Positioning Yourself to Take Advantage of the Housing Market

[Deleted User]

A lot of threads seem to be going around in circles debating whether house prices will continue to rise, stagnate or crash. It's interesting but I thought it might be constructive to share ideas on how to make the situation work for us.

I thought it might be interesting to hear what everyone is doing to take advantage of the situation - whatever they believe that situation to be.

So, if you think house prices will rise what are you doing to make sure you benefit from that (if anything). If you think they'll fall what are you doing to benefit from that?

Or if you already have benefited from the crash and/or subsequent increase in prices then let us hear about it.

Or maybe you were around at the last crash - how well did you come out of it? Did you lose? gain? didn't make any difference to you?

treliac

It's all about at which point in the cycle you buy and sell.

A bit of planning and a bit of fate!

Thrugelmir

Deleted_User wrote: »

Or if you already have benefited from the crash and/or subsequent increase in prices then let us hear about it.

Or maybe you were around at the last crash - how well did you come out of it? Did you lose? gain? didn't make any difference to you?

No difference. As ultimately still only have the property I live in.

More important things in life to do than worry about than property prices.

kabayiri

Deleted_User wrote: »

Or maybe you were around at the last crash - how well did you come out of it? Did you lose? gain? didn't make any difference to you?

In the last recession I sold my house for an effective loss.

But....the house I bought was bigger, and had lost even more. (A combination of luck and timing in there too)

And the moral of the story? Falling house prices are nothing but GOOD news for those wishing to move up the ladder :rolleyes:

nembot

I looked at a place in 1992, not a bad little semi in an okay area. Little pricey at the time, which apparently was the owners loss as they took it off the market after about a year. Then by chance heard it was up again a number of years later and I snatched it up saving almost 30% on the original price.

Know a few people who lost money during the 1989/96 crash, but the biggest loss of all was only 13k if I recall correctly - not too bad considering and they also moved up the ladder in a similar way to kabayiri.

Prices will generally go up in the long term, but there are substancial opportunities in the short term as prices swing above and below the line.

Personally I don't see a problem buying a place, if you can afford the mortgage and like the property/area. I just think with the recent prices, it's entirely possible to make a bad decision and be stuck with a huge mortgage, which for many will ultimately mean they'll be paying for almost all their adult working life.

Whether this is a good or bad thing, only time will tell.

Really2

Deleted_User wrote: »

Or if you already have benefited from the crash and/or subsequent increase in prices then let us hear about it.

I am sure most know (and are sick of hearing) sold July 08 at about 5% below peak. Was a weekend away from STR but put a few feelers out with house builders who desperate at the time.
Purchased a house at 27% below peak, then took advantage of a tracker in sept 08.

Main outset was not to lose any/much cash from selling my previous house and to lower my mortgage term. Scored well on both points at the moment on course to be mortgage free in 12 years and the house I have purchased as not lost any value (the recent sale of the same type was 14% more).

I think as with anything the only time you will only ever get a bargain is someone does not know the value or if they are desperate.
Since a property is usually valued before going on the market the only way to get a bargain is if they are desperate really.
Only other way is perhaps taking a risk on a doer-upper.

amcluesent

Yonks back I challenged the '70%' crew if they'd monetised their predictions by taking out spread bets on the house price index. None had - all mouth and no trousers it would seem.

HammersFan

Low interest rates have been a very nice unexpected bonus for me. I'm on an offset I'm waiting a while to see if the savings are best spent on paying down the existing mortgage, getting a better house, or another BTL. I think trying to guess short-term moves in prices remains very risky. But if proprty can be held for 5 years plus there's a decent chance of a good outcome, even if on a high LTV.

Emy1501

STR'd Late 2007. Was selling anyway and was buying back but as the market was clearly falling went into rented. Planned to sell a second property at the beginning of 2009 but as prices started to rise decided just to live in it as the mortgage had gone from nearly a 1k to £300. Plan to buy back this year unless things start to look really bad.

Likely to wait to after GE though. Will start getting a feel for the market at the end of the month and do some viewings so I can see exactly what happening in the real world round my way.

Not really about making money for me just do not want to upsize and then find a few months later that GB was hiding alot of stuff to try and win the election.

Paddy2eyes

How did I position myself to take advantage of the housing market?
I positioned myself in my favourite armchair and took advantage of the warmth and shelter of my home!

Milliewilly

kabayiri wrote: »

In the last recession I sold my house for an effective loss.

But....the house I bought was bigger, and had lost even more. (A combination of luck and timing in there too)

And the moral of the story? Falling house prices are nothing but GOOD news for those wishing to move up the ladder :rolleyes:

This is the way I am looking at it. I have (I think) lost on my current house but I sold / bought at the absolute peak in 2007. There is no way I would ever get £250K now for my last house which is what I sold for in 07.

The one I bought from that in 07 I paid £224K (was on at £250K) - improved it and its now on at £265K. Sold but fell through at £249K in September 09, still up for sale. I know it will go below £250K SD so will probably make a small loss on this but negated by the gain on the one before. I also managed to get a lifetime tracker of base + 0.17% so have gained there in comparison to deals available now.

The ratio to change is whats important.