House Buying - Moneysaving Tips

BMore

EnduringHeart wrote: »

Hi,

This is a great informative thread, especially for FTB like me. I wanted to the pick the very knowledgable brains about the best course for a FTB buying as an investment with a view to let.

I want to buy in east London, and max price is 250K. In terms of investment, would it be better to buy a house or flat as a first buy? This is probably an oversimplified question, but any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Hi EH
I personally prefer houses to avoid ground rent, service charges and lease reduction over time etc. But that's a personal preference if I have the choice. There are lots of factors to consider of which this decision is not the most important if you are trying to buy the best investment. You might want to check out the on-line video course that I mentioned above because it's packed with info for a newbie investor. I'm not allowed to provide a link but the company is called PierGroupProperty.net. You should find it easily.
Regards
Ben

GDB2222

Hi, as a BTL'er, I much prefer flats because someone else is responsible for maintenance of the building. The down-side is the cost, of course.

techmax76

Buying a home of your dream needs a lot of courage especially if you're not earning a bigger monthly salary. It may took months or years to pursue your goal, you just have to believe and be persistent, patient, optimistic and never give up until you move into the right home for you.

BMore

Absolutely correct, techmax. But the best way to shorten those odds is to study every part of the process. Get the knowledge to reduce the worry and fear and risk of failure. All the info any newbie needs is here on the Interweb somewhere so I suppose that the only difficult bit is finding which system, person, company, theory, website to study. But don't take too long because the factors are great right now but they won't last for ever.

Ben

paroncider

I haven't seen much activity as of late in terms of what percentage of asking price is reasonable in today's market.

Last year, people were recommending 10% as a general rule. Does anyone feel that this is still the case or have any experience to the contrary?

BMore

Sorry to contradict, Paroncider, but there is no rule. Summarising the entire UK property market with one rule is impossible. Right now there are parts of the UK where gazumping is happening and others where prices are still dropping. I assume that visitors to this site are interested in investment, in which case the process of buying BMV is even more complex than it would be for a regular punter.

moneymouth77

In general, house prices are still going down (see http://money.sky.com/mp/features/news/2009/07/08/House-prices-down-another-05.html), otherwise I'd recommend doing some research or talking to someone in the business.

dannyboyleeds

hi im currently looking at a property i really want to make a offer on

the property lists

"offers in the region of 280,000"

been to see the family, theres no chain as the husbands been relocated for work so they are leaving the property at the end of august .

theyve had 9 viewings but no offers, the house has been on for a month ,

the house seemed good inside but needed a tad cosmetics, nothing major at all!

my situation is i can get immediate access to 15% deposit but i have 35k equity out of my own house , ideally id like to keep my house and rent it out , but if i sell it i can get a smaller mortgage at a better rate


The average price of the street is 248,000

im stuck in limbo , will i struggle to get a mortgage at 15% , our joint income is 60k a year

please help what should i do..... offer wise etc

paroncider

dannyboyleeds wrote: »

hi im currently looking at a property
my situation is i can get immediate access to 15% deposit but i have 35k equity out of my own house , ideally id like to keep my house and rent it out , but if i sell it i can get a smaller mortgage at a better rate


im stuck in limbo , will i struggle to get a mortgage at 15% , our joint income is 60k a year

please help what should i do..... offer wise etc

Only you can really say whether it's worth keeping your house or selling up and using equity towards that to get a smaller mortgage at a better rate.

Personally, I would opt to sell, unless you were keen with the hassle of having the added work of letting a property and the added responsibility of managing the letting yourself, or giving a % to a letting agent to manage for you.

Why stretch yourself if you don't have to. I would prefer to spend as little as possible on a mortgage if I could and am following my own advice. We recently had an offer accepted on a house and are borrowing less than 2x our salary. This with a view to keeping repayments nice and cheap so we can still enjoy life. :cool:

If you do decide to keep your property, NatWest is still doing 85% and 90% LTV mortgages.

Good luck!

nearlynew

dolce_vita wrote: »

This is the No.1 house-buying tip at the moment:

If you can wait a year or two, then wait.

If you really want to buy now-

Do not pay anywhere near what sellers are asking for.


You should make your starting offer at least 25% less than asking price.




To all you FTBs out there:

Don't worry about "missing the boat" cos there'll be another one along soon.

best wishes

18 months on and this remains the best post on this thread.

:T