Cushion Fort

The One We Were Glad Got Away

Before buying Number 1, we had an offer accepted on a different property but it was never to be. No one really talks about this type of situation, especially on agent websites that offer advice for first time buyers, so I wanted to do a post on the one that got away as at the time it made me very anxious and uncertain.

We attended an open house for a lovely attractively priced house, a bit further afield than we wanted but was bigger than we thought we could afford. We showed interest and discussed whether we thought we should put an offer in, getting itchy feet at the thought of progressing in the process. We had seen quite a few places by then. The next day the agent called and we did make a low offer, dipping our toe in the water. I was sure that someone would put in over the asking price and that would be that.

I was surprised when the agent called to call to say we were still in the race, but could we increase our bid as someone had offered the asking price. He explained that we were an attractive bidder due to our circumstances which meant we were chain free.

I had done some more research on the area, getting overexcited at the fact we had finally put an offer on something, but I was disheartened with my finidings. Parking was reported to be a big problem on the road, with rubbish trucks not being able to pass down the road to do their job. There was also a new developement being built at the corner of the road with a limited number of spaces; I felt this would increase the problem. With this in mind, I resisted the request and said we would stick with our offer, expecting the vendor therefore to accept asking price. They didn't, and suddenly we were thrust into the process of buying somewhere that we had recently decided we weren't convinced by!

We didn't believe a vendor would want to under-sell a property, when we knew of friends who were having to bid well over asking price to secure somewhere. I felt uneasy about the agent, feeling that we might have been the only bid and he was trying to up the commission he would get.

We decided to book a second viewing, to check the parking at a different time of day. I would highly recommend viewing at various times of day to gauge the neighbourhood. Our agent was curt, verging on rude when he pretty much refused our viewing request. My suspicion of him grew when he told me he had sold us in as very keen buyers, when I had never indicated this and said the vendor would rather put the house back on the market than let us see it again. This really didn't make sense to me, and I don't think I'll ever understand what happened. What I do know is that the property went back on the market at the value of our offer.

My advice when looking at making an offer on a property is primarily not to get sucked into the faux urgency. Take your time and make sure the property is right for you. Ask people you know (or even the neighbours!) about the road and the area you are looking at, especially if it is new to you. Get the insider information about parking, rubbish collection, noise and calibre of people living nearby. The people currently living in the area could be your new friends, and we’ve all seen the film Bad Neighbours…make sure you can live next door to them.

Make a pro's and con's list if you a struggling to decide on a property. Look at online crime searches, as well as googling the town, street and nearby streets and add what you find to your list. Be clever with what you search, and try to make use of the council websites; I googled the address of Number 1 before we bought it and found old planning permission which made me think that we could re-instate this if we wanted to and added it to the pro’s list!

Image | Padurariu Alexandru via Unsplash.com

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, by Unknown

In money,

Friend or Foe?

I promised that I would write about estate agents, and I always want this to be a place of honest information but I also don’t want this to be a negative post. I’ll begin by saying some estate agents live up to the stereotype of being out for themselves and difficult to deal with; others are super helpful and want to do a good job. The bottom line is that anyone you deal with when buying a property (or really in life) has their own agenda and something they need to achieve. With estate agents that is to find buyers for properties on their books and sell to them for the highest price they can. I am sure there are those who also want to help people find their perfect new home too!

As we started our search, we found properties to view and booked in with the corresponding agent. Some offered private viewings, but most offered to book us onto an ‘open house'. This meant we could go along at a set time and view the property, often with other buyers looking at the same time. This wasn’t something I enjoyed and believe this method is used to secure a sale in a weekend at an inflated price. Walking round a property that others are viewing at the same time gave me a sense of anxiety and competition if you like the property. I felt I could easily end up offering more than I normally would, just to bat away the competition. The agents use this to their advantage too, by building up any bids by suggesting that others have made an higher offer. Luckily I had Steve and my Mum around to keep me grounded and I didn’t make any outrageous bids. I really had to remember not to get swept up in the ‘hype’ created and be realistic about what we wanted and could get for our money.

We dealt with a plethora of agents, from the standard high street brands to start up companies and online only agents. As with most businesses, there are levels of quality and care between them but what I felt most interesting about our search was how online agents work. There are plenty of new agents springing up online, and they deal with viewings, offers and sales from a distance as they are not often based near the properties they sell. This means the cost for the vendor is reduced, which as a buyer you can play on when bidding for a property as you know the vendor doesn’t have a big agent fee to pay so might drop the price a little more than they would otherwise.

When I booked into view Number 1 I had to chose 3 options on time and days I could view, this was then sent through the agent website to the vendor who could pick their preferred time slot. We also put in our offer and re-offer via the site and it stored everything to the username and password that I had set up. This really suited me as I work online a lot and felt that it was far more efficient than the endless to’ing and fro’ing that high street agents do to secure a booking. I was also intrigued to meet the vendor.

I would recommend getting to know the vendor if you have the opportunity to. Some friends of ours became very friendly with their vendor, who left their new home in perfect condition with labels on everything to give an understanding of what their were and did! Vendors have owned your new home, and they know where everything is as well as what is missing so having them onside is so valuable. We were able to email the vendor about the property simply by asking for his email address at the second viewing. This meant we could discuss the sale via email as well as through the agent, ensuring that conversation was appropriate for each purpose. I wouldn’t recommend emailing the vendor relentlessly if they were to reject your offer.

After our viewing we were contacted by the agent who pushed for an offer, but at the early stages contact was limited to this. In later stages, I was speaking to the agent more as there was discussion about searches, entry to the property for our surveyor and the speed of the process. My experience of the service was reasonably good. With every property purchase I think there will be some hiccups, but I felt ours ran more smoothly than most, for which I am grateful!

Image | Matt Jones via Unsplash.com

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, by Unknown

In money,

Starting the Search

We started our search with a simple conversation in the car one day about what we would really like in our dream first house. Lots of ideas were thrown out; walk-in wardrobe, garden, bar and even balcony got a mention. We were daydreaming, but it forged an image of what we could see ourselves living in.

Steve’s mum recommended that we both individually write down what we each wanted out of our first house and then number them in order of importance. We decided that this was a good idea and nervously revealed the results to each other, happy with the results as we were fairly aligned. There were some differences, but our biggest importance were pretty points much the same; an investment for the future, in a nice area near our family and friends, but also something we could afford and still have a life! I’d really recommend this list comparison to anyone looking to buy their first house, even if it is on your own as it is easier to be clear on your own opinion and boundaries as well as really understanding the other person’s needs if you are buying with someone else. It means you look for a property that fills your needs, and you can check criteria off against your list when you find somewhere you like. Importance might even change as you start looking, for instance a walk in wardrobe became more of a house with good storage!

With our joint list of requirements memorised, we started to look at the money side of things. Between you and I, we had both been browsing estate agents websites for a while and Zoopla had become my favourite in-commute activity and I had the wish list of properties to prove it. So I was dying find out what we could realistically afford as first time buyers.

Steve was recommended a broker through his sister and we contacted them. We found that a broker made the whole process less hassle that contacting banks ourselves and meant we could get advice on our mortgage as well as other parts of the buying process. When we had any questions, we could ask our broker who was particularly helpful through the process. Initially, we used the broker to give us an idea of what we could borrow and therefore an idea of the type of properties and areas we could look at. Brokers can access special rates and know the industry better than most first time buyers, so working with them means you can adapt offers on properties accordingly. For instance, we flirted with the idea of a 35 year mortgage to give us more spending power and the broker was able to find us a mortgage to cover what we wanted to borrow based on our salaries. If anyone would like a recommendation of a good broker, do get in touch; our broker runs a referral draw to get both of our mortgages paid for six months (up to £1,000) if we win!

After speaking to our broker, he worked out what we could borrow and advised us on what we could afford to offer on properties. This gave us the upper limit on the price when running online searches. I also signed us up to estate agents in person to build up a rapport and be the first to know about new properties. More on estate agents next time!

Image | Jesse Vermeulen via Unsplash.com