First time buyer, couple of questions?

seabass

Hi,

Just currently looking at the housing market as a first time buyer, just wondering how much you can offer less than the asking price on the house, is 5%-10% less usually accepted? Just trying to work out if I can actually afford the monthly repayments on a mortgage before taking the first step.

Are there any mortgage lenders out there that do not need to full 10% deposit of the house price before lending the money. I have enough for the deposit at the moment, but this will leave me with virtually no savings to fall back on or even buy furniture for the house! Also has the interest rates reduced much on mortgages since the base rate reduction, i have not seen any difference on mortgage lenders.

Is this a good time to buy now if I am in no rush, on pure investment terms. If the house prices continue to drop then I will be better off waiting and getting it cheaper being in not particular rush to move, or if they are likely to go up should I buy now while there are fairly cheap.

Thanks

hethmar

Wait a while, save more money for the deposit and watch the market. The general consensus is that prices will drop another 10% this year.

In the meantime, get familiar with the prices and areas you are interested in. The percentage of drop cant be generalised. If the house has had 40% reduction to get a quick sale its unlikely they will take even less - if a house is still well over market value then 5 or 10% isnt going to be enough to ask off.

Look at all the property sites, like Rightmove and findaproperty - check out property snake.

Theres no rush, I cant see the market rising again for years.

TTMCMschine

Always offer less - especially now. Buyers are thin on the ground & if they don't accept your lower offer now the chances are they'll have to accept an even lower one later.

sal_strawberry

My boyfriend and I are also looking to buy in the next few months. I can tell you that you'll be extremely lucky to find a lender who will accept anything less that a 10% deposit.

We have 10% and are buying a house of £160-170k, our 'whole of market' mortgage adviser only came up with one real option with such a low deposit and that monthly payment is over £1000! the interest is nearly 7%!

To get any decent mortgage offers you need about 25% deposit, don't get me wrong you can do it with 10% but not less, not at the moment.

It is quite daunting but we are still going for it. We have looked a t about 8 houses over the last month and they have been on the market a while, i think we'll wait a month or two and see how the market/mortgages etc are going and then do it.

My advice is to do the same, check out what houses are around in your vague price range and keep any eye on them, find out how loing they've been on the amrket and it will give you an indication as to whether the price will come down or good offers will be taken. Even in a good market people always offer less, you can always offer more if rejected don't forget.

skap7309

sal_strawberry wrote: »

It is quite daunting but we are still going for it. We have looked a t about 8 houses over the last month and they have been on the market a while, i think we'll wait a month or two and see how the market/mortgages etc are going and then do it.

Bad move. Despite all you have said in your post you still want to continue? Find out the total figure you are paying back at 7% then again at around 5.5% and prepare to pick your jaw off the floor. We are talking years of your gross wages here.

To wait a month or two is going to be a pointless exercise. Replace 'month' with 'year'.