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Buying a house (and renting)
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:08 am
by OnlyShallow
How many folk here have bought a house? Is it always this much of a nightmare? I've left most of it to my wife (mostly because I came home from work to find out she had started buying a house, I've still only seen in once....), but even so what a strawberry floating complicated procedure it is.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:09 am
by Christopher
It's a bloody nightmare.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:11 am
by IGM
The trick is to stay mildly drunk throughout the whole process.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:13 am
by OnlyShallow
The worst of it is we have to move out of the place we are currently in by the end of August and I doubt we will have completed the purchase by then, so we will have to put all our stuff in storage and move into her mum's for a few weeks.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:14 am
by Rubix
suzzopher wrote:It's a bloody nightmare.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:15 am
by OnlyShallow
IGM wrote:The trick is to stay mildly drunk throughout the whole process.
Luckily that has been my attitude to life in general. Also explains why I got so pissed at the wedding I went to at the weekend (a free bar? Don't you know who I am?!?!?!)
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:17 am
by abcd
It's not that bad if you expect something to go wrong.
Expecting something to go wrong will allow you to work out the next step before it happens.
The key is preparation and knowing the next move before your opponent.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:22 am
by OnlyShallow
I am also selling a place up in Scotland, and that seems to be going along quite easily, I just get the odd email from my solicitor and from the buyer. No hassle.
But buying this place I've had to have medicals, create a limited company, piss in a pot, phone people. Jump through hoops. Banks just don't want to give you a mortgage these days. We have had to put down a 55% deposit.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:26 am
by Christopher
Getting a mortgage now is fecking impossible for first time buyers too. My brother in law and his girlfriend earn a fair old whack between them and with no deposit they were offered £80K for a mortgage
Round here £80K could buy you a bike shed.
They've had to borrow £65K to get a mortgage for £210K(so £145K the mortgage property was £210K). It's ridiculous.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:41 am
by Dblock
It's not a nightmare it's just time consuming. Planning ahead makes perfect for buying a house. When my mother bought her house she was planning for several months before she actually bought it. It took 2 weeks and she was fully settled in.
I was thinking about buying a house as I currently rent one but then I remembered the strawberry floated up times we live in and how corrupt these banks are. Lending you money and ass strawberry floating you big time as soon as you miss one payment. Nah.
When the economy picks up again i'll start thinking about it.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 12:43 pm
by Mommy Christmas
suzzopher wrote:It's a bloody nightmare.
Worst life experience ever. I never want to do it again.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 12:49 pm
by Eighthours
It's a pretty stressful time, particularly if you're part of a chain. Can't say I'll be running to do it again in the near future. Luckily, the house I have at the moment is comfortably big enough so I should have no need to move for a while.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:11 pm
by OnlyShallow
It just seems that the people involved in the process have been employed solely on their ability to be pains in the arse. They must know their jobs but have been instructed to be as obtuse as possible.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:23 pm
by Eighthours
suzzopher wrote:Getting a mortgage now is fecking impossible for first time buyers too. My brother in law and his girlfriend earn a fair old whack between them and with no deposit they were offered £80K for a mortgage
Round here £80K could buy you a bike shed.
They've had to borrow £65K to get a mortgage for £210K(so £145K the mortgage property was £210K). It's ridiculous.
To be fair, you should be saving up at least a 5% deposit before trying to buy a house in the first place. Granted, the system has become stupid with the sums that first time buyers now need to put down, but 100% mortgages were silly. Saving up a deposit shows a degree of ability to regulate your outgoings, which is important when it comes to paying a mortgage every month for the next 25/35 years.
Where are they living, anyway? Starting out at a £210k house sounds a bit crazy, unless they're in London or something. Ladders! Rungs!
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:28 pm
by Christopher
Eighthours wrote:suzzopher wrote:Getting a mortgage now is fecking impossible for first time buyers too. My brother in law and his girlfriend earn a fair old whack between them and with no deposit they were offered £80K for a mortgage
Round here £80K could buy you a bike shed.
They've had to borrow £65K to get a mortgage for £210K(so £145K the mortgage property was £210K). It's ridiculous.
To be fair, you should be saving up at least a 5% deposit before trying to buy a house in the first place. Granted, the system has become stupid with the sums that first time buyers now need to put down, but 100% mortgages were silly. Saving up a deposit shows a degree of ability to regulate your outgoings, which is important when it comes to paying a mortgage every month for the next 25/35 years.
Where are they living, anyway? Starting out at a £210k house sounds a bit crazy, unless they're in London or something. Ladders! Rungs!
Cambridge. You can't get anything bigger than 2 beds for less than £200k, it's crazy round these parts.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:29 pm
by Tragic Magic
I've saved a bit of money now but my income is a bit gooseberry fool. I'm renting at the moment and would love a mortgage but have no idea how much I'd be able to afford. I guess I should talk to the bank really.
Semi-related, HSBC gave me a cool password creating device today. It's like a magic calculator.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:32 pm
by Dual
If you didn't already know solicitors are bottom feeding scum bags. It took 4 months for our purchase to go through on our first house.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:43 pm
by Mommy Christmas
And the charges they magic up are unreal.
For instance -
I had to pay £150 because when the previous owner had built the extension to the house he hadn't had the permission of the original builder (who had gone down the swanny years earlier).
What the strawberry float?
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:51 pm
by melatonin
I do not think I will ever buy a house in this country. Too much expenditure and cost for comparatively little return.
European renting culture for the winning.
Re: Buying a house
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:56 pm
by Lotus
I earn a very good salary, but I still can't see getting on the housing ladder, so to speak. I think you need two incomes, and even then it's a stretch. I'd love to build a house one day, but the cost of land is ridiculous.
Again, renting seems like the way forward.