First time buyer questions

Scotteh · 20 Sep 2017 at 20:04

Just a few hopefully quick questions as we're looking to buy our first house

Did you use a mortgage broker/adviser when getting your first mortgage?

I'm undecided whether to go to through a broker, getting the best deal isn't what draws me to getting one just the fact i'd have someone to ask questions throughout the process where as going solo I have to revert to a quick google or asking on here if I had any queries, I'm sure solicitor or the lenders adviser would be able to provide most information though?

If you did use a broker did they find better deals than you could find yourself? Did you find them useful and worth the fee (if any)?

I see a lot of people suggesting the likes of London & County but I'm unsure how helpful they would be in Scotland..

Do you have Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance?

Do most people buy some kind of Payment Protection Insurance? I'm not currently planning on buying it when I get a mortgage but would have life insurance to cover the mortgage in the event I die.

In Scotland, have you been able to use Home Reports for valuation?

I've seen some banks saying they'll accept Home Reports as a valuation, assuming it's a recent Home Report (I'd imagine <3 months maybe). Has anyone from Scotland actually used Home Report for the valuation rather than having to get the lender to do another valuation?

What's the process for buying a house in Scotland?

Would I be correct saying:

Get a Agreement in Principal from ultimately any lender (I wouldn't plan on going anywhere near the maximum loan amount based on some of these 'how much can you afford to borrow' calculators, so I don't imagine it matters where I get the AIP?)
Look for houses (zoopla/rightmove)
Request Home Report and check for potential problems with the house, the valuation, etc
Advise the sellers agent I'm interested and find out if there's a closing date
Find and hire a solicitor
Advise solicitor I want to make a bid on the property
Conveyancing process starts, solicitor starts doing their thing
Complete the mortgage application
If Home Report is over 3 months old, get a valuation
Mortgage gets confirmed
Missives concluded / agree on moving dates
Get insurance sorted / update addresses / standard moving address stuff
Completion and hand over of keys

Alternatively, would you find a solicitor prior to looking for a house?

When do you pay the solicitor money?

Say you're paying £10k deposit, £1k stamp duty, £1k legal, £300 land registry. Do you pay £10k when they're paying deposit and the rest at the end? Or do you pay it all at the end? Or do you pay when you've had the bid accepted?

How does the H2B ISA go towards the deposit?

I've seen people saying you have to agree a lower deposit with the seller and the rest will be paid at the end due to H2B, as H2B ISA bonus can't go towards the legal fees, stamp duty, etc and must be used for deposit? Anyone have personal experience with that?

Thanks.

Jokester · 20 Sep 2017 at 20:20

On the subject of solicitor get them lined up when your starting looking as you might want to shop around there as well.

I paid my solicitor after completion. Deposit/stamp duty was paid on the day of completion (or possibly the day before - I know it was my mortgage lender we were waiting on to complete).

You'll also need to pay for any chancellery search fees or whatever they're called as and when they are carried out.

Scotteh · 20 Sep 2017 at 20:37

Thanks for that, I assume the standard advice is to avoid your lenders solicitors? (e.g. Halifax have a conveyancing panel where you can put in info and get a quote from various solicitors, all of which I assume are close with the lender)

So likely bulk of the cost is paid just before/at completion, by which point they should have the ISA bonus so I'd imagine I'll just be told the value of the 'pot' less the ISA bonus and pay it then.

novaenough · 20 Sep 2017 at 21:00

To try and answer your questions:
I did use use broker, she got me a better deal than I had found so was happy to go with her.

No mortgage protection, with sick pay and savings I think we'll be alright if it comes to that.

I did use the home report for my valuation but bear in mind it depends if your lender will accept that report/ surveyor and also how old the report is, mine was 3 or 4 days "Out of date" and it cost me £100+vat to get it updated. Which irked me somewhat!

As Jokester said, get your solicitor organised first or early on, they can guide you through the process and will certainly tell you when they want your money!
My solicitor put in the notes of interest for me.

Hope that's of some help.

Molep · 20 Sep 2017 at 21:16

I went to a recommended broker and he could only get me a total of 125k lending.
santander got me 152k lending.
so worth trying all avenues.

Scotteh · 20 Sep 2017 at 21:40

novaenough said:
To try and answer your questions:
I did use use broker, she got me a better deal than I had found so was happy to go with her.

No mortgage protection, with sick pay and savings I think we'll be alright if it comes to that.

I did use the home report for my valuation but bear in mind it depends if your lender will accept that report/ surveyor and also how old the report is, mine was 3 or 4 days "Out of date" and it cost me £100+vat to get it updated. Which irked me somewhat!

As Jokester said, get your solicitor organised first or early on, they can guide you through the process and will certainly tell you when they want your money!
My solicitor put in the notes of interest for me.

Hope that's of some help.

Did you hear about broker through family/friends, or find them another way? I can't really get any recommendations as family mortgaged a long time ago and typically just went with their banks rather than looking around.

Oh, £100 isn't too bad to get it updated vs the £500 odd it would cost to get another valuation/survey though.

Thanks for that, I'll look at quotes for solicitors. Do solicitors expect you to contact them before you're actually wanting to make an offer? I thought they would have just seen that as a waste of time as they don't actually have your business until you're offering for a house and at that point it's 'serious' kinda thing. I believe in Scotland you have to offer through your solicitor don't you?

Molep said:
I went to a recommended broker and he could only get me a total of 125k lending.
santander got me 152k lending.
so worth trying all avenues.

Based on these affordability calculators I can borrow probably 70k+ more than I'd actually want to, so I don't think the lending total should matter much.

But surely if it's a whole market broker they should have also checked santander?

novaenough · 20 Sep 2017 at 21:54

Scotteh said:
Did you hear about broker through family/friends, or find them another way? /snip

Same broker my brother used who was recommended by some of his friends but that probably doesn't help you much!

You're right £100+vat was better than a new report but for someone to change the date on a document and email it back to me.......

I used the "family" solicitor, and as we'd used them for some business stuff and also for my brothers flat I suppose she knew I was serious and going to be buying something.
You could always ask them to see what they expect/ are prepared to do for you and on what basis.
The few property transactions I've been involved with have all been done via solicitors on both end, not sure if they have to be though.

Skillmister · 21 Sep 2017 at 10:24

The HTB ISA has been mis-sold in a way. The bonus cannot be obtained before exchange of contracts therefore cannot be used as part of your deposit. It can however be obtained before completion so can be used to make up part of the balance of the purchase price.

Depending how long you have between exchange and completion the bonus might not arrive in time for completion (it takes 2-3 days) so you may get asked for the full balance with the bonus being an extra.

Frankly all the money goes in the same pot so I don't see how it can be distinguished when it comes to using it for purchase money or fees. I've had some clients pay the full balance inc fees and we end up sending them a cheque for the bonus after completion

This is likely what will happen with mine as I expect a simultaneous exchange and completion so i'll need to have given the full deposit up front, and as I'm not paying legal fees or stamp duty and my searches are already paid for I've only got about £150 in Land Registry and bank transfer fees to pay afterwards..