Anyone who's bought a house - first time buyer questions!

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 17 Aug 2007, 13:38

Ok, me and the girlf are probably going to be buying a house quite soon, ubt obviously having never done it before we're a little bit clueless in some areas.

I think the main thing is we just don't know how much things cost.

We've got a mortgage advisor who is the girlf's family friend, so costs in that regard have been explained to us, but it is the following that I'm not sure about.

The house we've seen that we like is quite old, and the estate agent showing us around said it would be wise to get the electrics checked as they look quite old. How much does that cost?

And how much would it be to get a modern fuse box installed, as this one seems to have one of those old ones too.

While the electrics are getting checked, if they are not ok and need rewired, how much is that likely to be?

I'll probably post more questions to do with the whole process once I think of them!

Thanks in advance for any answers!

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 17 Aug 2007, 16:59

you are looking at over a grand to get a house rewired. i feel sorry for people buying houses these days given the prices.we bought ours in 1986 for just over £13k and i have just over 4 years left to go on the £114 a month mortgage. it's only a simple terraced house and it currently needs work doing,i'm hoping to finish the mortgage then get maybe get a loan to improve it then.i'd like to move but couldn't afford it.good luck degen anyway

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 17 Aug 2007, 18:16

At only £114 a month I'd be inclined to bump it to reduce the 4 year period. There's no way I could afford to buy, it's so bloody expensive.

£13,000 oh my god. You could get a garage for that today

, I think.

How many bedrooms Degeneration? If it's 3 or 4 bedrooms you'll pay higher taxes (aka - Home Information Pack).

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 17 Aug 2007, 18:30

Ah... with the economy as it is right now, you can buy lots of big cheap houses in a few years time. Maybe not here in Europe, but certainly over in the USA.

"When there is blood in the streets, the smart people buy and invest in real estate".

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 17 Aug 2007, 19:05

bradavon wrote:At only £114 a month I'd be inclined to bump it to reduce the 4 year period. There's no way I could afford to buy, it's so bloody expensive.

£13,000 oh my god. You could get a garage for that today , I think.

How many bedrooms Degeneration? If it's 3 or 4 bedrooms you'll pay higher taxes (aka - Home Information Pack).

The place we're seriously considering just now is a 3 bed, 3 reception room house. It is possibly a little big for us, BUT if we go for smaller houses, given the areas that we are willing to live in, the fewer rooms are also much smaller in size. So despite having to get a smaller mortgage for those houses, it doesn't seem worth as I wouldn't want to live in them.

Think that HIP is for people selling, so not sure those fees will be on my side of things as we're only buying.

And saltysam - you've just depressed me so much... £114 a month mortgage... we're looking at a mortgage of around £1000+ a month!!! Both mine and my girlf's salaries are going to go up quite well over the next few years, but initially about half our take home pay or just under is going to be paying off the mortgage! And then there's general bills, cost of living etc... leaving only a little left for entertainment and saving! And both of us will be on £20k+ salaries!!

I kinda wish the housing market would just crash tonight, so that when we buy in the next few months, the place we're after will have halved in price, or something like that!!

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 17 Aug 2007, 19:09

the mortgage is only actually £91....the other £23 is bricks & mortar insurance

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 17 Aug 2007, 21:32

*cries*

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 17 Aug 2007, 21:41

The housemarket will have to crash, especially in the USA where it's just on the brink of crashing. Already many people are losing their houses. That's what you get for your tax-cuts, republicans!

The house-pricing nowadays is just ridiculous, and here in Holland it's insane, and not helped much by the fact that the goverment just isnt keeping up with demand fr low-income housing, instead prefering to just build very expensive houses, so people will have to get mortgages etc in order to find a place to live. Lack of affordable, decent housing is one of the main reasons why I'd want to emigrate to say, Canada, where you can buy a damn big house for the same price as you would pay here for a small appartment.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 17 Aug 2007, 21:59

although i have a small mortgage i'm kinda trapped,the house has seen better days and i'd love to move but the prices are crazy! if i sold up and say got 50k for my property even putting 45k deposit on somewhere else would leave me with a mortgage i couldn't afford

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 17 Aug 2007, 22:32

Yi-Long wrote:The housemarket will have to crash, especially in the USA where it's just on the brink of crashing. Already many people are losing their houses. That's what you get for your tax-cuts, republicans!

The house-pricing nowadays is just ridiculous, and here in Holland it's insane, and not helped much by the fact that the goverment just isnt keeping up with demand fr low-income housing, instead prefering to just build very expensive houses, so people will have to get mortgages etc in order to find a place to live. Lack of affordable, decent housing is one of the main reasons why I'd want to emigrate to say, Canada, where you can buy a damn big house for the same price as you would pay here for a small appartment.

Subprime lending aside the real estate market has really grown because people have a lot more money to either invest in real estate or to pay for their own home - even if it costs more. There's going to be a slowdown and it has already begun to some extent with hype over flipping houses and governments getting very concerned. But we won't see anything resembling a crash, there is too much demand, nothing to bring down demand and it's a fairly sound market.