Who the F*** is Larry?! (How to buy a house)

Member Name: tazzywazzy

Product:	How to buy a house
Date:	09/11/06 (467 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I'm on the ladder!!!

Disadvantages: I am skint :(

Seeing as I have had my flat for a whole month now and have not yet bored you all to tears with dull house stories, I think now would be a good time, and where better to start than with advice on how to buy a house. Before I start my review, I need to add that this is mainly geared towards the London market, and ex-council properties, this process is really quite different to anywhere else in the UK, so may not be of much help if you live in the leafy burbs!

*Tazzywazzy's Top Tip*

If you are trying to buy a place in London, but aren't quite sure how you are going to afford it, take a look at ex-council properties. They are spacious, well laid out and often in very desirable locations. Always try to find a property on the edge of the estate. Also, if you are very clever, and know your area, you can potentially land yourself a brilliant property just by crossing one road. This sounds stupid, but the property I bought is 100K less than properties of the same size on the other side of the road - literally!


*Please note that all the stories that follow are 100% God's honest truth, they have not been fabricated in anyway to provide any form of entertainment or humour, they honestly happened!*

~Find yourself some flats to look at~

London is ma-hue-sive, so you need to narrow down your search area to a couple of postcodes.

Each postcode can vary massive amounts in value, so once you have decided on the areas you areas you are looking in, see what your money can get you in each area.

Take a few days off work to do some tint-er-ma-web surfing and pick out a couple of properties and agents. Next get on the phone and start talking to the agents. The London property market moves extremely quickly, so don't rely on what you see on the net, it is probably gone, or under offer. If an agent has a lot of properties that you are interested in that are all under offer, it is worth registering with them and having a chat anyway.

When talking to the agents specify exactly what you want, and don't take any bull from them, a lot of these agents are "see you next tuesdays", I specified my price range to one agent and he promptly rang be back with a perfect property for me which was on the market for 350K, that's one hundred and fifty thousand pounds over my maximum budget! The key is to be strong and don't let them push you around, get all details of properties before going to look at them so you are not wasting your time, if the agent keeps giving you duff properties tell them!


~Viewing Properties~

OK, so you have managed to find a couple of properties to look at and you go out to see them, make sure you take a pen and paper to jot down any particulars. The first viewing is all about taking a look around and spotting anything that you think may potentially be a problem.

You need to decide on how much work you want to do and how willing you are to live in the property in the state it is in - my property has been a money pit, and we bought it because there was no work to do, except re-decorating, but it has been a month and we still aren't living in it!

In London there is not much of a price difference in ex-council properties in poor condition or in good condition in the same area or estate. The first property we saw had been looked after very well and kept in extremely good nick, brand new kitchen and designer sink in the bathroom, we sadly lost the property as we did not want to get into a bidding war, but a week later looked at the same property next door, which was fine, but very dated - they wanted the same asking (which they eventually achieved).

During your first viewing, you need to ask questions such as:

How long is the lease?
On average ex-council properties in London have over 120 years lease on them, generally most of the ex-council properties on the market were bought about 5 years ago, all council properties in London are sold with 125 year leases and most are cashing in on their good fortune and selling to mugs like me!

How much is service & ground rent?
Generally ground rent and service is really low for ex-council properties, make sure you find out what is included in your service charge.

What percentage of the block is privately owned & what percentage of the estate is privately owned?

Where is the owner going when they sell the flat - is there a chain?

***Seriously useful information alert***

Whilst looking around the property, check if there is double glazing and check all communal areas, such as secure entry systems etc. If these are not already in place, it may mean that the building you are looking at has a section 20 on it.

AVOID properties with section 20's on at all costs (unless the property is hugely under your budget) - a section 20 means that the building is going to be refurbished. If the building gets refurbished, the bill is divided amongst the private tenants, the first property (and second) that we seriously looked at were both under a section 20, the expected bill was £10,000 - this was not reflected in the asking price. London property is an evil bugger, so don't even expect to use this as a bargaining tool, people in London do not understand the word!

Remember when looking at properties in London that certain types of property require specialist mortgages or cash buyers - properties that fall into this category are properties above commercial properties or high rise blocks. So check and see if you qualify, I would highly recommend that nobody considers this option, as there are so few mortgage providers, you will probably get shafted!

With regards to the above paragraph - always remember the SEVEN FLOOR RULE - never buy over seven floors, this has something to do with structural soundness of council buildings built in 70's / 80's. Also, remember if your building has a lift and it is buggered, you will be footing a share of the bill.

~Some other points to consider when viewing properties~

1. Make sure you park your car in a secure bay (don't listen to the agent, read the signs) or get a visitors permit off the agent/vendor - we went to view a property and were looking out the window to see what sort of view you got and noticed the towing man backing towards our car. The lady who owned the property had made us take our shoes off - so we flew out the door trying to put our shoes on, on the way down! We managed to save the car, but the women leaned out the window waving some visitor permits!

2. Make sure the tenant will actually let you in & is not about to call the police on you - we went to view a property, the first time round we couldn't get in, so we went back later in the day, the agent was understandably annoyed as he was being shown up, and was banging on the door and windows of the flat (the flat was let and managed by the agent so he had rights of access to the property), a window cracks open "what the f*** do you want, I'm having a f***ing shower" to which the agent says his bit and suddenly the lights go off. We are wondering what to do when the door flies open and a guy is standing there shouting abuse at the agent, agent tries to explain that Larry (other tenant) has said it is ok to go in and look around to which we get the reply "who the f*** is Larry?!" grab agent and forcibly push him out the way whilst threatening to call the police

3. Make sure you can actually look in all the rooms - a lot of the ex-council properties are let out to multiple tenants and they have locks on their doors, we went to a flat where we could not look in any bedrooms as all the tenants were out - yes we are going to take this one just because you mr agent are telling us it is a good sized room!

~Taking the next step - the second viewing~

The second viewing is all about the head, and not the heart. When you are in the flat again, trust your instincts. I have listed a couple of things to get the ball rolling:

1. Check the quality of the flooring and skirting, are you going to need to do it again or can you live with it?

2. Has the vendor just slapped a load of white paint over everything? It is going to be a nightmare stripping wall paper (trust me - groan!)

3. Turn on a couple of taps and the shower, how is the water pressure?

4. Check the stove and oven - do they work?

5. Check their fuse box, boiler, etc etc

If the vendor is about, don't be shy about asking them questions, like why they are moving, what they think of the area etc etc, a lot of the time, they will be really honest - a vendor told us that they had lived in their flat for 8 years, but had recently had problems with the family upstairs - their son joined the ASBO Krew!

Don't go back with the agent to the office, walk to the closest tube/bus stop and make your own way home, it might be a 5 min walk to the closest tube station....down "rape a date" alley.

Try and arrange your viewing at a different time of day, if you go during a week day, see how quite it is - clearly everyone works, good sign! Try and arrange a late viewing too, seeing what the estate is like when darkness hits and all the little sh*ts are back from school. Another one that we did was go for a drink in the local pub and then walk to the place you are looking at after kicking out time!

~OK you lurve it, put an offer in~

This sounds stoopid, but I told you all these stories are true - make sure the person actually wants to sell their place!

If at all possible get a buyers contract - I hear Kirsty Allslut erhem, slop talking about this all the time, but they are near enough impossible to get in the UK.

We got stung on the first property that we put an offer in, which was accepted, our solicitor started work and kept saying she was waiting on the other side. After 3 months I started getting annoyed and started really pushing, our solicitor later told us she had received no correspondence from the other side and that the other solicitor had not even been informed of the sale, we were pretty much ready to exchange on our side, save a few gaps - so we were charged for that nice eh?

The key to getting your property in London, I think, is decide how much you want the property, can you live without it if you loose it?

Property moves so quickly in London, that if you are genuinely serious about making an offer, don't mess around with crazy low offers, there is not much room for manoeuvre. If you mess around then someone else may get in before you. The property that we ended up with was on the market for 4 days before we took it, we saw it on the first day and had it by the fourth - not without having to see off some competition I might add!

I have heard that agents are now obliged to tell you if an offer has been made on a property, so you can decide there and then whether you want to put in a higher offer, there are quite a few cases of properties going for above asking recently. Just be careful about getting into a bidding war, can be a bit like ebay, plus with the money that you are spending doesn't feel like real money, so be warned!

OK so option 1, don't mess around, get a serious offer in, maybe about 4 under the asking (will probably be rejected but hey, you don't ask you don't get)

option 2 (which we are playing with another property at the moment) - go in seriously low, obviously your offer will get rejected, and then go back in with a calculated offer and make sure it is a random number (obviously just don't pluck it out the sky), but make sure it isn't rounded up. Tell them it is your last offer and then walk away and watch them squirm.

I should add only do option 2 if you are sure about what you are doing, the property that we are offering on has been on the market for 6 weeks (ridiculous amount of time for a property), it is a proper fixer upper, there is a lot of work to be done and we believe that it is on way over the actual price of the place - but get this the vendor is not even willing to negotiate, he was offered 3K under asking first week on the market and rejected it....this is the best bit he is making over 100% profit as he bought it from the council four years ago for £9,000 - yes nine thousand pounds!

~Sitting back and waiting~

Ok I should try and wrap this up now, but basically your offer has been accepted, make sure you keep on top of your solicitor, for a first time buy, with no chain, exchange should take about 4 weeks maximum.

***Learn the name of your solicitor's secretary, as whenever the solicitor picks up the phone, it costs you around £15. Ask the secretary, all they are doing is reading from a file!

Ok guys, ten to five, time to go home - hope this has been of some help to you x


*also on ciao*

Summary: ahhh gwon! x