The house move process & 10% deposits

[Hinchhater1442]

I’m in need of a ‘real’ adult

we’ve just accepted an offer on our house but no are absolutely clueless for where to go from here
So we listed as no onward chain, as we have family property can we move into if we cannot find anything we like to buy.. but low and behold the week we accept an offer on our house, one comes on the market that we love!!! Sooo what now? Should I speak to a mortgage advisor to get a mortgage in principle? Do I need a mortgage in principle to make an offer on a house?

What’s the chances of completing before March 31st to avoid stamp duty?

also, I’ve seen a lot online about 10% deposits slowly coming back- does anyone have first have knowledge of this?Don’t want to go to all the trouble if there’s little possibility

sorry if these sound like stupid questions! I’ve only ever moved house once and that was into a new build and I feel like everything was sorted for us!!

 

[Tui]

Have you viewed the house? Worth discussing with estate agent, I think in Covid times and in very competitive areas some agents want proof of funds (deposit) and evidence of a mortgage in principle for the price of the house - we completed in November after offering in June. Dragged on as long chain (5 links) - what is the position of your buyer?

 

[The Dowager]

I agree with Tui, I’m my area at least the agents won’t let you view a house until you can demonstrate that you can proceed ie mortgage in principal or cash buyer. There are very few 10% offers that I’ve seen, but they do exist, I’d talk to an independent mortgage broker as the first step.

In terms of completing before 31 March? Possible, if every step is straightforward, but it’s taking a long time for things to move through the process at the moment so don’t bet on it I’m afraid, especially as so many will be working to the same deadline.

Good luck with it!

 

[Hinchhater1442]

We’re viewing the house on Thursday, they’re happy for us to view without proof we can proceed but we’re almost certain we’ll want to put an offer in so want to sort something ASAP

I’ve contacted a mortgage advisor today to ask him about doing a MIP.

Our buyer is part of a chain(2 links I believe), she has accepted an offer on her house. She’s got her MIP. It’s not imperative we move before March,obviously would rather not have to pay stamp duty but if we do that’s where we’d then require a 10% as it would eat into our funds!

 

[Tui]

We’re viewing the house on Thursday, they’re happy for us to view without proof we can proceed but we’re almost certain we’ll want to put an offer in so want to sort something ASAP

I’ve contacted a mortgage advisor today to ask him about doing a MIP.

Our buyer is part of a chain(2 links I believe), she has accepted an offer on her house. She’s got her MIP. It’s not imperative we move before March,obviously would rather not have to pay stamp duty but if we do that’s where we’d then require a 10% as it would eat into our funds!

You can get an online MIP pretty easily, I know Santander do one online. You don’t have to go with them, it’s just to have the piece of paper to enable you to negotiate. But mortgage broker for the real thing is a good idea.
Are you selling your current property - will your equity in that go towards your deposit?
Also need to ask position of the vendor as you will have at least 4 parties in the chain already (2 below, you, vendor).
I love house buying although the process itself is stressful at the time!! We bought our first house last year, prior to that had a flat purchased from the developer which was a totally different experience

 

[Nebbymoo]

Currently looking to buy ourselves so this thread is a great find for me this morning, thank you!
We have saved a deposit but now have no idea of what the process is other than look for something? Making an appointment with a mortgage advisor seems like the next step and see where we stand with house price figures we can afford.
Good luck with your house move

 

[Wishiwasaninfluencer]

You can start looking at properties before having the mortgage in principle. There are mortgage calculators online that give you an idea of what you can borrow before you look at houses, but I would go to a mortgage adviser when applying for the actual mortgage. I had to pay a fee but it makes it so much easier and they can talk you through everything much better than a website can! The estate agent I used to buy my flat had a mortgage adviser which was helpful. Once you’ve got the mortgage offer you can put an offer in on the house Good luck!!

 

[Tui]

Currently looking to buy ourselves so this thread is a great find for me this morning, thank you!
We have saved a deposit but now have no idea of what the process is other than look for something? Making an appointment with a mortgage advisor seems like the next step and see where we stand with house price figures we can afford.
Good luck with your house move

Firstly I’d suggest you narrow down your search area so you can focus your efforts and research the area - house prices, what prices properties have sold for, things like schools and local amenities if these are important to you. You can find out crime figures for different postcodes online also.

 

[Lulu Goss]

Having had an offer accepted on your house already, you’re in a good position. When we first started looking this time last year, we lost out on a lot of properties we liked because our property was still on the market, compared to other people making offers who were ready to go.

Some agents will ask for a MIP when you put forward an offer, some won’t, but if you’ve got one you’re putting yourself in a better position. We started looking in March and quickly realised it’s all about having everything sorted as much as possible on your end, to make yourself the most appealing buyer. If you haven’t already, I’d also get a mortgage advisor/broker. Ours was excellent, although it was our second move I found it all quite overwhelming but she went through absolutely everything so I always knew what needed to be happening next.

Our buyers were first time buyers, and our new property had no onward chain (so just three thinks). We had an offer accepted in June and moved in November.

Good luck!

 

[elloelloello]

Following this thread!

We are currently in the process of buying a house. We had an offer accepted and it’s all going ahead quite quickly, our mortgage advisor is a friend of a friend, everything is now with our solicitors.
I would personally advise to decide on a solicitors in the area your buying and fast, most of them are extremely busy in my area and we got rejected by a lot before we found one. They are all working towards the end of March so it’s going to be tight.

Our purchase is chain free and even then they’ve said it will be tight getting it completed by end of March but hopefully it all goes smoothly!

We are having to put down a 15% deposit, as a lot of our earnings and savings come from commission.

We didn’t need a MIP when we made our offer. We just told our advisor we had made one and he’s now working on our mortgage and hoping to have some quotes for us in the next couple of days.

Hope this helps a bit- I’m literally clueless when it comes to buying houses so I’m glad I have my partner doing most of the work!

 

[Lulu Goss]

Currently looking to buy ourselves so this thread is a great find for me this morning, thank you!
We have saved a deposit but now have no idea of what the process is other than look for something? Making an appointment with a mortgage advisor seems like the next step and see where we stand with house price figures we can afford.
Good luck with your house move

Definitely start with the mortgage advisor. It helps to know exactly what banks will be willing to lend you, then you can work out with your deposit what your budget is. Our mortgage advisor also went through all of our monthly outgoings with me so that she could look at our affordability and advise us on our maximum budget which was so helpful - it’s easy to get carried away when you first start looking and I fell in love with a few houses and then realised they were out of our price range. So if you know from the start what your maximum price range is, you’ll avoid that!

Then you can make a list of the areas you like, things that are important to you that you definitely want (e.g a garden or a certain number of bedrooms) and start looking online. We started looking in the first lockdown when viewings were still able to go ahead - I’m not sure what the approach is now - but I’d say be open to looking at loads before you find the perfect one!

Good luck

 

[Nebbymoo]

Some really great advice. Thank you so much.

 

[Anon879]

I’ve just sold my property and purchased my next so hopefully will be able to provide you with some insight!

- the whole process took about 6 months and this was all kicked off before the stamp duty holiday was announced so I was at the front of the queue so to speak. The delays mainly sat with the council (area searches) but you can speed this up by going to a private company, but naturally some councils will have no delays at all it’s a bit of pot luck unfortunately
- the process of MIP to full offer took a little longer than usual but only around 3 weeks total, so nothing terrible
- when I was looking for mortgages back in June/July the only 10% deposit products available were exclusive to first time buyers only but this may have changed by now
- solicitors are absolutely swamped, mine was doing 5 completions (including mine) on 5th Jan alone, so do prepare yourself for them to not be as speedy and responsive as normal. I know they’re not normally great but this was a big point of frustration for me!
- lenders are hot on valuations (due to the state of the economy) and a couple in my chain came in lower than the agreed sale price, so be prepared for that and ensure you have some flex in the actual sale price of your property to cover yourself. You may not need it but good to be prepared
- removal companies have upped their prices significantly so if you’ll be using one of those, I’d start to get costs now to make sure you’re covered. For context I paid £485 to move into my old place and £1200 to move out of it

That’s all that springs to mind right now but I’ll pop back if I think of anything else! Hope that helps but if you have any questions just let me know

 

[Hinchhater1442]

Thank you all! Very helpful

I have messaged a friend who is a mortgage advisor today and he is going to call me tomorrow. Booked in to view the house we think we want on Thursday. Have a solicitors in mind so will call them first thing tomorrow

we are using the equity from our house as a deposit for the next one yes, but we also need to pay back our help to buy loan. After all of that and fees etc (assuming we pay stamp duty) we’ll only really have 10% to put down

 

[actuallyeducated]

Are you England or Scotland op?

 

[Hinchhater1442]

Are you England or Scotland op?

England

 

[WilmaHun]

I work as a legal secretary in conveyancing.

You do need a mortgage in principle to make an offer on the house. A lot of agents won't even let you view without seeing a mortgage in principle (to avoid time wasters who can't actually afford it) (Appreciate some agents will allow you to view without a MIP - it seems luck of the drawer sometimes). Some lenders are offering 10% deposits, some are still wanting 15% to 20% but your mortgage advisor should be able to find one suitable for you.

I would recommend using a local firm rather than one of these national conveyancing giants if you want to complete quickly but bear in mind, conveyancers are EXTREMELY busy at the moment with almost every single client wanting to avoid stamp duty so they're working hard on a lot of cases. In my experience, whenever we've had to deal with the national conveyancing giants, they're hard to get hold of, you don't get the consistency of one person working on the case, it seems to get picked up and dropped by whoever is available, they often "lose" documents. Always better to use a local firm.

Completing before the end of March to avoid stamp duty depends entirely on how long your searches take to come back (if getting a mortgage these are essential). In my area, local authorities are taking about 10-14 days to return searches however I know some in London are taking ALOT longer. It then depends on if any enquiries need to be raised off the back of those searches. The solicitor also checks the title to the property to ensure that you're getting a property with good title, so if they need to raise any enquiries on that, or have anything amended with the Land Registry before proceeding, these things can take time. Of course, until you've appointed a solicitor and they've got things moving these are things which you won't be able to tell just by viewing the property.

Other things to bear in mind is that your solicitor can't exchange until they receive your mortgage offer - sometimes there's a bit of a delay with them coming through from the lender but a good mortgage advisor should be able to chase this up for you.

Also, it will depend on the sellers of that property - are they having an onward purchase? Are the searches back on that? Is there anything holding that purchase up - ie a long chain? What is the position of your buyer, are they selling too? If so, what is the position of their buyer etc etc etc. These are all things your solicitor can find out for you once you've got the ball rolling.