Be Excellent To Each Other

You know how the housing market is supposed to be on its arse, and the banks aren't willing to lend money?
Apparently Halifax think I can afford a £532,000 mortgage... over half a million pounds.... Ahahahahah! No.

I was concerned about getting enough cash for the money I want to spend, let alone that ludicrous amount. No worries on that front!

Even spending a more reasonable amount of cash, it looks like i'll need to buy a new build to be able to get a 95% mortgage, which is a tad limiting in options, however 95% mortgages becoming available and banks willing to lend huge amounts. I can't see how that could fail to help the economy, can you?

Since 2008 they've been forced to move from ltv and income multiples as a pure test to affordability criteria. Thing is, with mortgage rates so low, they're very very affordable, currently...

Also Halifax online checker =! Underwriter opinion after you've spent 3 weeks waiting...

True, but this was an advisor I spoke to on the phone, which is halfway between the underwriter and online checker in terms of validity, I expect?

Nah. Advisor is just mashing the same app as on the website in my experience last autumn. Still got there but frustrating.

I just assumed they had a bit more experience in mashing buttons and would know how likely it was to be accepted.

What does affordability criteria mean here exactly? I've got half an eye on this kind of thing because I've got a nice wee flat I don't want and haven't been able to shift mostly because it's been harder for first time buyers to get mortgages in the last few years.

You'll still be screwed (same as me with the house up north) as the current crop of 95% mortgages are only for new build properties.

Income va budgeted outgoings excluding rent,then they take a percentage of the difference as a mortgage payment then reverse engineer it to work out what mortgage level that payment would support.

They also benchmark your budget to other people like you, and if they think that you're talking shite will ask to see bank statements to support it. Of course I anticipated this, had a dull a fuck frugal 3 months (no poker. No casino!) and they didn't bat an eyelid despite us being at the boundary of the website box limits.

I'd also be wary of homebuy, we avoided it with some cunning shenanigans, but there's no guarantee that if you're midterm and something happens which requires you to sell at a loss (and you have to factor in a 10% loss on a new build the moment you drive it out the showroom) that you can achieve it. Dunno whether there is a better safety net on the new scheme.

However, at least the new scheme explicitly lets you part ex. (Old version didn't say you could, which lenders took to mean that you couldn't, which was later proved incorrect) Apropos of which, we part ex'd our flat at 240 and the builder only got 220 for it. And we had no selling costs or issues as a result. Winwinwin

Oh, finally, if you are seriously looking at a newbuild, make sure you ask about the estate charge early doors. Some of them bitches be big. My sister is paying £3k a year when she owns a freehold, and it really wasn't disclosed outside of missives, at which point it was too far down the road to pull out for them (although they'd still have bought it, to be fair)

Part ex is really the only we we would be looking to move at the moment, if we can't do that, then I expect we'll just chill for a couple of years, pay down a bit more on the flat and save up a bigger deposit. I owe about 157 on the flat and one has just gone up for 160, so depending on what they deem as "100% market value" I might be able to get out for break even at best, or a couple of k. Any more than that and it probably isn't worth it unless the builder needs to sell and is willing to do a very good deal.

The newbuy scheme is basically the 95% mortgages of old, but with a government guarantee for the lender in case of default, so it isn't any worse risk wise than the old high LTV mortgages.

You could be surprised. Our flat had been up for 240, reduced to 220 a year before and got no interest. Builders offered us 240 straight out (and they certainly aren't desperate to sell here, everything is moving immediately). However, the estate agents they used to value it were extremely lazy.

I don't care about any of this for me as we comfortably earn enough and have enough of a deposit to buy what we want for ourselves; but I'd like to get rid of my flat before we move from her flat into a house and I'm hampered in that that when (a) no fucker will lend to the section of the market who'd be buying my flat and (b) the value of the flat won't go up due to (a). I'd happily sell it for just enough to pay off the mortgage, or even a few grand less, but the negative equity's more than I can swallow at the moment. Well, it was a year ago anyway, I need to get it valued at some point just to see what the current position is. Preferably somehow without scaring off my tenant as presumably they'll start looking for a new flat if they think I'm about to sell up from under them. Fucking houses, it's a cunt's game.

How long have you been renting it out for? Come 3 years, your mortgage lender will call you and tell you your tenancy agreement has run out and they can't just do another one as that is against policy, would you like a new mortgage? Only 2% more than you are currently paying. If you don't like that, feel free to take your negative equity to another lender...

This reminds me, I need to try and write a letter to the current tenants, to tell them that if they like the place (which they seem to, they were after an 18 month lease) then feel free to make me an offer if they want to buy it.
However, I need to write that in such a way so that they don't think I am going to sell it from under them, or that i'm desperate and they can get it for a pittance.

Also, if they do want it, how I can make sure I don't have to pay a finders fee to the estate agents I rented it out through and who currently manage it!

Maybe we should split all this into a house/mortgages thread, if we don't have one already.

Eh, I never bothered telling my mortgage provider as they were a pain in the arse about it. I just forwarded my mail to my girlfriends house and got on with it. However the royal mail only let you forward your mail for a maximum of two years now and they've just stopped my service so I'm now going to tell my mortgage folks and pretend I'm just starting to rent the place now. I'm glad you've told me this though as now I can start being really angry about it a few years in advance.

Forgot about this point. The issue with homebuy is that if you're in negative equity on a standard mortgage, your provider may let you move and port the mortgage if the size of debt isn't increasing and (particularly) they see the possibility of recouping the debt to be higher in the new place.

On homebuy, they won't, because delinking the mortgage from the new home means they also lose the gov't guarantee, so if your circumstances change, you're stuck. Plus the possibility of negative equity in early years is higher on a new home 95% than an old home 90%.

Fair point. But where would you port to in negative equity? Wherever you go to, even if you could, will be an equally shitty deal in all likelihood.

Ta-Da!

Aside from lying to your mortgage provider, you're lucky nothing happened to your house. Had it burned down, your buildings insurance would not have been valid due to the tenants, and you'd be fuckity fucked with no house and the mortgage still to pay.

So yeah, you also need to get Landlords Buildings insurance. I use CIA insurance. No comparison websites for that, so ringing around is needed.

Why only on new houses? Isn't the lending risk the same for a new or (older) house??

My buildings insurance is provided by the factors of the entire building so doesn't care whether you're renting or not; the building is ensured as a whole regardless. The only thing it cares about is that the flat hasn't lain empty for more than a certain period of time, which it hasn't.

It's to give free money to building firms encourage houses to be built, as there is a shortage.

Yeah I'd check that, because I'm pretty sure failing to declare to the factor that you're not owner-occupier would give them lease to not pay up on your behalf.

Plus an attempt to kick start the economy by employing people to build more houses.

I spoke to a mortgage broker recently because I've decided to buy another place, although I'm still keeping my old one.

He confirmed you're not getting far at 95%, and the best 95% product he could recommend was this:

http://www.money.co.uk/mortgages/mortga ... lusive.htm

The rates there are total shit though and far more expensive than the rest of the market currently. You're better off saving for another 6 months and making sure you've got at least 10% deposit - the market opens right up. That's my plan anyway.

I never looked at new houses as I wanted a decent sized garden and in the south even spending more money than my current house cost me the gardens are not great.
That said I look to be a minority in wanted a big garden. There have been 2 small house development on my street in the last 2 years. In both cases the plots where around twice the size of mine and they built 4 house on each. Most of them sold before they finished building them. So I guess most people these days want smaller gardens

The factor knows I don't live there as I told them that when I changed my contact address with them so that my quarterly bills and other stuff from them comes to my girlfriend's flat. Also, looking at the full insurance document which I requested from them at the time there are various clauses pertaining to being a landlord (e.g. stuff about being covered for loss of rental income if you were renting out your flat at the time something happened to the building itself which meant someone couldn't live there while it was being sorted) so the policy itself is certainly geared towards landlords as well. I'm taking it from all that that I'm covered.

Not really, if the building firm can fit two houses on a plot they can make almost twice the profit. So they do that. And people encourage this by buying them.

You can get a 3.5% mortgage from LloydsTSB if you are already a customer on a 95% deposit. That rate you mentioned is nowhere close to the best you can get.
It's a moot point though, as it depends on the mortgage company the builder is signed with, it isn't an open market at all.

However, getting a 10% deposit will allow you to buy any property, at such giddy rates as 4.5%! i.e. basically the same rates as your would get at 95%. The rates only really drop when you get to the sub 70% range.

There are a few 90% products at 3.99%, going down to 3.29%ish at 85%, but yeah, lower the better. Those are all fairly short term fixed rate details though, and the subsequent SVR is pretty average at 4-4.79%.

I'm still with NRAM, believe it or not, almost purely for their no-penalty unlimited overpayment feature which I don't think anyone else provides at the moment. I overpay by quite a lot and I'd be pissed off if I had any of it stolen by overpayment fees. At the current rate though the mortgage will be done in less than 7 years

I got lucky with the garden in my new house. It's a double plot so it measures 16m x 14m. I look forward to many happy hours in my little green haven.

/brag

Fuck gardens, I'd just pave it all anyway.

There's a building society (a sub-society of Yorkshire) that is offering 2.16% with £295 fee for up-to-65% LTV on a 5 year fix. I've convinced Helen that spending most of her savings, already accruing less interest than her mortgage and getting worse, on reducing her capital debt is a better idea, meaning 50% LTV and between us we can get her term down to 9 years by upping the repayments £50 each over what we already pay.

</smug cunt>

In 2000 I bought a 2 bed flat for 85k, 3 years later I sold it for 150k.

Now, it's possible that I could have been mortgage free by now after that little stint of crazy house prices, but I did the sensible thing instead. I spent the extra cash via remortgaging over those 3 years, paying off my student loan and credit cards, spent 3k on a tv and bought an NSX at 25 years old.

Even now, sitting on the threshold of negative equity on two properties, and one of them rented out for less than the mortgage, I still think I made the right choice

yeah, the profit from buying a house for 32.5k and selling it for 84k went on paying off my ctr loan, changing it for an octy vrs, buying an m3, maintaining an m3, buying a Twingo and buying a 535d.

One day soon I'm going to uphold my promise to myself to refill the savings account.

Stupid and lucky.

Lots to consider in this house buying lark!

The home buy scheme looks to be a total rip off to me, good job we aren't eligible due to having the house up north. 20% paid for by the government, but you have to pay 20% of the value of the house back at the end of the mortgage, plus after 5 years you have to pay fees of 1.75% to start with, and those fees rise by RPI + 1% every year. Plus you can't pay that 20% back in instalments of anything less than 10%, plus if you do want to pay it back in 2 10% instalments, then it is 10% of the value of the property at the time you pay it back, not the amount at which you first borrowed. Jesus.

The newbuy scheme seems a lot more reasonable. In that it is just a 95% mortgage, and available to anyone.

Oh man, found the perfect house.
However unless the valuation of our flat is more than I expect, then pretty much no chance of getting it. Fucking stamp duty is the issue.

Still, after looking at lots of houses today, it has made our mind up. We are going to get the house we absolutely want, and if it can't be this one then we'll just stay where we are for a couple more years and save up some more cash.
No point moving to a place that we aren't 100% happy with.

No compromises, no surrender?

You're the Ian paisley of house buying

Wearing my sensible hat, it'll probably be a good thing if the flat valuation comes back as I expect it to, as otherwise I'll probably buy the house which with that and the wedding it will wipe me out money wise, plus i'll have a mortgage of double the size, so building up a buffer again will be tricky

The best thing that happened for us was being unable to sell in 2011. The plan then was loaded with compromise, and we'd now be living somewhere far worse, if that had come off

We know we won't be in this house until we grow old, but the phase for moving is 5-10 years, which will bring a whole load more options into play when we can reasonably afford then.

For us the plan is that this will be it for a long while, so I'm happier to stretch now rather than move again in a few years.

Monthly it wouldn't actually be too bad, the mortgage payments would be around 30% of our take home, which is perfectly reasonable. We've just been spoiled with a current mortgage which is about 15% and no kids or anything to pay for, so it will be slight reality check. I'll have to learn how to budget again, and stop the tasting menus!

Does not compute. Have you booked Knappett's Kitchen Table for us yet?

I did have a look a week or so ago, but they are booked out for months it seems! A few random days available for 4 people, but thats it as far as I could tell.

One day I intend to live in a house with a swimming pool. And not one of those shit small ones either. A fuck off big one.

And I plan to keep tigers in the grounds who can roam freely.

That is all.

Me, Cras, you and your missus. What's to hesitate?

Cunts.

CORRECT x A BILLION!

+ no other fucker will have any rights whatsoever.