My First House

[Yaayuh!]

£5K on top failed also.

I can be sure as much as anyone can be sure in this position, by going on what the vendor and estate agents are telling me.
Also, we saw 3 of the other viewers when we went to view, it may as well of been one of those open house viewing days they were so close together.
The vendor has accepted the first time buyer's offer of the asking price. House went up Friday and is STC as of yesterday evening.

As for solicitor, there is no solicitor involved at this point.

So on to the 4th property, whenever one appears on the market.

 

[Yaayuh!]

We've practically sold ours. We have 2 people interested and getting their details checked out for buying. I tried to explain this to them but yeah, 1st time buyers will always be more attractive.

 

[Yaayuh!]

Sold STC to us. Was on at £250K got for £245K

Solicitor assigned and paid, sending back forms this week.
Buyer for the flat sorted
Mortgage (and cover) lined up and ready
Home buyer's Survey ordered

Everything going nice and smooth

4-Bed (3 up and 1 down which will be an office)
Massive conservatory which will be a dining room for a 10 seat dining table.
Garage 2/3 converted into and office, will be knocked through to have a full garage again.
Needs updated and previous DIY redoing (pretty poor), but we don't mind as it gives us a chance straight away to make it "ours". It's going to be great *fingers crossed, touch wood and all that).

More pictures to come, at some point. Didn't take any myself when i was there.

 

[Yaayuh!]

Do you have to post more pics of it? Lol, just kidding. Hope all goes good for you.

Hey!

It's all getting re-decorated when we move in, top to bottom and a new kitchen in the near future.

Looks nice for the price. My advice to you at this stage is not to get your hopes up too much as there is still so much that can go wrong.

My buyer has pulled out this week and it creates so much work and inconvenience, I hope the same doesn't happen to you but make sure you have a back up plan.

That's always a worry and my biggest one at the moment.

 

[Yaayuh!]

Yep. However the buyer for our flat has reserved it with a deposit and we've got his solicitors details so he's forked out pretty much £1K, non-refundable so it would have to be something fairly drastic for him to pullout.

 

[Yaayuh!]

£1k is not a lot to lose on a house purchase, especially if they can't secure a decent mortgage. We're all being pessimistic though, it will hopefully go through smoothly Good luck!

Not for a house no. But for a shared ownership flat it kinda is and generally if you're in that position then you're their because money is tight.

Update:
Hom******s survey happening on Monday, and the buyer's survey for our flat is this friday.

Our solicitors are being very helpful and glad we chose them.

HA (Affinity Sutton) are being *****, basically £120 down the drain on a management pack which we have all of anyway apart from the Gas Installation and Building Insurance cert, which they never gave us in the first place. I was getting very angry with them but the otherhalf told me to chill as it wasn't worth the stress, and paid up.

Other than that, it's smooth at the moment.

 

[Yaayuh!]

Does anybody know how long a Hom******'s Survey report takes?
It was carried out Monday 20th and we received a voicemail saying that "their's nothing worrying about the property at all". The next day the mortgage advisor came back saying all was good for them from the survey and that the mortgage is ready and waiting.
But we haven't had the actual report yet detailing all that was checked in the survey.

I have rang the Surveyors (Countrywide) and they has said that i should receive it very shortly and will chase the department dealing with dispatching it. All very vague.

How long should i expect to have to wait for a Hom******'s Survey report?

Edit: Damn competitor's name! lol (Home Buyer's)

 

[Yaayuh!]

Countrywide have a very bad reputation for tardiness (looking at a swathe of reports on the web they have "been unusually busy" for the last decade).
I was forced to use them by my lender, all i can suggest is to engage the same individual every day on long phone calls that they find hard to hang up until they do their job, i.e. make it worth their while to get you to not take up a large chunk of their day.

Balls.

Cheers for that, I'll be proactive on this and make myself a pest to them.

 

[Yaayuh!]

We had a countrywide 'storybook' when we bought our place. It wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. It was filled with flimsy reasons why they couldn't check something or other. They highlighted several obvious and hardly drastic/life threatening issues, but missed the things we paid them to find. If there are any areas which they note they couldn't (be bothered) to check, check them yourself.

Double balls

 

[Yaayuh!]

It turned up today
I must say, i am actually quite impresses by the report all things considered.

There are a few things, i will type them up here for some advice if possible. One of which being securing roof trusses (something that was fine in the 70's and 80's but regs have changed). I believe i can do this myself with L-Restraint Straps?

But the main ones are the fact it's been extended and modified a couple of times and there is no evidence of the Gas or Electricity being tested in the last decade. That, along with the boiler being quite old.

More to come soon.

 

[Yaayuh!]

can I ask a quick q regarding your flat? do you know if you have to pay the service charge should you lose your job and claim benefits?

I believe so yes. I'm not entirely sure though.

 

[Yaayuh!]

Hi there.
The report was a part of the Home Buyers Survey we arranged through our mortgage, which costs more than the standard valuation that you require for the mortgage but it's highly recommended.
A HIP just gives you basic info on the property e.g. Energy Efficiency and a lot of the info is in a Home Buyers Survey.
If you want to know of any potential issues with the property and the state of it then you will require a Home Buyers Survey, it cost us around £500 and the report was very good and useful, albeit slow.

Here's some useful info: http://www.fool.co.uk/Property/guides/Surveys-And-HIPs.aspx

 

[Yaayuh!]

Went over to the house at the weekend to inspect the questionable DIY and general care. Took some pictures and rooms etc.

Here's where the annoyances come in, a few "Why did you do that" and a general "what the hell" moments. They will keep me busy for a while.

Front fence doesn't come across all the way to the dropped kerb.

Canopy over the front door is coming away from the wall.

DPC is too low due to the patio being layed.

Conservatory lacks a gutter on one side, full of gunk and whatnot (some sort of plant growing in there i think.

The horrible state of the airing cupboard.

Hole in the wall. They boxed in pipes and realised the stopcock was behind there and made a rouch hole..

Messy power cables and trunking used pretty much everywhere. Will have to get it re-done and channeled.

Where they did "channel"/"recess" it was done badly.

TLC needed in many places. This is the sort of example of the owner's care and attention to detail.

However, the bathroom doesn't need touching. The other half loves it, i think it's nice too. Fixed shower and standalone baths aren't everyone's taste though.

You can probably be able to build a picture up of the sort of things i need to do.
-- Re-lay laminiate in hall and lounge along
-- Carpets upstairs
-- Break down and re-box pipes
-- Extend/replace front fence
-- Fix canopy back to the wall
-- Replace fence in the rear garden and "puppy proof" the garden and boundaries
-- Get trees in back garden cut down (far too tall and shade the garden a lot, not too sure here and they're the nextdoor neighbour's trees... going to be a delicate issue to tackle)
-- Bash in the wall in the garage conversion to get a usable garage back. Internal door required also.
-- Tackle the attic/roof with insulation, boarding and truss braces. Will need to fix a cover to the tank whilst i'm up there too
-- Boiler is old and as you can see, a mess.

Then there's the decorating on top of that, the easy stuff.

Regardless of which, i'm seeing them more as "projects" and "challenges". Things that when i resolve and stand back i can be proud of the job i've done.

 

[Yaayuh!]

After much stress and patience. We now have a completion date of 19th July

Had some strange things to deal with recently, like the garage conversion. The 2/3 of the garage is converted into an office. There is no paperwork for the conversion as it was "done by a friend" and was "paid cash in hand".

It doesn't really matter as one of the first things i'm going to do is take a sledgehammer to the conversion and get my garage back!
I just wanted to make sure that we're not taking on something "illegal" per se.

So yeah, 19th July! Wooo!

 

[Yaayuh!]

Tank in the loft is so old fashion & totally unnecessary today, rip all out, & install a super efficient combi boiler, maybe be with a megaflow if you want mains pressure hot water.

Indeed this is what i plan to do eventually but it will be an expensive job so will patch up what is there for this year.

What idiot puts a fixing in a mortat joint on the Canopy .

I know, the canopy is a bodge fixing overall really, but the canopy itself is fine. Will take it down and seek advice on how to mount it properly. Any ideas?

You ideally need 150mm between dpc & patio.

Yep. Ideally we do, however, i'm not worried. I may cut away the patio from the conservatory and leave a drainage gap or something. Not sure yet.

Conservatory is a proper bodge job, I would have put in a proper valley drainage channel.

Someone went full retard when building in. Though i think the conservatory was there first, before the the small extension to the side of it. I think it was the fault of the builders for that rather than the conservatory. The res of the conservatory is pretty damn good tbh.

 

[Yaayuh!]

Yeah that's the best bit. It's quite a large house, needs work but i will make it my own

 

[Yaayuh!]

the join on the conservatory roof to the garage will be interesting in winter. Is there any drain off at all? It look as if it will just pool with water.

anyway congratuylations and good luck hope it all goes smothly

Not sure, either way, it's something i'm going to do sooner rather than later.
Clear out the join completely, check condition of the join and make sure it's all waterproofed with some sort of coating.
Then i will look at getting some sort of drainage membrane/gutter.

 

[Yaayuh!]

We've exchanged and move in on Friday

Had an operation on my right arm and its bandaged up.... should make things interesting...

 

[Yaayuh!]

Hi guys
The move went well. So much to do though, will be cleaning for a week!

Need to get an electrician in, some things are terrible...

 

[Yaayuh!]

Met the next door neighbours either side, both brilliant and very helpful. One of them introduced me to an electrician that lives a few doors up and he popped round to go over the house with things we need and want changing. Great little community

Some bad news though, other than a lot of cleaning and DIY to sort out, we need a window replaced in the bathroom. It obviously been left open constantly and the hinges/metal parts have rusted and the seal has gone on the pane, there is 2-4 cm of mold between the glazing.....Any idea how much windows cost to replace?

Also, the conservatory gutters are full of gunk and haven't been cleared, so it leaks on one side, came down this morning to a puddle.