Things I Didn't Know About Buying a House as a First Timer
Tom and I bought a house back in November 2021 for the first time and so I thought I'd write about everything that we learnt throughout the process that we wouldn't have known prior to buying the house in the first place.
A lot of these sorts of things come out either while the conveyancers are working on your case or when you first put the offer in on the house. So if you're looking to buy a house at some point soon, then here are a few things you can expect that you might not have thought about or been aware of beforehand.
Let me also just say that this is our experience of the first time buyer process. Your experience might have been different or will be different from ours, so just take this with a pinch of salt as every case will differ. I've included points that most first time buyers will come across at some point or you might have certain decisions to make that I've included in this.
You need more than just your house deposit
As a first time buyer, you need to save up a deposit that's often tens of thousands of pounds and that's just as a down payment on the house itself, so to speak. You'll also need an extra £1,400/£1,600 pounds to pay your conveyancer fees and then a further few hundred pounds to go towards your first mortgage payment (we'll get to that in a minute). It's important to factor this in before going down the sale route and only once all of your finances are in order can you proceed, hopefully without any hiccups money-wise.
You don't need a mortgage broker
We went through a mortgage broker to apply for the mortgage on our behalf and that's all we wanted the broker to do. But in hindsight, we probably could have done it all ourselves as the mortgage rates through the broker weren't any different to what the banks were offering the average person. But we managed to get a significant discount after telling them that and they did apply for the mortgage for us online.
However, there was a mistake on the form when the paperwork came back so that elongated the process further. They also tried to push several insurance products onto us which we weren't interested in as they were ridiculously-priced. Eventually, we put our foot down on all of that and explicitly said that we don't want any insurance products, just the mortgage application completing.
After several attempts at trying to change our minds, the broker eventually got the message but it was a very stressful experience looking back, having the deal with the broker themselves which wasn't what we were expecting as we'd heard good things from other people about the brokers they had used.
So like I said, in hindsight, we could have applied for the mortgage ourselves but it was a good option for us as we both work full time so wouldn't have been able to juggle buying a house, filling in all the paperwork and do our own work all at the same time.
Anyway, what I'm saying is you don't have to have a mortgage broker, no matter how hard the estate agent tries to push it on you. Stand your ground and go with what you think is best for you at the time. It's also important to note that brokers can be extremely expensive, so it's worth weighing up the pros and cons of using one if you're on the fence about paying that sort of money for this particular service.
The solicitor works for you
It's very easy for you to start the conveyancer ball rolling and then to leave everything with them until they have updates for you, but don't do that. Your conveyancer or solicitor, whichever one you've chosen, works for you. You have a right to be kept in the loop at all times. They should do all of the paperwork for you until they have something for you to sign , for example.
If you're feeling like they aren't working fast enough, give them a call and ask them what the situation is with your case. If there are delays, ask them why there are delays. Ask them what isn't being done, hasn't yet been done and what has been done. You're paying for this service and, often, it needs to be done within a certain timeframe - your timeframe.
The thing is, you could have the best solicitor in the world and the one holding things up could be the buyers' solicitor. You need to understand that there's only so much your conveyancer can do, up to a point, and, often, the things they can't do much about will be out of their hands entirely so it's important that you understand the situation before getting too frustrated.
You also shouldn't demand things from them or tell them how to do their job because they're professionals. Tell them what you want, give them a prospective completion date and they'll do their utmost to work to that. But just remember that, again, they work for you and you need to be regularly updated with any progress made.
Viewing houses isn't actually that much fun
When you go to view your first house, the prospect of it is quite exciting, but after looking around and talking to the owners, especially during the Covid times, it's not all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes it can be disheartening. We saw about 16/17 different properties and of all of that we only felt right in one of them and so we put an offer in.
But after viewing that many, it can make you rather fed up. You wonder whether you'll ever find anything that's right for you, but eventually, we did. As much as you think you won't find a house that you feels good to you, you will at some point just just stick at it.
The first mortgage payment will be hugely inflated
You think that your first mortgage payment will be what's quoted in your paperwork, but it won't be. Depending on when you complete the sale, you could be landed with pretty much the double that to pay. It's all worked out on interest rates from the bank.
The interest will be calculated over the course of the month and, depending on your completion date, you'll end up paying back the interest on the days you've missed. I know that doesn't make much sense but your lender should be able to talk you through it all.
Ask them how the first mortgage payment works and you'll see what I mean. Basically, my best advice to you is to complete as close to the start of the month as possible. We completed on the 2nd of the month so we only had one/two days interest to pay in our first mortgage payment.
You do NOT want to complete mid-month or towards the end of the month as this is when the amount you owe will rocket. Unless you have no choice, ask for a completion date that's as close to the start of the month as possible.
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I hope you found this blog post useful. Let me know in the comments below what your experience was like buying your first house and whether you have any further points to make. I'll see you again soon with a brand new blog post :)
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