O/T Exciting news - My First House

aw fab!! I did it myself a few yrs ago...before i met my OH! Its soo satisfying!!! Although there will be times you wish you never started looking at houses! Brouchure pics can look pretty amazing campared tot he real thing...mind you sometimes its the opposite! My oppinion...look at them all!!

Oh yeh i know. We have looked at loads online, but have decided that we are gonna see EVERYTHING that is within out budget cause it could look nice but might be horrible!

My OH is so excited. Before he met me he had quite a rough time and the last 4 years have been a whirlwind for him, he cant beleive its actually happening to him! He never would have thought he'd be buying his own house

x

Thanks Tinkerbelle

Weve been living in the same house for over a year now, had to move into my house with my parents....long story that i wont go into. We have seperate bedrooms which is fine but i just want to be like a proper couple now and its happening!

Hopefully we'll have somewhere in time for my friends Hen Night at the start of Sept so i can go wild! Mum doesnt approve of drinking you see....

x

Aww very exciting! Yay!

My OH and I are looking to buy our first house at the end of this year, which will be about 9 months before we get married. How long did it take for your dad's financial advisor to tell you of your mortgage options and how long would it take from then to get a mortgage agreed? I haven't got a clue on timescales, been worrying more about saving up for the deposit!

Yay this is great news! ?

Well done one saving the deposit - its not easy!

And def start looking at houses now. Me and OH bought our house in Jan 2008 (yep - about 1 week before the markets crashed so we paid top dollar and the house still isn't worth anything near what we paid for it?) but we had started to properly look around a year before that.

Good luck and have fun! x

It took about 3 weeks for him to get back to us. We now have to make an appointment with him. And then once we have had a meeting with him, i have been told it'll take about 3 to 4 weeks to get something on paper.

We havent got 100% of the money yet, got another 2 months worth of money to save, but by the time everything is sorted we'll be fine.

If you know the exact amount of money you'll have by a certain time, a couple of months before hand i'd start looking for a mortgage a house.

If its a 10% you are saving, there is definatly mortgages out there for you

x

That's really good, and well done on being so disciplined about saving.

Claire - HSBC offer a 90% mortgage at the moment, don't know about anyone else

I dont know the companies and the ins and outs. All i was told is that there was 38ish companies. But i will let you know once i have had my meeting with him.

But maybe it depends on what price house you are wanting? For example, the maximum house we want to pay is £120,000....if you want a more expensive house that might effect the amount of mortgage you can have?

I always go on moneysupermarket.com they have good comparisions of mortages.

I would no way be able to find a 18% deposit either, i have struggled to get the 10%!

x

Well done you for saving your deposit! And I like your thinking about looking at everything. Our current flat doesn't look much from the outside but is really spacious inside and it's been a happy home for us for the past 6 years. (even if DIY is something that happens to other people... ) At the end of the day, most of the time you'll be IN your house and not standing outside and looking at it! I guess that's my opinion, but something to bear in mind - especially if the budget is tight.

Good luck!!!

Thanks Lizzieloumoose

Thera are some lovely houses around my area for our budget, some look lovely from the outside, some dont. But we are open to anything. We'll probably even get some change from our budget if they accept less than the offer price

Aslong as its 3 bedrooms i'm happy

x

Congratulations! I know how bloody hard it is to try and save money!

Myself & OH bought our first house on 100% Mortgage back in March 2008, a couple of weeks before they stopped doing it. Thankfully I bit a tip of a house!!! OH spent ages doing it up, thankfully he's a builder/plasterer. Its still not finished now!!!!! LOL

Good Luck with the house hunt. Keep your mind open to every option, a dump can be tunred into a palace very easily!

My best friend got a 100%^ mortgage, just before they stopped doing them - very very lucky!

I will definatly have an open mind, although we wont really have alot of money to do alot with it and wont have much money when we have the house to use for bits either. But hopefully we'll find something we like

x

Well done on saving for your deposit, i know how hard it can be. i bought my first house 10 yrs ago, and even then a 10% deposit on my own was tough. i think as first time buyers you may find yourself in a good position with the vendors. consider looking at new builds - some builders offer first time buyers opportunities, such as free carpets, 5% deposit paid, solicitors fees paid etc. If a new build isn't your cup of tea, or perhaps a bit too pricey, then still look at houses perhaps a little bit out of your budget - you will be surprised at how low some people are prepared to accept a reasonable offer, especially if it's been on the market for a while. Be cheeky and don't be afraid to offer much lower than the asking price - you just never know....

my OH and i bought our house together 2 1/2 yrs ago. it needed a lot of work doing to it, had been on the market for 10months, and whilst there had been lots of viewings on the property no-one was prepared to offer. we offered almost £19,000 below the asking price and it was accepted - the bonus being that we had already sold OH's house and could move in within 7 weeks. As first time buyers, you may well find yourself in this enviable position - especially if you have your mortgage in place and are able to move pretty quick. Just be realistic about what you can afford, factoring in all the other expenses - the last thing you want is to overstretch yourselves and not be able to enjoy the whole living together experience.

when you start viewings, don't be afraid to ask the agents how many viewings the house has already had, and if any offers had previously been made. ask how long it's been on the market. if you look at rightmove and make a list of your favourites, you can also keep a track of any that have been reduced.

i'm currently trying to sell my own house and it's been on the market for 5 months now and i've already reduced it twice. if anyone was to make me a resonable offer, i'd snap it up.

Good luck, enjoy the entire house hunting experience - although it can be pretty stressful at times!

Thanks for the advise navychick.

I think we'll view houses that are £10,000 over our budget cause as you said, you never know what they will accept.

I am very good with my money and can budget really well. So hopefully we'll manage fine

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