Buying a first house

[SNSUN]

Obviously I'll do things properly and study everything, but I wonder if I could pick your experienced brains! Yesterday my lovely parents said that within a couple of years (pending them selling one of their spare houses) I'll be given £50,000 to put down a deposit on a house. To be honest I'd been begging them for a while, I really didn't want to live in a rental for ever, despite us rather liking our current rental home.

 

This will be mine and Mrs SNSUN's first house purchase, and we just wondered what things we should look for, what a good mortgage is, anything you've experienced that you've learned from...that sort of thing. Even a discussion on location would be good - I'm very attached to the Windsor area where I've been raised my whole life (and have friends in), but we were wondering whether a move to, say, North Hampshire would be a good idea. As some of you know I work for London Underground (currently at Heathrow) so it can't be toooooo far away, but if it's a reasonable commute it won't be a problem.

 

Ta.

[bridge too far]

Be very careful if you buy a leasehold property #fingersburned

[Hatch]

Can't you live in one of the 'spare' houses?

 

or buy off them?

[niceandfriendly]

Don't tie yourself down by getting a soul destroying mortgage in a second rate country going down the pan, is my advice. Go to a country where you'll be able to buy a mansion for 50,000GBP outright, whilst living in paradise.

[saintscottofthenortham]

Don't do it.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Don't tie yourself down by getting a soul destroying mortgage in a second rate country going down the pan, is my advice. Go to a country where you'll be able to buy a mansion for 50,000GBP outright, whilst living in paradise.

 

Is there enough space for us all to come and read 'The Beach' in our fishing pants? Or will someone eventually have to go and sell a hammock to a tourist?

[Whitey Grandad]

If you're going to stay there then look for a house that you'll be happy with. A good garden, southish facing, good transport links for when you get old, good schools nearby if you are of that age, good shops not too far away. If you're not going to stay there long then choose one that'll be easy to sell. Mortgages don't last forever and once they're paid off you'll be a lot happier.

[saintsdan]

Be very careful if you buy a leasehold property #fingersburned

 

This!!!

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

What is your budget? Myself and the missus bought our first place in 2010, in Weybridge, so not too far from yourself. We have just sold and bought a new place, waiting for contracts to go through at the moment.

 

The one tip I have is Location, Location, Location. Buy the worst property in a nice area rather than the nicest property in a sh!t area, and don't be afraid to do work to the property, you can make a lot by doing this (we made 40% profit on our property by renovating to a high standard).

[Barry Sanchez]

Research crime, transport and schools.

Check pubs, post offices and hospitals, note pub the first one.

 

Oh and one more, a house is for living in and not in no way an investment, if you think like that buy in London and live in your parents spare abode, London prices will go up by another 15% in the next 5 years and they have done in the last.

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

Research crime, transport and schools.

Check pubs, post offices and hospitals, note pub the first one.

 

Oh and one more, a house is for living in and not in no way an investment, if you think like that buy in London and live in your parents spare abode, London prices will go up by another 15% in the next 5 years and they have done in the last.

 

What do you class as London?

[Channon's Windmill]

You can scrimp on a few things (estate agent/solicitors fees) but get a descent survey done. You dont want any nasty surprises there!

[Baldbarbarian]

Be very careful if you buy a leasehold property #fingersburned

 

I second this!!

[Chez]

if you are progressing up the ladder work wise, buy at the top end of your budget.

 

If you are buying a house that needs work, don't underestimate how much this will cost and how much time it will take. Renovating can be enjoyable and satisfying, but with every floorboard you lift you can be sure you'll unearth another job that needs doing. Every job takes 5 times as long as you imagined and costs a lot more than you'd hope.

 

Just so you know houses tend to bleed money and there is no landlord to sort it out for you.

 

A couple of things when viewing:

Run the tap/shower in the bathroom. Lack of water pressure will leave you without your dream shower.

Have a good look at the boiler. A new one of these will cost you £2500 to buy and install.

Don't be scared of signs of damp, but do understand exactly where it comes from and why. Usually a leak.

Edited 26 March, 2013 by Chez

[Barry Sanchez]

What do you class as London?

 

Not Weybridge, thats Surrey.

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

Not Weybridge, thats Surrey.

 

I think the problem is a lot of people class London as within the M25. You still benefit from the rise in house prices outside of Greater London (as it were), so limiting where you live to just that area isn't sound advice.

[SNSUN]

Can't you live in one of the 'spare' houses?

 

or buy off them?

Coningsby, Lincs and Paphos, Cyprus - neither are particularly useful for London! :-)

 

I'm not sure what we're looking for, 3 bed house with parking though would be ideal. Kids will follow soon enough so good schools and a safe area are paramount.

 

Funnily enough the first thing I said to my missus was that we should go round towns and villages trying different pubs! hat's one way to see how friendly people are in the area. Anyone going to my current local would walk out in seconds!

 

All good advice people, London I class as within the M25 - I live in literally the first village just outside it! We both have free London travel as part of my job, so one option is to move inside and utilise the free travel. She's not that keen though.

 

Lots of planning to do - daunting but looking forward to it.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Not Weybridge, thats Surrey.

 

Good fruit picking though! You can't pick Strawberries on the Old Kent Road.

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

Coningsby, Lincs and Paphos, Cyprus - neither are particularly useful for London! :-)

 

I'm not sure what we're looking for, 3 bed house with parking though would be ideal. Kids will follow soon enough so good schools and a safe area are paramount.

 

Funnily enough the first thing I said to my missus was that we should go round towns and villages trying different pubs! hat's one way to see how friendly people are in the area. Anyone going to my current local would walk out in seconds!

 

All good advice people, London I class as within the M25 - I live in literally the first village just outside it! We both have free London travel as part of my job, so one option is to move inside and utilise the free travel. She's not that keen though.

 

Lots of planning to do - daunting but looking forward to it.

 

Whereabouts are you?

[Barry Sanchez]

I think the problem is a lot of people class London as within the M25. You still benefit from the rise in house prices outside of Greater London (as it were), so limiting where you live to just that area isn't sound advice.

 

NO thats greater London and the return wont be 15% in general. London as in London 15% on the whole rises, of course there will be anomolies but with a population of around 15Million people there will be.

[Barry Sanchez]

Obviously I'll do things properly and study everything, but I wonder if I could pick your experienced brains! Yesterday my lovely parents said that within a couple of years (pending them selling one of their spare houses) I'll be given £50,000 to put down a deposit on a house. To be honest I'd been begging them for a while, I really didn't want to live in a rental for ever, despite us rather liking our current rental home.

 

This will be mine and Mrs SNSUN's first house purchase, and we just wondered what things we should look for, what a good mortgage is, anything you've experienced that you've learned from...that sort of thing. Even a discussion on location would be good - I'm very attached to the Windsor area where I've been raised my whole life (and have friends in), but we were wondering whether a move to, say, North Hampshire would be a good idea. As some of you know I work for London Underground (currently at Heathrow) so it can't be toooooo far away, but if it's a reasonable commute it won't be a problem.

 

Ta.

 

Take into account Heathrow has ****e underground and mainline connections, congestion charge and the like and obviously how much have you got to spend?

[Barry Sanchez]

Good fruit picking though! You can't pick Strawberries on the Old Kent Road.

 

My Brother in law has just sold his house down there (Brookwood) to move to Bourg-en-Bresse, the houses are not cheap and for what they are vastly over priced, he is a lad from Liverpool and can not wait to come up here for a bit of excitement, commuter ville with no soul.

[Bearsy]

Good fruit picking though! You can't pick Strawberries on the Old Kent Road.

 

one of my first jobs each summer was to add "nose" to the pick ur own sign down the lane from where we lived. It was bit of a labour of love, sometimes i had to replace it 2 or 3 times a week cos it kept going missing.

[Barry Sanchez]

one of my first jobs each summer was to add "nose" to the pick ur own sign down the lane from where we lived. It was bit of a labour of love, sometimes i had to replace it 2 or 3 times a week cos it kept going missing.

 

Good effort there, keep it up.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Take into account Heathrow has ****e underground and mainline connections, congestion charge and the like and obviously how much have you got to spend?

 

Did you read the bit about him working on the underground Baz? If there is any ****ness, he'll be all over it, sorting out problems like superman on the Jeremy Kyle show.

[Barry Sanchez]

True dat bro, West London then on the mainline, Southall, West Acton and the like.

[Hamilton Saint]

Some advice from the other side of the pond - for what it's worth.

 

We will finish paying off our mortgage in two months. Basic strategies you might consider for your mortgage: go for the shortest period of repayment that you can (ours was 15 years). Don't choose 35 years just because you pay less each installment - you will end up paying a huge amount more in interest on the loan. We made a mortgage payment weekly, rather than four times a month. That means you make 52 payments per year, rather than 48. Over 15 years, that's 60 extra payments - you pay off the mortgage much faster! [i'm not sure if you have the same options over there.] Also, get together the largest down-payment you can. The smaller the mortgage, the smaller the interest you pay.

 

Don't let the bank persuade you into believing that you can afford a more expensive house than what you have already decided on. Be conservative in your personal finances. You do need disposable income for other things! We decided that we could afford about $125,000 maximum for a house mortgage (back in the early 90s); the bank did their calculations, and tried to convince us that we could go as high as $235,000 (by spreading it out over 15 more years, and paying a gigantic amount more in interest).

[Tokyo-Saint]

Good info ^

 

Ignore our babel and listen to this guy.

[buctootim]

When house hunting disregard the pictures of the houses and just look at the sizes of the rooms and its location. People are always drawn to pretty houses, those with kerbside appeal, and pay more money for them or they refuse to view houses which would otherwise be ideal. My neighbour did the same with the house she now loves, but had to be dragged along by her insistent husband for the first viewing.

 

You dont live your life looking at the outside, how much space you have and where it is is far more important and you can afford a much nicer ugly house than you can a pretty one. Near me a there is a line of four ex council houses in a beautiful location in farmland overlooking the South Downs. One by one they have been bought up and transformed, one especially by cladding in oak weatherboard has been changed from 1950s flat fronted brick box into chocolate box desirability.

 

I live in a 1960s house, pretty plain on the outside but big windows, good size rooms and really nice big garden. A friend lives in a beautiful flat in central Kensington in a pug ugly 1950s concrete monstrosity but which looks out over regency terraces and is fantastic to live in. His views are their beautiful houses, theirs are his flat.

[Jonnyboy]

if you are progressing up the ladder work wise, buy at the top end of your budget.

 

If you are buying a house that needs work, don't underestimate how much this will cost and how much time it will take. Renovating can be enjoyable and satisfying, but with every floorboard you lift you can be sure you'll unearth another job that needs doing. Every job takes 5 times as long as you imagined and costs a lot more than you'd hope.

 

Just so you know houses tend to bleed money and there is no landlord to sort it out for you.

 

A couple of things when viewing:

Run the tap/shower in the bathroom. Lack of water pressure will leave you without your dream shower.

Have a good look at the boiler. A new one of these will cost you £2500 to buy and install.

Don't be scared of signs of damp, but do understand exactly where it comes from and why. Usually a leak.

 

All of this.

[vince]

As you said "kids will follow soon enough" and if you buy a house that needs work, keep it in your pants until the works done fella, otherwise it aint getting done!!! :^)

[SNSUN]

Whereabouts are you?

I live in Horton, a village on the outskirts of Windsor/Slough. I wouldn't buy here, but the house we rent is direct from the landlord (thus avoiding renewal fees and having a better, almost personal, relationship with him) and is underpriced for its size. My missus likes Egham (where we used to live) and bits of Staines (upon Thames, if you want to make it sound a bit more classy.) I personally would rather have a bigger house in a quieter part of the world, such as South Berks, Surrey or Hampshire, but perhaps walking distance to a train link as she works in London. Fleet for instance, has a train link, but I don't know the area at all.

 

Take into account Heathrow has ****e underground and mainline connections, congestion charge and the like and obviously how much have you got to spend?

Oi! I have you know I'm superb at customer service! :-)

 

As you said "kids will follow soon enough" and if you buy a house that needs work, keep it in your pants until the works done fella, otherwise it aint getting done!!! :^)

That's true. We're honeymooning (a year late) in Mexico in June, so we're being cautious until that's over. Then we let nature take it's course. A fixer upper perhaps wouldn't suit us, I especially am bone idle and useless at DIY (!) but I wouldn't mind a bit of a paint. I do realise they're more affordable though if you're willing to put the work in. My wife's friends in Norwich bought a 2 bed wreck of a terrace house for about £100k, transformed it, and now reckon it's worth nearly £190k. They're both in the building trade though, which helped with getting things done and low cost fixings.

[Special K]

Mortgage Guarantees for 1st timers have been announced, so (if it works) you could probably save some of your 50k to tart up a place if it needs it.

Housebuilders are offering some reasonable deals for 1st time buyers of newly built homes at the moment.

If you do get a place that needs work, don't let it drift. It will never get done.

Don't be put off by the content of a survey (unless you go for a full structural survey) - they aren't worth a w@nk really. Money for old rope to tick a box for the mortgage company.

Try and get as good a deal as you can. Sounds easy but when the little woman sees a place she likes she'll pressure you into agreeing to anything without conditions. Make sure you don't lose sight of your goals.

Shop around for the best mortgage or use an independent advisor. Generally the few mutuals left will offer the best deals as they are less likely to sell you something inappropriate.

Keep some moolah back to furnish if you need too.

A lick of paint can do wonders for the appearance of a place.

Don't worry about water pressure - you can always put a shower pump in. Good advise about the boiler though.

[Doctoroncall]

It's all about location - think about what you want from schools to commuter time. Make a long list and include what you want in a house - garden, garage etc. Prioritise them so you know what areas you are willing to compromise as you'll always have more than you can afford so something has to give!

 

I've always gone for the upper end of what I can afford but not the max. Much will depend on your job security and saving situation as to what you are happy to borrow and the type of mortgage you have. I've had a few variable and fixed rate but always with an over payment facility... Pay a bit more each month (or a bonus) while you can will dramatically reduce the mortgage term.

[stu0x]

Given that you're in the Windsor/Slough area, bear in mind that if you buy near one of the fast mainline stations on the Reading to Paddington line (Reading, Twyford, Maidenhead and Slough), you're going to get a significant boost in value in a few years when Crossrail goes live.

[Hamilton Saint]

Another issue to consider when buying an 'old' house is doing renovations before you move in, or as soon as you move in. This means you need to use some of the money you've saved in order to put some work immediately into the house. It's usually cheaper to buy a less-than-perfect house and then sink some money into significant improvements.

 

For example, our small house (built in the early 1940s) had a tiny kitchen. Next to it was a small bedroom. We took the wall out dividing these two rooms, in order to create a combined kitchen/dining area. Of the $35,000 we saved, $25,000 was used as the down payment and $10,000 was used to make significant cosmetic and structural improvements.

 

Over here the pattern is this: buy a smaller, cheaper house when you start out; move to a larger, more expensive house when the family is bigger and you've built up considerable equity in your home; finally, downsize to a small house or condominium when the children have moved out and you no longer want to deal with exterior work (gardens, sheds, painting, etc.).

 

Instead of moving to a more expensive house, when your family gets bigger, you could also finance further renovations and additions to the house you already have (which is what we did, because we liked our neighbourhood so much).