Today is the most important date for our project thus far... we finally received the 1st instalment of the mortgage payment. An exciting day, reality setting in and of course a screen shot of our temporary bank balance taken before the money starts getting paid out... starting today with the first Instalment to Border Oak for the frame structure.
It has taken several months to finally get the mortgage through and it was Birmingham Midshires who have provided the finance to make the build happen. Applying for a Self Build mortgage wasn't as easy as I expected, in fact quite stressful at times and took a lot more time than anticipated!
As we progressed through the 2 stages of the process for the mortgage application, stage 1 was relatively straight forward; are we suitable and do the numbers for affordability stack up? Stage 2; do the valuations and projected numbers stack up? This wasn't quite so straight forward and here is why. Collies are a national company (part of Lloyds Banking Group) and were instructed to value the property and land by the Mortgage Company. The valuation cost just under £500.00. The valuer had no preparation and didn't know what he was valuing prior to arrival. He was here for a whole 20 mins, looked at the plot and the plans asked a couple of questions, hit me with a bombshell and left. I can't say I enjoyed the experience and it was quite clear the valuer had no real understanding of local area pricing. The bombshell was that he told me "the land is over valued" & "it won't be worth that much after it is built." As you can imagine I was left reeling with that comment so I looked again at the local pricing and experts in our area to validate what I thought. During this time but heard nothing form the Mortgage company for 2 weeks. The concern I had was not that my valuation was "over egged", but that one person could scupper our dream with little regard to our ambition. It made absolutely no difference to him whether it happened or not. After chasing (myself and also the Mortgage Adviser), the valuer hadn't even completed the forms correctly. After a bit of kerfuffle the valuation feedback happened quite quickly. Alas, once we received the valuation back, prior to the mortgage offer being made, the numbers were exactly as we had told the valuer in the first place. No need to worry after all...
Prior to raising the mortgage through Birmingham Midshires, we originally spoke to Handlesbanken, Hereford branch, but they saw the project as too "risky." I am not entirely sure how they made this decision as I felt I was very thorough with the numbers, planning and expectations, but nonetheless it didn't happen. I hope to go back to them at them at the end to show them what we have achieved!
Based on my experience, I would recommend using a Mortgage adviser/specialist who has knowledge and expertise in self-build to help with the paperwork and "oil the wheels" along as they say. There will be a fee involved, but for the right person/advice this will be worth the money.
We hope to have the house structure with roof on before the end of the year, with the second draw down on the mortgage after the roof structure is complete... The base is due to start in approx 5 weeks, with the frame being ready in approx 12 weeks!
So there it is, we are officially off the mark and I have managed to get the word kerfuffle into the blog - and relatively in context.
Thanks for reading, Tim
It has taken several months to finally get the mortgage through and it was Birmingham Midshires who have provided the finance to make the build happen. Applying for a Self Build mortgage wasn't as easy as I expected, in fact quite stressful at times and took a lot more time than anticipated!
As we progressed through the 2 stages of the process for the mortgage application, stage 1 was relatively straight forward; are we suitable and do the numbers for affordability stack up? Stage 2; do the valuations and projected numbers stack up? This wasn't quite so straight forward and here is why. Collies are a national company (part of Lloyds Banking Group) and were instructed to value the property and land by the Mortgage Company. The valuation cost just under £500.00. The valuer had no preparation and didn't know what he was valuing prior to arrival. He was here for a whole 20 mins, looked at the plot and the plans asked a couple of questions, hit me with a bombshell and left. I can't say I enjoyed the experience and it was quite clear the valuer had no real understanding of local area pricing. The bombshell was that he told me "the land is over valued" & "it won't be worth that much after it is built." As you can imagine I was left reeling with that comment so I looked again at the local pricing and experts in our area to validate what I thought. During this time but heard nothing form the Mortgage company for 2 weeks. The concern I had was not that my valuation was "over egged", but that one person could scupper our dream with little regard to our ambition. It made absolutely no difference to him whether it happened or not. After chasing (myself and also the Mortgage Adviser), the valuer hadn't even completed the forms correctly. After a bit of kerfuffle the valuation feedback happened quite quickly. Alas, once we received the valuation back, prior to the mortgage offer being made, the numbers were exactly as we had told the valuer in the first place. No need to worry after all...
Prior to raising the mortgage through Birmingham Midshires, we originally spoke to Handlesbanken, Hereford branch, but they saw the project as too "risky." I am not entirely sure how they made this decision as I felt I was very thorough with the numbers, planning and expectations, but nonetheless it didn't happen. I hope to go back to them at them at the end to show them what we have achieved!
Based on my experience, I would recommend using a Mortgage adviser/specialist who has knowledge and expertise in self-build to help with the paperwork and "oil the wheels" along as they say. There will be a fee involved, but for the right person/advice this will be worth the money.
We hope to have the house structure with roof on before the end of the year, with the second draw down on the mortgage after the roof structure is complete... The base is due to start in approx 5 weeks, with the frame being ready in approx 12 weeks!
So there it is, we are officially off the mark and I have managed to get the word kerfuffle into the blog - and relatively in context.
Thanks for reading, Tim
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