Thetownend.com

Looking to buy a brand new house. I know you have to pay extra for upgrades, flooring etc., but has anyone done this and got a good deal e.g. carpets included, stamp duty paid? I just wondered how flexible the house builders can be.  :sherlock:

Note - this should bring my home maintenance days to an end (for a few years)  :)

In which case I reckon we should all chip in :)

Fine by me  :D

Moved into Redrow by bug n spider 6 months ago.

Contact Samdy for any financials....we went through one of Mrs Flash family in the end but he knows his stuff does Samdy.

Message me and I will tell you it all, good and bad.

Pm'd

I did wonder...

4D, careful on the freebies/upgrades. It'll count as an incentive and the valuer might knock it off the value of the house so could cause complications with any mortgage.

Isn't it also liable to stamp duty, as part of the purchase price (non freebies)?

Get a cash back credit card and put all your fees etc on that - at least you'll get a little kick back  :)

Also make a careful note of the warranty period and make sure you make a full and very detailed list of snagging problems to get rectified just prior to expiry. New houses are rarely without problems and its amazing the number of people that sort problems themselves which are covered by warranty.

Friend of mine presented a list of about 50 issues to the builder (a major company) and got around 48 of them sorted under warranty having been in the house for a number of years.

There is usually a £10k budget which you  can use how best you want it (well, it was for me), e.g. lower the price, pay stamp duty, pay for flooring / carpets etc

Just a word of advice - I moved from a 1960's house to a 1990's house and the build quality is nowhere close to being comparable. The older house was a solid the new house was just thrown up, stud walls chip, board floors etc. Give the upstairs walls a bit of a knock and you'll understand.

My current house was built in 2000  :).

Swings and roundabouts - I've lived in older houses, solid walls but damp issues etc.

Most new builds look to be wooden structures with bricks then laid around them to me. I've also heard of loads of people who have had problems with their houses. That said, i'm sure they can't all be like that. Personally i don't like the estates thrown up in Swindon where they are all built on top of each other,narrow roads with shite parking etc. Don't appeal to me but plenty buy them.

Yep, wood lined. Well insulated though. Parking does seem an issue, a five bed house with one car space on the drive. The one we are interested in has space for 2 to 3 cars.

THis, with new build houses

 - room sizes may be big (since they are often three storey)
 - some of the fittings and finishes might be good quality, e.g the built in appliances, door handles etc are good quality..
BUT
 - as bewsters and arriba allude to, build quality is poor, very flimsy feel to them.
 - plot sizes are often paltry, garden sizes small, often no front garden at all
 - new estates seem to be quite transient, lots of poeple moving in and out all the time e.g. little in the way of a settled neighbourly community feel
 - new estates are like rabbit warrens, tiny roads, little or no footpaths, little open space, all adds to the feeling of claustraphobia

This is my experience, others may disagree.



As a footnote, this is one of my gripes with modern life. With a combination of three storey houses and tiny plots, housebuilders are now getting say 5 houses on a plot of land where they previously may have got 1. Now either housebuilders are making a shed load of money or land prices have rocketed. Which is it?

The former

Due to the latter.

Has anyone had any experience in Nationwides Save to Buy Mortgage?

Me and missus are looking to buy next year and will only have about £15k as a deposit.

Just looking about and stumbled on this account with Nationwide. Any help greatly appriciated!

You mean Help to Buy? Nationwide are a pretty good lender. Quick turnaround times and generous affordability criteria.

If you want to have a chat about mortgages, send me a PM.

Cheers Samdy! It's something we're gonna look into.. obviously pretty new to all of it so it's a little daunting!

In the process of buying a new build at the moment. It's all jolly exciting.