At home with a real ESPC buyer: Wallace Mitchell
With a wide range of historic buildings, Edinburgh is the ideal location to buy for any house hunters who love period properties. From Georgian townhouses or Victorian tenements, Wallace Mitchell was spoiled for choice when he bought his one-bed tenement flat in Tollcross earlier this year.
Before he started looking for his flat, Wallace was renting but during the pandemic he decided to move back in with his parents for two years to save money. A year before he had saved up enough money to buy a flat, he employed the help of Shirley Mushet of ESPC Mortgages to talk him through the process.
“I wasn't sure at all how any of it worked,” Wallace explains. “I didn't know anything about mortgages or buying at all.
“I got in touch with Shirley about a year before I was even planning to buy, just to say that I was thinking of buying a property. What do I do? How do I make sure that I'm ready when the time comes? And I think that was actually the most valuable thing I could have done.”
When Wallace was ready to buy a flat, he got back in touch with Shirley to ask for mortgage advice. He adds: “Shirley taught me what mortgages were, to be honest. I went from being a complete novice and by the end of it. I felt a lot more confident.”
Wallace says a mortgage adviser was essential because the process of buying a flat in Edinburgh can be competitive: “I'm quite a resilient person, but it takes quite a lot of resilience and quite a lot of motivation to keep losing out on dream properties. In some cases, I was outbid by tens of thousands for one-bedroom flats and I thought this is madness, this is actually madness."
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Wallace has some advice for first-time buyers who feel like they are struggling to get on the housing market: “After six months of looking and losing out on properties, it would have been easy to have given up and put the property search on hold, but Shirley stepped in and encouraged me to keep on looking.
“Shirley said it's when you least expect it and when everyone else stops looking and you keep going, that's when you'll get it. She was right. I got my flat two weeks after I thought I should give up looking.”
Wallace describes the process of buying his flat as “the perfect buying situation”, adding: “I put an offer in and it was accepted. It didn't even go to a closing date. It was taken off the market that day.
“It all happened purely because I had experienced missing out on other properties that I really liked because I hadn't acted quickly enough.”
Shirley recommended a solicitor estate agent for Wallace to work with, which he described as a “fantastic experience”.
“I didn't have a solicitor and so I had to find one and that was something that I found really nerve wracking,” he says.
“I was really lucky and the solicitor I ended up using was recommended to me by Shirley so I knew that it was someone who was going to be good. She was fantastic.
“I'd never had to ask a solicitor for a quote before so I was a little apprehensive about the process, but they made me feel at ease so it was quite straightforward.”
Once he got the keys to his flat, Wallace started renovating it. It is now beautifully decorated throughout with high ceilings, hardwood floors and wonderful original cornicing.
He was looking for a period property with high ceilings and a corner bay window, saying: “I was definitely looking for an older place much to the surprise of my family.
“My parents definitely wanted me to buy a new build but I wanted something with charm and character. My absolute dream was to have high ceilings and a corner bay window so those were the sorts of things I looked for, whether it be in good condition, or bad, to be honest.”
What was the renovation process like? Wallace learned how to do plumbing, tiling and do the panelling in the bathroom by watching YouTube tutorials. His dad is a joiner, so he helped him with the finishing touches. The only tradesperson Wallace paid for was an electrician and he did the rest himself.
He says: “You have to be so motivated but it is worth all the hard work you put in.”
Independent mortgage advisers
Our team of mortgage brokers are experts in the process of buying a house or flat. We can help answer all your mortgage questions and can help you with your home and personal protection needs. Get in touch with the team today by calling 0131 253 2920 or emailing fsenquiries@espc.com
The initial consultation with an ESPC Mortgages adviser is free and without obligation. Thereafter, ESPC Mortgages charges for mortgage advice are usually £395 (£345 for first-time buyers). YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR OTHER LOANS SECURED AGAINST IT.
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