Offer on a house!

megakid

megakid

megakid

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Well I've gone and done it - This morning I put an offer down on a flat I saw in London yesterday. Yet to hear back from the agent as it its result but fingers crossed.

This is easily the biggest thing I've done, and with a few medical problems my parents (ex-property developers) have been unable to help so I found it really tough getting to grips with obtaining a mortgage quote etc etc. Finally I've done the first step and, if accepted, the hard work starts now!

Anyone else done anything massive like this over the last few days? How did you feel?

I don't really know how to describe it - When your playing with the sorts of sums you're talking about for a place these days and I've never worked a fulltime job in my life (complicated arrangements - going to start the mortgage as soon as I begin my graduate job etc) it is very strange indeed.

Anyway - thanks for listening - I guess I'm too excited or too nervous not to just sit here and wait.
 
I've gone through all the processes and arranged a mortgage in principle, starting once they recieve a copy of my first month's pay slip.

And I do have a job, it starts in 2 weeks time.
 
megakid said:
I've gone through all the processes and arranged a mortgage in principle, starting once they recieve a copy of my first month's pay slip.

And I do have a job, it starts in 2 weeks time.
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Best of luck with that - I hear the cost of living is quite expensive in London?

At least your on the way to being on the property ladder now, i've got friends now in their 30's still staying at home with parents as they cant afford to make the move :eek:
 
I'm buying at the moment, mortgage is sorted and solicitors are doing searches at the moment.

Strange about your job though, i've had to provide my last 3 months payslips, my P60, and the lender sent a letter to my employers to confirm my employment and salary, all of which I assume is fairly standard.

Ah well, good luck with it, hope it all goes well. :)
 
rossyl said:
well done, congrats.

if you don't mind me asking - what area have you bvought in?
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I decided a good compromise for prices/location was to go for a property around Canada Water and/or Bermonsey - couple of stops to Canary Whalf and a 3 stops or so (including a change, Jubilee/Northern and/or East London/DLR) to Bank.

I was also looking at Elephant and Castle as the prices there are quite reasonable for zone 1, plus a huge regeneration project is on-going.
 
megakid said:
I decided a good compromise for prices/location was to go for a property around Canada Water and/or Bermonsey - couple of stops to Canary Whalf and a 3 stops or so (including a change, Jubilee/Northern and/or East London/DLR) to Bank.

I was also looking at Elephant and Castle as the prices there are quite reasonable for zone 1, plus a huge regeneration project is on-going.
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thanks for that - much appreciated.
 
megakid said:
I decided a good compromise for prices/location was to go for a property around Canada Water and/or Bermonsey - couple of stops to Canary Whalf and a 3 stops or so (including a change, Jubilee/Northern and/or East London/DLR) to Bank.

I was also looking at Elephant and Castle as the prices there are quite reasonable for zone 1, plus a huge regeneration project is on-going.
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How many minutes walk are you from the nearest tube station?

From the sounds of it you have bought a place in a good location.

With regards to Elephant and Castle: this area has always been seen as rough. This is the main reason why even though it is in zone1 and is central, the prices relatively low. The area is also continuously being regenerated (its been that way for the last decade, at least), but it just cant shake the bad reputation it has. Its been a while since Ive been there; is the shopping centre still pink and is it still dirty inside the centre?

With regards getting a mortgage with no salary: this is very possible. In fact, you can get a mortgage without any real proof of earnings for hundreds of thousands of £s, if not millions. The problem comes when paying off the premiums - if you cant afford to pay the premiums you will become unstuck, but getting the mortgage deal in the first instance is not a problem. Also, if you go for these dodgy deals, you almost certainly wont get the best interest rates.
 
The place is within 200m of the station but you have to walk a round-about away of getting to the entrance so about a 400m walk.

The East London line is getting done as we speak (but they're not closing Canada Water station, unlike Rotherhithe station).

I had a look at a couple of places in the big fugly (ex-office block) flats on the northern elephant and castle roundabout - very nice inside but I cant stand the look of the place! The north and south wings are 12 stories high.
With or without a gym and swimming pool I couldn't live with that!

I think the issue with E&C is the newington estates to the south - they're not pretty or full of the nicest people (so I've heard anyway)

EDIT: I meant Rotherhithe station, not Bermonsey.
 
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Canada Water will probably be your closest station then. The East London line will be closing down, I think end 2007. It will re-open after all the extensions etc, and will be run by National Rail (not London Underground). Im not sure what effect this will have on the service levels through the East London Line stations.

The most important thing about a property is its location. There is no point in having a lovely flat with swimming pool etc, if its in the middle of a ghetto. This is why properties in bad areas (eg. Elephant and Castle) get sold for relatively little, in comparison to properties that are small/in poor condition, but in good areas (eg. Kensington).

Are you planning to live in this property, BTL or property development?
 
Canada Water is definately my closest station - I can see it from a window in the bedroom! Across the shopping center there is Surrey Quays too. If the day is nice it's even possible to walk to London Bridge (I walked Victoria > St Pauls twice a day last summer - lovely).

I'm going to be a live-in-landlord to begin with renting 2 rooms to mates (who I've already organised it with) - Perhaps in a few years I'll remortgage to a BTL mortgage and get another place.

Just gotta wait for Monday to hear back. I'm not getting my hopes up too much as I know how these things are but it was the first one that gave me the all-important wow factor so I moved quick and put a bid in less than 24 hours after I first viewed it.

I've yet to organise a lawyer so that is the next step once I've had an offer accepted...That's going to be fun! Always a first!

Are you in the property business Abu?
 
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How are you getting a mortgage while being unemployed :confused: i thought that was impossible? thought u had to be working for at least 3 months :confused:

How much is this setting u back btw :p
 
I'm not going to say how much it is setting me back but it's a lot!

Regarding the mortgage, I've got an offer letter from my employer (who are a huge global well-known company so I guess that helps) stating my start date and salary which the company, along with my first pay slip, is happy to accept as confirmation of my employment.

Anyway, the estate agent contacted me and said the vendor wanted a little more so I upped my offer by 1k and said it would be my final bid. I'll be hearing back on Monday! Talk about being in limbo!
 
didnt you have to pay a deposit? or did you buy to let and get 100% mortgage?

im renting atm and i hate it, its dead money, id really love to get my feet on the property ladder for sure...

any sensible ideas? hints and tips?

is your new job paying a lot? like 35 - 50K ??? for a reputable firm???
 
I am lucky in the sense that I have an interest free loan from my parents to provide me with ~10% deposit. I'll be insisting on paying that back on a monthly basis on top of the mortgage.

My job does pay well (35k) and the firm is reputable. I'm also lucky in the fact that I'm not on a probationary period (6 months is the norm) so that helps with the mortgage applications.

Just have a look on websites such as www.findaproperty.com but bare in mind that any london properties you see on there will probably have already gone if not under offer. The market is moving extremely quickly - if you are serious, be prepared to phone up the estate agent and view any properties that match your criteria the next day (and then offer the following day).

Also give London & County mortgages (google them) a call and they'll give you an idea of how much mortgage you can obtain. Depending on your circumstances you can go a little higher normally (for example if this deal goes through I'll be borrowing 2 multiples of my salary on top of the maximum value they quoted for me).
Unfortunately until you've found a house that you are prepared to bid on you can't really move the mortgage process forward any further than that. Although I did see one on the website and just call them up and pretended I had offered £X on it to get a firm mortgage "offer" (subject to credit etc) to give me an idea of what mortgage companies thought of my particular case.

Don't get me wrong it was and still will be extremely difficult to pull this off and I had considered renting on more than one occasion when things were looking dull with regards to buying.
 
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HURRAH!

Ok, so now that offer has been accepted and the ball is rolling, care to give us some info on the property you have gone for? Is it a new build? Is it a resale property? Flat? House? Price?

If you can see Canada Water from your house then thats a great location you have. Providing the place is in good condition, if at any stage you wanted to let it out, it would let out very easily. There are a lot of people working in Canary Wharf who rent and want to live close to their place of work. Canada Water is ideal.

Im not in the property investment game. Yet. Though I have been doing extensive research over the last year. One thing that surprises me is that it is possible to make money on property in a falling market, as well as a rising one.

I only bought my first property in NW London, last year. So, Im currently in the process of spending obscene amounts on doing it up. But in 18 months I should be done and will then be looking to work on other projectos, the nature of which I'm not sure of as yet.

What fascinates me about the property business is that the TV programs all show people making 10s of 1000s of pounds, in the space of 6 months, while some of us work our backsides off for £20kpa. It almost feels unfair.
 
sunama said:
What fascinates me about the property business is that the TV programs all show people making 10s of 1000s of pounds, in the space of 6 months, while some of us work our backsides off for £20kpa. It almost feels unfair.
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Can go wrong though - it can be a risky business.

I've got a graduate job in Canary Wharf next year (doesn't pay as well as megakid's though - I'm working for KPMG, I guess he must be working for a bank at that starting salary!). Not sure where I'm thinking of living yet, but I'm not so sure I'd want to be too close to work.

Think I'd rather live somewhere SW (Fulham/Battersea/Putney) where a lot of the kind of people I went to school with seem to hang out (working or student at Imperial). But then it just seems like I'm a glutten for punishment having to trapse across London in the morning rush hour.
 
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