Owning your own home

what do I need to consider in moving and transaction costs?

EA fee on sell side - assumed 1%
Stamp duty on buy side - used the on line calculator to work it out
Moving costs - allowed £10k, hopefully less
Conveyancing - £3k? £5k?

what else?

Fixing unexpected stuff when moving in.
Sell will be more than 1 by a bit.
Mortgage costs /fees
Alcohol to sooth stress
Bills when moving out/in

Fixing unexpected stuff when moving in

Yes, I've allowed a chunk for that.

Mortgage costs / bills / alcohol are pretty much priced into current outgoings but I'll put a little extra in.

For EA, what's more realistic, 1.5%?

I think I did 1.35 but not 100%
My conveyancing was closer to 2k also but a family friend.

Moving costs 10k ??

If it's less then great. I was just chucking in round numbers....

Edit: £5k should cover it? 5 bed house to move out of.

Wood stoves.

I know they're taboo, but I want one for the sitting room. Has someone done the leg work and can recommend what to look for with efficiency and good?

I don't think there's too much in it.

Starting point is DEFRA approved clean burn design which will have air recirculation.

After that it's just choose a quality maker, the right output for your room size and make sure the flue install is also by someone reputable.

5kw output should be fine unless the room is massive.

I have a Morso which I love, it's about 15 years old and faultless. My dad has a Heta which he raves about and also seems fine when I've used it.

It's worth paying a bit more for a quality stove which won't warp internals and has decent air flow control.

Thanks ok that's good.

It's not massive at all 5x3m. We also have a 45kw wood boiler but the intention is to use the stove to take the chill off without heating the hole house.

I've a bronpi in the kitchen but it's an oven too, so too big to move into the sitting room. I'll look for those brands second hand locally.

Dik Geutz are supposed to be excellent, too. No idea how commonly available they are.

https://www.drufire.com/en-gb/dik-geurts

Can't see a single one. Will set some searches upnd keep an eye out. It'll go in a corner so a rectangle top vent stove will be best I think.

We’ve just had a Stovax installed and @ChasnotRobert has said just about everything I was gonna.

I’ll add that we had ours installed by someone with all the HETAS certification and he took care of Building Control (by default - it’s assumed it’s done properly if someone is HETAS approved).

Thanks, I'll get the heating guy in town to consult a fit. Need to calculate angles to decide viable location.

When we bought ours, they all seemed to be well made and fitted by HETAS bloke so we bought ours on looks. Nothing too old fashioned so went for modernish looking Parkray.

Slightly polemic but I would add a “good” surveyor* £1k (with some change left). Plus any decorating, furnishing and immediate fixes that the new place might need to be fully functional for you

*Happy to recommend a good and affordable local one on both the conveyancing and surveying fronts (No worries I don’t get a cut 😊)

1.5 years ago, 1.5% estate agents, £2.5k conveyance, £900 survey if I remember correctly

EA fee on sell side - 1-1.5%
Stamp duty on buy side - used the on line calculator to work it out
Moving costs - should be £3-5k for pack/unpack service depending on how much stuff you have.
Conveyancing - £3k

Other optional extras:
Mortgage broker fee - £500-1k
Survey - £2k
Skip/waste collection - £500 (Moving out is a good time to declutter!)
Boiler/electrician inspection of new property - £500

The buyer at the bottom of our chain has just pulled out.
Everyone else in the chain has signatures submitted and are ready to exchange.

Question.
any route of recourse for me to hit these fuckers who have wasted 7 months and thousands of £££....?

Thanks both, will add survey to list.

If we go straight from place a to place b, I'll likely stick with current lender so won't need a mortgage broker. If we do a rental in the middle then could be useful.

@frankohara if we get towards needing surveyor and solicitor, I'll DM re recommendations.

At the moment it's firmly in the proof of concept stage and I have to say, the concept isn't quite there yet based on what I can find on rightmove etc.

Almost certainly not unfortunately.

Before exchange then nobody is obligated to buy or sell.

After exchange then everyone is, and the bottom of the chain would likely be in for a large bill if they didn’t complete.

Motherfuckers.

The estate agent looks pretty flammable though.
Might have to remove a few limbs to get him into the wood burner though.

@ChasnotRobert happy to help, let me know. Victorian terraces with 4 beds are a bit more common in E10. Could you do without one, share uses/functions (office/guest room) or move one use/function into a garden space (office, playroom, guest room)?

@user16171 there is some kind of indemnity insurance available but it is very rarely used. Sorry to hear that, only chance might be if the estate agent responsible for that sale has an alternative purchaser still interested and willing to move quickly. They could (with failed buyers permission) share the searches and surveys from the recently failed process to speed up the new purchase. That and a fast lawyer could get you through the line in 4-5 weeks (more or less depending on banks and mortgages, cash buyer would be the silver bullet but unlikely)

When we bought we did a spreadsheet with ‘average’ houses in different areas to see what the price diff was between diff zones of Leyton and Walthamstow.

I think generally e17, closer to the tube was 100k more than for a similar property in e10, (on the LBR/church Rd corner of the ‘golden triangle’ mentioned upthread) but I suspect that might have narrowed over the last two years.

With £27,500 stamp duty on an 800k house and renovating at current prices, I suspect you will need to do more than cross LBR to end up with a significantly lower mortgage, unless you are looking to downsize as well.

This is how I ran the budget for our sale and purchase

1 Attachment

Yeah, it's downsizing as well. I didn't think we could release much cash just by crossing the rubicon aka LBR, any delta would get consumed by transaction costs.

I'm hoping that by going from a larger 5 bed (not a loft conversion) to a 3 bed (maybe do a loft conversion for 4th bed or buy a place where one has been done), plus crossing the rubicon, we can make it worthwhile financially and also end up in a place that's a bit easier to manage, and save a bit on running costs too.

And hopefully find that we end up in a really nice street with lovely neighbours so I don't end up regretting the whole thing, but obviously that's veering off into fantasy.

This is a dumb question but are people paying these costs from savings? My wife seems adamant that we could fund a move with equity from the sale of our house, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it usually works.

I've sold once and bought twice, and last time I paid for all costs with savings, though they were small due to no stamp duty or movers, this time we're looking at>10k stamp duty and there's no way I'm moving everything in a van.

We'll not be maxing out our potential borrowing so I suppose it might be possible with some things, but maybe lenders would look unfavourably on some of it paint for a moving firm.