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.
That's what I told my niece 2 weeks ago. She's being hoofed out of her rented place at the end of Oct and has just enough for a deposit. So she's decided to go for it.
There is no right time. If the maths work now just get on with it.
She hasn't quite grasped that she really needs to stay put for min 3 years and ideally 5 years though! She's used to moving around on a bit of a whim. 🙂
I remember when I was first told that house prices were crazy and the rate they were going up was unsustainable and there was sure to be a crash just around the corner.
The date was 15 September 1970.
We've been tidying up MIL's house to sell now that she's passed - the council want their care home fees !
Going on the market later this week. Expecting shenanigans from surveyors as the house needs work, but is priced accordingly for a 4 bed detached. Needs kitchen/bathroom and new electrics (1970's house, one plug point per room !).
Friend sold her small 3 bed semi within a week, and a week later she's bought a large 3 bed detached with garden for a similar price in a lower cost area. Daft thing is, she's on her own, hates gardening as it is (I re-modeled her garden last summer for her) - should be fun rattling round a more costly to run house with a big garden.
Friend sold her small 3 bed semi within a week, and a week later she’s bought a large 3 bed detached with garden for a similar price in a lower cost area. Daft thing is, she’s on her own, hates gardening as it is (I re-modeled her garden last summer for her) – should be fun rattling round a more costly to run house with a big garden.
As someone who recently moved to a house with the smallest back garden in the street, I appreciate the size is relative to our needs and manageable. Having said that, if we had a huge back garden, I'd enjoy sectioning off a good chunk of it to let Nature do as it wishes.
We moved this year from a 3 bed terrace to a 4-bed semi due to the usual case of growing family and more WFH.
I think we got VERY lucky with ours in the end. Sold our house for £205k, found a house we really wanted for £325K (just bid the asking price given the way we'd been knocked back on previous offers) which got accepted. After a load of messing about the seller decided to withdraw. On the same day something else came back to market after falling through at offers over £280. Mrs B wasn't too sold on it but we went to view it anyway, turned out it was spot on so put in a bid £5k over the asking which was accepted. Only other hurdle was our buyer/agent not disclosing that they hadn't actually completed the sale of his flat despite telling us all along that they had. It got a bit tense when it came to exchange/completion but worked out fine. Looking now at the market there's nothing that really fits the bill of what we were looking for in our area (limited by wanting to keep the kids in the same school) unless we're paying nearer £350k which isn't affordable since my wife only really works part time.
Interesting that on some (not just one) of the other properties we offered on initially we were out bid by 1st time buyers which seems surprising especially considering the types of property we were after. This is in Staffordshire.
Things seem to be cooling down here in Dunblane. Mrs_oab and I noted the other day that the houses on our street that have all sold within the last year are now valued below purchase price. By 5-10%.
Also eyebrow raising was purchase price vs marketed price/valuation. Most 15-20%, one nearly 25% above. 😱
Friend's house went really quickly for the asking price, the buyers especially liked the garden - which I'd done - ultra low maintenance for our friend, no grass, but decked and with raised beds. We did it super cheap for her too. Shame she's not had much time to enjoy it, but hey ho !
Must say it's been hard work maintaining MIL's house/garden along side my house and our static caravan - it was one garden too many. Hopefully it will sell quickly as a family home - we've no rush but do have the council to pay at some point for Nursing Home fees.
Also eyebrow raising was purchase price vs marketed price/valuation. Most 15-20%, one nearly 25% above. 😱
People love the Scottish system due to the whole legal agreement and lack of gazumping, but when i last had to buy a house up there it was horrific, it was the start of a jump in the market and the sealed bidding was just a nightmare, we must have bid on about 10 houses and were blown out the water every time, we were newish to buying so had no chance of bidding 25% over the asking for the area as that would mean eating into the deposit, we'd just lose out every time to those with more money in their bank.
As for waiting for prices to drop, it's the age old argument, we've been waiting for a drop for a generation, the whole thing is just preposterous, playing into the whole house as an investment rather than a home, if you can afford the deposit, and the mortgage, like the house and area, then go for it, maybe if you're moving every few years it's a risk, but moving house comes with associated costs anyway.
Things seem to be cooling down here in Dunblane. Mrs_oab and I noted the other day that the houses on our street that have all sold within the last year are now valued below purchase price. By 5-10%.
Also eyebrow raising was purchase price vs marketed price/valuation. Most 15-20%, one nearly 25% above.
Also there are some houses on Rightmove that have been up for a month, during the peak they were generally going to closing date in less than a week, or just taken off the market after a couple of days due to a significant offer.
we’d just lose out every time to those with more money in their bank.
Market forces.....