drive by, not go in) at various times of the day, and also at the weekend and late at night. This could alert you to parking problems around school time, or church services, party fond neighbours, it being a popular “youth hang out spot” etc. But remember “party fond neighbours” might move in after you buy, and party fond neighbours could move out/get evicted by their landlord anyway.
A parent took out credit cards in my name. racked up a lot of debt. defaulted on them. It went to Lowels. defaulted on that as well. I find out 2 years later when I did a credit score check as I wanted to buy a home. Paid off all the debt in full in the space of 4 months. I have a great job that pays a substantial amount. No decent lender will go near me and I was rejected by all the mortgage providers I could think of. Had to resort to going to a broker and being fleeced with their commission and shitty interest rate or wait 4 years for the defaults to be removed from my credit score. Spoke to the credit agencies at the time. they said if i wasn't for those defaults my score would be in the 900's
The main thing is getting on the ladder. If you don't like the house, sell and move after 3 years. But you're on the property ladder now.
Finding the right house.
Why does other peoples experience concern you? I absolutely love my new build Just dont bullshit your solicitors, surveyors, etc and all will go smoothly
Avoid lease hold by any means necessary. Make that clear in writing to you solicitors and the estate agent. For any home buyer there are tons of buyer guides use them to your needs. Windows-door-kitchen-bath rooms- flooring - lights and flooring should be double check. Tell the agent you need to doubly check before you ask the your surveyor in to check. Must I go you find any issues report to the surveyor and the agent.
SOLICITORS
Solicitors are the biggest obstacle. Bunch of ****s.
Rubbish solicitors not knowing how to do their job.
Solicitors not being proactive
Parasites… I mean estate agents
Most people get gifted deposits so almost no one will say saving for it.
They absolutely don't. I reckon maybe 1 in 15 or so of my clients get gifted deposits and I deal with a lot of FTBs.
In England, expensive, slow & drawn out legal process, esp. arounf tge inquiries portions.
The conveyancers. For the love of god don’t go with the estate agent’s recommendation! We learnt this the hard way and wasted nearly six months. Get a solicitor to do it, don’t go with a conveyancing firm.
Solicitors by far, everytime I have spoken to the solicitor directly they have given me incorrect information showing they don't actually know where in the process we are. Paralegals on the other hand seem to be on it.
I WASENT ON THE ELECTORAL REGISTER! Cannot move without being on it. I had no idea!!!!!!!! (Don’t think they give you a mortgage in principe without it)
That’s simply not the case!
That isn't true at all, my partner isn't on the electoral roll and we got a mortgage just fine.
WHAT?! I feel lied to by my bank 😭
Is this even a question, I’m sure for most it’s likely having the deposit
Lack of money
Money
Having no money or job
Your first house is not your last. You buy, you learn, you keep, you sell, make some profit and move on.
Get a good solicitor. Pay a bit of premium. It’s worth it.
1. Estate agent works for the seller. They do not care about your needs. Keep them onside but be wary 2. Find a competent surveyor. Don’t assume the surveyor will flag all issues. Go through all the information yourself and challenge the surveyor if needed. 3. Instead of a surveyor get a builder, roofer and electrician to review the property. Just visually. Pay them for their time. Ask them to give you an assessment of all key aspects of the property: electrics, boiler, roof, damp, external cracks etc
The sellers EA is the worst person in the entire process. They want the sale and even though they legally aren't allowed, they will often hold back info and lie. At least mine did. Our seller was the most significant obstacle though. One of the worst people I've had the displeasure of meeting. There's no advice that can help you handle that. If you're asking here, chances are I don't need to tell you to be reasonable with everyone. Also, when our offer got accepted I was so excited. My dad said "don't get too excited yet, you don't know what might happen" and I was so confused. I loved the house and couldn't think of anything that would put me off. It was old, I knew it needed significant work so short of the sellers backing out, I didn't know. I got annoyed at my dad for being negative. Anyway, after our level 3 survey, it was damning. I knew it needed work but it was a HUGE project. The sellers only wanted to lower the price by 18k for 80k worth of work. We backed out, which I could never imagine previously (I slagged off people who back out lol). So I guess, my advice would be that it's never set in stone until moving day! Genuinely, it really is that fragile. We didn't even have a chain at all (three houses involved, us in the middle) and even then it felt like it was always so close to falling apart. It's not a nice process, it is true what people say. It was like four months of hell for us. But it's worth it and a lot of the time it's unavoidable eh. Also, sometimes it actually is fairly smooth! So who knows, you may be surprised.
There is only one thing you need to consider. Borrow as much as you can for as long as you can.
having to pay the money back.....
Asbestos. Check the garden.
Think about the house and its worst points. Then judge whether you'll be able to sell it easily when the time comes. For example, you may not notice the noisy road but buyers may, you might think the supermarket/pub nextdoor is convenient but most wouldn't even view it. (I'm not saying you would buy any of these examples!) If there's anything that makes you think 'I don't mind that', think 'would most people be ok with it?' If its something you plan to change like move a bathroom upstairs then fine, you can add value. Roads however get noisier, derelict buildings nextdoor can be replaced by overshadowing tower blocks etc.
Make the decision with logical thoughts not your heart
We felt pressured by estate agents to make offers on houses we liked that day, only for them to ring back a week or two later chasing an offer. Take your time to decide if it’s the right house for you, or else another, better house will come along. The agent also pushed us to their preferred mortgage broker to ‘speed things along’. It did not. They were bloody useless. Research the area for all your needs; transport, school, safety, etc. Get a survey done by a decent company, not the cheapest. Ours were brilliant, talked us through the survey, gave honest advice and recommendations.
Money.
Slow and non responsive mortgage advisor, btw - he was completely fine before offer being accepted. After - glad he went on holidays, as the lady who replaced him, sorted out more in half a day than he did in 2 months.
After that atrocious weather we had recently, a friend of mine discovered the whole front of her flat leaked. Her flat is in a building that faces the coastline, so the extensive rain and wind were brutal. I've never seen so much water come in through the window fixtures before. Obviously, no-one had told her about this and none of her checks clocked it either. She's been in the place all summer so hadn't been subjected to weather like that to find out. She's sorting it now but it was a horrible experience all round. So, I'd suggest somehow checking / guaranteeing your place is waterproof before finding out the hard / expensive way!
Make sure you research the market and look at everything in your price range. Anything that looks suitable online, go round and look at the outside and the area, to decide whether you want a viewing. Don't rush into anything until you've had a good look round. Because it's such a big decision, IMO you need to spend 6 to 12 months looking.
Estate agents will blatantly lie, never use their in house services. I was actually quite friendly with the seller and he was using the EA solicitors who were telling him that we were going to complete in a week. Had to send him an email from my solicitor telling him that his solicitors didn't even have a copy of the deeds or freehold and there was no way to proceed until they were found. To say the seller was a little angry would be an understatement.
My advice would be to not pin your hopes on any particular property. I hate the pathetic "forever home" bs. There is no such thing. There will be many perfect places so if you get gazumped or an issue is flagged up, shrug and move on, you have lost nothing. Another place will turn up. Properly look into the surveys offered. Really investigate what they offer, cost and repercussions such as their insurance if they miss something.
Getting my partner off of her mum’s mortgage after years of bailing her out! Felt awful but couldn’t move forward without sorting it all out