The nervous wait to exchange....

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Got a draft contract through, wahey! Things are moving again. Survey threw up some questions re: circuits and drainage so going to insist on getting those inspected before going further.
 
koolpc said:
Do they need glossing?
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Yes, although not urgently. The doors, frames amd skirting boards are all just a bit tired.

The primary issue is the walls. The 3rd bedroom which will be my office is currently sunshine yellow with a cartoon animals freeze :p.

I think we will just do the walls and then wait to do the gloss when the carpets are replaced.
 
What are the typical extras with new houses?

There's a very small development (11) of large 4 and 5 beds being built near me that I'm interested in. They seem high spec and due to there being so few they're not up for deals. Plus there's a particular plot we want so might just have to bite the bullet.

Don't want them to turf the rear as they'll just make a mess of it, the soil is very clay and drainage a problem.

Thinking of possibly using the equity loans, any horror stories with remortgaging later on? Don't understand why you're limited to certain mortgages after the initial one as the loan is with the government not the bank.
 
Got a phone call from the estate agent yesterday. The chain is now complete for our house purchase (5 months after we had our offer accepted) so have put everything in motion.

Had a few phone calls with a broker for the mortgage, but managed to dig out a better offer going direct with a building society. Just getting everything gathered up now to get the mortgage application sorted.

Exciting times :)
 
TripleT said:
What are the typical extras with new houses?

There's a very small development (11) of large 4 and 5 beds being built near me that I'm interested in. They seem high spec and due to there being so few they're not up for deals. Plus there's a particular plot we want so might just have to bite the bullet.

Don't want them to turf the rear as they'll just make a mess of it, the soil is very clay and drainage a problem.
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Flooring, better kitchen appliances, network cabling, electrics in garage, exterior tap/plugs, burglar alarms, doorbell. Who is the builder?

I thought the same as you regarding turfing but then they did the show home and it looked amazing, so went with it. They turfed my mud-bath last week, seem to have done a good job.
 
We complete our sale on Thursday which we weren't expecting. Thought it would be after Easter so I made a panic run to South Wales this morning to remove the last few bits. Will still have to go back as we need to chuck some stuff out but I didn't have time.

Our buy has been slowed down by the mortgage interview thing. They cancelled as the mortgage advisor phoned in sick and the next available appointment in now next week. I'm sure they could have got another person in to that though.
On the plus side, our building survey is booked in for next week so I'll have some reading to do in a couple of weeks. Solicitors have our instruction to act too and doing their bit (they've been great so far as they are dealing with the house sale too).
 
Mortgage valuation is done, just waiting for the underwriters to send the mortgage offer and then we will pretty much be done! So the next 2 weeks are going to be tense....
 
Been waiting for the prices on the Redrow development in Ebbsfleet for over a year now. Really keen on the location as it is perfect for us but the demand is huge! Something silly like 10,000 enquiries and only a few hundred houses being built in the first phase.

Prices could be crazy as they will sell like hotcakes :(
 
TripleT said:
What are the typical extras with new houses?

There's a very small development (11) of large 4 and 5 beds being built near me that I'm interested in. They seem high spec and due to there being so few they're not up for deals. Plus there's a particular plot we want so might just have to bite the bullet.

Don't want them to turf the rear as they'll just make a mess of it, the soil is very clay and drainage a problem.

Thinking of possibly using the equity loans, any horror stories with remortgaging later on? Don't understand why you're limited to certain mortgages after the initial one as the loan is with the government not the bank.
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Not heard any 'horror stories' about remortgaging. We bought a Charles Church new build using 20% HTB equity @ £48k and the plan was to remortgage at the end of the 5 year fixed to pay it off.

Now though we went round to the sales office to complain about the road still not being finished with tarmac (2 years on) and ended up going in the show home so now we're buying a newer and bigger build :eek: women. We are selling ours and paying back the Govt which means they take 20% of the sale value (which is now iro £300k so they'll take £60k) and we are allowed to apply for a new HTB equity loan so the paper work is moving forward on that now.

The HTB is good as long as you know what happens after the 5 year grace period in that you start paying off interest on it and it isn't cheap interest as it staircases each year inline with inflation, the Govt wouldn't have created the scheme if there wasn't money to be made when they increase rates inevitably over the next few years.

Also the other pitfall is that on the new paperwork you have to add who your mortgage / independent financial adviser is, we're inquiring at the moment but it appears they will only provide the funds if you go through a mortgage broker and not direct to a bank which sucks because we've got a mortgage in place with Barclays at the best rate we could find and a mortgage broker won't get anything below 2.89% I suspect and nothing close to our 2.69% offer.

Hopefully they don't require a financial advisor (though they are useful as the conduit between Bank, Govt and Solicitors and usually take their fee from the mortgage lender so you don't pay anything)

Whilst I remember, the equity loan is non-portable and must be over a 25 year period, they try make your mortgage mirror the 25 year period but it's not mandatory. What I have noticed is that most of the mortgages that go with the equity loans also have chunky early repayment charges, obviously trying to discourage re-mortgaging but to be honest unless you have a windfall of cash, the only way is to remortgage. In my eyes, that's the whole point of the bleeding thing.

I would recommend it if you don't have the equity for a decent deposit like most of us don't - though I *think* the scheme ends this December and only applications in process will be accepted and not new applications. Also they now require direct debit details for the equity loan so they can take £1 a month to ensure the account is active and it also classes as the first 60 months 'interest'.

Any questions I'm happy to try answer as someone who has and is going to re-use the scheme. :D
 
lee1101 said:
Been waiting for the prices on the Redrow development in Ebbsfleet for over a year now. Really keen on the location as it is perfect for us but the demand is huge! Something silly like 10,000 enquiries and only a few hundred houses being built in the first phase.

Prices could be crazy as they will sell like hotcakes :(
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Don't think new build developers are allowed to fluctuate the price that much, though buying for onward sale is different, our neighbours value has risen 55k in 24 months and ours has gone up almost 60k in 22 months. So now we're on the market and waiting it out til December for a bigger new build on the same estate so back to the missus parent's we go once we complete sale and save some money :D

Houses round here are averaging 9 days on the market, crazy world.
 
davisdavid said:
Not heard any 'horror stories' about remortgaging. We bought a Charles Church new build using 20% HTB equity @ £48k and the plan was to remortgage at the end of the 5 year fixed to pay it off.

Now though we went round to the sales office to complain about the road still not being finished with tarmac (2 years on) and ended up going in the show home so now we're buying a newer and bigger build :eek: women. We are selling ours and paying back the Govt which means they take 20% of the sale value (which is now iro £300k so they'll take £60k) and we are allowed to apply for a new HTB equity loan so the paper work is moving forward on that now.

The HTB is good as long as you know what happens after the 5 year grace period in that you start paying off interest on it and it isn't cheap interest as it staircases each year inline with inflation, the Govt wouldn't have created the scheme if there wasn't money to be made when they increase rates inevitably over the next few years.

Also the other pitfall is that on the new paperwork you have to add who your mortgage / independent financial adviser is, we're inquiring at the moment but it appears they will only provide the funds if you go through a mortgage broker and not direct to a bank which sucks because we've got a mortgage in place with Barclays at the best rate we could find and a mortgage broker won't get anything below 2.89% I suspect and nothing close to our 2.69% offer.

Hopefully they don't require a financial advisor (though they are useful as the conduit between Bank, Govt and Solicitors and usually take their fee from the mortgage lender so you don't pay anything)

Whilst I remember, the equity loan is non-portable and must be over a 25 year period, they try make your mortgage mirror the 25 year period but it's not mandatory. What I have noticed is that most of the mortgages that go with the equity loans also have chunky early repayment charges, obviously trying to discourage re-mortgaging but to be honest unless you have a windfall of cash, the only way is to remortgage. In my eyes, that's the whole point of the bleeding thing.

I would recommend it if you don't have the equity for a decent deposit like most of us don't - though I *think* the scheme ends this December and only applications in process will be accepted and not new applications. Also they now require direct debit details for the equity loan so they can take £1 a month to ensure the account is active and it also classes as the first 60 months 'interest'.

Any questions I'm happy to try answer as someone who has and is going to re-use the scheme. :D
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Cheers, very helpful. Yer I spoke to Halifax directly about it as the broker I know is on holiday but I'll talk to him asap.

Halifax will lend us enough for a 10% mortgage so I don't have to use the equity scheme but the way I see it is if I take the money, enjoy the lower payments / overpay and then remortgage after 4years it works out cheaper plus by that time I'll be close to 80% loan to value anyway after remortgaging.

The development company want a 5% deposit already and they've not even broke ground yet (only 11 houses remember) someone said permission do this too, is that normal? Managed to agree to give it them in July (work probation period).

House should be ready Sept now too instead of Nov! Scary.
 
TripleT said:
Cheers, very helpful. Yer I spoke to Halifax directly about it as the broker I know is on holiday but I'll talk to him asap.

Halifax will lend us enough for a 10% mortgage so I don't have to use the equity scheme but the way I see it is if I take the money, enjoy the lower payments / overpay and then remortgage after 4years it works out cheaper plus by that time I'll be close to 80% loan to value anyway after remortgaging.

The development company want a 5% deposit already and they've not even broke ground yet (only 11 houses remember) someone said permission do this too, is that normal? Managed to agree to give it them in July (work probation period).

House should be ready Sept now too instead of Nov! Scary.
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I think Persimmon do something similar round me (Charles Church and Persimmon are building simultaneously on the same development) but Charles Church release the properties in blocks about 5 months prior to them being complete hence why we're on rightmove now with ours so we're in a proceedable position come May, fingers crossed!

If you can get the house without the Help To Buy I'd recommend that. Even though you can remortgage, the HTB have to approve the remortgage to repay them early. You'll enjoy lower rates for the first couple of years because of the Govt HTB but one thing to bear in mind is interest rates have been so low for so long that they are going to increase again at some point (I honestly don't know when but on my new mortgage offer a 1% increase in base rate equates to £130 a month) so if you did have the HTB and remortgaged you might find your new monthly payments a lot higher than previously thought. Food for thought anyway.

Overall I'd say get on the ladder anyway you can, I don't have my little playboy lifestyle any more with my disposable income but there is nothing better than having a bed to go to in a house that you own. :p
 
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:eek: so looks like we're going to be exchanging and completing tomorrow... literally no space for error. Fingers crossed! I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight... Our solicitor is confident it will all go through...
 
Freefaller said:
:eek: so looks like we're going to be exchanging and completing tomorrow... literally no space for error. Fingers crossed! I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight... Our solicitor is confident it will all go through...
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We exchanged and completed same day, this was the one time the solicitor was worth their fee :)
 
Exchanged today and completing tomorrow on a little maisonette. Solicitors already have the cash ready for completion.

Conveyancing solicitors must be looking forward to after the stamp duty deadline has passed and everything is done!
 
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