First time buyer advice....

Musicman20

Hello you lovely lot...

After my ex decided to buy a house behind my back with virtually no money, and I've been saving regardless, I think it is time I buy for myself.

Unfortunately, I live in an area in Manchester with rising house prices (Sale, not far from Altrincham).

I have no idea what I am doing but I do have a decent deposit.

I am a first time buyer and I hope I can take advantage of that. I've started pushing money into a Help To Buy ISA instead of my normal savings account.

What do I do first?! Who should I speak to?!

Time is tight as I work full time, travel to see family and run a house. Plus I'm keeping my social life busy and trying to play more guitar.

Thanks!

PolarityMan

Id prob wait to see if brexit causes a dip in house prices.

Fretwired

If you want some independent advice I know an expert who is a whole of market mortgage lender who specialises in first time buyers. He'd happily give you some free advice over the phone - he's a friend so there are no back handers going my way and his fully qualified and regulated so no hard sell either.

Don't go to the high street. You will be ripped off. To give you a simple example, my son was looking to buy a house and went to a high street bank and was offered a deal. An independent mortgage broker got him a better deal - with the same bank. Why does this happen? Lenders have deals they don't advertise which are designed for mortgage brokers and the like which tend to be cheaper than their high street rate.

If you go for a mortgage broker may sure they are fully qualified and regulated.

joneve

PolarityMan said:

Id prob wait to see if brexit causes a dip in house prices.

This. 

We're rushing to buy a house (somewhat) as we're selling ours (or have sold STC) and want to get moved before anything hits the fan...as we don't want to be refused a mortgage or anything like that due to interest rates or whatever....but if your a first time buyer, you're in a good position. 

Whitecat

PolarityMan said:

Id prob wait to see if brexit causes a dip in house prices.

It may but it also may cause a shortage of availability if things get so bad that people are locked into negative equity... or if loads of people take a "let's ride out the storm" attitude - really hard to predict what's gonna happen.

To OP, best thing to do is just register with a whole bunch of estate agents. Without fail 95% of them will be dickheads and you'll sadly have to waste a lot of time but eventually you'll get there. Be really specific about your budget and criteria and tell them that you haven't got time to view stuff that veers from it (they will try it on, trust me).

Since I bought stuff like Purplebricks has popped up too... might be worth having a browse there occasionally.

First step is basically to ensure you've secure the financing and then find the house you want... then it gets hard.

LuttiS

Just bought my first house in December.

First thing to do, is find a house you like! Then work out if you can afford it

I got an agreement in principal (its an online form through most brokers/banks) which gives you an idea of how much you can realistically borrow for mortgage with your deposit vs house price. Shows agents/ vendor that you're serious and what not. Its like a 5 minute thing you can repeat if needed. Shows you available mortgage products too, repayments terms etc.

If everything's ok, put an offer in. Most agents have a mortgage adviser of some sort who you can have a chat to. They will try to get you to go through them but remember you don't have to.. Sometimes it is just easier though..


Then wait a shit load of time, aaannndd house. 

JDE

My only advice would be.... Spend the money on going to a good independent mortgage advisor (who will then recommend you an independent mortgage broker). You will spend initially but you will get a better mortgage offer, save lots of time and they will weed out all the bullshit high street “offers” which are naff. The broker will normally charge a percentage of the mortgage borrowed, but if my experience is anything to go by, you absolutely will save money in the long run. My last purchase was a total shitstorm and my broker had paid for himself within months of me moving in. Has probably saved me £20k since then and we only moved in 2013.
Not sure what Sale is like but from where I live, if I could do it all again I would make my first purchase a fixer-upper house and do whatever work I could or could afford to pay someone else to do over the years. I would not recommend buying a flat. You’re not gonna be there forever, you might as well make some coin when you sell it rather than buy a flat, sell it to a shitmuncher landlord for the price you paid only to have them pick holes in your choice of heater in a bid to bump their offer down.

ThePrettyDamned

I'm looking for my first buy now, and we have our deposit for our lower budget and a couple of months from our higher budget deposit. We've got viewings this and next weekend, and it's really exciting! 

I 100 percent agree with the I dependant mortgage advisor/broker. My brother is an estate agent and recommended me one and I was astonished at the rates he was able to find given our circumstances - literally saving £100 per month in some cases! And I'm hardly looking at pricey places.

It also helped in terms of confidence of our budget - we are slightly risk averse, so we won't be pushing our upper limits but he was able to give us very clear pictures of equity loan, shared ownership and outright free market ownership really clearly, along with all the pros and cons of each. 

Advice was free, but it'll cost to broker. No problem - definitely seems worth the money. 

I've also been advised to save a few grand over deposit for all fees and stuff. 

Also, when salespeople say it takes about 6 weeks to move, it's a lie. Brother reckons 3 months is more realistic... 

57Deluxe

try Salford...