Topic: The 'Eeeek...buying/saving for a house' thread

[PeterJM]

I’m due a remortgage in December and not sure what to expect.

[reddebs]

Likely to look like 2008 all over again (although hopefully not lasting as long).

Hope they don't mate, property prices round us still aren't back to where they were in '06/'07 and we've been planning on selling up in a couple of years ready for our retirement.

We need to be getting maximum value  as they were pre covid to be able to do that and half our outgoings.

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[killer-heels]

Sadly not at the moment, our mortgage adviser has told us that the lenders have collectively reduced maximum LTV's across the board. For new builds it is especially harsh - he gave me one example where the maximum LTV being considered is 60%, and for another they will go to 80% LTV but you must have at least a 25K deposit. So yeah, this one will be a challenge to fix for sure!

To be honest probably not a good idea to buy right now anyway. Just concentrate on getting employed and you may be in a good position when the prices drop.

[gazzam1963]

I’m due a remortgage in December and not sure what to expect.

Don’t think rates are going up just a pain for anyone trying to buy , if your fixed is coming to an end and your just looking to swap onto a new deal and have been paying on time you should be okay to get a good rate though your valuation will possibly be lower than expected .

I went from a 75% LTV over five years ago to around 48 % when my fixed rate ended , went from 2.99 to 1.69 with a straight new deal with Natwest

[gazzam1963]

Sadly not at the moment, our mortgage adviser has told us that the lenders have collectively reduced maximum LTV's across the board. For new builds it is especially harsh - he gave me one example where the maximum LTV being considered is 60%, and for another they will go to 80% LTV but you must have at least a 25K deposit. So yeah, this one will be a challenge to fix for sure!

You say it’s a new build would including help to buy get you the property you want or have you already included that in your purchase .

[El Denzel Pepito]

My partner and I managed to take our first step on the housing ladder just over a month ago. We had a mortgage agreed by Barclays on a fixed rate in December and had an offer accepted for a one-bed flat in Surrey. It took from December to March to get it all sorted, with a lot of headaches in the middle, but we're so relieved to have moved in before all this got going. Ideally, we'd sell and move into a 2/3-bed house in a few years (~5), but with the prices around our area, we'd be lucky if that were the case. It was £228k for a one-bed flat, and we got around £20k off the asking price.

I can't imagine how stressful it must be for some of you in the process of buying/selling your house. What's the latest government guidance on this?

[PeterJM]

Don’t think rates are going up just a pain for anyone trying to buy , if your fixed is coming to an end and your just looking to swap onto a new deal and have been paying on time you should be okay to get a good rate though your valuation will possibly be lower than expected .

I went from a 75% LTV over five years ago to around 48 % when my fixed rate ended , went from 2.99 to 1.69 with a straight new deal with Natwest

I’m with RBS and will have to stick with them as they say they don’t do the affordability checks for customers who are just switching to a new deal.I’m in my first full year of self employment after being made redundant from a full time position.It’ll be squeaky bum time if they change their policy on checks.

It’s only works out at 48% LTV at 1.51% so hopefully I’m ok.

[Butcher Knife Roberto]

You say it’s a new build would including help to buy get you the property you want or have you already included that in your purchase .

Yep, already included, we're using the Scottish equivalent known as the First Home Fund. Help to Buy is actually quite restrictive in what you have available in terms of lenders and other aspects such as LTV, minimum deposits, but FHF has a few more options available for my own circumstances. I do know that this whole experience so far has been a real eye opener. We're speaking to the developer via solicitors and looking at keeping our reservation in place for a few months until the worst of this is over, but we'll have to see if they go for it (I doubt they will be selling to anyone else at the moment so we're hopeful it will be ok). Having said that, the credit markets are highly challenging at the moment due to lenders pricing in risk factors. Right now, I just want to concentrate on having a job to go to and keep a roof over my head (the latter of which I have now thankfully resolved!).

[carl123uk]

Ours has moved on quite a bit in the last week and the contract was posted out to us yesterday. Hopefully be in before the end of the month.

The property has been empty for about a month now and no chain our side so thankfully it's been quite smooth apart from the solicitors working from home and only way of contacting them was by email.

Stuck with no sofa or bed for a while but could be worse

[frag]

We’ve reserved a new build property prior to COVID, and had an agreement in principle all sorted. We were just about to start the proper application after engaging solicitors and then it all came to a halt. The AIP lasts 6 months, with likely extension of a further 3 months. Original move in date planned for August, so that is on certainly not likely as they stopped building several weeks ago.

Our broker has told us we shouldn’t worry, but can’t help but feel nervous about what this means?

[carl123uk]

Another week later and we have signed the contract and paid the deposit and solicitors fee. Should get the keys next Friday

[WhoHe]

UK lenders starting to offer mortages https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52390860

[Butcher Knife Roberto]

So things moved pretty fast for me in the last few days. After quite a bit of moping around and feeling dejected, I decided to call the lender directly last week, bypassing the mortgage adviser, as I wanted to get an understanding as to what options might be available moving forward. I explained the situation about having paid the reservation fees, having the government funding in place, etc etc. Lo and behold, I receive a call on Friday from my mortgage adviser saying that everything was now proceeding, they just need to wait until the survey can be done. I now have it in writing. Also my boss called at the end of last week and said they are hoping to have me and my colleagues back in the business from the start of June. The 80% of salary is a pain but I'd rather have it than none. Suffice to say I got fairly plastered at the weekend.

A massive relief, almost there on both fronts. Thanks also for the support I got on here, much appreciated

[Welshred]

That sounds brilliant mate, must be a massive relief for you!

So I've been saving into a help to buy ISA for a number of years now and have a fair amount saved but nowhere near enough for a flat where I want to live, unless I go shared ownership. What are people's thoughts on those?

[owens_2k]

So I've been going through a re-mortgage using my mortgage advisor (he did the original mortgage) and id settled on a product with Nationwide. Next thing I know, Nationwide have ridiculously undervalued my property. By around £60k in my opinion. I have tried to appeal by using the price of houses around me sold recently and my mortgage advisor tells me Nationwide have said "we cannot appeal a down-valuation whereby a physical inspection was not done in the first place."

This lower valuation puts the interest rate on the deal up to 1.64% from 1.44% for 5 years.

Does anyone know what my options are? I always use this advisor as I am self employed and Nationwide are one of the lenders who accept self employed.

Thanks

[gazzam1963]

So I've been going through a re-mortgage using my mortgage advisor (he did the original mortgage) and id settled on a product with Nationwide. Next thing I know, Nationwide have ridiculously undervalued my property. By around £60k in my opinion. I have tried to appeal by using the price of houses around me sold recently and my mortgage advisor tells me Nationwide have said "we cannot appeal a down-valuation whereby a physical inspection was not done in the first place."

This lower valuation puts the interest rate on the deal up to 1.64% from 1.44% for 5 years.

Does anyone know what my options are? I always use this advisor as I am self employed and Nationwide are one of the lenders who accept self employed.

Thanks

Is it worth paying them for a physical one iirc you done a lot of work when you bought it as I was at the same time so it will be worth more , my five year deal is with the Natwest and I had a loan to value of 75% when i bought it but after renovations , extension and paying five years payments my loan to value came down to around 40 % . My first five year deal ended in December and they accepted the new figure and a new five year deal similar to what you quoted .

[owens_2k]

Is it worth paying them for a physical one iirc you done a lot of work when you bought it as I was at the same time so it will be worth more , my five year deal is with the Natwest and I had a loan to value of 75% when i bought it but after renovations , extension and paying five years payments my loan to value came down to around 40 % . My first five year deal ended in December and they accepted the new figure and a new five year deal similar to what you quoted .

I don't think they will do a valuation full stop because of the situation we are in at the moment, I will ask the question though.

[gazzam1963]

I don't think they will do a valuation full stop because of the situation we are in at the moment, I will ask the question though.

Is it not worth staying with your current lender on a new deal

[owens_2k]

Is it not worth staying with your current lender on a new deal

Could have the same issue though. On paper to them the house is only worth what I have paid for it, unless they do a physical valuation. What is a product fee even for? Is it to pay for all the underwriting and background checks, valuations etc?

[gazzam1963]

Could have the same issue though. On paper to them the house is only worth what I have paid for it, unless they do a physical valuation. What is a product fee even for? Is it to pay for all the underwriting and background checks, valuations etc?

To cover the commission to your broker or intermediary and a way to squeeze a bit more out of you , didn’t you buy in south Liverpool like me ? The variations in just one street here is mad , two house have gone in our road recently one for 220k and one for 300k yet the institutions will just use a standard valuation tool from what I gather

[owens_2k]

To cover the commission to your broker or intermediary and a way to squeeze a bit more out of you , didn’t you buy in south Liverpool like me ? The variations in just one street here is mad , two house have gone in our road recently one for 220k and one for 300k yet the institutions will just use a standard valuation tool from what I gather

Yeah mate just by Cressington. Looks like i'm just going to have to bite the bullet!

[CraigDS]

Those in the process of buying - have mortgages opened up a bit more since a month or so ago?

[CraigDS]

So what are people's opinions on buying in the next few months?

Do you reckon house prices will drop drastically over the next 12-24 months?

[killer-heels]

So what are people's opinions on buying in the next few months?

Do you reckon house prices will drop drastically over the next 12-24 months?

I would imagine any drop in prices will only take place when everything is kind of back to normal and most people realise they don’t have a job.

[tubby]

I had an offer accepted on a house way back when everyone started isolating, so this has been dragging on a bit and the last detail we're waiting for is a certificate of completion for some work where they knocked a wall down to join the kitchen and dining room.  I've chased the seller's estate agent, my solicitor is chasing his solicitor... just not getting anywhere but at the same time, no one is saying they don't have it.

Someone reassure me this is normal and that there's nothing shady going on or that the deal is about to fall through.

[CraigDS]

I imagine they’re using it as a way to delay things for some reason. That or they don’t have one and are trying to get one.

Is their solicitor not getting back to yours at all?

[tubby]

I did wonder.  I'm not in contact with their solicitor, is that something I can do to hurry them along?  I've actually got the seller's personal email address from one of the documents, tempted to drop him an email and see what's up.

[Mr Grieves]

Tell your solicitor to inform theirs that if you don't get some traction ASAP you will withdraw your offer.

As the housing market looks like it might dip it might be worth it anyway and coming back in with a lower offer at a later date.

If your heart is set on the place your solicitor should be asking theirs to arrange an indemnity for the work if no paperwork is forthcoming

[tubby]

Good tip on the indemnity, didn't think of that.  We're all in on this place, it's a lovely house at a good price, even with the market potentially taking a hit, and I'm currently wasting money on rent.

[gazzalfc]

I did wonder.  I'm not in contact with their solicitor, is that something I can do to hurry them along?  I've actually got the seller's personal email address from one of the documents, tempted to drop him an email and see what's up.

You need to be pestering your solicitor every day at that stage. They dont get paid if it doesn't go through. No need for pleasantries

[gazzalfc]

Good tip on the indemnity, didn't think of that.  We're all in on this place, it's a lovely house at a good price, even with the market potentially taking a hit, and I'm currently wasting money on rent.

We were in a similar place with our windows and ended up paying the indemnity (about £20) to cover us and allows the contracts to go through

[Jake]

You need to be pestering your solicitor every day at that stage. They dont get paid if it doesn't go through. No need for pleasantries

Don't do this.

Pestering your own solicitor (or conveyancer) won't help anything. They will have chased and will chase again when appropriate. In all likelihood as well most the staff are on furlough and you've got one solicitor with four caseloads.

Best bet is to get the estate agent to earn their crust (fucking rip off merchants) and get them to chase the sellers solicitor.

[CraigDS]

Best bet is to get the estate agent to earn their crust (fucking rip off merchants)

[XabiArt]

Does anybody make over payments on their mortgage?

It seems almost too good to be true from all the benefits I'm reading, just wondering what the other side of the argument is? The only thing I've read is if you have a savings account with super high interest that can outweigh the money saved from over payments, which obviously nobody does.

[SamAteTheRedAcid]

Does anybody make over payments on their mortgage?

It seems almost too good to be true from all the benefits I'm reading, just wondering what the other side of the argument is? The only thing I've read is if you have a savings account with super high interest that can outweigh the money saved from over payments, which obviously nobody does.

I've done a few here and there, I enjoy playing with the mortgage calculator and seeing how many months I can shave off.

Be aware there's usually a maximum yearly overpayment (vague memory of mine being 6 grand a year or something) so you can't do too much without some kind of penalty.

[XabiArt]

Mine seems to be 10% of the original loan so more than I am likely to ever get near. Was thinking of about £200 a month but looking at the calculator it makes a nice difference. Do I need to set it up to be a regular thing or can I do it as and when, and would it automatically just take time off the length of the mortgage?

[reddebs]

Mine seems to be 10% of the original loan so more than I am likely to ever get near. Was thinking of about £200 a month but looking at the calculator it makes a nice difference. Do I need to set it up to be a regular thing or can I do it as and when, and would it automatically just take time off the length of the mortgage?

We do ours as a regular extra payment by standing order so we're in control and amend accordingly.

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[gazzam1963]

Does anybody make over payments on their mortgage?

It seems almost too good to be true from all the benefits I'm reading, just wondering what the other side of the argument is? The only thing I've read is if you have a savings account with super high interest that can outweigh the money saved from over payments, which obviously nobody does.

I’d say it depends on what rate your paying at the moment , mines fixed for 5 years at 1.6% so there may be other things that will be a better investment .

 About 10 years ago was in a position to start doing this but the opportunity came up to invest in my wife’s workplace sharesave scheme which we done over a 5 year period and our investment was safe for five years as it was only an option to take up the shares , they increased over five fold and they helped us move to a bigger house and include renovations .

Not sure when your mortgage ends but if for example your paying £600 a month now but your knocking the last two years off in say 20 years time is that £600 ( presuming a similar rate ) going to be  a hefty payment after inflation and wage rises .

Personally I’d rather have a nest egg for contingencies that may arise over the years that are accessible rather than tied up in the bricks and mortar .

[Elmo!]

Does anybody make over payments on their mortgage?

It seems almost too good to be true from all the benefits I'm reading, just wondering what the other side of the argument is? The only thing I've read is if you have a savings account with super high interest that can outweigh the money saved from over payments, which obviously nobody does.

I put in an overpayment every couple of months. Roughly paying 60% more than my standard payments when averaged out.

I've got a 6 month emergency fund saved up, and interest rates are so bad on savings so I figured best to just get the mortgate paid down.

Especially as I only bought the property last year so could be in negative equity when it comes to the end of the fixed term deal, or interest rates could have rocketed by then and I want to get into a lower bracket.

My mortgage provider (Nationwide) allow you to take payment holidays as well if you have overpayments built up so the more I overpay, the more flexibility I have there as well if I ran into financial difficulties.

With Nationwide, they also give you the option of reducing your future monthly payments if you make an overpayment of £500 or more (you can also choose to have it just reduce your term instead). That means that I can keep making overpayments while things are fine, while gradually reducing the amount I HAVE to pay each month if things did turn to shit and I lost my income.

[rob1966]

Does anybody make over payments on their mortgage?

It seems almost too good to be true from all the benefits I'm reading, just wondering what the other side of the argument is? The only thing I've read is if you have a savings account with super high interest that can outweigh the money saved from over payments, which obviously nobody does.

We had an £80k mortgage which we took out in 2010, 20 yr term and were overpaying Nationwide about £150 a month via a standing order, so we could stop and start as and when we wanted to and that was knocking a decent amount off, think we were on course to knock something like 8 years off the mortgage. I'm not sure where we would have ended up though, as we were in the lucky position that we had £5k saved that we used to reduce the mortgage when we were allowed and them got chunks of cash off her Dad, things like an ISA he'd set up years ago for my wife and we kept paying whatever we got from him off the mortgage, so we had it down to under £40k within 6 years. Nationwide reduced the monthly payments after each lump payment but we just kept paying the old mortgage plus our overpayment  When he died, from her share of his house, she paid £32k off, left us with a £60 a month mortgage.

If you can afford to, do make the overpayments, well worth it, as you are saving paying interest and also reducing the term.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgages-vs-savings/#:~:text=If%20you're%20overpaying%20your,if%20you%20hadn't%20overpaid.