First time buyer, what do you look for?

onomatopoeia said:
1. See a house you like
2. Offer, haggle, acceptance.
3. survey, possible revised offer based on survey and any issues / covenants etc the solicitor picks up
3.1 wait
3.2 wait
3.3 wait
3.4 wait
3.5 lose the will to live with all the waiting and absolutely nothing happening.
3.6 wait
3.7 wait some more
3.8 wait
4. exchange. You are committed to buy on exchange of contracts (England and Wales, I believe it's different in the people's republic of Salmondland) and will face the potential for costs from others in the chain if you do not complete on the specified date
5. Complete and move in.

You generally make your offer to the estate agent if the vendor is using one. They will ascertain that you are in a position to proceed, e.g. first time buyer with a mortgage agreed in principle, or if selling you have a proceedable offer on your current home, before passing the offer on to the vendor. Generally vendors won't accept offers from people who aren't in a position to proceed.

Don't skimp on the survey, you're likely spending a six figure sum on the property so spend five hundred quid on a proper survey. It will be full of caveats, but should still give a good indication of the state of the property.

Do use a local solicitor and not an internet conveyancing shed. Being able to doorstep them and ask what is going on and why all the delays could be useful, as is being able to sit down and talk to them if you aren't familiar with the process..

Do not try to exchange and complete on the same day, if anything goes wrong there is no margin to get it sorted out.
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It is illegal for an Estate Agent to not pass on your offer. If you make an offer and they say they won't pass it on until you meet with their mortgage adviser, they're very much not allowed to do that. They nearly all try it on though and their mortgage advisers tend to charge a fortune.
 
Don't you get those mortgauge agreed certificates nowadays?
 
I have no confidence in the market, so i bought something i could live in for life. I didn't want to be possibly in negative equity in the coming years and be stuck in a house i've out grown and can't sell.
 
rjbell said:
I have no confidence in the market, so i bought something i could live in for life. I didn't want to be possibly in negative equity in the coming years and be stuck in a house i've out grown and can't sell.
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what makes a property specifically "livable in for life"? Do you mean adaptable for wheelchair use in later life etc?
 
boliston said:
what makes a property specifically "livable in for life"? Do you mean adaptable for wheelchair use in later life etc?
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I know what you mean. I meant size really. I didn't go for the first time buyer 2 bed approach.
 
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boliston said:
i guess that means knowing in advance if you will have kids in the future and if so how many lol
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Or get more than you need. I have 5 bedrooms but only 2 kids. I'm suggesting that many though. I work from home so need the extra rooms.
 
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There's a lot of useful info here already. I bought my first house earlier this year. Took 3 months from offer accepted to getting keys. It was fairly straightforward but I was nervous the whole way through.

As above, research where you want to live. Just as important as the house you want. Make a list of must haves/have nots. Mine were I think garage and downstairs WC.
Look at a few viewings. I liked the very first house I saw but Mrs didn't. It was after I saw other houses that I saw how that first house wasn't as good and wasn't as well priced as it could have been.
Check the area out. I knew the area I was moving into was a quiet area but I still spent a few evenings sat in the car and keeping an eye out.

Look at the house objectively. Not just what you like about it, but what you don't like or couldn't live with. One house I saw had a combined kitchen and lounge and no way to partition off. It also had entirely electric oven and hobs which I hated. Don't be dissuaded by small things like decor which can be done up. Look at the larger things that will cost money. Our house had some windows that needed replacing and I factored this into the offer.

Think about what you want in a house. Do you want to live there forever, or just five years? What things could you put up with? What things would make you rue your decision? Is that third bedroom too small? Do you need to have an extension? Take a tape measure as well.

I made a list of questions from moneysavingexpert forums which I took with me to ask. Every house had just the EA so that's who I dealt with. Be careful about pitching your offer too low or too high. Solicitors - mine was from recommended reviews online but was fantastic and smooth sailing. Remember to factor in the stamp duty cost. Work out your budget before you look for houses - get a mortgage offer in principle - usually an online thing - which gives you an idea of what price range to look at.
 
The wife & I moved into our current house in 2013. At the time we were living in a new 1 bed flat that I'd bought and she'd moved in with me.

We wanted to stay in the same area and found a house 7 doors down from my parents house (where I've lived for the best part of 30 years). Whilst it was effectively the same house as my parents', the layout was quite different and some of the decor left a lot to be desired but it ticked every other box.

We then went to look at another house that was a lot newer, it was decorated immaculately and we kinda fell in love with it but it would have been such a stretch financially, it was a proper head vs heart decision.

Thankfully we went with the "head" decision and never looked back. Within a couple of weeks we'd pretty much redecorated every room which in a lot of cases was just a few coats of paint. Whilst it's far from a palace we often get complimented on how nice it looks and how homely it feels.

In hindsight..... the "heart" place didn't have enough space in the kitchen for a fridge freeze so the freezer was kept in the detached garage...... I don't think I could have ever lived with that!!! Since we had Evie last year, Rachael has given up work, we can just about survive on my money alone but if we'd gone for the more expensive house she would have had to work full time and even then I think it'd be a struggle.
 
Mr Bump said:
Don't you get those mortgauge agreed certificates nowadays?
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You can do, but we didn't bother getting a MIP. We knew we'd get the mortgage, we didn't want an unnecessary imprint on our credit file and we took 18 months to find a house, so we'd have had to have got several of them done. Waste of time.

More than one estate agent tried to tell me we had to make an appointment with the mortgage adviser or they wouldn't pass the offer on. Told them where to go and that I'd just go to the vendor's house and tell them what that they were obstructing my efforts to buy their house.
 
I'm about to buy house number 7 and have done pretty well out of the housing market, from my experience the thing to do is look at a lot of houses, look at ones that you are NOT particularly interested in as well as ones you are interested in. And by "ones you are not interested in" I mean in areas adjacent to your target area and in different price ranges. I think we typically look at around 20 before getting a feel for the market in an area. The big advantage of looking around a lot is that you start to understand why some areas are cheaper or more expensive or why you like some properties more than others, it also makes you actually go down specific streets and look round areas.

If you don't know what you are looking for get a survey (they feel like a bit of waste of money and often are but significantly reduce the risks) and use the survey to negotiate after the initial offer, you might not get anywhere but it is always worth a try. Also, painful as it is, be prepared to walk away even if you have paid for a survey
 
Call Phil & Kirsty!! :lol:
 
We were cheeky on our first place and asked the owners when we viewed if they had any offers on the table, declined or whatever, they were very open that they had. Then we said if we offer £xxxxxx tomorrow morning will you accept. So we kind of haggled directly with the homeowner not the estate agent who wants the highest possible price to line his pocket.
 
Just to point out, which you are probably aware of, some banks/building societies are starting to offer 95% mortgages again.
 
My 2 yr fixed is running out soon. Just checked with my bank at looks like i should be able to knock 1% of my next 2 year fixed, which was a nice surprise. The news a few weeks back said the lenders have all increased there interest. The BOE didn't increase the interest rates last week though so it might be that.
 
AshleyC said:
Just about to start looking for my first home and have absolutely no idea what to look out for or what to ask other than "is this place about to fall down" What do you do about surveys and things? is that home information pack still a requirement of the seller? Any tips before i spend the rest of my life in debt on a potential pile of rubble? :)
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Have you bought yet?
 
Nearly :) should be this year. I've finally got the deposit money together. Life gets in the way sometimes and sucks all your money up. But finally in a position to get looking. Lots of good info on here, thanks all.
 
Market is very good at the moment.

We listed our house for sale on Wednesday. Had a viewing within 20 minutes of the estate agent leaving after taking measurements.
We have so far had 10 viewings and 3 offers, with more viewings booked for tomorrow and 2 more expected offers from the agent feedback yesterday.

We bought the house for £133k in 2007.
It's listed for £165k and have had offers very close to this figure.
 
Now had offers of £165k, and are expecting one buyer to come back with a higher offer tomorrow.
 
Yes Gloucester.
Lots of redevelopment nearby has boosted the housing market, plus Bristol becoming far to expensive to buy in now.
 
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