Been searching around for flats as my “accountant” reckons it’s a good time to buy somewhere. The whole process is bloody complicated, isnt’t it? I’ve got estate agents calling me up every hour of the day wanting to know what I think of this, and how much I’d be willing to pay for that…
I’ve seen one or two places I’d consider making an offer on, but the whole solicitor/survey/negotiating/mortgage thing has me wanting to go and hide in a corner and ignore the world. Can’t I just pop down the shops with a credit card?

Yes.

But it won’t be a real house.

Believe me, it’s much, much worse when you come to sell.

I’ve had people looking around my house and complaining about the age of the fridge! Don’t worry missus, I’ll drop it off at the tip when I go.

Which is why those “traveller” types don’t do it.

Its not complicated if you control whats going on.

Sounds like a bit of MTFU is needed and take control!

It’s completely doing my head in at the moment, think your self lucky that your not trying to sell and buy 100-110 year old houses. we’re having nothing but trouble at both ends 😥
not going to this again in a hurry that’s for sure!!

Immodium 29erKeith, should sort one end out at least! 😉

I wish it was all that easy 😆

Try buying one in France. Makes England seem like an easy-peasy process.

It’s a special problem of mine. As soon as something slightly long term and compelx comes up I have trouble. I like to be absolutely certain of everything that’s going to happen, and if I can’t see to the end of a process immediately, my brain just sort of gives up and I go have a pint.

Didn’t find it complicated. Arrange provisional mortgage, find poperty, get a survey, make an offer, finalise motgage, move.
However, finding that the buying and selling one flat cost around £4k came as a bit of a surprise.

yeah the main steps all sound easy but when you start getting issues and having to involve extra third parties it all slooooows down!
Things like the house not being registered with Land Registry (Due to age and the last time it changed hands being in the 50’s) and issues with extensions possibly not having planning permission + a number of issue brought up in the survey which need quotes and looking into which again rely on third parties. Every time you involve another third party it just slows down that bit more. 😥

Just been though the same old slow down with ours. At least we’re in now, but not going to lie down and pay the fees the solicitors are asking for… we did most of the work ourselves where 3rd parties were involved, just to speed things up a bit..just seems crazy that each letter for communication or confirmation takes a week!

Your accountant thought that it was a good time to buy – but what do you think?

My accountant said the same thing to me two years ago and since then houses round here have slid 15-20% in value. That’s approx a £40k drop on a £200k house. Compare that to the £16k rent we’ve paid over the same period. If I’d have followed his advice we’d be well in negative equity now.

Flats have slid even further in value as there’s just so many of the damn things round here.

Please think long and hard about buying at the moment since despite low interest rates, house prices are still heading in one direction and that’s down (just look at where all the housing indicators are pointing).

I’m not saying don’t by a house if it’s right for you and you can negotiate a good deal. Just be prepared for it to loose a big chunk of it’s value over the next 5-10 years that’s all. Oh and probably look to buy a house rather than a flat – much easier to sell on if you need to.

Equally you could continue saving for another couple of years (as I’m doing) and then buy with a much larger deposit and at probably a much lower capital cost. Like a double benefit as it were.

Yes I’m paying rent whilst I’m saving but I’m not currently paying for all that mortgage interest, insurance, maintainance etc. which is also a big chunk of dead money whichever way you look at it.

Its easy to control the estatge agents just tell them not to contact you and you will contact them, worked for us.

We were luckky enough to get a mate do our conveyancing from agreeing on price to completion took about 4 weeks (ok not that complicated a scenario as buying a dead persons house) but it was unbelievable how slow the other solicitor was trying to be, and how many direct lies they told about information they had/had not received from our solicitor.

Go to a bank/building society and see how much you can borrow – not much point looking until you know that.

Don’t buy a flat , harder to sell and possibly over priced by previous speculative investment purchases . Houses are easier to sell hold and gain value better and more flexible should your needs or desires change.

I have no expertise what so ever in sensible investments.

All of these things are true. I am in no hurry, so am happy to let sellers sweat about stupidly low offers.

It’s just the whole process that upsets my delicate mental balance.

after you buy it you get the fun of sorting out all the things you don’t like about it, too.

Everything can be broken down into a rough process/plan, map it out, plan it plan costs – you’ll soon feel a bit better about it all.

Having said that, have only bought one place ever and hope to make that last at least 10 years if not a little longer!

Estate agents can just be ignored, they leave messages – we were lucky to find a nice relaxed agents really, no pressure at all.

The house-buying process, ime, is like trying to fit a load of shopping into a bag that’s slightly too small. As soon as you think everything’s in and you can carry it away, something else falls out. But it’ll work in the end, you just have to squash the yoghurt packaging down to a more amenable size and try not to spill too much yoghurt. Thing is, once you get it all home, half of it you realise you didn’t really need anyway. Or something like that. It’s a crap process anyway, but loads of people struggle through it and you’ll manage it too. Don’t let the check-out staff grind you down…

The pretty blonde estate agent will be my downfall, I just know it. My mate reckons they get them from distractingblondes.co.uk

Try buying one in France. Makes England seem like an easy-peasy process.

Try selling one in France. Estate agents want 6% commission, on top of the 7% taxes you paid when you bought, so a 13% increase is needed if you want to break even.

And watch out for the extra 1% “insurance premium” you have to pay the French government to insure them against you not paying your capital gains tax. Even if there isn’t any. And only if you’re a foreigner.*

* can be avoided if a French tax payer will stand guarantor.

Cor, I am getting bored of this now. Must have seen 30 different properties now, and none of them are quite right. A couple fit the bill but are way overvalued, and nobody wants to drop their prices.

Starting to worry that I’m expecting too much.

So you can’t tell from the details that they’re not right for you? Is that because you’re picky or the details aren’t helpful? I’m on my 3rd house and only looked around about 1/2 dozen each time. Mostly interested in getting a reasonable price and the right location. BTW, IMO better to get the right house than the right price as you want to be happy there for as long as possible. Moving, as you say is a PITA and expensive too.

The looking around is one of the hard parts, the Offer is the easiest part, the acceptance of Offer is hard to obtain with unrealistic asking prices and people offering well below the asking price.

Then,

once the offer has been accepted the fun begins!

keeping the vendor on side while you try to get all the necessary surveys to make sure your purchase is a good one and the cost of all that makes buying a house one of, if not THE, most stressful things you’ll ever do, not to mention the most expensive!

We are inches from exchanging on a renovation project but we are awaiting a timber suvey to quell our fears of dry rot and woodworm infestation which is make or break!

Good Luck

I think the problem might be that I’m not really sure what I’m looking for. First time I’ve done this.

Annoyingly there are lots of places just too small and under budget, and lots that are over my budget and more than I need. Nothing right in that middle ground.