After being outbid for the 4th time we're getting pretty sick of the house buying process.
Every time we've offered asking or slightly over, but every house has gone for £10k+ over asking despite prices being 10% up in a year already. 3 of those times we've lost out to cash buyers wanting to let out the property.
First time buyers so nothing to directly compare against, but well aware this isn't the norm, but there's no signs of it slowing at all in my area (Bristol).
Anyhow, rant over - how's everyone else getting on with house buying at the moment?
Was reading in the local paper that in our area (central Bristol) average property prices were up 42% in the last year. That's absolutely crazy, especially as everyone is supposed to be moving out cities into the countryside. Apparently 20% up across Bristol over that period and 10% nationally. Not a great time to be a first-time buyer.
Just got outbid, I bid 6% over, winner had ready cash, was in rented accommodation, and bid at least 10% over asking. We're now holding fire, assembling cash in the bank and probably renting pro tem. Sick of trips to the storage but pleased to be living lean. Jeez it ain't fun.
"we’ve lost out to cash buyers wanting to let out the property"
Property is increasingly becoming [much] more of a mainstream investment commodity as people seek to be property developers / 'get into real estate' so they can 'leave the rat race'. A LOT of people are following the advice of samuel leeds etc
As a hopeful first time homebuyer in ~2023 I'm not particularly looking forward to this bidding battle. I'm priced out of Hertfordshire, but I'm actually quite looking forward to moving more rural i.e. bedfordshire/cambridgeshire.
Housing really shouldn't be an investment vehicle at all 😡
My daughter is trying to buy in Bristol. Her experience is much the same as yours. Put in a bid of the asking price, get told there are 10 or more bids and please can she submit a BAFO on Monday. Offer 380k on a house that was for sale for 350k, and get told that the winning bid was 396k. Yeah, it sucks to be trying to buy in Bristol right now.
I’m considering building a 2nd extension rather than move house..
With interest rates as they currently are, it's not really surprising that people with some spare cash are investing in property. Something needs doing with it sooner rather than later
Around here stuff is going for well over asking and selling in days.
Housing really shouldn’t be an investment vehicle at all
Well in reality there is a need for rental accommodation and in a normal healthy market the competition between rental and buying kind of balances itself out. The problem at the moment is money is dirt cheap...If you have some there is no point sticking it in a bank account earning nothing. And investing in property is going to give you bigger returns than other investment options when you take risk into account, so stick what capital you have in property and borrow the rest on a near as damn it interest free mortgage. Then throw into the mix a lack of housing stock and supply and you have a perfect storm.
£380k for Bristol, have Chinese investors suddenly moved in and started hyping it on TikTok 😂😂
May as well move to London, everyone is trying to escape here.
Bristol has been like this for years. We’ve brought twice in the last 10 years and had to “downgrade” our neighbourhood expectation three/four tiers each time.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">
e.g. Think we can afford St Andrews (nice). Then try Bishopston (up and coming). Then Southville (fashionable and the worst for being outbid), end up in Totterdown (grotty).</span>
Of course what happens is that Totterdown ended up being the new Southville so when we sold we did alright. Now we’re in Knowle (not the s****y bit but not the awful bit either), which we were NOT expecting but it’s amazing.
Bargains to be had just south of Broadwalk I reckon.
£380k for Bristol, have Chinese investors suddenly moved in and started hyping it on TikTok
That's pretty much the the average house price in Bristol (£360k). It's one of the most expensive places to live. Can see how it would be a good investment though.
£380k for Bristol
Gets you a 2 up 2 down terraced house with a small back yard.
I feel your pain, listening to friends who are going through the same. We have only ever bought 2 properties in our lifetime, first was our flat and the other one is the house we are still in. Both were new builds as we just could not face the whole bidding wars.
My experience is a little better, outbid by £10k on the first, second Offered £10k over, accepted then, after I'd spent £1k on survey and searches, their purchase fell through and they took it off the market. Onto third one now, offer accepted at asking price, things seem to mbe moving but I've got a squeeky bum that I've bought at the tippity top of the market. Ho hum, whatever happens I know I'm very much still in a lucky position.
Housing really shouldn’t be an investment vehicle at all
Agreed, but what are you going to invest in when ISA's are paying less than 0.5% which means you are technically becoming poorer by leaving cash in savings accounts? crypto? 😉
Lots of folk buying holiday homes and pricing locals out of the housing market.
£380k for Bristol
Gets you a 2 up 2 down terraced house with a small back yard.
Move?
I bought more than twice that for less than half that last year.
I sold my old place for £60k. It was on the market for 65, offers were coming in at 50.
Do you need to be in one of the most expensive areas in the country? If you're working from home you can do that anywhere.
Move?
I bought more than twice that for less than half that last year.
It goes both ways. That £380k house will likely be worth £700-800k in ten years. You get to live somewhere nice and it's making money for you. My house makes more money than I do *. It's utterly ridiculous but it is happening so you are better off in than out.
* Obviously not real money but it'll get cashed in one day
Rent for a year, save £10/20/30k? I wouldn't be stretching to buy just now, when house prices stabilise you could be stuck with lower equity and a disproportionate mortgage for a long long time.
I own a house which I let out. Everytime it comes up for rental I’ve got to make a choice between 4 to 6 renters who want it. More often than not somebody is in tears because they didn’t get it.
So I’d say there needs to be more buy to let properties or maybe we need to do something about the shitty neighbours in areas not even a mile away where you could buy a better home for about 70% of the cost of a months rent in the nice area.
Or maybe knock some rubbish homes down and build some better ones that actually have space to live in.
That’s pretty much the the average house price in Bristol (£360k). It’s one of the most expensive places to live.
I believe it's now over £600k average here (Winchester). So plenty more headroom to go in Bristol....
Which does lead to the question
Move?
I bought more than twice that for less than half that last year.
Well, obviously it occurs to most people, doesn't it? I mean, it isn't hard to put your house value into Rightmove to see if you could buy a farm estate 200 miles away. So why not? If you want my honest answer personally, it's this: I'm from here.
The whole UK housing market is totally crackers and basically works to concentrate money into the hands of the older and better off.
I have a small one bed and a decent sized one / two bed ( mortgage free). I could rent them both out long term for less than the market rent, use that rental to finance a loan that would buy me a £400 000 house and still be making hundreds every month. thats an absurd situation
When I moved to Edinburgh as a nurse my flat cost 2.5 times my annual income. Its now worth 10 times the annual income of the same grade nurse
No government will get to grips with this as they need the votes from those older affluent people
But its totally dysfunctional and how young folk today can get anywhere to buy property in a city like Edinburgh I do not know.
Two public servants working together and living together could maybe buy an ex council flat in the city. No chance of a decent tenement let alone a house with garden
the flat I do let out last time it came up for rental I advertised it on gumtree one morning. I had 20 enquiries in 24 hours and had let it by the end of that 24 hours - and thats at what is while under the market rent an absurd amount for a small flat
A one bed flat next door to a property I own and rent out in Redland (Bristol) is on the market for £310k and will probably have offers over asking price. Where I live (Bishopston) small 2 bed terraces are going for well over £400k - even 5 years ago when I bought my 2 bed I had to bid £20k over asking price as a cash buyer and still wasn't the highest bidder - fortunately the highest bidder couldn't get a mortgage so I got the property. Bristol, which has always been stupidly expensive, is getting even worse as lots of Londoners see it as the ideal place to move to which is pushing prices even higher.
It goes both ways. That £380k house will likely be worth £700-800k in ten years.
As will everyone else's.
If you want my honest answer personally, it’s this: I’m from here.
I get that, I feel the same way. I wouldn't want to live much further away from where I am now either, it felt weird recently moving 5-10 miles down the road from my family home of 40 years. But if you could move and you're choosing not to then you've just shifted the problem from practical and financial to sentimentality and stubbornness. If your family is WFH then you could live in the Outer Hebrides or Jersey or Birmingham or California or Florida or (gods help you) Yorkshire or the Moon or Tonbridge Wells. Perhaps not the moon.
If 'not needing to be in an office' becomes the long-term new norm I would be astonished if property prices didn't significantly normalise across the country in the next decade.
it isn’t hard to put your house value into Rightmove to see if you could buy a farm estate 200 miles away. So why not?
If I could actually do that, I'd be hiring a Luton tranny tomorrow.
That sounded wrong, didn't it.
I was very lucky. I'd been renting for 10 years or so, thinking I had no chance of buying locally in hertfordshire, other than a flat, and I didn't want to live in a flat.
I started looking in norwich instead, and got a mortgage organised, then one day on a boring teams meeting at work, I looked at a local estate agent and they had a 2 bed house with garden, just within my affordability range and 10 mins drive from where I was living.
I put the offer in and moved in this spring.
Housing affordability will be the number 1 issue for the next 2 or 3 elections I think.
As will everyone else’s
I suspect your old £60k house won't. As has been mentioned you can buy a very nice rural property with less money but you still need some money and the growth from these overpriced areas can provide it. Lots of Grand Designs builds are funded by people selling their London house.
I would be astonished if property prices didn’t significantly normalise across the country in the next decade.
An interesting point. There's been a lot if talk about levelling up recently. That will likely include higher house prices.
I would be astonished if property prices didn’t significantly normalise across the country in the next decade.
depends what yu mean by normalise
It would be massive market correction to mean my flat that 25 years ago was worth 2.5 times a nurses salery and is now worth 10 times a nurses salery. It would mean a drop in value of 75%
Yes London is growing more slowly than the rest of the country. But the Levelling Up agenda - if it only leads to higher house prices, but not actual jobs - could serve to undermine the Tory's Red Wall strategy by building up local resentment as locals are priced out of local housing.
I suspect the main casaulty of this recent house price growth will be flats, which along with the cladding issues and management fees, will decline in popularity over the longer term.
And in a year's time we will see plenty of articles along the lines of, "I regret moving to the countryside now."
The problem is a housing shortage, couple this with cheap capital and concentration of work in certain geographies and you are in an upward spiral of price increases. The consequence is that housing costs Hoover up every spare penny of incone.
This is bad for both people and the economy + it concentrates wealth into property which is never released.
The only way to solve the problem is to build massive numbers of houses - but awarding planning permission for big new developments is politically very unpopular. The Tories just bottled the issue on housing targets after pressure from MPs, councillors and voters in their home counties heartlands.
Rent for a year, save £10/20/30k?
Unlikely, given salaries and rental values..
I keep banging on on here but until a huge amount of affordable social housing is built that will remain in public ownership, our housing market is screwed, our benefits system is screwed, and a lot of vulnerable people will be unable to put down the roots to ensure decent opportunities for education and jobs. The investment now would take a generation to pay back in savings to the public purse, so no government will do that, obviously
It's been crackers most of my working life with only the period 1990-1999 when it settled down (many faced negative equity for a while).
Pre 2007/8 interest rates kept them in check (a bit), but since then money has been cheap for those with assets/income and the number of properties vs demand has never kept up - consequently prices rise.
It's very location specific as flats in the block (centre of Hull) I sold in 1987 are only going for 3 times what I sold it for, so in 'mortgage' terms it's now cheaper per month (we had 10% interest rates). Whereas the house we had in Buckinghamshire now costs 3 times what we paid in 2001, and while wages have increased big-time since 1987 they haven't really shifted since 2001 (except for the very bottom/Minimum Wage).
I moved from West Lothian to Innerleithen. Sold our own house in a matter of days for 20% over asking...should have known it would be tough. First house we bid on was offers over 235, we offered 250 and were the lowest of 7. It sold for 310! Second one we went almost 20% over and were 2nd of 11. Other houses we liked were gone before we'd even had a chance to view. It's pretty crazy! In the end we got a double upper flat for sensible money. I think the fact that it's a flat put off a lot of the family buyers, but it's worked out great for us. I wonder if the people who paid 65k+ over asking on a 3 bed bungalow will ever see that back, perhaps they don't care!
People have caught a strong dose of Fear of Missing Out and that is undoubtedly making them over-bid, whipped up by Estate Agents.
It's crazy when you think about it - when would you normally bid 20percent over an asking price!
I suspect the market is in the overheated stage now and will cool down over the next two years.
Psychology of lockdown was also a huge factor in this rally - people were bored/anxious, so spent their time on RightMove, then property viewing was the only thing you were allowed to do during the lockdowns. The Race for Space and need for a Zoom room are howevever longer terms trends that were happening anyhow with the rise of WFH but Covid has accelerated the trend massively.
YouTube video by Dominic Frisby explaining high house prices and why it will never change:
We are in Nottingham.
Put an offer in and had it accepted in October last year.
The sellers took 8 months to find somewhere they wanted to move to.
I'd lost faith after 3 months and we looked at loads of other places, got out bid on some and disagreed on others.
The sellers put it back on the market as at 45k more than we had offered.
Then found somewhere with no chain and offered it to us, but at 20k more than the agreed price because the market had gone up!
They refused to accept what they had agreed to already and after viewing anything else we could afford we still wanted that one.
A house has sold at offers 25% more than we sold ours for, we have kept to the same price. Because that's what we agreed to.
I'm not enjoying house buying!
We completed a few months ago - we had offered the full asking price as a cash buyer before the house even went on the market. We managed to get to see the house early due to a connection at the estate agents, before they'd even taken pictures. Before that we were having no luck at all, we'd arrange viewings then the house would be gone before we even got to see it. This is in S Cumbria.
Seems like it's got significantly worse since then, I never imagined at that point people would be offering significantly over the asking price.
Then found somewhere with no chain and offered it to us, but at 20k more than the agreed price because the market had gone up!
They refused to accept what they had agreed to already
This would make me furious!
It's as difficult for first time buyers as it ever has been. A few pockets in other parts of the UK aside, once you come down into the bottom half of the country, average salary and average property price of a first time buyer makes it unaffordable to get on the martket there without a substantial deposit - bank of Mum & Dad, typically.
Bristol has been growing at a healthy rate for a long time and is something like 16th most unaffordable cities in the UK. Demand continues to outstrip supply for most parts of the country, mmaking trying to buy off-market your best bet in trying to avoid the bun fight.
Cougar I think you may be forgetting that young people value things like friends, things to do, job prospects beyond their current job. Buying in the arse end of nowhere just to make it cheap isn't really an option. Plus, whilst remote working is now more widely accepted it seems many industries are going with 50-60% office based targets, so you've got to stay within reasonable locality. I suspect the people leaving London are the main reason other cities are rocketing.
No government will get to grips with this as they need the votes from those older affluent people
are you the exception that proves the rule?
You can buy my place for asking price, nice big 4-bed detached with huge garage in a pleasant town with excellent schools on the edge of greater MCR.
Priced it high-ish on estate agent advice and I think the market is starting to cool a little for places over £300k.
About half the software team I'm on seem to be moving at the moment, mostly down to them being at the stage of life where they are having kids and need more space, I imagine they are in for a tight few years until inflation effectively shrinks their mortgage payments.
We're in the 'actively looking, but don't need to move' stage.
We have no drive and parking is getting worse where we live, so I want a drive! But there's bugger-all on the market. And what there is is way over priced for what it is. People wanting top-whack for properties that need gutting.
Think we'll leave it a year!
We realised we wanted to move out of bristol midway through the first lockdown. We were in one of the areas of bristol that saw large house price rises - in 7 years there appeared a bakery, a few cafe's and organic veg shops, yoga studio and a fancy pub. We bought ours for 185 and sold for 387 7 years later! we thought the rise was crazy but then it gave us the opportunirty to move to wales to a new build (with a surprisingly large garden )
My office is still based in Bristol and they've recently changed the policy to allow remote working. If they do change it then i'm not too worried as there have normally been a lot of jobs in web development that have always been remote working
My brother has been stuggling to move out of London. They have seen so many properties go way over the asking price and many get sold after a 10 minute viewing, actually ours got bought by someone that hadn't seen it in the flesh! they got a friend to view it and video the place
I hate the offers over system with a passion.
I'm selling soon (unless I gift it to my lad) and the house will be valued and on sale at a fixed price.
I've been looking at what I consider to be expensive new build houses round my way ( £375 - £500k) and it's mental. Folk are camping out in their cars to be first in the door and reserve builds !
You also have to remember you are up against young people taking 40 yr mortgages. MAkes it much more affordable than for , say, a 54yr old looking for a house to retire in ! lol.
Folk are camping out in their cars to be first in the door and reserve builds !
yep this has happened arond here (wales). ppl camping outside the estate agents
we thought the rise was crazy but then it gave us the opportunirty to move to wales to a new build (with a surprisingly large garden )
Are you one of these people? 😛
https://www.instagram.com/bedwyr_williams
Friends recently tried to buy a run down small holding in mid Wales, just down the road from the family farm.
It went to best and final offers, they put in well over the asking price but lost out to someone that offered double asking price. That sort of money isn't about locally.
no big and daft - I am one of those older more affluent people - just I have my eyes open
We have no drive and parking is getting worse where we live, so I want a drive!
Yeah it is getting so bad these days. We bought our last house in 2002 and the road near us (we were at the end of an access road with limited parking) was always very quiet with just a few cars parked outside houses backing onto the road. These days there are rows of cars constantly parked up all along the road and causing bottlenecks - and it's going to get worse as they are now building 300+ houses all down what was an 'Area out Special Scientific Interest'. Now of more of an interest to developers' gold-lined pockets.
Fortunately we moved (just across the road) eight years ago and now have the drive with space for our car to be away from the road.
so are most people on here too young to remember "gazumping"? It was all the rage when we were trying to buy our first flat in the late 80s.
A friend of ours was selling her house in Edinburgh. She received a few offers and sold it to the second highest bidder! Reason being, they sent her a letter explaining why they loved the house so much etc, etc. It’s seemingly a thing these days!
so are most people on here too young to remember “gazumping”? It was all the rage when we were trying to buy our first flat in the late 80s.
Did it involve going way over the asking price though? My impression was that gazumping was generally still below or at the asking price.
A friend of ours was selling her house in Edinburgh. She received a few offers and sold it to the second highest bidder! Reason being, they sent her a letter explaining why they loved the house so much etc, etc. It’s seemingly a thing these days!
I reckon I'd take a lower offer from a family or someone who was going to live in the house over a 'property developer'.
A friend of ours was selling her house in Edinburgh. She received a few offers and sold it to the second highest bidder! Reason being, they sent her a letter explaining why they loved the house so much etc, etc. It’s seemingly a thing these days!
...bet they love telling the tale at dinner parties of how gullible the seller was! 🙂
I would do the same - I'd rather sell for a bit less for no chain and / or a family or people I liked. there is an awful lot of me in the flat
I will not sell it to someone who wants to let it out.
Everyone has a price on their principles. Would I prefer to sell a house to a young family? Sure! Would I accept £20,000 less than a property developer was offering. Er, no chance!
[Waits patiently for TJ's rebuttal]
^^^
It is a difficult one - when we sold our last place, we had agreed a price with our buyer then had the estate agent call us telling us we'd received a higher offer which we declined as we had already committed (and I always try to be a fair person in such matters). Then we received a hand-written note asking us to reconsider (which we ignored) followed by having this lady turn up at the door telling us what she would pay for the house. Now I had heard the offer I couldn't unhear it so discussed it with my wife and agreed to ask the original buyer could up their offer (not even MATCH the higher offer - we simply asked if they could improve). Unfortunately they wouldn't and pulled out so we proceeded with the higher offer.
A few months later my wife bumped into the original person (she was a mum at the school our girls went to) and she told us we had done the right thing as she'd subsequently had her mortgage application on another house turned down so she wouldn't have been able to complete with us anyway.
Not sure what the moral is here, but I suppose it's just that we shouldn't be totally ruled by our hearts in such matters.
forgot to say the house buying part was fairly straight forward.. the house selling part wasn't. Buyer said they were buying for their son. Founf out much later down the line they were going to rent it out and got refused for 2 mortgaages. Originally told they had a massive deposit and a very minimal mortgage but then later changed their mind and decided to go for a much higher mortgage. It got refused as they were coming up to retirement age
So on paper they were really good and hence why we went for them. disingenuous of them to effectively change their application criteria
Just to balance the doom and gloom, I know a couple, both 19, who have just bought their first house together here in Ilkeston.
I know she's worked multiple shop/cafe jobs since she was 14, but I also know there was no bank of mum and dad to help out. Both working as civilian support for the Police, so not that well paid either.
I would agree superficial. losing £5000 of my £300 000 maybe acceptable - losing £50 000 would not
However its highly unlikely in my case a developer would give me £50 000 extra.
Bought/sold house in Bristol during the stamp duty holiday last summer and made about 5 offers on places in the region of £10-15k over asking and list out on all. Got ours for £25k over in the end (£355k) but that was only because the estate agent talked us up as a young pregnant couple (we'd also sold through them and they were desperate to keep it moving). Sellers gave us the chance to match the top bid and they'd choose us.
I agree that losing out on money to sell to the "right person" is a hard stretch for most but we're grateful that we got the chance to match.
The chain then ended up taking about 8 months before we actually moved. So don't think that it's all easy once you've agreed a price.....
Bought a new build house earlier this year. It will be our second new build so i know what to expect. Have only ever classed our houses as homes. I have absolutely zero interest in their value until i die and give half each to my kids. Even then i guess i wont care much. 1st house was great until we decided to start a family. Second house did us 20yrs, 2 kids and 2 dogs. 3rd house is because we envisage having our kids around the house perhaps longer than we thought.
So we are moving into a 1400-1500sq ft 4 bed house. I will have a mortgage for the next 19yrs until i am 65 but paying less per month than our current house, so i feel we can afford it. I will have about 40% mortgage on it.
Since we traded in i didnt have to worry about selling our current house but i know it sold for £10,000 more than we traded it in for in less than 24hrs. I dont care really, the house i am buying i couldnt buy now for less than £30-60k more than i am paying depending on the area such is the price increase on the new builds locally since we agreed.
I cant say that i appreciate the constant updates from TJ and others about their property portfolios regardless of how they happened upon them. How they use and manipulate their incomes to justify them. It just feels wrong to me that people are struggling to house themselves whilst others profit from it. On the other hand i see that if it were not for the likes of TJ and pals, the housing market could be even worse. Its like all the STWers buying dogs over covid. It feels wrong to me. It sounds obscene to pay so much. It feels like they have all lost their minds. But at the end of the day there is enough of them in the general public fuelling the market and keeping the prices high. I will have to make a decision when my current 2 dogs pass on whether i join the circus or find another way to get replacement mutts.
Anyhow, from my perspective its been quite a nice experience to buy a home.
Not sure what the moral is here, but I suppose it’s just that we shouldn’t be totally ruled by our hearts in such matters.
I think the moral here is that the (English) system is rubbish. You make a verbal agreement, both parties then invest significant sums of money on the back of it (surveys, solicitor's fees, etc.), but nothing is legally binding, so the whole thing can fall through, whether it's because the prospective buyer can't get a mortgage, or decides they don't like the bathroom after all.
I'd like to think I'd honour a verbal agreement, but when there's so much money to be lost on it, quite apart from the potential gain if you get a higher offer, I can't blame anyone for considering it.
I cant say that i appreciate the constant updates from TJ and others about their property portfolios regardless of how they happened upon them
apologies if thats how it comes over. One medium size flat I live in and one small flat that used to belong to my deceased other half is hardly a portfolio
I mentioned it on this thread to show how dysfunctional our property market is not for bragging rights. Its absurd that having property puts you in a position to get more money for free
if it helps any I gave my tenants over £2000 off their rent during covid and its actually finished to a higher standard than the flat I live in and let well below market rent
I cant say that i appreciate the constant updates from TJ and others about their property portfolios regardless of how they happened upon them
apologies if thats how it comes over. One medium size flat I live in and one small flat that used to belong to my deceased other half is hardly a portfolio
No need to apologize and i wrote it hoping you wouldnt take too much offense from it (I have seen you can give as good as you get 🙂
I tried to soften it with a comment that without people like you the housing market would be even worse. Its a struggle on a similar level to the NHS thread. Lets just blame the Tories
No offense taken. No worries
I was just about to type wot Northwind wrote! Who makes an offer on a house when they don't have mortgage approval? How is an agent representing two opposing parties??
Ah - England.
Fixing the house selling/buying process down south would be an excellent start in making it less painful. I remember the bad old days in Edinburgh where each potential buyer did their own survey, and the bids closed on a chosen Friday at 12.00 - people made mad offers as they wanted to make one that stuck.
Anyhow, rant over – how’s everyone else getting on with house buying at the moment?
Fairly nightmarish, thanks.
Ours was on the market for nearly 2 years before it sold. In hindsight Oct 2019 was a bad time to sell a house: election looming, Brexit looming, winter looming, Xmas looming... and then Covid. That said we had a surge of interest in the Spring of this year with lots of viewings. I reckon 90% of those viewers were Londoners looking to relocate (we are in semi-rural Glos). Some of those Londoners were looking for a second-home (ours is 5-bedroom, I kid you not). The sale fell-through three times.
First time it fell-through a greedy ex-wife wanted a bigger settlement from the buyer and suddenly he couldn't afford this place. So it went back on the market. Suddenly (May 8th) we had two asking-price offers on the same day. We were happy to accept either, so asked the estate agent which of the two was more likely not to fall-through. Instead the estate agent started a bidding war between the two, and one offered 8% over the asking price, so we accepted that one expecting them to haggle-down after the survey. However, their over-zealous surveyor flagged up an eye-watering £50k's-worth of bullsh1t *potential* problems: eg, "I can't see any Japanese Knotweed in the garden, but if there is any it'll cost £500 to remove... "Wrong kind of paint on the front of the house will cost £7k to sand-blast and re-paint... "no drainage pipe in a drystone wall in the garden will cost £5k to remedy [it's the neighbour's wall, mate]... "no vent in the bricked-up chimney in the kitchen £2k to remedy [yes there is, mate, it's behind the cooker]... "Exterior drains are blocked [no they're not, mate, they're u-bend types so there's always water in the bottom]... "Cupboard door knob needs replacing £50"... Get in the sea, mate.
I could go on.
Anyhoo, upshot was the buyer took one look at the £50k bullsh1t remedial work that didn't need doing, got cold feet and ran a mile. Didn't even want to negotiate, which we would have been very happy to do.
So it went back on the market in July - and sold almost instantly, but this time for less than the original asking price. Last Thursday we were informed the sale had fallen-through again. This time one-half of the young couple who are buying this place had been made redundant and they could no longer afford the mortgage. So it went back on the market again. Next day, however, it emerged that she had found another (better paid) job, so it was all 'on' again. In the six hours that our house was on the market we'd had three viewings lined up.
With regard to our buying a new place, we viewed 15 properties locally (wife wants to stay in the area). Anything 'nice' or 'reasonably priced' pretty-much sells the day it goes on the market round here. We seldom got as far as putting in any offers. However, some months ago we reluctantly put an asking-price offer in on a tiny little mid-terrace cottage of £375k which we felt was massively over-priced – but then they'd had ten viewings on the first day it was on the market: 2-bedrooms, effectively one room downstairs (700sq ft in total), no heating, no double-glazing, no parking, restricted access, no room to extend... The seller refused the offer and said they wanted more like £475k. I may have laughed out loud at their estate agent.
Fingers crossed, this sale will go through. When it (temporarily) fell through for a third time last week my wife was in tears. We can't face going back to Square One nearly two years down the line. The new buyers' surveyor is coming next week, and in preparation, we hired our own structural engineer to provide a report which discredits all the structural nonsense in the previous survey. The first surveyor made it sound like the place was falling down - which it clearly isn't, but we wanted an expert to say so.
When this is all over, my wife will be very happy. We have found her dream home in the country to move to (quiet, rural, fantastic views) and our offer on our new place was thankfully accepted. She can't wait.
Some friends - who also own a pub - have been caught out by the boom. They sold their house, had an offer accepted on another which then fell through, and the whole family are now trying to live above the pub. The landlady has taken up smoking to deal with it all.
Property is increasingly becoming [much] more of a mainstream investment commodity
Not hard to see why with the upcoming raid on DC pensions.
The very last thing the market needed was a stamp duty discount.
The market is so bare, and there's so many buyers. If you want to buy a house you gotta bid what it's worth to *you*. Offering asking price in my local area (Tweed and Edinburgh) you'll always be outbid by a long way.
We bid 15% over asking price a year ago, we got the house revalued 3 months after, and it was now worth 10% more.
The market is bonkers. It awful for first time buyers, but you've either gotta bid high, or go for something that folk won't really want and get your hands dirty.
That's in Scotland where most stuff is offers over to start with though - offering over the asking price in England wasn't a thing until quite recently!
Cougar I think you may be forgetting that young people value things like friends, things to do, job prospects beyond their current job.
I touched on this earlier and you're absolutely right. I'd have been terrified to move away.
Buying in the arse end of nowhere just to make it cheap isn’t really an option.
I might not be 'local' but I'm not in the arse end of nowhere. I'm variously an hour from Manchester city centre, the Lake District, the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales and the coast. Most amenities from the corner shop to Tesco are within walking distance. It's brilliant.
Plus, whilst remote working is now more widely accepted it seems many industries are going with 50-60% office based targets, so you’ve got to stay within reasonable locality.
Doesn't matter what they're "going for," if you want to work from home then legally they have to justify a reason why you can't and have to go in.
my lads looking at getting onto the ladder, but im sure i read someone on here stating that come winter, house prices are expected to be lower, as sadly there will be more repossessions. he'll only be able to afford to get on at the bottom, and even then itll be shared ownership or somethings. (hes seeking advice on what exactly he'd be able to borrow at present.)
WWSTWD? wait it out a few months to see if the prices drop?
cheers
No one really knows. All I can say from experience is that at every point in recent history there have been people predicting a crash or a correction and prices have kept on going up. I think right now the market is in a funny place post COVID making it even more unpredictable. We still aren't building enough houses and there is still high demand so I can't see much changing anytime soon.
Personally I'd say if you want a house can afford to get on the ladder then just get on with it and don't try and game the market.