My husband and I have been together for 17 years. We moved in together pretty quickly and have been renting for all of those 17 years. During that time we’ve had a real mixed bag of experiences. Our first home together was a two bed, third floor flat. Although there was no garden, we had a small balcony. It was set in a fairly quiet area with a short walk to the local village.
The Pitfalls of Renting
Shortly after the birth our twin girls we realised that lugging a double pushchair up and down three flights of stairs was no easy feat. That’s why we decided to move. We were lucky that we managed to find a ground floor maisonette with a small garden. Being on the ground floor made such a difference. It was also great to have a garden. Sadly, one year into our rental, the landlord decided to sell.
Our next home was a dorma bungalow. It was nice to have an ‘upstairs’ but the garden wasn’t great as it was two tiers. Not ideal when you have toddlers!
Sadly, again, one year into the rental, the landlord decided to sell and we had to move. This time around we really were lucky. We found a lovely two bed bungalow with a nice garden and have lived there for five years. It’s really been a wonderful place to raise our children.
However, my husband and I have longed to buy somewhere of our own for many, many years. Although the rental homes have been great, they never really felt like home. We didn’t want to spend money decorating a place that we didn’t own and some landlords wouldn’t let us anyway.
Researching the housing market
At the tail end of 2020 my husband and I did a lot of research. From affordability, location to if we’d even be accepted for a mortgage. I wanted to stay in the area that I grew up in. Unfortunately house prices had sky rocketed, like they have in most parts of Wales. We knew we wouldn’t be able to afford a house in the area but having previously rented a maisonette we knew that was more feasible.
While we did look at houses in other areas and could have opted for a 3 bed, we just didn’t feel it was the best choice for us as a family. After all, we wanted to stay where we were because that’s where our children’s school is and where their friends are. So, it was decided that we would look for a maisonette. I had a few stipulations though! It had to be ground floor and had to have some sort of garden.
We spent a few months looking and it wasn’t long before we found exactly what we were looking for. After booking a viewing we were advised by the agent that a sale had previously been agreed but the buyers chain was taking too long so the vendor had put it back on the market.
Making an offer
With this in mind, we knew we had to move quickly. So we made an offer the same day we viewed which was a Friday and on the Monday, the estate agent called to give us the good news. The vendor had accepted our offer!
There were a lot of positives on our side. For starters we had no chain and we offered the full asking price.
As first time buyers we didn’t really know how the whole house buying process worked. I found the ‘House Buying, Renting & Selling’ and ‘Mortgages & Homes’ forums on the Money Saving Expert to be really helpful, but I thought I’d share our timeline along with some extra information in case anyone else finds it helpful.
Timeline
- 26th March. Property viewed and offer made.
- 31st March. Offer accepted.
- 6th April. Tax returns submitted & requested information passed to mortgage advisor
- 7th April. Mortgage in principle agreed
- 8th April. Solicitors details provided to estate agent. Full mortgage application submitted. Estate agent provided memorandum of sale.
- 13th April. Mortgage approved subject to valuation.
- 14th April. Paperwork hand collected from solicitor.
- 15th April. Paperwork and ID returned by hand to solicitor.
- 22nd April. Valuation complete and mortgage approved.
- 29th April. Mortgage received in the post.
- 30th April. Estate agent advised draft contracts, lease info, copy register, LPE1 other paperwork received from vendor’s solicitor.
- 4th May. Local searches submitted.
- 10th May. Independent survey carried out.
- 12th May. Survey report received.
- 14th May. Local searches back.
- 21st May. Paperwork (contract, lease, fixtures & fittings, mortgage deed) picked up by hand from solicitor.
- 22nd May. Mortgage deed signed and witnessed. Contract signed.
- 24th May. Mortgage deed and contract returned by hand to solicitor. Our solicitor advised awaiting answers to enquiries (is there a smoke alarm/burglar alarm etc).
- 3rd June. Agreed completion date of 10th June.
- 9th June. Completion statement received and CHAPS payment sent for deposit and solicitors fees.
- 10th June. Exchanged and completed. Collected keys from estate agents to our new home!
Tips
As you can see from our timeline, it took just under 11 weeks from viewing to completion and exchange. I think we were very lucky that our timeline was quite quick and I put it down to a number of things including:
- Get a good mortgage advisor who knows what they’re doing. If you can, ask around for recommendations. Our mortgage advisor asked us for everything he knew he’d need up front so what the mortgage lender asked questions, our mortgage advisor didn’t have to come back to us and wait for answers, he had it all ready.
- Instruct a local solicitor. Again, ask around for recommendations but if you can instruct someone local it definitely helps. We were able to collect all documents by hand and deliver them back in person. This helped to speed things up as we weren’t relying on the post.
- Hassle! It sounds quite rude, but I really do believe you need to keep on to your solicitor. The more you ask them for updates, where are we, what are we waiting on etc, the more I found things got done.
Naturally, some things will be out of your hands. How long it takes for local searches to come back and how responsive your vendors solicitor are for example. However, if you do all you can from your end then that’s a great place to start and continue from.
Update
So, that is our house buying experience! From the very first day that we got the keys we made a start on gutting our new home. We’ve taken it right back to basics so we have a blank canvas to work with. It needed gutting as a lot of the fixtures were dated and old fashioned.
My girls and I helped to strip the wallpaper off but I have to say a massive thank you to my husband and his son for all of their hard work so far. They’ve gutted the kitchen and have just finished fitting our brand new kitchen themselves. I’m so proud! The fireplace was taken out of the living room, boarded up and plastered. Our children’s bedroom has been lined and painted. We just need to sort the skirting boards out. The living room has been lined and plastered. Again, we just need to sort the skirting boards out. Coving has up gone up. Our carpet has been booked in and we’re making good progress, but more on that in another blog post I think!
