Owning your own home

See this item, the Atlant kit:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20215523/
You need it for the little plastic rectangle, seal and hose which connects the overflow to the rest. Everything else is shit and should be thrown away. The trap is a piss-poor design and leaks like a sieve, and it is completely incompatible with standard UK waste pipes. Go to a plumbers merchant and buy a normal basket strainer that connects to a standard bottle trap or u bend, and a single or double appliance attachment as needed.

Cool. Ta.

I just told my boss about my ongoing internet woes at home and she said "send Alan Ford round" and sent me this:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tAGlUUAmjxk

Might get him to have a word with our builders.

Amazing

After starting the hunt in August '14 and one house falling through right at the end, we finally exchanged on our place today. Easily the most stressful thing I've done.

Congrats.

Our purchase has dragged on for what seems like forever (offer accepted last July). So long that our mortgage offer expired, was extended then expired again. We held on to our offer on the place because we have yet to see anywhere near that size (4 bed) within that distance (between Beckenham & Catford) for the price (£205k). The vendors have wasted most of the time pitting unrealistic offers in on places after the first one fell through but have kept our initial offer to them live.

They have finally got an offer accepted on somewhere out in Edith so we have kicked back in to gear again.

The main thing I was worried about was having to apply for a mortgage from scratch. Even though we are in a better place financially than when we first applied and our solicitor has our deposit and all the fees paid from back when we first thought we were going to exchange in October, our spending of late hasn't exactly been frugal so I was concerned the new(ish) MMR regs might scupper us.

However, our IFA went back to the original lender with whom he had already discussed our position to get the first extension, and got us a brand new deal. 0.2% lower and fixed for a further year compared to the first mortgage offer. He did this within about 2 hours. I just said go, and he went!

It's still not a certainty by any means, our vendor's purchase could still go awry but it's progress nonetheless.

I had actually emailed an estate agent to arrange a viewing of another flat that is half the size and £30k more just this week. I really hope we get the first one.

It will need a bit of work but fuck me, 4 bedrooms.

^ is it in downham?

I’m starting to view houses this weekend - is there any point in getting a mortgage in principle now if I intend to use a broker? I’ve read that vendors will take you more seriously if you have a MIP but I’m not sure if I should bother seeing as the credit rating takes a hit and when the time comes I may end up having to apply to a different lender anyway. FWIW my credit rating should be pretty good, I’m a FTB and I’m pretty sure I’ll pass the affordability checks so I should be able to get things moving pretty quickly when I find somewhere I’m interested in, so I guess I could just fib if a vendor asks whether I have a mortgage sorted out. Also I’m in the Northern wastelands so there’ll be none of the South-East market craziness to contend with.

Worth speaking to an IFA as they can give you a pretty good indication of what mortgages you can afford/will be approved for.

Next to Beckenham Hill station

Some banks only do soft checks for MIPs (like my bank halifax)

Agreement in Principal only leaves a "soft footprint" (industry term) on your credit record.
It only shows that you applied for one and does not show whether you were successful or not. It has no impact either way on your credit rating.

Turning the AIP into a full mortgage application and getting knocked back - that will leave a minus mark on the credit rating.

So yeah, speak to an IFA and make sure that when you put a mortgage application in it is a dead cert.

Nice one cheers all!

wow that is crazy cheap for so close to Beckenham. Can I have the deets so i can gazump you? ;)

some estate agents won't even entertain your offer unless you have an AIP. trust me i've sat with my mate and the estate agent was like 'look mate we need to protect the vendor and have had too many chancers turn up and not able to proceed'. so yeh get the AIP then go window shopping.

Yeah sure, the number is 07854gofuckyourself

;)

Shit agent. If you want to make an offer they should be giving that to the vendor. If they are like that from the start I wouldnt be interested in going any further with the process.

that will leave a minus mark on the credit rating.

That somewhat depends on the lender's proprietary scoring methodology - The credit record itself is neutral.

One of the estate agents round here won't even show you places unless you've got a mortgage lined up, dicks.

Because reasons, mortgage agreements in principle have become much less of a thing over the last few months. Talk to a good IFA, but basically estate agents are unlikely to be asking you for one now as the process is/has been changing.

It's just one of them, we just didn't look round their houses.

Because they're lazy money grabbing cunts. The single worst example of a sales person. Profiting off and not giving a shit about one of the base needs.

mate i think you'll find a lot of vendors stipulate that they won't entertain offers from people if they aren't able to show the colour of their money. anyone can start throwing offers around, but if you want to be taken seriously, get an AIP first. most reputable agents (basically non of them then) require AIP first.

I’m probably missing something really obvious here, and this is only really for the sake of argument as I’ll be meeting with a broker to get all this sorted out soon, but couldn’t one simply lie if asked about an AIP? Am I being very naïve in assuming an Estate Agent wouldn’t insist on proof (and therefore indirectly call one’s honesty into question) in this situation?

I think in the meantime for viewings I’m going to make a fake wad with two tenners and an old phonebook to have poking out of my shirt pocket, and maybe stick the folder I have from an outdated AIP under my arm.