snuffle_uk

there's mention of guarantor stuff on the scottish windows website, although i think it might be to do with a 'Professional Mortgage' intended just to lawyers, doctors, etc. worth you having a look though anyway

It is, but my thinking was that I'll be needing someone to identify defects for me in order for me to get the builder to fix them now? Else I risk more extensive and hence disruptive fixes later on, potentially after the certificate has expired (if they take a while to start causing real damage)

The house I am going for is a six yr old 3 bed semi. I've read a fair few websites suggesting just the Homebuyers report for something so new, but read other websites where some denounce those reports as not being noncommittal where potential issues arise and rather superficial. This is meant to be our home for decades so am tempted to try and get as many issues smoked out as early as poss, plus I'm a naturally paranoid sort anyway meaning I would suspect shonkiness in the build unless someone can reassure me otherwise. Structural survey might be worth the extra cost... That where my thinking is at the mo... what are your thoughts, opinions, suggestions?

My more paranoid side is edging me towards getting a local surveyor to do a proper structural survey on a property i'm buying, rather than the easy option of the mortgage-bank arranged Homebuyers Report. Its a 6 year old 3 bedroom semi... perhaps a structural survey is overkill considering the age but I want to ensure as much as I can that there's nothing bad lurking there, rather than just wanting to get the transaction through with a minimum of fuss and effort! so, does anyone have any recommendations for surveyors in the Cambridge area? cheers in advance...

Thanks for the heads up about interest recalculation, top info. Your point about longer term & flexibility is spot on, that is what i was thinking of all along. Whilst childless i want to be able to overpay as much as possible, and then fall back to a lower mortgage commitment each month once i have a family to pay for! Unless doing so is more expensive for some reason, which TFW has shown it isn't

Thanks v much :-)

Good points :-) My question was under the assumption that the interest rate and the fees are the same. In that scenario, is paying a 25 year mortgage off (in its entirety) in 15 years by overpaying every month (e.g. no lump sum) equivalent in terms of cost to a 15 year mortgage?

Apologies for a numptie newbie question! If i took out a 25 year mortgage and paid it off in 15 years, would it have been any more expensive than mortgage arranged for 15 years in the first place? In my head they seem equivalent but i'm not sure if i'm missing something. thanks in advance for you help...

bump! does anyone have any further suggestions since August? I may need to make some calls myself soon, so if anyone is able to add any firms that they recommend to the list in this thread then that would be appreciated

does anyone know if the new coalition have said whether the three year rule on CGT is going to be scrapped - i'm referring to the rule that says as long as you had the property as your main residence at some point, then once you cease living there then next three years of ownership are treated as if it was your main residence (so exempt from CGT), even if you lived elsewhere and let the property out during those three years...

fair enough, but places with train stations in them that are handy for commuting don't tend to be affordable and pleasant. for an example, you just need to look at the villages between Cambridge and Stevenage (meldreth, shepreth, etc), i'd love to live there but lots of ex-london people have moved there due to the train to Kings Cross and Stevenage and pushed the prices up.

my current work is in Stevenage, and the person i would be living with works near Waterbeach. so its a case of finding a happy medium between the two which is also affordable (that seems to be the problem at the moment... which is why my thoughts have ventured out as far as St Ives!)

ah, good info about the flood risk. perhaps an impact on buildings insurance premiums to consider. actually went for a look around St Ives yesterday... thought it was quite impressive size and quality of town centre considering its not the biggest of places. Seems the town is split into to the town centre at the bottom of it in the south and then the entirely residential bit thats north of the road that splits the town right thru the middle. the residential area seemed decent enough, nothing special but not too bad either... a reasonable place to live for a while. then we went to huntingdon, i felt the residential area there seemed somehow bleak, didn't like it much, it just had a bit of a grim feel to it!

hi everyone, thanks for your input on Bar Hill. yep, like most of us addicts i've been spending longer on rightmove and i've uncovered relative 'value' in St Ives and Huntingdon, which are connected by bus to Camb so not cut off (also Huntingdon has a rail station). Is it just distance from Cambridge that gives these places their keen-ish prices or is there (again) something i don't know about them? cheers, snuffle_uk

hi folks, been doing some rightmove searches for possible purchases and it seems that 90% of the results of my low priced search are in Bar Hill... why?