Just bought my first property! any advice for a first time buyer?

eurgh, i envy your situation. i'm trying to buy at the moment and its so difficult.

i'm buying with a friend of mine, and going 50:50 on the place. trying to find something "interesting" in zone 1 or 2 in London (warehouse conversion, new build, etc.) within our budget. unfortuantely my budget is a lot more than his, double unfortunately (but amazing at the same time) to speed up the process his mum is paying for everything and then i'm giving her my share of the costs straight away.

we had our first offer on a place in bermondsey rejected, and want to play it smart when potentially making a second offer - but the place isn't completed/built until december meaning most of our mortgage products and offers expire before then. its driving me nuts. any advice would be greatly apprecaited.

i'm spending about 4 hours a day at work looking on the property sites trying to find a new place.
 
ci_newman said:
Just to scare you, I had a 12-week wait from the moment our offer was accepted to when we got completion :p That was only in a chain of three people too :(
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pfft, a mere drop in the ocean :P. Our offer was accepted on March 2nd 2009. We got the keys on November 26th 2009. We were first timers and the house was being sold by the family after the old grannie had died.

Having been living in our first place since just mid March all I'd say is keep track of your utility usage. It's very easy to leave on a bulb or your pc or something for no reason and while you might think it costs nothing it adds up rather quickly. My computer costs about 1.5-2p per hour to run which seems like nothing, but if i left it on like many do, it would cost 48p a day. £175 a year to leave a computer on just ticking over that isnt needed will really be noticed if you are trying to cut down a bit.

If you estimated the cost of your bills right in the first place then you'll be fine. Everyone told me that everyone shoots low so I shot high and we are spot on month by month. Bear in mind that at present we are paying £26 p/m for tv licence which goes down to £12 in a few months (they like to get a years worth out of you early) and that we are in the 6 month period of paying for the water (dont pay over winter), and that we are on an 8 month DD for council tax (some people are on 10 i think?) and i'm pleased that in about 4 months we'll be well under on our bills. I'm just about to drop our gas + leccy from 80p/m to £40 becuase when the next bill comes out we'd be about £150 in credit which we dont need.

So yeh, bills. They'll get away from you if you dont pay attention.

At night my house runs on 1.8p per hour of electricity :) I love my energy monitor.
 
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matt_fsr said:
Dont leave your laptop on overnight? ;)
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Funnily enough because of the other thread I asked an A&E Doctor today about laptop injuries and he says that they have had many people come into A&E with leg burns from laptops so leaving them on a carpet or settee COULD start a fire.

Oh yeah, and for the OP, you have to do it in every room.
 
Citizen420 said:
Thanks for the advice bro, I have already got some funds as a backup, more than 3 months of mortgage+bills etc..

I have worked out my outgoings per month and I hope it goes like this:

500 mortgage
100 council tax
50 electricity
50 insurances
200 food
30 factoring
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Here's mine to give you an idea.
500 mortgage
100 council tax
20 phone/internet
12 tv license
30 buildings and contents insurance
20 water
90 gas/electricity
280 food (for 2)

Those are house related. It gets more when you add in gym, car, mobile phone, savings etc.
 
Tunney said:
Yes. At 5% interest, you'll roughly pay back double what you borrowed over 25 years.
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Weird, we have a 5% mortgage over 25 years and interest only makes up 50% of the loan.

I'm guessing you've got an interest only mortgage?
 
panthro said:
Is that really the general level of interest paid back over a 25 year period?
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Yep. :( At the start of the mortgage you are looking at £300 interest and £200 actually paying off the loan. If you can afford to, overpaying your motgage at the start looks very attractive.
 
LiE said:
Here's mine to give you an idea.
500 mortgage
100 council tax
20 phone/internet
12 tv license
30 buildings and contents insurance
20 water
90 gas/electricity
280 food (for 2)

Those are house related. It gets more when you add in gym, car, mobile phone, savings etc.
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Yeah, your right I forgot the most important bill, my internet! my connection is 40 per month as its a 25mb LLU business line.

And then I have my 20 per month mobile... I still think I can get it done on <1k.
You mention water bills, I thought the whole of the UK was the same, up here in Scotland my water is paid through the council tax, which sucks, because I have an atmospheric water generator which give me clean water to drink and cook with... but I still pay the same as someone who solely uses tap water for everything!

everything else like my 40 per month gym membership and 20 per month Jui Jitsu costs I include in my savings/luxury fund which is the money I earn above the initial 1k, this will help me prioritise (i hope) in that gym and Jui Jitsu will come before drink and partying.
 
Here's our breakdown:

Mortgage: 580
Loan repayment to her sister: 200
Water: 40
Leccy: 70
Council Tax: 120
TV Licence: 12
Phone: 12
Internet: 10

Her:
Car
Insurance: 60
MOT: 5
Tires: 17
Services: 17
Petrol : 120
Road Tax: 17

Horse
Rent: 130
Food: 25
Hay: 25
Insurance: 9
Shoes: 34
Medical: 5

Phone: 10
Food: 150
Clothes: 35
Sundries: 40
Haircut: 20
Dental: 3

Me:
Travel: 120
Debt: 230
Mobile: 35
Mob Ins: 6
Ins: 5
Website: 5
Sundries: 10
Food: 200
Haircut: 10
Dental: 6
 
oooh.... Solicitor wants £995 from me to formalise it all..i.e. put offer in writing, exchange money and deeds etc...

is this a normal amount? seems awfully expensive!
 
dmpoole said:
Funnily enough because of the other thread I asked an A&E Doctor today about laptop injuries and he says that they have had many people come into A&E with leg burns from laptops so leaving them on a carpet or settee COULD start a fire.

Oh yeah, and for the OP, you have to do it in every room.
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I seriously doubt if they could cause a fire in normal circumstances. It's pretty easy to burn skin - a boiling saucepan would give you VERY nasty burns (much worse that any notebook) if you put it on your lap but it wouldn't set fire to your settee. If a laptop could set fire to furniture it would melt itself first.
 
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Trifid said:
Yep. :( At the start of the mortgage you are looking at £300 interest and £200 actually paying off the loan. If you can afford to, overpaying your motgage at the start looks very attractive.
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are there fees associated with overpaying or is it simply like paying into a bank account in an attempt to reduce the balance.
 
LiE said:
Yup Solicitor fees are normal.
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Yeah, it breaks down like this:

Conveyancing fee: 550

Vat: 96.25

Short term insurance premium: 10

Dues of registering disposition: 200

Dues of registering standard security: 30

Inland revenue land transaction return form fee: 58.75

Total: 945
 
That solicitor is ripping you off. We got ours done for under 500£. Biut we went via internet and did everything by post/phone; admitedly we nagged him everyday to get it done so quick, if you dont they take forever. Completed in 6 weeks with one in the chain.
 
firefilesuk said:
are there fees associated with overpaying or is it simply like paying into a bank account in an attempt to reduce the balance.
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Not looked too hard at what’s available, but with the Natwest mortgage that I briefly looked at you were allowed to over pay 10% or the remaining mortgage.

I'm currently thinking wether I will be able to afford a mortgage on my own. Briefly thought over the idea of having a lodger to overpay the mortgage with.
 
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