A house!
It kinda felt weird buying something after all the things we've fixed or made over the past 5 years: kegerators, snooker tables, kitchen bars, flats, and babies. Yup we made a baby too but for propriety's sake I not blogging nor providing pictures about that process
I mean, we were happy in Shelley St but Jessie really needed a cozy room for herself. And, apparently, her fridge.
It is true that we contemplated building a house too but it seemed like a lot of stress rather than just buying something (queue ominous music).
Game of Pool anyone?
The house hunting itself took about 18 months and there were a couple of non-negotiables that caused some curious looks from estate agents. It had to be freehold. It needed space for my snooker table. Indoors this time. It needed another room for entertaining guests so that when people visited we went forced to crowd around a snooker table, like a second lounge room or dining room. It needed space for a workshop so we could tinker indoors and continue building stuff. It needed off-road parking because Gemma thinks this will only increase the value of properties as time goes on. It needed to be something we were confident we could rent out if we decided to move on and buy another property elsewhere. Oh, and it needed to be below £250 000 so that I could use my first home buyers bonus as well as not having to pay stamp duty.
Bedroom number 5 - I think...I think we can fit a kitchen in here?
Yup, it was our unicorn and to be truthful we were as surprised as anyone when we found it.
So, why was the house so cheap? What about it made it special?
The house was a student rental with 5 double bedrooms two bathrooms, one WC, three lounge rooms, and two front doors. On paper, it looked luike it was worth much more than we had offered, but I feel it slipped through the market for three reasons:
- It was currently being used as a student property so lots of family home buyers dismissed it.
- It was not going to be tenanted past July so investors were tentative (we already let in the area so we knew demand is high).
- And, I think the biggest contributing factor, the floor plans on the real estates web site were wrong. The room layout was inaccurate, room sizes understated the rooms, and did not show all the doors in the house so it appeared you could not get to the kitchen without leaving the house through one front door and entering through another.
So we put in an offer and BAM! Accepted. Haha, we were experienced home buyers so this rest will be easy... and this is where things started to unravel faster than a kitten's ball of string. I'll let you brew a nice hot cup of tea, cuz this will take a while
Like seriously, take your confirt break know, there is an epic ahead.
1st mishap: The owners did not own all the property.
So it turns out to sell some land you need to own all of the land your selling. The advertised property is on two land deeds, one deeds for the house and one deed for the back yard. Through some lamentable lack of attention to detail, when the current owners acquired the property they did not check to ensure all deeds associated with the house were signed across. In principle easy to fix, just speak with the previous owners and get them to sign over the deed.
This is bedroom number 4 - move out some of the crap left behind by the previous owners and we've got yourselves a WORKSHOP!
1st complication: The previous owners were divorced and no longer speaking to each other.
the wife was found easily enough. I imagine she giggled at the situation and happily agreed to sign the deed across. The husband...well noone really seemed to know where he was. It took three months, a private eye, and, I've been told, a couple thousand pounds to track an address, but he was not responding to letters. When Gemma and I asked for details we were told "Nope! data protection!" My arguments that the details are publically available fell on deaf ears.
2nd complication: The details of any landowner are publically avaiable. I spent £2 at the land registry and got a name. Gemma and I spent five minutes on facebook and found a local family that sharedthat name. 7 degrees of separation been what it is we were far from surprised we knew someone who knew his mother.Within 10 minutes I had given the chap a phone call. He answered, he listened, he got legal advice, he ignored our pleas.
Bedroom 3 - or as its friends call it, Jessie's room.
3rd complication: My mortgage offer was about to expire. It was about six months since we had it. A quick call to my mortgage adviser and it was extended for six months. Problem adverted? We'll see.
It was at this point that the current owners submitted for adverse possession. Essentially, they had lived on the land for 11 years, hence, legally, it should be considered theirs. Kinda like squatter's rights. This took another three to four months, and all was looking swell...
Bedroom 2 - Soon to the a study/guest room
2nd mishap: "Hello, is this Gemma? We tried to get a holdof Phillip but he wasn't answering. I am not sure how to say this, but the house is flooding". It was April. About two weeks before the Adverse Possession would be complete. A pipe had burst in the ceiling and water started gushing into the house. Normally, this would be noticed quite early by the occupiers. Regretablly, this was unoccupied. After four to five days of hearng the fire alarm going off, the neighbour called the real esate agents. Five days of gushing can do a lot of damage. damage to say walls, floors, ceilings, cooers, kitchens, integrity of the building...
Master bedroom.
4th complication: A unhabitable house will not get a residential mortgage. There was significant damage to the property and my mortgage offer was going to expire in three months time and banks do not extend twice.
A newly installed kitchen.
The owners were excellent. They wasted no time in getting their insurance company involved and getting builders on site. Walls were stripped, carpet removed, and kitchens replaced. Silver lining, we got a say in the finishings! Kitchen colours, flooring colours, and wall paint. Not to mention we got a whole brand new kitchen. There was a real race to the last minute. the current owner wanted to off load the property, but if it was not ready in time there was no guarrantee I would get a mortgage offer again. you see, the fourth complication was that I now had a baby, and a dependent changed my financial situation enough that I would not have been eligible for such a large mortgage. So the sale had to go through on time.
Master bathroom - Stories over, so you can take another break of you want.
It could not have been cut any finer. Even the builders were unsure if it would be readyon time. Banks had to reinspect the property, mortgages had to go through final inspections, and paper work had to change hands. But on midday 6 July, the last day it could all take place, they keys were placed securly in Gemma's hands and so finally, after three long cold and wet enduring years, my pool table had a place to call home.
Personally I'm not sure what all the fuss was about - there was 5 hours to spare...
(3rd mishap: Solicotors forgot to submit my government grant paperwork that would have netted my £1200- but that's another story).
