Mortgage: How many properties did you look before..

Caporegime
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We looked at 5 that I remember, and drove past many more. One I was really keen on, but my parents (who were our initial mortgage lenders) didn't like the area so steered us away from it. We found one in a better area which has been great for us, though the longer we live there the more shonky DIY jobs we come across. If I could sue the previous owner for being drunk in charge of a toolbox I would.
 
Soldato
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40-50 easily, but that allowed me to know 100% that the one I ended up buying was the one for me. I lost a couple through being indecisive or looking for a bargain, but I'm happy with how things worked out.
 
Soldato
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My first place, I was not really looking to buy. My girlfriend was renting a place in a new build and I liked it so I bought one a couple of weeks later.

my second place, this time I had a general idea I wanted to buy a place, kept an eye on right move and found a place that looked good. I was not in the uk so I send my girlfriend to have a look. She said its as nice so I agreed to buy it without seeing it. This again was the first place we looked at.
 
Soldato
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Took me one and a half years, I must have viewed every type of flat in Ealing. I had very strict criteria (all rooms must have nice big windows, minimal walls backing onto to anyone, garage, residents owning the freehold and their own association etc) and was in no rush.

Eventually got what I wanted
 
Soldato
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We looked at 6, the one we end up buying was he second one we looked at. We were fairly certain that was the one for us. We only really looked at the other 4 to prove to ourselves that we really liked the second one!

The area we were looking in was fairly small though. And we lived nearby so knew which areas in the town to avoid. Researched the area for about a month, viewed the houses over a 2 month period. Took exactly 6 weeks from our first viewing to having our offer accepted, then a further 3 months to actually get the keys.

I have no idea how some folk visit 50+ houses. With the internet these days I could easily write off 95% of houses I see on an estate agents website within minutes. The only exception to this is if I had no idea about the area, or the agent had no measurements/info/photos.
 
Soldato
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OP, if your serious about this you need to think about it a little more!

You say you have 10% deposit but you've not said 10% of what value. So guessing 10% of the 250K current offer from someone else (which means you've got 25K in the bank)

If you got a mortgage of 4% (not sure if this is possible any more) you'd need to pay £750 a month with a 10% deposit. That's interest only!

If you got a mortgage at 6% this would go up to £1,125 a month with 10% deposit at that value. Again, interest only. So come the end of the 25 years you'd need to sell the house to pay of the remaining 250K debt.

As others have said, if you go a penny over the £250K cost of buying (even as a first time buyer) you have to pay £7,500 (3%).

Money Saving Expert has the tools to work it all out:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-rate-calculator
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/stamp-duty

Best advice is to stay under £250K as £7.5K stamp duty is a hefty chunk of the money you have saved!

P.S. Best advice I have for you is work out how much you can afford each month then see what kind of mortgages you can get at what rates. Using the calculator linked above you can then play about with values to see what your maximum spend actually is. Watch out as mortgages often have up front costs of £500 to £1000!
 
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Soldato
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In England I looked at about 6-7, was very happy with my purchase. In the States, the first one we looked at was instantly the one we wanted! Went on to look at 4-5 more, but none compared to the first one, extremely happy with our house over here.
Ask yourself what you want from a house and then see if it ticks all the boxes, if it does, go for it.
 
Man of Honour
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First one we saw although we saw 3. Was right size, price and was vacant. It took 2 months to go through. Was 15 yeas ago now. Not sure if i could go through all the moving merlarky again. We did look a few years back but everything was stupidly too small.
 
Soldato
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Looked at about 30 I'd say. Mainly in E1, but also a few in N1 and SE1. Put offers in on three flats prior to securing the current one. One offer was accetped, but the valuation came back under the agreed price - we considered our options but left it alone in the end - and two offers were rejected (one off-plan).

My recommendation is to see as many properties as you possibly can, and weigh things up such as you're in London you should always way up the Commuting time vs Communiting cost vs Price vs Property size (I can't stress this enough for London!).

Good luck! :)
 

wnb

wnb

Soldato
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We looked at about 6 new build houses, the first thing I do when I look at a house is where am I going to put my plasma telly and is their enough room for the viewing distance. This immediately discounted the first 5 houses I looked at. The 6th house is where my best friend lived and I had spent many hour as kids and into mid 20's at his house. His dad past away and I bought it for £210,00 for a 4 bed house, garage and a nice sized garden, spent about 60k revamping it.
 
Soldato
OP
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Surprising that someone looking to spend 250k wouldn't know about this.

To explain further, what people normally do is put an offer just under the threshold and offer a substantial amount for fixtures and fittings.

OP I would do much more research into property buying and not get emotional about any property.

Thats one of the reasons i made this thread. to gather some knowledge and yea i was aware of the stamp duty being free for first time buyers for a certain amount :)
 
Soldato
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We looked at about 6 new build houses, the first thing I do when I look at a house is where am I going to put my plasma telly and is their enough room for the viewing distance. This immediately discounted the first 5 houses I looked at. The 6th house is where my best friend lived and I had spent many hour as kids and into mid 20's at his house. His dad past away and I bought it for £210,00 for a 4 bed house, garage and a nice sized garden, spent about 60k revamping it.


Bargain!
 
Soldato
OP
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Lorville - Hurston
OP, if your serious about this you need to think about it a little more!

You say you have 10% deposit but you've not said 10% of what value. So guessing 10% of the 250K current offer from someone else (which means you've got 25K in the bank)

If you got a mortgage of 4% (not sure if this is possible any more) you'd need to pay £750 a month with a 10% deposit. That's interest only!

If you got a mortgage at 6% this would go up to £1,125 a month with 10% deposit at that value. Again, interest only. So come the end of the 25 years you'd need to sell the house to pay of the remaining 250K debt.

As others have said, if you go a penny over the £250K cost of buying (even as a first time buyer) you have to pay £7,500 (3%).

Money Saving Expert has the tools to work it all out:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-rate-calculator
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/stamp-duty

Best advice is to stay under £250K as £7.5K stamp duty is a hefty chunk of the money you have saved!

P.S. Best advice I have for you is work out how much you can afford each month then see what kind of mortgages you can get at what rates. Using the calculator linked above you can then play about with values to see what your maximum spend actually is. Watch out as mortgages often have up front costs of £500 to £1000!

yes 10% of 250k. i went and discussed this with my banks mortgage advisor and they said @250k property, based on mine and my wifes salary and using 10 deposit, on a fixed interest repayment for a 30 year mortgage(fixed interest rate for first 5 years and need to renew after and at something like 4.2% is the actual interest rate) i pay around 1.2k a month in the mortgage.

edit. what is the 4% and 6% you are refering to? the interest rate? And it seems you are basing on a interest only mortgage? im after aproper fully fledged repayment one and from my understanding, u out your down payment down, tell the bank u wanna do a repayment mortgage for 25 or whatever years and from then on u pay x amoutn a month and after the 25+ years is over, you would have paid off the whole property!

Whats this thing your saying where after the 25/30 years you still owe 250k? that sounds like interest only mortgage
 
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Soldato
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When we bought the flat, which was our 1st mortgage, maybe 10. We has a briader area that we were looking at and we checked most out on the web before deciding which ones to view.

When we bought the house we're in now we only looked at it and then the house next-door-but-1 for comparison (it had a full loft conversion & was on for £30k more). We had a very specific area we were looking in, knew the type of house we wanted and could afford, and checked about 20 out online before we made an appointment to view.

We got about a 3.3% reduction from asking price to sale price.
 
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Soldato
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4% and 6% was mortgage rates just to give you a range of costs to compare to based on the mortgage you get.

Also sorry, if it's the two of you ~1.2K a month is much more reasonable than if you were buying on your own which I had assumed you were.

Also yes, I was looking at interest only mortgages to show you lower rates that you can expect to pay. And yes, interest only would mean you would have to pay the cost of the house at the end minus your original deposit.

Anyway, with all that in mind putting in the figures to the mortgage calculator (£250K cost, 10% deposit, 30 years, 4.2% interest rate, full repayment) you'll be paying £1,100 per month (assuming no up front cost to the mortgage).

So a little bit cheaper than you've been told but no doubt your advisor is airing on the side of caution to make sure you budget for any unforeseen surprises!

Regarding the choosing of a house I went to see 3 others on the same day but was mainly just wanting to see the last one. Totally fell in love with it. Offer accepted 3 days later!
 
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