The nervous wait to exchange....
- Thread starter noj
- Start date
We've just started on this journey and already I feel terrified as to what is to come. We are first time buyers and everything is new to us. We found the place we liked, have a deposit together and have reserved it but now it's in the hands of our mortgage broker. I'm a bit of a pessimist and even though he thinks we should be fine I can't help but worry. They say the whole process should be finished within 6 weeks and we reserved yesterday. Fingers crossed!
I’ve been few it a few times now, I don’t know why people worry about it so much. Mortgages are really not a problem if you are borrowing within your means. Even being self employed, if you have proper accounts made up and filling in your tax returns truthfully then you will not have a problem getting finance.
Honestly the biggest pain is the other people in the chain who don’t fill out paper work correctly or supply information in a timely manor. It sounds like you have a new build so that shouldn’t be a problem, just get a professional snagger for moving day.
Honestly the biggest pain is the other people in the chain who don’t fill out paper work correctly or supply information in a timely manor. It sounds like you have a new build so that shouldn’t be a problem, just get a professional snagger for moving day.
Soldato
Get a decent solicitor that’s the best bit of advice I was given.
Soldato
Yeah you should be fine
We are first timers too. But it's not a chain, so can't even be sure until exchange! That's killing us.
And to the other post.. no, LISA isn't my gf. Its cash value is higher!
The home builders gave us a recommended solicitor which also happened to be someone a friend used a few years back to do theirs so hopefully we should be good. We haven't had a chance to speak to her yet though as she doesn't start work again until the new year.
My partner is more optimistic than I am. We've had a soft credit check with Halifax in had an agreement in principle for a lot less than what we can actually borrow and the mortgage broker after doing all the affordability checks says we are more than capable of paying it back so we should be eligible. I just never count my chickens before they hatch. I'm shocked at how cheap a mortgage is compared to renting. We'll only be paying about an extra £30 a month each assuming the rates stay the same on the 7th.
Soldato
From a buyers side, with a property at £270k we had
Survey 864
SDLT 3,450
Solicitors 1,053
That was with a Full Building Survey, although it was an old house and i found someone who specialised in those. Can probably be had cheaper.
Survey 864
SDLT 3,450
Solicitors 1,053
That was with a Full Building Survey, although it was an old house and i found someone who specialised in those. Can probably be had cheaper.
Soldato
Having done this a couple of times, I'd recommend getting your own solicitor.
When the builder recommends one, they aren't working 100% in your interests, as they won't want to rock the boat with the house builder if anything comes up that could jeopardize the sale.
I'd find a different one personally.
Always pick your own solicitor and one that you can actually visit, local to the property at the very least. There are certain things about purchases of houses in each area that only the local ones will know and its also dead handy to be able to drop a form in or do an ID check without a 100mile drive.
A bad solicitor is a major pain, cutting costs here will mostly cost you time or money one way or the other.
A bad solicitor is a major pain, cutting costs here will mostly cost you time or money one way or the other.
To be fair, having shopped around the one they recommend to us was bang in the middle of all the other prices. Fixed fee of ~£1600 and they're used to help-to-buy and new builds. My partners sister-in-law is an estate agent and while she isn't a solicitor she deals with them regularly enough and looked over our quote and said it seemed reasonable.
They're about a 5 minute drive from our house and probably the same again from the new build estate. There was one quoting £1200 but it was in Newport and as you said, could be a pain when it comes to dropping bits off.
They're about a 5 minute drive from our house and probably the same again from the new build estate. There was one quoting £1200 but it was in Newport and as you said, could be a pain when it comes to dropping bits off.
Convey Law? I have used them quite a few times, while not the best with communication they have always got the job done. I have noticed a steep increase in their prices of late though which tallies with that £1200 quote.
£1600 seems an awful lot as a legal fee only.
I'm not 100% who the firm was. I found them online using a sort of comparison site. Oh really? Others seemed to be in the same ballpark area apart from the ones taking the mickey at £2400 but perhaps they were just trying to price us out!
Not advice which is very useful imo. I have bought and sold an above average number of houses i would say. I have always used a solicitor miles away, and done everything via post. It has always been fine but of course isnt worth bothering with unless you make a saving.
What are you including within that £1600? As a basic legal fee that is quite high and i would certainly be unwilling to pay that. Disbursements of course vary wildly so it is hard to compare if that quote is some sort of all encompassing number.
Ahh its a whole pack, sounds fine then, middle of the pile i would imagine 
You'll find thet Convey law in Newport (i suspect that was your other quote) might be slightly cheaper, but not worthwhile since their prices have gone up.
For reference i am finding local ones to me in Oxford are around £1k+v for the legal which would end up being similar to your all inclusive number there.
You'll find thet Convey law in Newport (i suspect that was your other quote) might be slightly cheaper, but not worthwhile since their prices have gone up.For reference i am finding local ones to me in Oxford are around £1k+v for the legal which would end up being similar to your all inclusive number there.
Having a local solicitor has been really important for us.
Example
Got told that LISA paperwork has approx 30 day lag for release of funds. That's 20k and half my deposit so its absolutely needed at exchange!
So I print off the forms and deliver them myself to solicitors the Monday before Xmas. The paperwork gets to the bank in the Christmas break. Signed and accepted for release on 16th Jan.
If I had had to mail everything wouldn't have reached solicitors until Jan with the Christmas break and I'd only be signing them next week. Would put the release of funds at 30th of Jan I expect
Example
Got told that LISA paperwork has approx 30 day lag for release of funds. That's 20k and half my deposit so its absolutely needed at exchange!
So I print off the forms and deliver them myself to solicitors the Monday before Xmas. The paperwork gets to the bank in the Christmas break. Signed and accepted for release on 16th Jan.
If I had had to mail everything wouldn't have reached solicitors until Jan with the Christmas break and I'd only be signing them next week. Would put the release of funds at 30th of Jan I expect
Well my partner just spoke to her sister-in-law again and the solicitors based at the estate agents she works at offered to do us family discount brining the entire package down to about £1100 but the caveat is that they're near London and we are in Bristol. She said more or less everything is done online via a secure portal though.