All your Homebase are belong to... you! / The House 'n' Home Thread. - The Bear and Badger

poprock

g.man wrote:

HELP NEEDED.
Home buying noob with fuck all experience of this sort of thing, and lots of questions to ask in the coming days. I'm going to look at my first ever flat viewing at the weekend.

Can somebody advise me about HOME REPORTS please?

When should I be given access to this thing? Should I get to see it before the viewing, or would you only get to see it if you were interested and going to make an offer? thanx g.man

It’s good to look at home reports before even deciding whether you want to view a place. It’s usually provided as a PDF.

Most estate agents nowadays let you either download them from the property ad, or request them (usually via an email form on the property ad). Just phone and ask for it if not.

They’re made up of two parts: The official home report, filled in by a surveyor, and the questionnaire, filled in (voluntarily) by the owner.

The official report flags up any major issues with the property - damp, structural issues, rotten window frames, knackered roof, etc. It also gives you the all-important valuation figure. That’s what your mortgage offer would be based on, and what you should take as your starting point for adding a percentage to when making your purchase offer.

The questionnaire gives you extra info like utility suppliers, communal areas (like the stairwell in a Glasgow flat), etc. But remember the questionnaire isn’t a legal document so keep your bullshit detector running.

g.man

Brilliant! Thanks Pops.

poprock

Basic stages of buying a flat/house in Scotland:

Look at adverts
Find a place you like the look of
Get the home report and book a viewing
Check the home report for anything that might put you off
Cancel the viewing if there are too many red flags
If you like the place, get your solicitor to put in an offer in principle for you
Show the home report to your mortgage advisor and get cracking on a mortgage application
Panic
Panic some more
If your offer is accepted, get your solicitor to start requesting loads of detail from the seller’s solicitor (deeds, surveys, safety certs, etc)
If it all checks out, VICTORY. Instruct your solicitor to conclude the missives and do the housebuying.

poprock

Bonus for you is that being a first-time buyer makes you super-sexy to sellers. No chain, less risk. You go to the head of the queue.

When your solicitor puts in an offer in principle, they should be stressing that you’re a no-chain first-time buyer with a mortgage already agreed in principle. It means that if you and another buyer offer the same amount, you’ll be the preferred option.

g.man

OK. They are sending me the Home Report, and she said that if I was going to make an offer I would have to have my solicitor sorted and my mortgage in place.
Hopefully The mortgage is all being taken care of and I'm across that...but I don't have a solicitor!
Why do I need a solicitor, and what should I do about that?

poprock

Only solicitors can conduct the sale/purchase of property. You can’t do it without one.

Your solicitor makes the offer on your behalf, you don’t do it yourself.

So … you have a million options for solicitors, but I can recommend a good one right on Byres Rd if you like? I’ll PM you.

g.man

Please do mate.

poprock

Done. Don’t worry about solicitor’s fees etc - obviously they cost a pretty penny, but it all gets taken out of the mortgage automatically during the process - it’s not cash you have to find and pay out of your pocket.

Remember that you need a mortgage for more than just the amount you want to offer on a flat. It needs to cover all those fees as well. It’s often a good idea to take a bigger mortgage than you need, so that you can use the extra to fix your new place up a bit straight away. (Think of your mortgage as the cheapest rate loan you will ever get in your life – use it, rather than thinking you might get money another way to do up a bathroom, for instance.)

g.man

Thank you so much!

Funkstain

It's incredible how different this is to England's process

poprock

I think the key bit is that your initial offer should only ever be an offer in principle. You basically say “I’ll buy it for this much, on this date, if I get the mortgage, my own sale goes through, and I’m satisfied with the condition of the house.” That then buys you into the game and lets you spend time checking out the deeds for any unexploded mines, without tying you in. You’re okay to back out right up until the missives are concluded.

Funkstain

Is there an alternative though? Like if you forget to say "in principle", are you fucked? It seems like every offer should be in principle!

poprock

I think a lawyer who forgot to say that would be in a lot of trouble with the bar association.

poprock

A lot of the buying/selling process up here is done on the assumption that the solicitors behave properly - and you can trust it because if they don’t, they’ll be struck off damn quickly. The bar association has teeth.

g.man

This is all great to know.

Kow

Totally different to buying here. Back in Ireland someone I know is selling their house and has a buyer but the process is dragging on for months. I bought my house here in 2 or 3 weeks from viewing to getting the keys. No lawyer needed. I guess every country is different.

[Deleted User]

Co-op legal services don't do conveyancing. Bugger.

[Deleted User]

Anyone heard of or used DC Law? Co-op redirect you to them?

Wookienopants

We have our Mortgage!!! Woo!! Just gotta wait for the solicitors/conveyor to do their usual bullshit and we can move in!

Cos

Congrats, Wookie! Are you moving far?

[Deleted User]

Would you recommend you solicitor @wookie? Ive called two so far who both said they'd call me back... Still waiting.

x

Wookienopants

MyNamesKrisG wrote:

Would you recommend you solicitor @wookie? Ive called two so far who both said they'd call me back... Still waiting.

x

I'm using New Homes Law, they specialise in new builds and shared ownership. Not sure if they'll be of any use?
So far I'm not impressed, rarely answer the phone and take ages to respond. They have asked the same question multiple times in the same email chain so I'm not confident they are doing any more than the bare minimum.

Wookienopants

Cosby wrote:

Congrats, Wookie! Are you moving far?

Thanks mate. Not far, just 15 mins up the road, just across the southern Bedfordshire border

Cos

Ah, nice. Always find there's less pressure on the actual move when it's a short trip. Hope you get in soon!

g.man

Super pleased for you Wookie !

Wookienopants

Cheers guys

[Deleted User]

Solicitor just called me back. Interesting development...

The Missus inherited 50% of the new house. Together we are buying the ithe 50%. So the solicitor says, when paid for, the house would be 75% owned by the Missus, right?

Hmmm. Not sure I like where this is going!

x

Lord_Griff

Ah, maffs.

[Deleted User]

It almost suits me....

"£20k to landscape the garden? That's fine. £5k of my money to £15k yours, right?"

g.man

Help needed again please.

I’m in the hunt for a particular flat.
There has been considerable interest, so it has gone to a “closing date.”

This is all completely new to me and I don’t exactly know what this means or how the process works.

I’m presuming I’m about to enter some sort of bidding war, but how does it all work? My solicitor is on the case with this, but I’d rather not appear like a complete ignoramus when I speak to him later.

Will I be privy to what’s actually going on with the bidding? Do I get to know how many bids there are and how much people are bidding? Do I get to make multiple offers to try and win the damn thing? What happens at the deadline?

I’m just a total noob at all this, so if any of you kind badgers can elaborate on the process it would be super helpful.

thanks

G.

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