Wheeling And Dealing For The First House

This house had 10 m foundations before it was built and never had issues with ground movement. This was the house opposite our 2nd home that we bought and sold before returning to South Africa.

25 years ago I bought my first property in The UK and was so happy I made the plunge into finally owning something. We lived in the South East of England and the entire area was going through a crazy boom time with prices escalating constantly. Getting on the property ladder was difficult then and still is unless you know people or have a lucky break. Many people are stuck renting as prices keep on escalating so there is no good time and the sooner you do it the better.

The deal we had was with a company that does new builds and basically accepts the house that you own as the deposit or part payment. Like trading in a car except it is a house and that is how we scored our first house. I knew the one director and he mentioned he had some houses he needed to move and would help us get on the ladder. We had to pay a 5% deposit which was odd as we borrowed the money for an hour and he handed it back after holding onto it for a few seconds. This was just making the deal legal apparently as we had received a 100 percent mortgage even though we hadn't in the banks eyes as the deposit was paid.

That house we had for 5 years or so and literally doubled our money moving to a new area just outside of the price wave. This one turned out to be a lemon though as things had been hidden from us like under pinning and it was a real bugger to sell on. The bank buildings assessor had hidden things which we couldn't prove as paperwork had been changed but we couldn't prove it. Things were not kosher as why did the bank grant us a mortgage and 3 years later all the others who wanted to put offers in were rejected due to the foundation work that had been undertaken.

I did manage to sell it to an elderly couple who wanted to be mortgage free and ended up screwing the developers who sold it to me in the first place. I got them to sign a 15 year guarantee on their work back dated on the date of sale to the new owners. I am sure they had paid the bank official to look over and ignore the underpinning when we bought it so screw them. I saw on the records they made a healthy profit and about 20 percent more than we did after only 3 years so happy they were not stuck like we were. The entire area suffered from ground movement as the houses were built on an old rubbish dump.

The one thing I did when we sold on though was kept the endowment policy that covers the mortgage when you sell. At the time it was the right thing to do but since then reports came out that these were kind of shady and many never covered the value outstanding. I am not overly bothered as that is due now and it is like a savings that I would not normally have kept going but thought it was wise this time. If we had kept that property I just looked at the sales history and it is now up 100 percent but still not a great return considering the time frame.

I am expecting roughly 60 percent maybe more if I get lucky which to be fair is still a decent return. Not sure what to do with that yet but thoughts have been on possibly using it to buy another house in the UK and renting it out. No rush though as I don't want another lemon as it left a sour taste and I nearly got burnt.

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