Completed!

It has been a few months now since exchange. A lot of hurry up and wait it seems, but finally the big day came. From the day we first visited our new home, until completion was just under 3 months. That doesn't sound like a long time, but it certainly felt like ages.

Besides some confusion of which day was actually the completion day, completion itself went through without a hitch. A tip for you if you are buying a house, chase and confirm constantly with your solicitors right up until you have the keys in your hand. My solicitors were seemingly annoyed or put out by the fact I would check and confirm that everything was in place, that money was received, that dates were set. Yet still, even with all my chasing, on completion day there was a question of whether in fact the completion date was for the next day! Remember that your solicitors work for YOU...they may not take, what is in effect the biggest commitment you have ever made, as seriously as they should.

The morning of completion day arrived. Miss Gorgeous and I had taken a week off work. All we could do was sit at home and wait for the word that completion had taken place. We had made the decision the last time we moved home to have the luxury of a moving company do the move for us.

A side note on the moving company...Plan this well in advance, get a few quotes, and try and get some sort of commitment from them once you have chosen which company to go for. We found a company that ticked all the boxes. Price was right, insurance was included, and they would take care of our rental property and new home with protective sheeting on the floors. We got this quote a month before actual completion took place. However at this time we didn't have a firm date for completion, we only got this a week before the completion date. When we phoned to confirm with the moving company the date of our move, they told us that they didn't have availability! This cause a mad rush of trying to find a company who was available at fairly short notice. This meant going with a national firm, for 25% more than our previous quote. (the costs just keep adding up!)

Forgot to mention, the week before completion we got invited for our first walk around the new place with the site supervisor. This was to find any initial snags that needed to be sorted out. We had a list of about 20 items, mostly decorating issues (scratches in paint work etc.). There were a couple bigger issues, like a broken tile, sliding doors on our cupboard that didn't stay in place, large chip in the door frame to the kitchen and a couple others. It was really great to see our home all finished off with the carpets/flooring done. Big smiles on our faces.

Back to the completion day. We had the movers in to pack up all our things. It took the one guy from 9am until about 3pm to get everything into boxes. I called up the Bloor sales guy at around 11am to check on things. No news, he tells me. 20 minutes later I get a phone call from him to tell me that we have completed! Exciting times!

We head off down the road to pick up our keys. We received a welcome pack from Bloor containing all our paperwork for the various things in our new home. We pulled into our new driveway, and opened the front door to our new home! We spent the afternoon putting up blinds, and checked that our first snag list had been taken care of, it hadn't. We had contractors in and out sorting out little things. This would be a theme over the next few days. Even though not everything on the snag list had been sorted, it wasn't too much of an issue. Things were getting done.

Congratulations to us! Our new home!

Contracts Exchanged

Searches came back without any issues. Deposit was secured and sent over to my solicitor. Everything was signed and sent to the right people. And a couple of days ago we exchanged contracts with the Bloor solicitors!

That means that exchange took place in only 25 days. It all went through relatively simply and without issue.

My only slight concern is the fact we only get 7 days notice before completion...and of ourse we have to give a months notice to our rental agency on our current property. Not the ideal situation.

More good news, this weekend we will be able to go into our new house for the first time! Will post some more pictures next week from our visit.

Porch is up...wall is done...garage door is on

We popped over today to have another look at our new home. There has been a lot of progress over the last couple of weeks.

The last time we were there the wall was half done. There was another half metre or so to go. The garage was still the raw breeze block on the exterior and no garage door on yet. The porch over the front door wasn't up either. All these things are now done. The garage door is on and the breeze blocks have been rendered. The wall is up and really looks good. It finishes off the backyard nicely. Weirdly enough it actually makes the yard look a bit bigger, although you would expect it to make it feel a bit more cramped.

Below are some pictures of the before, I unfortunately didn't take any photos today to show the after, but will do so the next time we go round. Talking of the next time we go round, we have been told we should be able to go into the house then for the first time! Really looking forward to that.

In the above picture, to the right of the front door and to the left of the safety barriers is the start of the porch. And on the right of the photo is the garage without a door and showing the bare breeze blocks. This has now been finished off and it looks great.

The picture above shows two of the walls in the backyard. The taller wall is to the side of property and has been built up to around the height of those bricks just laying on top. The back wall, to the right on the photo, is finished off with a wooden fence panel (I think to a height of 2m)

More contracts to sign

It has been a pretty eventful week. There has been quite a bit of back and forth with my solicitor. I received my exchange contract which was an interesting read to say the least. I also received the mortgage offer by mail, so that I could sign and return.

Back to the exchange contract. I wonder how many people actual read these things? I am one of those people that enjoy reading operating manuals, so of course I had a good read of this. There were some interesting things in there. No show stoppers for us, but I am sure they may be for others. A few examples:

• no tree can ever be higher than 1.8m anywhere in the yard, front or back.
• no car is allowed which weighs more than 2500kg, fully laden.
• no commercial vehicles
• if washing is hung out where it is visible from the road, then the estate management have the right to remove this. (!)
• If the lawn at the front of the house gets too long, then the estate management have the right to mow the lawn and charge us for this.
• Bloor have the right to put signage on my property
• Bloor have the right to take and use photos of the property

The last two points are during the first 5 years of living at the property, but still...wow. I know that there are a few more phases of properties being built and marketed on the estate we are buying, so I kind of understand the need for advertising etc. 

These contracts and documents have all been signed, initialled and witnessed...and sent back to the solicitor.

Full mortgage offer!

This afternoon I received a text message from Nationwide informing me of the following: "We are delighted to inform you that we have now issued a formal mortgage offer. We look forward to completing based on this offer."

Happy days! It has been a stressful few days. With every day I was getting more and more doubtful about getting the full offer, so you can imagine my relief receiving that text! 

Tomorrow I will give a call to the solicitors to make sure all the checks they are doing are getting done, and also inform them of the mortgage news. 

Another step closer to moving into our new home!

Solicitors

As with the mortgage advisor, we went with the solicitors that was recommended by the Bloor sales agent. We believe that this should hopefully keep things running smoothly, if the solicitors have experience with the estate where our house would be and also with Bloor Homes. Time will tell if that is the right decision.

Again, when signing up with the solicitors, I had to write what seems like my life story on the relevant forms. I also had to provide proof of identity, proof of current address and proof of deposit. This has all been sent through. Nothing more to do here I guess until I get the full mortgage offer so we can work towards exchanging contracts.

One thing I didn't mention before is that there is a big push from developers to exchange contracts ASAP. We were told that they wanted exchange to happen within 28 days of reserving the house. I would prefer to exchange and complete on the same day, as I have done with previous house purchases. But reading online, it seems this is standard practice with new-build homes. 

Mortgage Advisor

Now that the decision has been made on the house we want and the reservation fee has been paid, it is time to start working on the make or break things....specifically the mortgage.

The house we have chosen is above the original budget we had set ourselves, but still not a problem on both our salaries. We decided it is best to buy something that won't leave us with regret in a couple of years time ("I wish we got the detached property...." etc). The only problem with this is that the mortgage would be entirely on my name due to Miss G having her name on another mortgage with a previous partner. This might present a challenge!

We went with the mortgage advisor that was suggested by the Bloor salesman. We have been very impressed with him so far. In fact, he came round to our place at 10pm one night just to go over some documentation with us due to the fact that we both work til late and only get home around 7 or 8 in the evening during the week. After filling in all the forms and providing all the proof of identity to him, he started looking for the best deal for me.

A big tip here for prospective home buyers: Be HONEST with your mortgage advisor. It will not be in your favour with the mortgage companies if something is found out (and it will be found out) that you hadn't disclosed.

I got a call on the 6th of March after work from the mortgage advisor. He explained that he had gone through the numbers and the various options and our preference of Santander was most likely not going to be a successful application. He suggested either Natwest or Nationwide. I went with Nationwide. About 20 minutes after putting down the phone with him, he sent me an email saying that we have been provided a Decision In Principle (DIP). Happy Days!

I did some reading about the different processes that various mortgage companies go through. The DIP has more substance with some companies versus others. Nationwide is one of the mortgage companies that a DIP is a pretty good sign that a full mortgage offer will be forthcoming (they do a full credit check, vs. a soft check. Other companies do a full check only when preparing a decision on the full offer). Even with this knowledge I was still nervous as to the full offer. I knew that the mortgage amount I was asking for was near the limit of what I could get on my salary and with my circumstances. It isn't an issue when taking into account both mine and Miss G's situations.

The next step before getting a full mortgage offer is the valuation of the property. Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly and I get the full offer! I hate waiting!