Dear Diary
This diary originally appeared in four installments in What Mortgage magazine in 1993.
Re-reading it many years later, my ignorance and innocence astonish (and embarrass) me.
But lack of experience afflicts most first-timers, utterly new to the various aspects of obtaining a home. By highlighting the obstacles I encountered, this diary may help buyers today avoid some of the barriers that were frustrating to me.
This website version of the Diary is an edited and expanded version of the What Mortgage original.
1-15 August 1992
Ham Common. Between Richmond and Kingston, Ham has diverse housing stock, a riverside location, Richmond Park for a neighbour...and no train service. Result: cheaper than Richmond and Kingston, but with similar amenities.
What I wanted was easy; where I wanted it wasn't.
Three bedrooms, bright decent-sized rooms, a garden (preferably south-facing), near the river (preferably the Thames) in west London. The riverside village of Ham [between Richmond and Kingston in Surrey] would do very nicely indeed.
I register with a few estate agents in the Ham-Kingston-Richmond area, and they soon send me particulars of properties with asking prices of £80,000-£100,000. I also enrol with agents in Beaconsfield, Marlow and other areas outside London.
BACKGROUND TO THE DIARY
Hindsight really is wonderful.
In the summer of 1992 I was renting a flat in north London and started househunting in southwest London (Ham, Surbiton, Whitton) and along the Thames toward and including Marlow.
It was a buyer's market. Boy, was it a buyer's market. The boom of the late 1980s had ended with a jolt. Property prices were plummeting, buyers were scarce, and the gloom showed no signs of ending. I was a demanding buyer but there were plenty of properties on the market, and I had a good chance of getting pretty much what I wanted.
I wanted a house with these attributes: near the Thames; plenty of surrounding parks and other greenery; sunny garden; good transport links to central London; affordable.
Why, then, did I waste time househunting in places like Ham, which has no rail transport at all? Why did I spend so much time, energy and petrol money exploring Marlow and Beaconsfield when, clearly, I could not afford them?
Because I didn't know better. And because my enthusiasm got the better of me.
In self-defence, property was not the hot topic it became starting a few years later. There were no property-ladder and buy-to-invest and live-gloriously-in-the-sun television programmes in those days, and the property pages in the newspapers were just that—pages, not sections. The internet was not yet open to the public, and information was harder to obtain. I learned by going and seeing and doing by and for myself.
It is easier now, but first-timers—and even experienced buyers and sellers—still need help. Hence, this diary.
16 August
I have only the particulars to go on, and while they get me launched, they also get me to many unappealing properties. I quickly learn the value of driving around prime locations and jotting down the phone numbers of houses with ‘For Sale’ boards.
I further help my cause by making better use of the A-Z, which clearly designates railroad or underground tracks, motorways, sewage treatment plants, factories, parks, playing fields and the like. And if I know which side of the road the house is on, I can figure out which part of the property faces south. Many a house makes it onto or off my viewing list by mapwork alone.
I view a three-bed semi in Ham – asking price, £90,000 - whose interior hasn’t been altered for at least 25 years but is less than a minute’s walk from the Thames. The closeness to the river is a huge plus for me, so although the price is over my budget, I will make an offer on a property I will call RiverNear.
17-30 August
Beaconsfield's attractive old village beckons, but the houses in my price range are too small. Marlow is surprisingly affordable, and I view a large, sunny four-bedroom house that is very appealing. A few days later I ask the estate agent to inquire if the large work-table area in the centre of the kitchen is built-in or free-standing. She says she'll find out and get back to me. She doesn't.
Saturday 5 September
After a 90-minute drive to look at a second house in Marlow, the vendor is nowhere to be found, and the agent does not have the keys. I am able to viewing other houses in the area, so the trip is not a total waste, but next time I'll double-check the appointment arrangements before setting out.
Monday 14 September
I ring two agents in Ham to discuss making low offers on some properties there. Both agents have taken the week off.
Monday 21 September
A Marlow agent rings to inquire if I'm still househunting. She is the agent who was supposed to investigate the kitchen unit. I remind her of this, and she replies that the owner said I could rearrange the kitchen to my heart's desire. It's a lovely answer, but not to my question. [Her answer was also sarcastic. Of course I could rearrange the kitchen. I knew that. My question was designed to find out if I would have to take a jackhammer to the kitchen floor to do so.]
Tuesday 22 September
To see how much more house I could get for the same amount of money, I register with agents in other areas near Kingston and Richmond. Immediately, a very large, very inexpensive house in Morden comes knocking. The agent tells me a complicated story about just having lost a sure sale, so the price is a super-special bargain.
Later, an agent in Putney rings and, although my impulse as a housebuyer is to keep my cards close to my chest, I tell him about the Morden house. He knows Morden well and tells me that many houses in this estate had serious problems with rusting tie bars.
I was happy to hear his explanation about rusting tie bars. I was even happier to have stumbled on a good lesson. Agent Number Two told me something that Agent Number One probably didn't want me to know. I learned that sources of information are everywhere. From now on, I will talk to everyone about everything.
Wednesday 23 September
In the early evening, a man phones and identifies himself as being with one of the Marlow agencies I've been dealing with—I'll call him Nigel Sellit. Aha, after some pleasant preliminaries, he fesses up and says that he's the mortgage man. I tell him that my accountant is advising me.
But, he protests, the accountant will charge me, whereas he, Mr. Sellit, is free.
“Yes, but my accountant is entirely independent," I reply.
"So am I," responds Mr. Sellit. "I'm with InsureMore Mortgage Company. We only use space in this estate agency."
"Why, then," I ask, "did you give the name of the estate agency, not InsureMore Mortgage Company, when you introduced yourself?"
He soon threw in the towel.
Accountant or no, I've no interest in arranging a mortgage through someone who is physically present at the estate agents. I don't want the person who knows my financial affairs, and the estate agent who might be handling my house purchase, to sit a few feet away from each other five or six days a week. And Mr. Sellit’s free and easy way of identifying himself reinforces my resolve to arrange my mortgage myself.
Thursday 24 September
Back in their respective offices, the two Ham agents contact me but neither one expresses the slightest interest or encouragement when I suggest making a low offer. Their lack of enthusiasm prompts me to register with other Ham agents. Had I done so from day one I'd be in a stronger position now.
The more agents, the better. Consider: you are interested in two houses, both represented by the same agency. How can you be sure that the agent will represent your interests over their own? You might want them to push for house A, but they might prefer to sell house B. Even if you view both houses through one agent, one of the houses may be a multiple listing. In that case, you can make one offer with one agent, and the second offer through a different agent.
Friday 25 September
Today, like many other days, particulars from about 10 agencies arrive, and I spend a lot of time sorting through them. Before making an offer on RiverNear, I want to first review the 10 or so other houses that I am also interested in, but juggling 10 sets of particulars is clumsy. I don’t have a good sense of any individual property.
To individualise them, I make a chart on a single sheet of paper on which I list the strengths and weaknesses of each house and the asking price. Choosing between them is still difficult, so I give each property a grade (A, B, C or D) based on their pros, cons and price. The chart does the trick:I now have a much better sense of each property’s value to me.
I was going to offer £80,000 for RiverNear – fully £10,000 (11%) below its asking price of £90,000. Thanks to my chart, I now give greater weight to the considerable renovation that this house will require. Instead of £80,000, I'll offer £70,000. And thanks to my chart, I'll be confident, not timid.
A few days later, the agent tells me that the vendor rejected my offer. It is a firm rejection, not a waffly one inviting me to increase my offer incrementally. We are clearly very far apart, but my offer was similarly firm, so the rejection doesn't bother me.
Adapted from What Mortgage, April 1993
Go to Diary of a First-Time Housebuyer Part 2