Signing our contracts!!
So as you may have seen on my Facebook/Snapchat, that myself and Dean signed the contracts for our house last week! Technically once that is done there is no going back so I was shitting myself it was definitely a nerve wracking experience! But things are far from finalised and of course, the house is still not built. But at least the deposit is paid, so I thought I'd fill you in on the process of getting this far.
I've broken things down into a bit of a timeline as it might be the easiest way to follow, so lets's go back to the very start......
4th April 2017
This was the day we decided to buy the house and we had to pay a €5,000 booking deposit pretty much straight away. We paid this, to the estate agent, and it basically secured the house for us. It's completely refundable if you change your mind (before signing contracts) and it comes off the total deposit needed for your house.
26th April 2017
This is when our solicitor received the contracts which had to be signed and sent back to the developers within 3 weeks. First of all the three week deadline did not happen, we weren't much later so don't get too hung up on this deadline.
In the few weeks following this we had a lot to organise, like more credit union statements, more bank statements and an official mortgage offer letter form the bank. We also had to pay to get the house valued (about €150), this is something the bank require and it was organised through our broker. All of the above had to be sorted in order for us to be able to sign the contracts.
22nd May 2017
This was the day we met our solicitor to sign the contracts. There was so much information in this meeting my head nearly exploded, but it was mainly just the main clauses and condition of the contracts. Like who owned the property, the price of the house, mortgage details etc....important but boring information.
We signed the contracts anyway and had to pay the reminder of our deposit the following day. As we were approved for the Help To Buy scheme we only had to pay the balance of the deposit. So the amount payable was: the 10 % deposit amount, less the Help To Buy refund value, less the booking deposit. Remember, buyers don't get the Help To Buy money paid directly to them, the developer gets it after the contracts have been signed. I had heard some developers looking for the full deposit up front and then they give you back the Help To Buy money when they get it, but as far as I'm aware that's not how the scheme works.
As you can see we paid the first payment on April 4th, then we had about seven weeks without having to pay anything major so we continued to save in these weeks, just so we'd have more money for furniture, appliances and the likes.
There are still a few more payments to be made like the stamp duty, solicitors fees and land registry but the above is the main steps involved in getting your deposit paid and contracts signed. Once the contracts are signed by the bank and the developers, and when the house is built we'll be good to go!
We won't have to draw down on the mortgage until the house is built and ready for us to move in, so we have another few months to keep savings. The bank want to see more bank statements before they will officially give us the mortgage, so not everything is 100% set in stone just yet, but we are getting there!
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