Mortgages
This is where our story gets complicated so I will keep it
as short as possible for you. It took us a hell of a long time to find
somewhere to accept us and give us a mortgage in principle. There are so many
companies or banks to go through, so definitely do your research as we got
messed around a couple of times. This is not always the case as a couple of my
friends got theirs straight away; ours dragged on for around two to three
months.
As we were getting a new build, the housing company had
mortgage advisors they worked alongside. The company was based three to four
hours away from where we lived but we scheduled in a home appointment with one
of their advisors, the day she was meant to come we were informed that she
could no longer make it and we would be on a Skype call with another advisor.
He went through all of our finances and I mean everything, it is pretty scary
to see how much money we threw away on a daily basis without seeing any
benefits.
For some reason, I didn’t get a good vibe from him and I
thought it was pretty rude that they just did a Skype call on our initial
meeting. It seemed far too unprofessional, rushed and negative so we decided to
take our business elsewhere. Do not be scared to do this, you are well within
your right.
We then wanted to get ours through Barclays Bank as I am
aware they are quite loyal and can get good deals. We must have been in that
bank for four hours filling in paper work, getting credit checks etc before
being told we needed to give up the dream of purchasing that particular house
we fell in love with. What was worse was the fact we put down a mini deposit on
the land with it being a new build.
I’m not being dramatic but I went back to work in tears, it
was like my whole world had crumbled down, I had worked so hard and it was as
though we were just going to lose our dream house or not even get on the
property ladder.
Fortunately, through my own work I discovered a local
financial advisor who was a dream to work with and I regretted not going to see
him sooner. We spent a couple of hours in his office going through most of our
finances and giving him the details of our home and voila we had a mortgage in
principle, we just had to wait on our health checks to be processed alongside
other paperwork.
I would say that if your financial situation at the time of
taking out a mortgage is suitable, go for the longer fixed rate – it does mean
the monthly payments are slightly higher than a two year fixed rate but what it
does mean is that your payment will be exactly the same for four years before
you have to remortgage.
Once your fixed rate is up, the monthly prices will
dramatically rise as they will be on a ridiculous variable rate (I believe that
is). This is when you keep an eye on the house prices, if they have risen or
dropped, this will affect your mortgage when remortgaging and the rates too.
Solicitors
There was still a long road ahead and we knew things could
easily fall through, luckily there was no chain. If you are unsure on the
lingo, a chain means that there is more than one person in the process, so
someone could be buying your house or the person who is moving out the house
you would like is buying another etc.
A top tip is to keep the decision of buying a house hush,
hush. Tell as little people as possible so if something does go wrong there are
less people to inform, plus until the payment has gone through and you have the
keys in your hand anything could happen unfortunately.
Again, do your research into finding the perfect solicitor
for you as you will be dealing with them on a daily basis. We got our solicitor
through a company Taylor Wimpey had recommended and to be fair the lady we were
dealing with was a god send. There are a lot of fees that are going to crop up
throughout the process, so do not be alarmed if you have agreed the fee at the
start and then it increases when it comes to pay at the end of the service, but
do not be a push over and stand your ground! I even rang another solicitors to
get some advice, they couldn’t tell me too much but they did confirm that our
solicitors we were using were well within their right with this particular
extra cost.
You will receive a hell of a lot of paperwork that you must
read through! I did not have a clue about anything when I was reading them, it
was so daunting but it does make sense as you go along. I also got my parents
to read through them too to double check everything before I even signed the
paperwork.
They will look into a valuation survey, property survey and
the land the building is on. There’s so much that comes into play that is out
of your hands but it is the case for everyone so do not worry.
They will keep you posted throughout the whole process and
then it will come to the time that you finalise the offer and mortgage. Then all
that is left to do is to wait for the exchanging of contracts, this is where your
initial deposit will be paid and there is no going back!
Finally, you will get to the stage where you complete the
purchase. Again it is out of your hands, you are waiting for that phone call
from your solicitors to confirm they have transferred the remaining money owed
to buy the property to the seller’s solicitor’s account, in my case it was
Taylor Wimpey.
With ours being a new build, we sneakily went to our house
before the money had been transferred and fortunately it was unlocked, don’t
worry it was safe as the builders were still on our road. As we pulled up, I
received the phone call from the solicitor to say that the final payment had
gone through and we were home owners.
Soon after the lady from the sales team we had dealt with on
our site popped down to hand over our keys and a lovely welcome home pack which
had some coffee, magazine, biscuits and a mug which was lovely!
If you have purchased through an estate agent, you would
either meet them at the house or go to their offices to pick up the keys. We
didn’t go through this process so I don’t have a lot of information on this.
I have noticed that some building societies actually provide
these cute packages when you purchase your house! It’s a lovely touch.
Hidden Extras
Please be aware that you will still need to pay out on a
number of different things. Firstly, take out health insurance, it may sound
morbid but if anything happens to you or your partner you know you have help
with the mortgage. We did ours through our financial advisor who found our mortgage,
it only took an hour and a few forms to fill out. A small tip is to take one
out each as this will provide better cover rather than a joint one.
Take out contents and house insurance, it is a price to pay
each year or you can choose to pay it through monthly instalments. Again shop
around for the best deal for you but again if anything happens to your house
whether it is a fire/flood/burglary you are covered!
This next thing is probably something most people forget;
everyone will have set up their internet and Sky but do not forget a tv
licence. It may be expensive but if you get caught out watching tv without one,
you could be in a lot of trouble. It only takes a couple of minutes online and
again you can choose to pay it in instalments or out in one go! We did ours the
night before we picked up the keys so we knew we would be covered straight
away.
There is probably a lot that I have missed off! But do not
let all of this scare you off. Think about Chandler in friends the day he is
getting married, think about each step as you go along, they are all manageable
in their own right!
Finally, keep all of your paperwork in a fancy folder. There’s
always going to be something you need to check on so keep everything!!
Good luck to everyone who are buying a house, I hope
everything all goes well and enjoy your new life in your little abode.
Alice xxx
