House Buying

Hi Meldy

Used to work for a building society in mortgages so title took my interest

Your question re how long a mortgage offer is guaranteed for?  We may be talking about two different things here if this is connected to the helpful advice re being in stronger position when you want to put an offer in.

A formal mortgage offer is issued once you have had your offer accepted and the address of a property is known i.e a mortgage valuation has been done.

However from most lenders you can get a 'mortgage promise' or 'agreement in principle' which basically is a piece of paper which confirms the amount of money you will be lent based on basic details re income and finances you have given. This 'promise' is subject to the information you have given been checked out once you have found a property.  This normally holds good for 3 months, but may vary from lender to lender.

The benefits of a promise is that is helps demonstrate to an estate agent or seller how serious you are about buying a property and could put you in a better bargaining position and gives you a good indication of the property price range to be looking at .

Hope this helps.Feel free to PM me.

When I got my mortgage, it was a fixed rate deal for 3 years - an offset mortgage with First Direct.

Because it was a deal they said that the offer held for 6 months as "they have made the deal for the funds" or some such language - basically they were saying because we had the offer accepted the funds were "reserved" for 6 months. Whether this is bollocks or not  couldn't say.

At that point the main thing we had to do was to provide them particulars of the house we wanted to buy and away we went. We went from offer to completion in 6 weeks.

One last thing - "Daft" offers are always a good ploy when its vacant posession - could be a son or daughter who want the cash for mum/dads house sharpish and a first time buyer who's not in a chain is a godsend.

We also looked at a couple of repossessions - not the best experience in the world and the issue with those is that even if your offer is accepted the bank reserves the right to pull out at any time if they get a bigger offer - granted anyone could do that but I trust people more than I trust the banks.

Runners needed, unique event, first time ever attempted:

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Them coasters are invading every thread!!

Meldy, I haven't read the thread, but squeeze the vendors balls. I don't care what you hear on the news, it's still a buyers market. Pick 3 or 4 properties, and don't get attached to them until your offer has been accepted. Saving £5K now could save you nearer £15K at the end of your mortgage. For instance, if the property is going for £150K, I wouldn't come in higher than £130K. They will always come back to you.

Some people are up to their neck in debt, they have to sell, full stop.

Find out how long the property has been up for sale. Check with the land registry, for how much the property on that street has recently sold for.

You can use this website to check the values of properties sold.

Very interesting for nosey parkers

Thanks guys


Have just seen that there is a second phase new development inc Key Worker housing and its in the village .. will be a few compromises but certainly worth looking at 40% share

40% share?...What's that?