Owning your own home

We are an interesting dilemma, we are looking to sell our 2 bed flat in SE London and move to a 3 bed near the sea. If we sold our flat for the going rate we could purchase the seaside home mortgage free but it wouldn't leave us any cash we have emergency cash but not much. If we took a small mortgage but then we would have some money left over for from the sell of our house which we could invest into a pension. I'm keen to just go mortgage free and figure out the pension part later, wife isn't that keen.

Not specific to mortgages, and obviously ignores the safety-net side of things, but people always say pay off debts before adding to savings, since no savings account will accrue more interest than you are adding to the debt

I imagine you could take a small mortgage out at any time, should you need it?

Help2Buy ISA users.. i cant seem to find the time taken between solicitor applying and the scheme processing and providing funds

our solicitor has advised us and wants us to sign a thing that says 'if we cant get your ISA processed before completion you will lose out on your bonus'

exchange supposedly tomorrow with completion 2 weeks later, we're still awaiting closing statements from bank for solicitors to actually be able to apply

are we pushing it?

What mortgage are you currently on, and do you know what the early repayment charges are? I'm wondering about the same thing, but haven't yet figured out how much it will cost me in real terms.

We were in roughly the same boat as you last year and decided that a regular mortgage payment that we were used to paying was easier than trying to save and freed up an immediate block of cash for furnishing the house/repaying some debt/investing/emergency fund.
The current investment (S&S ISA) return % is over 6x the mortgage interest %, so we’re approx cost neutral for the year (if not slightly ahead). It’s not a pension and we’re not risk averse so YMMV.
I can see the appeal of mortgage free though, if we hadn’t needed to repay a family mortgage as well, we probably would have on balance.

I've had a look back in our email with our solicitor as we had quite a kerfuffle over this a while back, this is

With regards the help to buy ISAs you need to each sign a first time buyer's declaration, as attached, and supply me with a closing statement for the ISAs.

I am only able to submit my application to the government for payment of the ISA amount, with bonus, once I have these documents from you, which I am happy to receive by scan.

The government gives a timeframe of 30 calendar days for the monies to be released. The monies can be only used for completion (not for the deposit for exchange), but this can usually be expedited. I must have the monies in advance of completion, otherwise the monies must be returned.

It is important that I have these documents just as soon as possible, so that I can immediately submit my applications, so that there is every chance that your intended completion date of 8th June can be met.

What type of roof insulation are they quoting for? Rolled insulation above ceiling joists at first floor or insulation in the rafters as the latter is quite expensive

Oh jeez, 30 days?!

Thats not good

they haven't given a spec apart from 150mm insulation I'll ask what type.

thanks for the reply

Our current mortgage runs out in December so we are looking keen to find something by then.

Doesn’t actually take that long. We must have been one of the first few in the country to apply for our bonus since the scheme started and it took a couple of days. Would have thought processes would be quicker and lenders/conveyancer a more familiar with the process by now...

This was what I was think, as a when/if we need to we could remortgage further down the line.

Pretty sure that will be rolled insulation. Google 150mm rockwool roll loft insulation and you'll see a bunch of product the standard I normally see specified is the Knauf stuff here which to be honest is pretty cheap. I'd get yourself the basic area where its going to be laid then just work out how many rolls you need and go off their price. Definitely worth getting 3 estimates from 3 different companies just to get a price in mind.

Thing is I recall our solicitor offering to expedite it for a fee, then circumstances changed and we were prepared to wait. When it did go through it was pretty fast without any additional intervention from solicitor.

yeah it's via an estate agent as they are managing the place as we rent it while we are out the country so gonna chase them up for a few more quotes wasn't sure if it was way off and they were taking the piss. 👍

I do think £800 is a little much for loft roll! Be good to see what they said with other quotes

Thanks all, hopefully these closing statements hurry the hell up

Thought current Building Regs was minimum 270mm?

We did our loft space a few months back, AU$900 fitted...

Had an electrician round today to quote for power points and a new fuse box, we were thinking about getting solar but our sparky says our bills are too low to warrant it... I work with his wife so we got an honest answer out of him... Cheap quote, well happy, bit sick of tripping over extension cords... The electrics in this place have barely been touched since it was built in the early 60s...

Ive exchanged!

Congrats!

Comgrats!

Wahooooo congrats champ.

Thats for new build, as this is existing and just to increase the efficiency every little helps