And Our Survey Says...

Ten points if you already know exactly what happens when you have a Homebuyer’s survey! I definitely didn’t and it was honestly exciting and gut wrenching at the same time. Exciting, because we were lucky enough to go to the property at the same time as our surveyor and have him talk us through the findings. Gut wrenching because of all the work that we were told needed to be done. I think we were quite unique in being able to attend the survey, but if you do get the opportunity to attend then I would recommend it.

The results gave me a real understanding of the tasks in hand, and the information we got was so valuable. We made a list of all of the issues and also the costs in priority order which gave us some structure to our renovation plan. Somethings such as replacing our single glazed windows will be something we tackle in the future when we have a bit more cash, but for now we knew that along with the damp work we would have to replace the boiler and heating system, bathroom plumbing, get the roof inspected and the chimney swept amongst others. We even cheekily asked our surveyor what he thought the property was worth in the current state. He didn’t know the areas very well, but had a guess which we were delighted with!

If something drastic came up in your Homebuyer’s that you weren’t expecting, it would be again a good opportunity to discuss with the vendor and see if you can barter the price down to help you cover the costs. We had the damp issue, which was our only real negotiation tool as our vendor wasn’t interested in any reasoning we had for reducing the price. Once all the haggling is done, and the paperwork, searches and surveys are complete you are ready to exchange.

When we exchanged contracts we had the opportunity to give our suggestion on the completion date; cleverly Steve suggested the end of the month as the mortgage company ask for a back payment for the mortgage and so it would be less nearer the end of the month which is something to bear in mind. Once contracts are exchanged, it is pretty hard to pull out or change your mind without a hefty fine which is pretty reassuring on both sides. At this stage a certain amount of deposit money is transferred to your solicitor, with the balance due just before the completion date.

Completion was agreed at our terms, which felt like a win after the lack of bartering on the repair issues, and we waited for the day to come! Completion means that all the paperwork is finalised and the property becomes yours and your entire deposit is transferred to the vendor. It was hard to see all that money and hard work through savings vanish out of my account, but I was sure to perceive it in a way that the money was now invested in a beautiful soon-to-be-home! Being a first time buyer is definitely a great investment.

While we were waiting it was a good opportunity to put into place some of the paper work changes that would need to be made, like my driving license was due so I was able to change address on that straight away. I will write a post about other key things to do in this time at a later stage, so keep an eye out if you are interested.

The day of completion ran smoothly for us, other than we were both at work and in hindsight it might have been nice to both be available to go an collect the keys. My mum ended up meeting the vendor’s wife who was the original owner of the house, and she seemed sad to be letting go of it. She was very helpful with our questions, such as checking the key for the shed worked and other keys across the house. She also brought down an additional cupboard that our kitchen could hold although we are yet to use it, it was a nice gesture.

After our completion, our solicitor was still working on getting the Land Registry documents sorted which is normal. These arrive a couple of weeks later and showed that we were the new owners of the land since the date of completion. Next time, I will write about what happened first when we were finally in…and the renovations begin!

Image | Helloquence via Unsplash.com