Property viewing update.

MORPH3US

Ditto, I keep reading this thread with intrest because i'm a FTB also. My situ is diff because i'm looking to buy a 3 bed house with GF but still going through the whole tedious process like the OP.

M

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Good luck in your hunt Tom. It's a bit like finding the perfect girl friend, you have to flirt with a lot before you find the one for you.

tomstickland

Hey, thanks for the support! I wasn't feeling ignored, I just thought I'd point out that I wasn't just talking to myself.

I'm off to help a friend do some major building work this weekend, so no more property or internet happenings until Monday now.

tomstickland

Monday morning: I've just got back from a weekend helping a friend do some heavy duty garden work. We've completely filled a full size skip with rubble, tree stumps, four fence post concrete lumps, put up the new fence posts and sorted a whole area of garden. It's almost made me want a garden.

Meanwhile I've pondered the buying situation. I showed my friends the various sales brochures I've got and they liked my no1 choice. We measured various rooms in their house to compare, and my potential front room is the same size as theirs and I wouldn't describe it as pokey. The 2bed flat option actually offers me nothing extra except a small 2nd bedroom.

I've got two viewings today, both are slightly smaller flats, but one has a garden.

I'm not sure how to proceed on the offer front. Can I just contact the EA and make a verbal offer?

The other thoughts have been financial. I've done countless spreadsheets on this now. The main thing I've come round to seeing is that a 5% interest rate on savings actually doesn't make that much difference to the rate of saving. If I factor in a 3% house price growth rate PA then my savings are hardly moving any quicker than house prices, so the argument for buying is pretty reasonable. Obviouslly, if the market slumped after I'd bought then I'd be a bit miffed, but I don't want to be 45 years old and still living at home waiting for prices to fall ( I'm 33 now). I suppose that the most logical part is that I can buy for the same as what it would cost me to rent.

Doozergirl

tomstickland wrote:

I'm not sure how to proceed on the offer front. Can I just contact the EA and make a verbal offer?

Yep. Best thing is to justify your offer; explain that you are offering less because it will cost you x to put things right to the interior. It will hopefully give the vendor something to think about and prevent them from considering your first offer as a throw-away one.

Are you planning to offer after you've seen the next two? :j

tomstickland

Well, the thoughts keep going round in my head. I asked the EA who sold the flat above what it went for and they wouldn't tell me, but after some persuasion said that it was "more or less the asking price", ie: £90K on a £92K asking price I reckon. This one is on at £89,950 and has been on market for a year with one fallen through sale. I'd like to buy for £85K. I think £80K might be pushing too hard, £83K might a good place to start. Maybe I'm being unrealistic; If I paid £87K then I'd be content, but obviouslly every bit saved is a bonus.

TBH I think the work would cost £1K tops if I paid someone to do it, and it'll cost me a few hundred tops.

The management company thing needs sorting though. They charge £900 pa and there have been problems with them not doing anything. The windows need painting on the flat I'm looking at and that's their responsibility.

The vendors have made no effort whatsoever to sell the flat. It needs repaininting, some new light fittings, cleaning properly and the windows sorting. The door lock also needs fixing. It looks neglected. Obviouslly it's cosmetic, but it does lower its value in my opinion. I'm a a FTB with an agreed mortgage for almost double what this will cost, so I'm in a pretty good position I reckon.

The other thing is that there's a washing machine and drier in the flat which the EA said I could negotiate as part of the sale, so that's worth a few hundred, but not something that justifies a high price. I need to check whether the carpets are included too. Neighbour said she paid £300 to completey do her flat, so it's not mega money.

I think I'll call into the EA on the way to work in a minute and just explain my thoughts.
ie: I can proceed if I want. The main issues are the decor, door, windows and management company. To proceed I'd want to see some action on the management company, not "oh it's been sorted" throwaway comments, either that or I offer lower. The white goods could be used as part of the deal, but I'm happy to sort that myself.

Baileys_Babe

If you buy a property and afterwards the market slumps at least you are still getting something for your money, unlike rent.

tomstickland

If I rented until it slumped then I could get the same for less money. But I don't see it slumping myself, not for a while anyway.

lynzpower

read this with interest! Gosh your much more clued up than I was when I got this place!

One thing to also suggest living in a new build myself, if oyu go round for another viewing, lean on the walls and check they dont bend. Mine do, and its REALLY noisy. But if that wont bother you then cool!!

Good luck x

tomstickland

Well, one of the things I like about this flat is that it only has one neighbour (above). It's ground floor, outside wall on one side, communal stair well on other side.

I've been and looked at two more flats today. First was just that little bit too far from work. The owner currently lives there and had made no effort to clean the place up - it stank of cigarette smoke and was a tip. The EA was good though - he said that noone pays the asking price at the moment. This flat was a bit on the small side for my liking. Once again the original flat seems a better proposition.

The EA at the second flat also had another in the same block for viewing. One was at £82K, the other at £89K. These are both located further from work than my current address, so not good. I didn't really like the flats much either. They only occupy one corner of the building and I thought that they were the wrong side of small, whereas my original flat is just the right side of small (1989 building as opposed to more recent).
The EA was very helpful though and gave me loads of useful information. She was refreshingly honest about prices of various properties and couldn't understand why coach houses were fetching so much.

My conclusion so far is that all of the properties are very similar. £80-95K buys a 1 bed flat in reasonable condition. Details vary, but they're more similar than different.

I've just had a call from another mortgage broker, so he's obviouslly sniffing out some business. I don't mind - I'll make the final decision based on what the brokers can find me.

I'm going to contact the EA of the original flat and move towards making an offer on it. I've got my mother to come and have a look on Wednesday to see what she thinks. I want to make some sort of move before I go on holiday.