Owning your own home

Wait for it:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/129052259

heehee. devilishly good bargain that, if included

Brilliant.

I don’t understand though: why did the burglars not take the Taz stash?

.

I thought the Taz puppet business was the 'investment opportunity'

Whats with that giant spider on the wall as well

Ha!

On a similar note, avoid your mortgage statement to save similar scares. When you see how much interest you’re getting charged per day or month it’s feels quite mad.

I don't get this at all.

I pay £300pcm for an interest-only mortgage (we're doing the repayment part separately).

So for £300pcm I get to effectively rent a 3 bed flat in a nice part of London. I don't call that bad at all.

Separately I get to buy the flat interest-free (if you consider the interest component as rent) over 25 years. Not only that, I'm buying it at the price it was when I moved in, not at the price it will be at the end of those 25 years (which will be more than double).

It's a bargain if you think about it that way.

I suppose you have to add on the opportunity cost of the capital you have tied up, but generally I think that's right (especially if you think house prices will double over the next 25 years).

If you're doing a purchase, its on there as an estimate of what the solicitors might charge for the work. This should be accounted for already in your solicitors bill.

For remortgages, the lender will typically either: give you cashback of £250/350/500 so that you can nominate your own solicitors (and they may estimate a figure for conveyancing in the offer or illustration) or offer free legal work (though with supplementary costs if it is not a super straightforward remortgage, freeholder notifications etc etc)

Haven’t tried thinking about it that way. My head mainly goes the way I described. Although now after about 8 months into owning a house, I basically try to not think about it at all.

.

.

The bank will value it at what it’s on the market for. Lower and they wouldn’t lend, higher and you’d be looking at a potentially lower interest rate.

So they won’t tell you, if they think it’s worth a few quid more.

I don’t think it’s worth £200 to find out. It’s irrelevant now until you remortgage, at which point most new lenders will insist on a valuation.

And that’s the point you go in with a high ball and add a fifth or so when applying - let them knock you back down (or not).

Now, more questions, how do I find out what the bank's real valuation of the property is? There is no mention of it and they just said, yap, 218 is fine... I am just nosy really, worth paying the surveyor to do it? It's an added service but is it worth the extra £200?

My old mortgage with Yorkshire BS used to show their indexed valuation of the property on the online servicing page. I think it was a total BS number to get you excited about being about to borrow more though (it was way overstated).

An application being accepted isn't the same as a mortgage offer being issued, the bank will have their own valuation undertaken, either sending a surveyor out, or by doing a desktop valuation.
Presumably the "yap, 218 is fine" is your eligibility/suitability.
Unless you do have an offer issued?

I am just nosy really, worth paying the surveyer to do it? It's an added service but is it worth the extra £200?

As ^ 98% of the time the bank will send their own surveyor to check it’s worth the price and that it’s not falling down. That £200 might be what they charge you for that (usually called a valuation fee) and if so won’t be optional. It might be an optional extra on top of their basic valuation requirement to upgrade to a more detailed survey.

.

.

Blimey. Who cares if it was half assed 😂. That's another hurdle cleared.

Wowsers. It usually takes weeks to get a mortgage offer.

Value is subjective and would give you a range. You could invite 3 estate agents round and pretend you're selling if you just want the valuation?

Most banks have an automated mortgage acceptance level, then a drive-by acceptance level and finally an in-person inspection... it's a risk assessment based on loan-to-value, age of property, condition of property and valuation compared to similar sold properties, etc.

Market must be quiet at the moment!

If you’re HSBC, that’s the same as us. Just desktop valuation based on size, age etc and since our offer was under that, no need for bank to survey it. I did ask at the time what their programme said it was worth but they wouldn’t have told me unless I asked.