My Journey as a First Time Buyer!

geoffky

I see the estate agent has already got you by the short and curlies.....why would this other offer appear....listen to what they say...we have another offer on this house does not mean it is a higher offer....if he was a developer he would be offering more as he can get profit out of it...i think you are falling in to a trap...stand back and analyze whats going on...

Zandoni

What is the asking price of the property you are interested in and how much have you offered?

Ste_C

Good luck. I'm on the same road myself so will keep an eye on your progress.

To have that much saved up at such a young age is remarkable though, well done.

darwin79

Good luck to you - I bought my first house at 18 on my own and never regretted it! It taught me a lot and sounds like you already have your head screwed on the right way. Renting to me is dead money too, proping up someone elses pension pot, so if your happy at home a little while longer then stay put and keep saving. Moving costs too, so if you can buy bigger first time it will save in the future. I'm sure there would be some kind of pre-nup style agreement to acknowledge where the deposit came from should anything bad happen just in case - it can never hurt to do something I suppose. Good luck.

neas

certainly buying now is not a good idea....

propping up a pension pot that is decreasing monthly by 1.5%... yes renting is dead money.. not lol.

Not now anyways :P.

hethmar

I dont know about Rob, but Im getting excited now

If the other person wanted to split the garden to build a house, its sounds like a developer not a home buyer. They wont fanny around if their plans cant go ahead and it sounds like the tree will stop that hopefully.

neas

Imagine someone told you he 50k pounds you have would increase to 60k pounds in year...you'd be happy, exstatic etc.

This was the situation people faced a few years ago...... buying a house meant in a few years time your money would've increased in value.

Now imagine I tell you the 50k pounds becomes 40k pounds in 1 year.... 35k in 2 years and 30k in 3 years time.. would you still be happy? prob not. Its alot of deposit money saved to 'lose' to the house price crash.

Wife and I are married.. and have taken the decision to rent while building up our deposit atm.. we could have put down 30% equity on a 3 bed house in our local area but believe they will fall over coming years... and they are falling. Seems foolish imo... but thats just me.

Oh and renting is dead money is such a silly statement... when not backed up by factual evidence or theory... renting 'was' dead money while houses were increasing forever... if house prices increased forever.. but now they are not.. so the statement is turned on its head...

In a decreasing market renting is not dead money... its a way to mitigate future loss.

ally81

I was excited by the fall in prices but I'm now getting concerned that even if we make a low offer on the property we want it will decrease further in value. It has already dropped 15% and we would offer a further 15%, which initially I thought was cheeky but now I'm considering whether to drop further or even make an offer at all. Tough decisions need to be made.

russelsprout_2

neas wrote: »

Imagine someone told you he 50k pounds you have would increase to 60k pounds in year...you'd be happy, exstatic etc.

This was the situation people faced a few years ago...... buying a house meant in a few years time your money would've increased in value.

Now imagine I tell you the 50k pounds becomes 40k pounds in 1 year.... 35k in 2 years and 30k in 3 years time.. would you still be happy? prob not. Its alot of deposit money saved to 'lose' to the house price crash.

Interesting thread this one. So many thoughts, advice and opinions - I'm surprised the young man can take it all in!

Regarding the comment about house values (as someone who is just about to buy their first house) aren't they only "worth" anything when you come to sell/remortgage? Bit like stocks and shares I guess? Apart from you're not getting that dividend each year!

So if I buy a house for £100,000 today and in 12 months time the market says it's only "worth" £80,000, does that actually mean anything if I plan on living there for another 5 years? Sure, if it's only "worth" £95,000 in 5 years if I decide to sell and I get that price then yes, I've lost £5,000 but who's say what house prices will be like in 5+ years time? And do you actually "lose" portions of your deposit?

When you start looking at things like house values/prices in the long term, and let's be honest, most people do, do short term guestimates actually mean anything? Add in that everyone's situation is different then who is to say that the time to buy, now or in Y months to possibly get that extra X% discount on current market values, is "the right time"?

Decisions should be made with the facts to hand and with an advised but personal take on the unknowns.

hethmar

Exactly, you only make a loss if you sell up. Rob sounds a very mature young man - he is looking long term - a detached house for his first buy ? I dont think any immediate drop in value will be of concern to him in say 12 years time when he may think of moving on and during that time he has had the pleasure of owning his own house.

Personally I can see prices stagnating for several years but it is still possible there will be people hanging on frightened to do anything. I dont know who is right, I know that I would want to spend those years in my own home, not paying for someone elses.