The House Thread

[Josh]

We exchanged on our house yesterday with a moving date of next Monday. First time buyers so it's nice to get started and get a house we love. Buying a house is the fucking pits though, solicitors are cunts and sellers are cunts. Our estate agent was quite nice though and pretty helpful.

We are keeping our rental place for a month so we can get into the house and repaint the entire place, sand and finish all the floors, fit a new bathroom and other jobs that need doing. Going to be extremely busy the next month but it will be so worth it to have our own place and be able to have it exactly how we want it.

Anyone else buying/looking?

[Chris]

Bought our first house last month, completely agreed about Solicitors being cunts. We were buying a new build and they still managed to nearly fuck it up. We ended up only having 3 days to get everything moved and then were going on holiday the week after moving. Meant we were living out of boxes for the first 3 weeks but finally got it all sorted this past weekend.

Quite nice having a new build not having to decorate etc. however there's things you take for granted when moving into a house somebody was in before as they usually leave things like mirrors and curtain poles. Also they didn't even put a TV aerial in .

[Benny]

My friends bought a house in these lush new converted flats/houses (it's weird), costs a fucking fortune though in soliciter fees and at one point they told the estate agents they were pulling out as the place was pissing them about too much, which funnily enough kicked the agents arses into gear and got it sorted that week.

No house buying on my horizon though, unfortunately.

[Chris]

Yeah, we were going to be buying a house before the one which we ended up buying and threatened to pull out 3 or 4 times but never did (the missus really wanted it) when we eventually did pull out as we'd found a different house we wanted they called us the next day saying they were ready to exchange. We told them where to go.

[Magic]

Estate agents are cunts too.

We bought last March, it was horrible. Its worth double what the flat was, so we subsequently doubled the mortgage, doubled insurance, doubled energy, doubled maintenance blah blah blah.

Let me tell you a 4.5% rate on a 40 year mortgage is not good.

Hoping to change to a much, much lower one when that fixed rate comes up in March, maybe a shorter term too. I've been overpaying this one slightly just to help.

[Benny]

Yeah, we were going to be buying a house before the one which we ended up buying and threatened to pull out 3 or 4 times but never did (the missus really wanted it) when we eventually did pull out as we'd found a different house we wanted they called us the next day saying they were ready to exchange. We told them where to go.

Aye, it's a racket.

Last year they put the deposit down for the place, was told it would take a month or two to finish off (they were very newly built, with 'just the electrics' to fix), it got to June/July time and they still hadn't moved in. The final straw, and what shows it wasn't just them that they were dicking about, was when the company told them the annual maintenance fees would have to be raised due to the number of purchasers dropping. My friends promptly told them to get fucked and pulled out, the company who actually did the build rang to ask why they'd pulled out and basically sold the estate agents up the river for being lying cunts.

[Demerit]

Estate agents are cunts too.

[Magic]

I didn't think I could back my claim up but there you go.

[Josh]

Estate agents are cunts too.

We bought last March, it was horrible. Its worth double what the flat was, so we subsequently doubled the mortgage, doubled insurance, doubled energy, doubled maintenance blah blah blah.

Let me tell you a 4.5% rate on a 40 year mortgage is not good.

Hoping to change to a much, much lower one when that fixed rate comes up in March, maybe a shorter term too. I've been overpaying this one slightly just to help.

That is a high interest rate! Ours isn't as high as that and we are ftb's. We have started with a 30 year mortgage and that's scary enough.

Stamp duty can suck my chode too. £4000 just on that.

[Demerit]

I didn't think I could back my claim up but there you go.

Technically I'm not an estate agent, I'm a businessman. So I'll let you off.

[Chris]

That is a high interest rate! Ours isn't as high as that and we are ftb's. We have started with a 30 year mortgage and that's scary enough.

Stamp duty can suck my chode too. £4000 just on that.

How much! What did you buy, a mansion?! We started on a 35 year mortgage I think, we're on about 2.5%, but that is variable.

[Demerit]

That is a high interest rate! Ours isn't as high as that and we are ftb's. We have started with a 30 year mortgage and that's scary enough.

Stamp duty can suck my chode too. £4000 just on that.

Stamp duty is pretty ludicrous but it's better than the yearly land tax system in the states.

[Matt]

Bought last December, wont be doing it again in a hurry. Solicitors and sellers were cunts, everything just dragged on and on for no reason, the sellers had already moved out. Then the day before we were due to complete the bank altered our mortgage offer and we had to pay another £7.5k on the deposit. Luckily we had it as we had some money saved to sort out the garden and to go towards starting to convert the cellar but take about stressful.

On the plus side it dropped the interest rate on the mortgage to 2.89% i think

Cellar conversion has now fallen behind a wedding in the pecking order as well though unfortunatley

[Josh]

How much! What did you buy, a mansion?! We started on a 35 year mortgage I think, we're on about 2.5%, but that is variable.

280k for the house. 3 bed detached here in bury St edmunds.

[Josh]

Bought last December, wont be doing it again in a hurry. Solicitors and sellers were cunts, everything just dragged on and on for no reason, the sellers had already moved out. Then the day before we were due to complete the bank altered our mortgage offer and we had to pay another £7.5k on the deposit. Luckily we had it as we had some money saved to sort out the garden and to go towards starting to convert the cellar but take about stressful.

On the plus side it dropped the interest rate on the mortgage to 2.89% i think

Cellar conversion has now fallen behind a wedding in the pecking order as well though unfortunatley

Yeah our chain was only 3 long and you wouldn't believe the delays. Conveyancing needs to be looked into my some governing body or something. I can't think of another industry that blanket treats their customers like shit and gets away with it as they all do it.

[Demerit]

In the process of refurbishing a house, bought it at auction last year for £197,500 as it was subsiding.

Had a result because it was a drains issue which was resolved for a few thousand rather than a £30,000 underpinning job.

Lined up a tenant for it to move in early November then will look at re-mortgaging in the spring as it'll be worth circa £365,000 at that point (£340,000 now) and buying the next one.

Property development is easy.

[Demerit]

Yeah our chain was only 3 long and you wouldn't believe the delays. Conveyancing needs to be looked into my some governing body or something. I can't think of another industry that blanket treats their customers like shit and gets away with it as they all do it.

It's because they get paid regardless.

And you can't make it so that they're incentivised to make sure the transaction completes because it would be a conflict of interests.

What needs to happen is for the entire process to be revolutionised and for all surveys, searches and enquiries to be raised and answered before an offer is accepted. Then on acceptance of the offer you exchange contracts and set a completion date.

It's how it works absolutely everywhere else. But we English are tight cunts and don't want to pay anything upfront because we're used to not having to.

They tried to introduce it with HIP packs but they only did half the job and people were still unprepared the pay a few hundred quid for those to be produced.

Estate Agents get 90% of the blame when the shit hits the fan, but it's the solicitors that fuck things up most of the time.

[Josh]

Our estate agent was very helpful and seemed to be the only one that wanted the exchange to happen. It is very strange the way it works in the UK

The first thing that might help is entering this century and actually using a web based portal for all enquiries, searches and surveys. The amount of times queries were raised by sending a letter was ridiculous.

[Magic]

Ours was clueless, our solicitor was excellent on the other hand.

[igor_balis]

This is the state of the kitchen when I came back after a few weeks back home.

[SvN]

The fact that you actually videoed it is pretty hilarious.

[igor_balis]

Is it?

[Andy]

In the process of refurbishing a house, bought it at auction last year for £197,500 as it was subsiding.

Had a result because it was a drains issue which was resolved for a few thousand rather than a £30,000 underpinning job.

Lined up a tenant for it to move in early November then will look at re-mortgaging in the spring as it'll be worth circa £365,000 at that point (£340,000 now) and buying the next one.

Property development is easy.

Property development is easy, finding the right place is the hard bit. Sounds like you where incredibly lucky about the subsidence issue.

I tarted up a house for someone last year who bought the house for the land and three years down the lines wa going to knock the house down a build a massive great place. After I spent a month there (decorating, new bathrooms, some electrics, new worktops and some tilling) he had the house valued and the agent said it was worth 45-50k more.

[Magic]

The fact that you actually videoed it is pretty hilarious.

Not only that but he went through making a new YouTube account and uploading it, just for this. What a fucking fart of a human being.

[Magic]

Actually guys, here's what we need done:

New Eaves and Guttering: £2-3,000
New Kitchen: £7,000
New Bathroom: £5,000 (?)
New Flooring and carpets throughout: £1,500 (?)
New Boiler eventually: £3,000
Upstairs Rear windows replaced: £1,000

I'm just thinking, there's no way we'll get all this back. So do we just sit tight, pay the mortgage off and then buy again? Only issue is that's another £7k for moving (fees, stamp etc) plus a bigger mortgage and all the hassle.

But we could buy somewhere that needs nothing done.

EDIT: It doesn't NEED done, the only thing that needs done is the Eaves but everything else is tired and 90s style.

[Andy]

£12,000 for a bathroom and kitchen is nuts, you could something really nice for half that down here.

Unless you want top end stuff like solid oak or granite that's ridiculous.

[Giggles]

Me and the Mrs had a long chat the other night and both came to the conclusion that we will never own a house in this country as it's impossible currently. So we have decided to quit saving for it and put more money into the wedding and honeymoon and take things from there.

[Magic]

£12,000 for a bathroom and kitchen is nuts, you could something really nice for half that down here.

Unless you want top end stuff like solid oak or granite that's ridiculous.

Why is it ridiculous? New (and additional units), new oven, tiling, flooring, new sink, lighting etc

The £6,000 for bathroom was just a guess by the way, I'm not sure how much a bathroom would cost.

[Josh]

We are spending 3.5k on our new bathroom which is a complete refit including underfloor heating, separate bath and shower and heated mirrors etc. This is without fitting as we are doing that ourselves but £6k seems a lot considering we are going for a comprehensive refit.

Also budgeted 3.5k on a kitchen refit (painting cupboards instead of new ones though) including new solid oak worktops and range cooker, new washer dryer, dishwasher and new flooring and tiling. So if you were to do a complete refit it wouldnt be much more than that. Helps to me able to do it yourself though (or know family who can).

[Magic]

I'm just going off my mate spending 6k on what seemed to me to be a pretty small and average looking bathroom.

But 3k sounds better. Still a drop in the ocean compared to all the stuff we need to spend. I also forgot to mention the removal of a load-bearing wall at circa £1,000.

[Josh]

I added info on a kitchen in an edit too Magic in case you missed it.

[Magic]

Yeah we'd definitely be paying labour costs.

[Pepe]

I like Moloko.

[Magic]

I've just checked and we'd need to spend another £53,000 to buy a house (allbeit detached) in better condition than ours in this area. But we won't add £20,000 to our house value with all that work, maybe £10,000 at the most. Hmm.

[igor_balis]

I only videoed it to show you lot, and the youtube channel is an old one I hadn't used until now. Cunts.

[Magic]

This is like that time I videod my boiler condensate pipe fix when it was like -25C outside.

Despite all my band videos, it was the most viewed video by a fucking mile on my account.

[igor_balis]

Next time I see something a bit messy in my flat I can guarantee I won't be sharing it with you ungrateful pricks.

[phonics]

I liked it igor.

I didn't actually but I'm in standing by people mode after last night.

[igor_balis]

Cheers Phonics, you cunt. I thought I had your collective psyche somewhat worked out, but clearly chat about mortgage rates and itemised kitchen costs are favoured over my excellent homemade videos. So much yet to learn.

[Toby]

I thought a video was the best way to show the state of the place, which is disgusting btw. I wasn't very clear, is that how you left it before going away or is that what has happened in your absence? Either way, somebody needs shooting.

[Chris]

So as part of our buying a new house we have to produce a "snag list" of all things that we need the builders to come back and look at. Has anyone had any experience with this before? What kind of things should be included, for example they've left quite a lot of splashed paint over the patio doors now we could just clean it off ourselves in maybe half an hour, but the missus dad thinks we should get them back to do it. His thoughts were you wouldn't buy a new car with paint on it so why would you a house.

[wullie]

If you've got a warranty on a new house use it at every opportunity and get every tiny imperfection looked at. Her dad has it right.

[igor_balis]

I thought a video was the best way to show the state of the place, which is disgusting btw. I wasn't very clear, is that how you left it before going away or is that what has happened in your absence? Either way, somebody needs shooting.

Both really. It was a tip when I moved in, a tip before I went on holiday, and the video shows what it was like when I got home. One of the two flatmates is an old friend and I'm the newcomer, so at first I tried to be subtle and jokey about telling him to sort it out, but obviously that didn't work.

I tried to be a bit more firm when I got back - I said tidy the fucking kitchen cus I can't cook food in there, but he just said that there was some clean stuff in the cupboard, so I could really. I guess he got me on a technicality. I said I didn't give a shit, it was disgusting. Four hours later he'd like, cleaned 3 plates, leaving the rest of it there. I feel like I'm being trolled in real life, and I know the obvious answer is to move out or kick his head in, but I've known this cunt since we were 5. Not sure what to do, really.

[Demerit]

So as part of our buying a new house we have to produce a "snag list" of all things that we need the builders to come back and look at. Has anyone had any experience with this before? What kind of things should be included, for example they've left quite a lot of splashed paint over the patio doors now we could just clean it off ourselves in maybe half an hour, but the missus dad thinks we should get them back to do it. His thoughts were you wouldn't buy a new car with paint on it so why would you a house.

Literally every minute detail no matter how much of a cunt you feel.

The quality of the finish on a new build is the most important thing when it comes to preserving and building the value.

[Chris]

Thanks, I'll get extending the list then.

[AE]

Stamp duty is pretty ludicrous but it's better than the yearly land tax system in the states.

Property tax is an absolute pain, most people forget to put that into their calculations.

[Andy]

Thanks, I'll get extending the list then.

Everything and anything, the tradesmen who come in wont be pissed off as it is something that happens on every job.

[Magic]

@Andy how much for a joiner do you think to fit some custom wardrobe doors? Nothing fancy.

[Andy]

£200-£300 I would have thought.

[Magic]

Seriously? Surely it can't take any more than an hour to fit and maybe 1-2 hours to build? Materials = fuck all so shouldn't be any more than £150?