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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.
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.....