Buying a house - first steps

My view on fixes which is oversimplistic and thus probably wrong. If you’re doing it because you worry the interest rate might go up in two years then you’re taking a gamble, but not the obvious one. The price of your fix will already have expected rate rises baked into it, so you’re gambling they’ll go up more than your lender currently expects them to. Of course there is some benefit to your lender for having some assurance that they’ve got your custom for X years. Dunno what that’s worth.

Fixes are for where you want confidence in your outgoings for a set period of time, end of, IMHO. I wouldn’t contemplate fixing over any time period when I thought any part of my situation was unclear or volatile. I certainly wouldn’t bother if I thought I might move during the fix period.

[Views are the author’s own.]

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Depends on the lender and when your deal comes to an end. The product transfer rates being offered to existing customers are a lot better than they ever have been.

It’s also worth factoring in when you deal ends, if it’s around the end of the year a re-mortgage might mean a higher payment based on the standard variable rate due to the dates in respect of bank holidays and solicitors generally being a bit shit around then. If you’re with someone like Nationwide they generally offer the same rates to existing as to new customers and you can do it online without the need for legal work and surveys (unless the value of your property has increased significantly this saves a load of bother) or assessment of income.

Any new deal will be portable so you can take it with you and avoid and penalties.

A re-mortgage to someone like Coventry BS will allow you to fix and be free of penalties giving you the flexibility to review all options later on but you’ll effectively pay a premium for this.

keep going

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Wanna talk about arrears

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@plasticniki bit late to the party but another vote for 2 years. I went 5 years when I remortgaged then wanted to sell my house before the end of the term. In the end I sold 3 months before the end and paid a whopping £4700 for the privilege. So if you’re not sure you’ll hang around for five years don’t do it.

wow

2 years it it

On the other hand, portability erases that problem.

Nope!

The lease length was wrong on our mortgage offer which the Housing Association’s solicitor took issue with leading to the offer needing to be reissued. It has been now apparently but the seller is getting very tetchy about it all and is expecting it to be completed this Wednesday which seems literally impossible at this stage. Apparently the “second extended valuation expires” on Wednesday hence that being the date but I have literally no idea what that means.

Surely it can’t all collapse with us having done the forms, signed the contract and transferred the deposit already…

I’d be surprised if the seller would allow it to collapse unless there’s an intractable problem on your end… they’re unlikely to want to go back to square one with a new buyer, surely?

That’s what I’m thinking but if there is a tangible thing expiring on the 21st I’m not sure where that leaves us really. I’m 99% sure it will be fine but that lingering 1% isn’t great…

good luck mate - hope it works out!

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Cheers x

Literally every single person involved in buying a house is incompetent eh.

Cannot believe how much money I’m going to be giving various people for me to have done their jobs for them.

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Oh Big Tone. You’ve had a right old time.

Are you any closer to anything?!

Our reissued mortgage has been received and I have sent it to our solicitors and the Housing Association, someone at some point should have sent it to the Housing Association’s solicitors however they are claiming they haven’t received it…

Meanwhile our solicitors were waiting for the Housing Association to confirm the extension of the seller’s valuation, I spoke to the lady at the HA and she said “oh, was I supposed to send that” and has now actually emailed it over…

I think it’s closer than it was at the beginning of the week but you really do have to chase up literally everyone for every thing don’t you

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Yeah the amount of things that had “just arrived” in the half hour after I’d pestered someone about it was a frankly astonishing run of coincidences.

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It’s absurd isn’t it. Absolutely no sense of urgency whatsoever.

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That sounds ridiculous! Sounds like a lot of chasing people about.

Aye, a “wild goose chase” some might say

Our solicitor was one of my other half’s old uni friends, who still lives nearby and are in regular contact with, which made the whole process of selling two flats and buying a house much less stressful than it otherwise would have been.

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