Tag: First Time Buyer

The Enemy: Japanese Knotweed

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What is Japanese Knotweed?

Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) is a weed that spreads rapidly. In winter the plant dies back to ground level but by early summer the bamboo-like stems emerge from rhizomes deep underground to shoot to over 7ft, suppressing all other plant growth.

Why having Japanese Knotweed at a property is a no go…

It’s pretty self explanatory, but from a Mortgage perspective, most surveyors will note Japanese Knotweed as a negative find at a property and will deem a property unsuitable for Mortgage purposes due to the aggressiveness of it. However other surveyors will note Japanese Knotweed as a problem and insist that it is seen to and removed by a specialist before giving the property a value.

Loopholes

Not all home owners know that their property has Japanese Knotweed, which means potential buyers won’t know either and if not noticed when a survey is done on the property, good news, you’ve got away with it. However when you decide to move on and the weed has grown out of control and is noticeable, you may find it very costly and difficult to get the property off of your hands.

It’s not a good idea to hide the presence of knotweed

Whilst it may make the sale easier, the TA6 form now has a specific question about knotweed.  Concealing the presence of knotweed could prove to be an expensive mistake, as the buyer may have a case for misrepresentation and against the seller and report the acting agent to the authorities for breach of CPR regulations. 

What can be done… 

Removal

  1. The two main knotweed removal methods are herbicide treatment and physical removal. 
  • Herbicide Treatment is lower in cost but takes at least one growing season, often more. It’s the least disruptive method, but not suitable where there are plans that result in substantial disturbance of the the ground e.g. construction or landscaping works.
  • Physical Removal such as Environet’s Resi-dig-out™. This eco-innovative removal method can be completed any time of the year, and takes a matter of days. 

2. Don’t buy that property if Japanese Knotweed is present. Do your due diligence.

Financial Hack: How long would you be able to pay your bills for if you were to lose your job tomorrow? Build your emergency fund, Thailand can wait.

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At the beginning of 2020 my husband and I decided to house hunt. We bought our apartment 4 years ago, renovated and thought it was a good time to upsize.

We had a budget, we knew the area we wanted to settle down in and knew that our next move would be for the long term. 

Ideally we wanted a project. Something that was nice enough to move in to straight away, however somewhere that had room for a back extension and loft conversion.

Deal breaker. He needs his space – games room and I need mine, an office.

We made 3 offers on 3 separate properties. 2 Offers were accepted and then BAM Covid-19 triggers a lockdown.

This was a bitter sweet situation as we were given time to truly analyse and think about what we were spearheading in to.

We are living in uncertain times and it is said that it will be a while before life is truly back to normal and in many ways, we’re going to have to accept a new normal.   

Why I gave up my 4 Bedroom Detached House hunt and decided to stay in my 2 Bedroom Apartment a few more years…

After a self analysis of our finances and various eventualities we decided to remain put.

In our current state we knew that if one of us were to lose our jobs, the other could pay the bills 3x over before it became a strain. 

We knew that if both of us lost our jobs, we had enough savings to carry us over for a few months paying the bills whilst we hunted for new jobs.

If we were to upsize and take on a project this wouldn’t necessary be the case.

We’d essentially be taking on much higher outgoings because I wanted a shiny new house and project to get my paws in to – a want, not a need. 

The take away from this experience is to stay where you are until you outgrow your home and are bursting out of the seams. Or until you can financially make the move without any strain, taking all eventualities in to consideration. No one knows what tomorrow holds.

Keep those outgoings low.

Save. Save. Save.

Save. Save. Save and when it is time to upsize, you can do so effortlessly.

There’s a time to save, time to build and a time to enjoy what you’ve built. 

Tip: You should have enough savings to carry you through 3 months of a rough period. These savings will pay your Mortgage, utility bills and basic essential costs of living (travel, food etc.)

Why?
Theres an average of about a 3 month period from being made redundant to securing a new job and receiving your first “normal” pay cheque.

Build your emergency fund, Thailand can wait.

Financial Hack: So nice, I had to buy it twice!

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The best piece of advice I received growing up was, “If you can’t buy it twice over, you can’t afford it”.

Of course the above doesn’t apply to the acquisition of a property as this is a life changing purchase and something many save years for. However, if you want to be a home owner, you have to be disciplined, you have to save!

I love me a bit of online shopping and I also went through a phase where I loved brands! I moved out of home when I was 18 and lived in one of my dads properties. I covered the electric, gas, shopping, council tax etc. This move was primarily to teach me the cost of life, responsibility and most importantly discipline!

There came a time where I became disheartened because I couldn’t shop as freely as I use to when I lived at home, or would often find myself in a spot of bother towards the end of the month and have to ask my mum to save me. That’s when she delivered this gem, she sat me down and amongst many things, the word that stood out for me is when she said, “If you can’t buy it twice over, you can’t afford it”.

Since then, I have lived by this word and have never found myself in a spot of financial trouble. I live within my means and if I do buy a luxury item, I have enough free cash to buy it two, even three times over. 

I never wanted to be that person that bought a Louis Vuitton bag on pay day, but had to walk to work and eat buttered bread for the remainder of the month because I lived way above my means.  

Lesson:

Don’t be afraid to be fugal – tight! Weigh up your needs vs. your wants.

If you can’t buy it twice and have surplus funds in your account, then you can’t afford it! 

Financial Hack: Turn £100 in to £21,600 – Your 18 Year Old dependent will thank you!

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The most daunting thing is the creation of life and the responsibility to lead, teach and grow the little human you’ve brought in to the world. 

They never chose to be here. That was down to us and our significant other. Now that they are here, we have to ensure that we set them up for success and entrench some core values. 

Many people are broken and make warped adult decisions due to a fragile childhood, non existent good examples and lack of nurturing. 

Financial Hack: Turn £100 in to £21,600

As 2 parents, you can both individually set aside £50 a month for your child – Or £100 as a single parent.

Over 12 months this £100 equates to £1,200

Over 18 years this £100 a month totals to £21,600

Once your child hits their 18th birthday they’ve already been given a head start. You can give them these funds, but also teach them financial intelligence. They can continue what you started 18 years ago and build on the funds (£100 per month), purchase a car or invest in their education. 

The options are limitless, but the important thing is that you’ve led the way, given them a booster and your dependent will most definitely thank you for this!

What is the difference between using a Mortgage Broker vs. Going direct to the Bank? | Q&A Series

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Reading Time: 7mins

In 2015 my mother gave me some great advice. She knew that I had the desire to get my foot on the property ladder and as I had no idea where to start, she advised me to go to the Bank with my then fiancé and see what we were “worth”.

As my fiancé worked for HSBC at the time, we booked an appointment with a Mortgage Advisor, disclosed our salaries, savings, commitments etc and based on our situation she gave us a flat maximum amount that we’d be able to borrow.

This meant that regardless of what property we found, that’s the maximum Mortgage amount that we qualified for.

I can’t remember what that max lend was, but let’s just say for arguments sake that it was £300,000. This means that even if there were mortgage deals at HSBC where you could get a 90% Mortgage with a 10% deposit and the property we sought after was £450,00, we would have to cough up £150,000 and not the simple 10% deposit of £45,000 that the product suggests. This is due to what we were “worth” and the maximum HSBC was happy to lend to us based on our salaries, credit score etc.

I hope this makes sense.

Here’s where Mortgage Brokers come in to play…

There are numerous High Street Lenders, and I suppose my finance and I could of gone up and down the streets from various bank to the next getting a rough idea of what they’d lend us, but this is extremely tedious and time consuming.

Our next point of contact was a Mortgage Broker which my finance found on Google – Alexander Hall.

We got in touch with a Mortgage Broker who was amazing! He offered an amazing service and until this day, I still remember his name.

The Mortgage Broker took more or less the same information we provided to HSBC and sourced which lender would give us what we were looking for.

“Source” the phrase used to describe the action taken on a system similar to Google for lenders. Most lenders are on this system and the great thing is that some Mortgage Brokers get exclusive rates and deals from lenders. For example the lowest rate at TSB if you were to walk in to a High Street Bank could be say 2.04% however with a broker, they have access to exclusive interest rates like 1.69% for TSB opposed to the 2.04% High Street rate. That’s a huge difference!

To cut a long story short, the Broker found us a lender that was willing to lend us way more than HSBC and we were able to then look for an affordable property, make an Offer and secure a Mortgage.

Round up.

The 3 Major difference between a High Street lender and a Mortgage Broker are:

1. Time

High Street Lender

They tend to have a 2 week wait for you to be able to secure an appointment with a Mortgage Advisor.

Application to Mortgage Offer can take anything from 1 Month – 6 Months.

Broker

For many no appointment is needed. You can get in touch with your Mortgage Broker over the phone/on email with the option to book in a face to face meeting if that’s your preference. However some brokers require face to face interaction like Capricorn Financial and Alexander Hall due to verification etc.

You also have the option to do everything online and through a chat window. Convenient and no need for any face to face interaction or time consuming meetings. Brokerages like Habito and Mojo operate in this kind of manner.

Application to Offer can take anything from 3 working days to 21 days. (I’ve seen case where a full Mortgage Application was submitted and an Offer followed immediately after due to the lender being able to verify the applicants electronically and carrying out a desktop valuation) – rare but possible.

2. Interest Rates

High Street Lender
What you see is what you get.

Dependent on the Bank of England base rate.

Not many options

Broker
Options galore.

You can play with the term length and Mortgage features (E.g cash back, free legal representation, split terms, payment holidays)

The Broker will be aware of when new rates are going to be introduced/when old rates are going to be pulled off of the market.

3. Convenience

High Street Lender
They will require hard copies of documentation

Proof of ID

Proof of Address

Bank Statements etc.

Broker
Hard copies of documentation not required

PDF copies acceptable

The convenience of being able to email across any additional information required from you.

Some people don’t like the idea of using unpopular lenders like “The Mortgage Works” or “Atom”, but if getting value for your money is important to you, I highly suggest using a Mortgage Broker.

Buy-to-Let Mortgages for First Time Buyers & First Time Landlords | Q & A Series

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For the remainder of the year I will be dedicating all posts to answering Questions from our readers. Have you got a question or would you like me to cover something I haven’t written about in the last few weeks? Scroll down to the bottom of this post and reach out to me via any of the listed channels. 

“I live at home with my parents, but I want to buy a property and rent it out. Is this possible?”

Reading Time: 5 mins

Yes, this is called a Buy to Let property and you’ll need a 15% deposit. However, you cannot buy these kind of properties using a Government scheme.

IMG_0231

Today we are going to focus on the Buy to Let Mortgage, but you also have the consumer buy to let and consent to let route.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the other two types of letting routes which we are not going to discuss today:

Consumer Buy to Let – you lived in the property, bought another place/moved back home, got consent to rent out your property from your mortgage provider and eventually remortgaged with another lender on a consumer buy to let mortgage.

Consent to Let – You have a residential mortgage, for whatever reason, your lender gives you permission to let your property for a specific amount of time (e.g 1 Year) or indefinitely. Once you’ve come to the end of this agreed time, you move back in to the property, sell the property or get indefinite permission to Let and Remortgage elsewhere on a consumer buy to let Mortgage product.

How to guide – It’s fairly simple:

  1. Find a property
  2. Find out the average monthly rental income in that area
  3. Agree a purchase price
  4. Deposit – have you got at least 15%? **
  5. Apply for a Mortgage
  6. Understand that once the valuation takes place, the surveyor isn’t only valuing the property, but giving a figure for your expected rental income
  7. You get your Mortgage Offer
  8. Touch base with your solicitor and continue the Post-Offer process with them. ..

 

** Some lenders offer 90% LTV (this means a 10% deposit) products for Buy to Let Mortgages. However for a first time landlord, you will have to find the right Broker and search high and low for the right lender as not many lenders lend to First-time buy to let buyers – the common trend is that you have to have your residential property for at least 6 months before buying a BTL.

 

Tax – Something else to think about.

No income goes unnoticed and this is particularly the case for rental income.

The income tax rates for the 2019/2020 tax year are as follows:

  • Higher rate tax band (taxable income of £46,351 to £150,000) = 40%
  • Additional rate taxpayer (taxable income of over £150,000) = 45%

Tax bands are slightly different in Scotland

If you earn £15,000 from renting out your property, for example, the first £11,850 is tax-free, so you will only pay 20% tax on the remaining £3,150, which comes to £630.

However, bare in mind you may also have a full-time job, your rental income will be added to your annual salary, which may increase what you pay in tax.

In any case, the HMRC will work this out for you when you declare your income.

Things to consider:

1.Tax Return – Make sure you do one online before 31st January (or a paper return by the 31st October)

This is important, so that when you remortgage or buy another property, your rental income can be evidenced and used for affordability. Even if your income is below the threshold and your rental income is not taxed, your Tax Return will still need to be done evidencing £0. You also don’t want to get in trouble with the law! 

2. Do you want the property in your name? Limited Company maybe? Explore your options and benefits.

3. Extra income is great, however remember to take unexpected expenses in to consideration. Have an account solely for your rental income and Mortgage payments and leave all miscellaneous money/profit in there. Why? If your tenant doesn’t pay the rent, you need to replace the boiler or an unfortunate event takes place that your insurance doesn’t cover, you don’t want your property to become a devouring burden. The aim of the game is to make your property pay for itself and then some…

4. Managing Agent. Are you going to have your property run by an Estate Agent and simply collect your income at the end of the month? They will respond to any call outs, ensure you get your rent on time even if the tenants don’t pay, deal with your insurance and gas safety certificate etc. Explore your options – remember nothing in life is free, you have to pay the agency.  The management of your property could cost you 10% of your rental income. Are you wiling to take this deduction for peace of mind?

I hope this has helped! I would love to hear your thoughts.

Comment below, get in touch via my various platforms.

Remember if you have a question, the next 4 Mondays could feature yours – just ask!

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The 2018 Budget – Things you need to know

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Stamp Duty – Travel – Income Taxes – Brexit

Reading Time: 4 mins

What does this mean for First-Time Buyers?

Nothing much has changed here.

However, for First-time buyers purchasing a property using the Help to Buy Shared Ownership scheme, an anomaly was fixed. Previously, buyers of a shared-ownership property would be taxed on the full market value of the home (up to £500,000) rather than only the share they were buying. If the full market value of the shared-ownership property was more than £500,000 the buyer would not have been eligible for any stamp duty reduction at all.

So, a buyer paying £125,000 for a 25 per cent share of a new home valued at £500,000 would still have had to pay £10,000 stamp duty – equivalent to five per cent of the sales price above £300,000.

Now, First Time buyers purchasing a property using the Help to Buy Shared Ownership scheme will only be eligible to pay stamp duty, if any at all, for the share they are buying. So, a buyer paying £125,000 for a 25 per cent share of a new home valued at £500,000 will not pay stamp duty.

Other stamp duty rates remain the same.

PURCHASE PRICE

STAMP DUTY RATE ON FIRST PROPERTY (1)

Up to £300,000

0%

£300,000.01 – £500,000

5%

What does this mean for people on £50K per annum salaries?

Previously, if you earned £46,350 per annum and above, you’d fall in to the higher rate tax payer threshold – you’d be taxed 40%

This has now been increased to £50,000 per annum – April 2019

What does this mean for the cost of travel?

No major changes have been made here.

Costs generally remain the same.

However there has been an introduction of a new rail card for 26-30 year olds providing 1/3 off most rail travel. This will be made available nationally by the end of the year.

Brexit? What happens now?

This is something that I will not dabble too deep in. After all, our Schools, Higher Education facilities and Government have barely wrapped their heads around this.

However, from the budget, it is clear that a lot of money is being pumped in to various regions to help supplement the immediate defects of suggesting and eventually leaving the European Union, however this is a grey area as we haven’t even established 1. Whether we’ll have a no deal Brexit 2. Whether we’ll have a Brexit deal 3. Whether there’ll be another referendum resulting in no Brexit at all.

The point I want to make here is the importance of understanding the political process and what your vote means. Keep your eyes peeled, ears open and remain attentive along the Brexit journey so that you know how the progress or lack of it, will affect you.

Read Newspapers, watch/listen to the news, question time and have a little fun with the internet -Ultimately, stay informed.

LISA: The Lifetime ISA

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What is the LISA?

Reading Time: 1 min

ISA

This is an Individual Savings Account you can use to buy your first home or save for later life, like retirement.

You have a limit of £4,000 that you can put in each financial year until you are 50.

When you are 50, you will not be able to pay into your LISA or earn any bonus, however your account will stay open and you will earn interest on your savings.

Your annual ISA limit is £20,000, so the cap of the £4,000 LISA limit counts towards your annual ISA limit. Bare in mind that you are only allowed to open one ISA per tax year, so you lose out on £16,000 worth of tax free savings.

Back to the LISA. The government will add a 25% bonus to your savings, up to a maximum of £1,000 per year.

Terms and Conditions:

  • You must be 18 or over and under 40 to open a Lifetime ISA
  • You will be charged 25% if you withdraw money from your ISA for any reason other than:
  1. To buy your first home
  2. At aged 60 or over
  3. If you’re terminally ill, with less than 12 months to live

The withdrawal fee is to recover any Government bonus, essentially withdrawing money for any other reason than the above will result in you receiving less money than you paid in.

  • For first time buyers, the price of the property has to be £450,000 or less and you must use a solicitor or conveyancer to act on your behalf as the LISA provider has to transfer the funds directly to them.

 

Over the last few weeks, we’ve explored the various schemes available for First-time buyers/Home movers with the Governments assistance. If you’ve missed out, or have just joined us, feel free to catch up on the posts here:

 

 

Photo credit: homesandproperty.co.uk via Google search.

Help to Buy: Equity Loan

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Help to Buy

Reading time: 3 mins

In this month of October, we have been solely talking about the various Help to Buy schemes available.

The Help to Buy initiative was a way of assisting young first-time buyers acquire their first home. At a time where it almost seemed impossible for the millennial to own a property in the ever changing and increasing property market, the government stepped in to lend a hand.

However, there is a catch. Nothing in life is free and that’s why it is important to know the pros and cons of any scheme you commit to.

These scheme consist of the following:

Help to Buy ISA

Lifetime ISA Post due 29th October

Equity Loan

Shared Ownership

Mortgage Guarantee Scheme Withdrawn November 2016

 

What is a Help to Buy Equity Loan?

 

The Government lends you up to 20% of the cost of your newly built home, so you’ll only need a 5% cash deposit and a 75% mortgage to make up the rest.

This scheme is available to First-time buyers and Home movers.

For example:

Purchase price: £200,000

Your contribution to the deposit: £10,000

The Governments contribution to the deposit: £40,000

Mortgage Amount: £150,000 75% LTV

Screen Shot 2018-10-21 at 12.15.30

You won’t be charged loan fees or interest on the 20% loan for the first five years of owning your home, however you will have to pay £12 management fees each year.

After 5 years, you will have to start paying back the 20% you initially borrowed, plus interest and your monthly Mortgage payments

ALERT

Things to bare in mind:

  1. Interest kicks in after five years, and could amount to a chunky sum over time.
  2. The Government will take the same percentage of the sale price as you opted for when you took out your equity loan (regardless of how much the loan was originally for) when the property is sold.
  3. You can repay part or all of the loan early, but the Government will only accept this if it’s a minimum of 10% of the property’s current value.