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Given the rises in value I would think that we're probably at around 50/50 LTV, possibly a bit more on the V side, depending on who values the place.
I was going to get it valued after the new kitchen goes in, worth holding off and getting the highest valuation possible? If we could hit £350,000 that would give us a pretty healthy amount of equity, given the £140,000 loan outstanding.
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Dibs.
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Having sold and bought recently, I would be weary of an estate agent valuation based on 'how nice' your property is. We were hit with a down valuation on a property we wanted to buy of 75k (it was actually 90k off the original estate agent valuation) as no matter how nice it was the price was not justifiable with comparables in the area.
On our sale, our kitchen needed doing, windows could have done with replacing, carpets 8 years old, bathroom needed doing etc we had to get it valued by a surveyor (as it was shared ownership) and got it valued for about 30k more than we expected despite all of the above, but largely it seemed to be based on square footage and the ability to show reasonable comparables in the area.
The property we eventually bought was a brand new show flat with all the furniture, appliances, soft furnishings etc and none of that was taken into account in the valuation.
In my recent experience certain estate agents are massively over inflating valuations and hoping they can find a buyer with the cash to overpay to make up the shortfall.
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Is their calculator accurate? In terms of interest rates available and multiples applied to daily rates?
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Your own research will be a better indicator than the word of an estate agent!
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can't comment if the halifax calculator is accurate, but the mortgage broker went through a range of products with me and that one was the best, he then sent the details through as confirmation, so for my circumstances, yes
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they've got one more bedroom than us, but our layout is better
bedrooms are everything, square footage is also to be weighted, but feng shui can do one
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but largely it seemed to be based on square footage
Well that's essentially what you're buying isn't it?
When you're looking at £hundreds per square foot compared with a lick of paint it all stacks up even compared to that new kitchen or whatever. That's why developers are only interested in square footage at the end of the day, finishes are cheap in comparison.
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Of course, hence why I didn't replace the kitchen or bathroom in our old place. The only thing the improvements do is increase the appeal to buyers not make you property more valuable.
The first surveyor on the downvalued property stopped us making an expensive mistake and made me research much more before our next offer!
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We got a 5 year fix with ybs at 3.34%
Fees came to about £1200 including the valuation. Added the £845 arrangement fee to the loan and made an extra payment to cover it as soon as we completed (apparently if you pay the fee up front and they turn you down or you back out you don't get it back whereas if it's added to the loan you never get charged unless it all goes through. I have no idea if this is true). Nationwide does sound like a good deal - I assume you can port it to a new property should you wish to move within 10 years?
Building society repayment terms are usually great too - allowing you to underpay up to the value you have overpaid, letting you use the mortgage account like a savings account. -
Eventful day at our building site yesterday.
On the plus side, the downstairs bathroom is no more and we can start visualising what will eventually become our kitchen and how it becomes the dining room/living room.
On the negative side, they found out the first three metres of the extension was built directly onto soil, with no kind of slabs or stone underneath, and so the damp problem there is worse than expected. And the kitchen installation will be longer and more expensive than expected.
Also on the negative side, we found out that we won't be able to turn the staircase round after all, as there's a steel girder supporting the first floor which runs right across what would be the stairwell. This means a smaller bathroom upstairs, but that the bedroom stays the same size, so not a total disaster. And maybe quicker and cheaper as well, though we still need new stairs.
And we need a new ceiling in the bedroom, as the cracks we found under the ceiling wallpaper were the 100+ year-old plaster bowing and sagging and preparing to drop on our heads.
Still relatively optmistic though, there's nothing like an electric jackhammer to distract you from pessimism. We also met one of the neighbours, who invited us in and showed us his own ongoing renovations, said that all our work is no problem, and told us a bit about the area, which seems nice, and apparently the neighbours on the other side are good eggs as well.
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Offer accepted for a place in gipsy hill! Now have to get all the rest sorted.
Speaking to our mortgage broker tomorrow and have to find solicitors and surveyor.
This forum solicitor seems to be based in Herts. Does he cover all of London?
The estate agents (KFH) have given me a big list of firms too.
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My solicitors have asked for certified copies of our ID and proof of address, as the solicitors office is not in the same city as me it's not that convenient for me to go in to the office with the originals.
Am I right in thinking that I can take these in to the bank/post office and get them to make copies and that counts as certified?
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@Hobo
a chat with a contract associate produced the same gut feeling, hence me getting on the phone to cmme