House Buying - Moneysaving Tips

Maisie

Linda540 wrote: »

I found out that you can save a lot of money from buying a house from foreclosures. I saved a 29% of market value.
It is very simple.

What are 'foreclosures' and how do you go about this?

timmo65

Hi,
We have an agreed sale on our property from a buyer with no chain. After reading a lot of the information and advice on these forums and others I felt well equipped to offer on a local Bovis new build property we like in Hedge End Southampton.

I thought we were in about the strongest buyer position we could be in. This combined with a bleak forecast for house prices, the company in question Bovis being near their financial year end (Aug 31st), the property being one of only 3 left on phase one and having been on the market since at least April and new builds apparently up to 20% over inflated. What could go wrong ?

The asking price was £389950, didn't want to pitch too low or too high, punted at the usual stamp duty, carpets etc plus a 15% discount. They advised that they couldn't do that but would put forward the offer anyway. I advised them that I knew that Bovis do and have taken similar discounts offers.

Got a call a little while ago saying not only was 15% out of the question but they would not move at all on the asking price!

They said maybe at a push one or two thousand and they wouldn't even do the 5% which I have read seems to be an unwritten standard. I asked if this was their final word as I would have to let my buyer down and come off the market. It surely was.

Not sure what the moral of this story is but it seems that not everyone thinks that its a buyers market! I'm pretty flabbergasted they would not move at all.
Cheers,
Martin

Doozergirl

Just keep trying them

Is the house built yet? It is easier to negotiate of the house is already standing. If they have met their targets already then they will be less eager to negotiate, so you might even be better trying next month

Do hold out for better than they are offering. I think it's pretty pathetic.

timmo65

Doozergirl wrote: »

Just keep trying them

Is the house built yet? It is easier to negotiate of the house is already standing. If they have met their targets already then they will be less eager to negotiate, so you might even be better trying next month

The walls are up and roof is on - no windows and bare inside. From what I read about Bovis all their figures were flat or down, less reservations, less viewings and share price from about £12 down to £7 in a couple of months and predictions for future figures downgraded.
What really bugged my was the seeming finallity of it . i.e. thats the price - end of chat. Everything you buy these days has a degree of negotiability but apparently not with this Bovis site.


Martin

Doozergirl

Buy somewhere else. New builds are a pain in the bum anyway.

You'll get more for your money elsewhere.

smccaldin

FTB; A few more 'simple' questions that aren't covered anywhere else on this thread:

Before putting an offer in for a house, is it necessary to have solicitors appointed before doing this?

Will credit cards effect our actual mortgage deal?
[We currently have about £3k on cards but are 0% tarting effectively - and will probably use some of the money to pay fees for buying a house!]

Can we withdraw an offer (i.e. if a survey throws something up, etc)?


Thanks in advance for any responses...

Doozergirl

smccaldin wrote: »

Before putting an offer in for a house, is it necessary to have solicitors appointed before doing this?

It isn't neccessary but it shows that you are organised and it also gives you good time, whilst you are looking for the house, to find a good solicitor at a good price

smccaldin wrote: »

Will credit cards effect our actual mortgage deal?
[We currently have about £3k on cards but are 0% tarting effectively - and will probably use some of the money to pay fees for buying a house!

Debt can affect your mortgage offer but £3k on credit cards probably won't cause you much of an issue.

smccaldin wrote: »

Can we withdraw an offer (i.e. if a survey throws something up, etc)?

Yes, in England and Wales you can withdraw an offer at any point up until exchange of contracts. That would only happen if your survey was fine, your searches were fine, your mortgage offer was in and your solicitor was satisfied that all queries had been answered.

smccaldin

Following on from my previous questions, one about asking prices and offers.

I am interested in making an offer on a house and would be willing to pay the asking price, but obviously want to get it as cheap as possible...

However, I have the advantage of being a first time buyer (FTB), but cannot move until my 6 month rent contract expires in 2.5 months!

There are two ways to proceed in my mind;

1) Put an offer in now - get it accepted and then stall/set completion until I'm ready to move and risk the vendor pulling out or getting a better offer.

Or

2) Delay putting in an offer and hopefully watch the price fall (or at least a lower offer accepted) until about 3 weeks before I want to move, thus utilising my FTB flexible to complete quickly?

My fear is that going with option 1, leaves me open to a gazumping type problem, whereas going with option 2 means I may miss the opportunity to make an offer.

This leads me to my question:

How do bidding situations occur?

I'm guessing that if you tell an agent you are interested in a property and request to be notified if an offer is made is how you can go about it - but it does leave an error on the estate agents part to mess the situation up!

I would love to go with my option 2 above (an bag a bargin), but the risk is that an alternate offer made and accepted, I miss the boat and then my wife divorces me because I've let a great house slip through our fingers!

Again, any response, warmly received!

Doozergirl

3 weeks?! Blimey. If theses people live in the place and need to buy somewhere else, then 3 weeks is crazy. You're pushing it with an empty place! Truth is you can't know how long things will take so I would get the ball rolling now.

It's good to have a bit of lapover time when you can move in slowly rather than all on the same day anyway. Just make your offers and inform the vendors that you are renting, that you would like to exchange as soon as is humanly possible, but that you might have to leave four weeks or so between exchange and completion in order to get the purchase to co-incide somfortably with the end of your tenancy.

People do not pull out because of circumstances like that, they just want to know what people's intentions are. What is always important is honesty and communication. It won't make you any less desirable as a buyer if you can't move immediately - chain free is enough. Don't muck people around, that DOES annoy people and loses you trust.

Even if I had an empty place, I'd be happy with completing in 2.5 months, especially if I could still get to exchange of contracts quickly.

Honesty, honesty, honesty! (directly after location, location, location!)

dunnomate

If there's dishonesty, dishonesty ,dishonesty (there needs to be relocation, relocation, relocation!)