Fist time buyer!!!

[pughee]

My wife and I are planning to buy a house in the not to distant future.  It wuld be our first time and we have no clue wht to do and what it involves.  Could someone help us out?

What are good mortgages to look out for?  What costs are involved?  We can buy something for around �150-170k.  Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[philandlil]

get some mortgage advice from bradford and bingley they were really helpful when we bought our house 12 months ago. they explain everything and can suggest local solicitors to use and they find you the best deal for the type of  mortgage you are after, they also sort out all the insurance you need.

[pughee]

B&B huh?  Yeah, heard that they are good.  WHat about Nationwide?  Do you know much about them?

[AliFlump]

We bought our first house in November last year and we used a company called Mortgage Talk they find the best mortgage for you, sort out the solicitors and do just about anything else you need. It really helped us as there was no need to go from bank to bank looking for the best deal. We are in Yorkshire and im not sure if they will be near you but if you can find a company like that it will halp you a great deal.

[Octavius]

There are lots of options for mortgages, all offering various things.  You should make a few appointments and shop around for the deal that best suits you and your budget.

Repayment/Interest only/endowments/buy to lets etc

Then you have fixed rate/discounted.

You will have to pay for a mortgage arrangement fee (depends on the lender - say �400), a mortgage survey of the property (�300), plus a full independant building survey (which I would recommend at say �450), plus solicitors fees which can be up to �1,000.  On a �150k house you will pay stamp duty at 1% (�1,500).

Solicitors will probably charge you �350 plus VAT for the conveyancing itself.  Added to this are the associated costs eg Search fees, Land Registry fees, electronic transfer fees. You'd normally pay these through the solicitor and you're easily looking at least �600 plus VAT, all in, on a �100,000 house purchase.  All in all, this adds up to around �5-6k.  Plus usually you will need to have a deposit of around 5% of the property price as most mortgages are lent at 95%.  

On a �150k mortgage don't be surprised to learn that after 25 years you would have paid well over �300k.

Best advice - shop around for what is best for YOU.  Here is a website which compares mortage offers and is updated daily - also some good advice if you search through the various advice pages.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgagefinder

[philandlil]

b&b cover a wide range of mortgage lenders including nationwide. our mortgage is with northern rock which was the cheapest rate for us because of our age at the time (under 25). mortgage advice is free so just go into branches of banks & building societys and ask for some. avoid getting mortgage advice from estate agents though because they try and railroad you into buying a house from their branch.

[willowman]

With regards to all the other details in buying a property, WHICH publications used to sell a book called "The Which guide to buying and selling a house".

If you can get hold of a copy it's a brilliant investment, as it covers everything you will need to know. I moved house a year ago and still used my twenty year old copy for advice

[pughee]

Wow....thanks for all your help.