The nervous wait to exchange....

Sui

Sui

Soldato
Joined
24 Sep 2005
Posts
4,332
Location
Brighton
@Clov!s

We completed 3rd August, first mortgage payment was 1st October if that helps. Obviously 1st payment is a bit more as you also settle the interest up until that first payment date
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2011
Posts
21,226
Location
SW3
@Clov!s

We completed 3rd August, first mortgage payment was 1st October if that helps. Obviously 1st payment is a bit more as you also settle the interest up until that first payment date
So you paid Septembers amount on the first of October and the interest that built up from the 3rd of August until the 31st of August?
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2008
Posts
7,081
Nationwide were the same, I think our first payment was about 6 weeks after moving in and was an entire month payment and then the interest from the extra bit at the start.

Each mortgage company will be different though.
 
Associate
Joined
24 Mar 2013
Posts
613
Location
Southampton
We are looking to buy our first house and found a 3 bed 30's semi which we want to put an offer for. The house needs a lot of work, the people who own it have been there over 40 years and it certainly looks it. Luckily it has new combi boiler and decent windows not needing replacing but everything else pretty much needs ripping out.

As we have never bought a house or done any work like it needs we wondered if anyone would be able to answer few questions?

First of all has anyone else modernised a house as a first time buyer or would it be too much?

The bedrooms have polystyrene tiles in the ceiling. Does anyone know how hard it would be to get them taken out and get the ceilings plastered?

Would you want to put in a bath back into the bathroom as it only has a shower atm?

Any other advise? We would obviously be looking to get the structual surveys etc done after the offer has been accepted.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
90,806
First of all has anyone else modernised a house as a first time buyer or would it be too much?

Depends entirely on your attitude and experience and funds available.

One thing I would say is that you want to get as much done as possible before moving in too much as it makes doing serious DIY so much easier if you aren't working around furniture, etc.
 
Associate
Joined
24 Mar 2013
Posts
613
Location
Southampton
Depends entirely on your attitude and experience and funds available.

One thing I would say is that you want to get as much done as possible before moving in too much as it makes doing serious DIY so much easier if you aren't working around furniture, etc.

I would say I am much more up for doing the work out of the two of us but we both like this place and would be happy to do the work. But with no experience we have no idea how long the work would take and how long we would have to be living in middle of what will be a mess to start with.

We would hopefully have 4 weeks before we needed to move from our current place. And starting budget of around max £15,000. Any more would need to wait until we save up.

Work needing to be done without knowing what they survey says yet would be:

- Replacing of all of the carpets.
- Stripping of all the walls and painting (possibly replastering if its bad?)
- Knocking through the kitchen and dining room wall
- Bricking in the kitchen door and hopefully putting in a window in it's place.
- New kitchen
- New bathroom
- Bedroom ceilings
- Clearing out the garden (currently completely over grown)
- Dropping the kerb for parking (the parking area is already paved)
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2008
Posts
7,081
You're budget wouldn't cover a lot unless you are comfortable doing a lot of the work yourself. About 2 years ago we replaced our kitchen (2.7m * 2.7m), we really searched around for prices and I did my best to get everything at the best available price. I did a few bits myself like removing the old kitchen and tiles and the whole thing still cost about £8k and 2 weeks without the use of it.

Bathroom could easily be the same again and that's your budget gone. Carpets are easy to work out the cost - find the sqm floorspace from the advert and look at some carpets, they're all quoted in sqm so just multiple what you need. Underlay can be as expensive as the carpet although we've always bought Cloud 9 as it's good value and great quality. Fitting is also easy to work out but for a whole house could easily be > £1000.

Walls, painting, garden etc.... would all be things you could do yourself over time.

One recommendation - we had grand plans of what we wanted to do before moving into our current home but funds meant we couldn't do it straight away. After living in the house for 18 months what we actually wanted to do was completely different so I'd suggest living in the place for a bit first before ripping down walls.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
90,806
I wouldn't start knocking through walls without proper advice - you'll probably need it properly inspected, etc. and anything involving windows FENSA registered or selling later could get very messy.

Most of the rest you'll find decent guides on YouTube these days which will generally give you some idea on costs as well.
 
Associate
Joined
24 Mar 2013
Posts
613
Location
Southampton
The wall would most definitely be load bearing so we would be looking to have it checked and done by someone professional. But it would need to go as the kitchen is tiny and we would not want to live with it forever.

We would also be looking to be getting someone to do the door to a window. All of the rest of the work that doesn't require a professional we would probably do ourselves.

Oh and we are planning to put down laminate rather than carpet. Would it be more expensive than a carpet?
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2011
Posts
21,226
Location
SW3
Supposed to be exchanging contacts on Thursday but I’ve just received an amended contract with the incorrect purchase price on :/ will need that sorting again before signing it.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Jul 2005
Posts
3,549
Location
Newcastle
Quick question, we completed a month ago and have just received a bill for outstanding stamp duty. I was under the impression this was included in my solicitors fees or is it normal for this to be paid separately?

Will give them a call later today and dig out my final statement from them when I get home but thought i'd ask you guys.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jan 2006
Posts
20,860
Location
Wigan
Quick question, we completed a month ago and have just received a bill for outstanding stamp duty. I was under the impression this was included in my solicitors fees or is it normal for this to be paid separately?

Will give them a call later today and dig out my final statement from them when I get home but thought i'd ask you guys.


check your paperwork for your final bill to solicitors, ours stated stamp duty on it along with monies back and their costs etc.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
17,281
Location
Bristol
@pinkowl we took on a doer-upper as our first purchase. It took us 2 years pretty much to the day to do it and whilst we don't regret it we wouldn't do it again, certainly not living in it at the same time which we had to.

What I would say is do not underestimate how much work needs to be done. Similarly to you, with horrible wallpaper, artex ceilings etc, we thought some of the work may be cosmetic. In the end it was easier, cheaper, quicker and provided a better end result to strip literally every room back to brick, joists and studs and basically start from scratch with new plasterboard etc.

Doing the work yourself is exciting for the first 6-12 months but then becomes very tedious, difficult and time-consuming. We did a lot of the gutting-out ourselves, getting through half a dozen skips for a 2 bed, and got pros in to do most of the rebuilding. We had to replace the bathroom twice because the first time I did it, and whilst it was fine to the untrained eye had problems behind the scenes.

We also did an extension on the kitchen and all the while were living in around everything. At one point our spare room (pre-being ripped out) was our bedroom, living room and kitchen, with a mattress on the floor, TV propped up against the wall, cooking on a two-burner camping stove and washing up in the bath. That followed having a portaloo for a couple of months and having the shower at work. Needless to say it's not easy! Living in it also means you do things in a very cost-ineffective and time-consuming way. For example, if you weren't living there you'd rip everything out in one foul swoop and then get a plasterer in for a solid month. Obviously not possible when you need at least 1 room to live in.

You also need the funds to support everything. We spent about £70-80k (lost track tbh) and we used savings, bank loans, credit cards and family loans and repaid it all off when we remortgaged. 25k of that was the extension (not including fixtures/fittings) but for a 3 bed in the same state as ours I'd say you'd need a minimum of 60k to do a basic job.

Not trying to be too negative! We don't regret it at all as it's got us to where we are now in terms of equity (we're in the process of moving on) and probably allowed us to skip at least 1 rung of the ladder.

Let me know if you've any Qs!
 
Back
Top Bottom