Budget of £250,000. What price houses should I look at?

DVardysShadow

Tony_R wrote: »

As we are first time buyers, the £250,000 limit is even more rigid after the stamp duty was scrapped.

Yes, why not turn down a nice house and buy a horrible one, just to get the stamp duty exemption?

Tony_R

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Yes, why not turn down a nice house and buy a horrible one, just to get the stamp duty exemption?

If you had read my opening post properly, you would have seen that our original budget was £240,000, and £250,000 is our maximum budget regardless of the stamp duty thing.

Thanks for your helpful response.

mbga9pgf

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Yes, why not turn down a nice house and buy a horrible one, just to get the stamp duty exemption?

Why not just haggle stubborn sellers down and help collapse prices another 20-30%?

silvercar

250k has always been a sticky point because no-one wants to pay 3% SDLT rather than 1%, the fact that some people will be paying nothing rather than 3% just focusses the mind, but doesn't really effect things.

Say two identical homes one "worth" 250k the other done up with conservatory and double galzing and new kitchen "worth" 265k. Stamp duty @ 3% on the latter adds nearly 8k, so people would rather buy at 250k and do-up themselves. They then hope that by the time they sell prices have risen and they are away fromthe sticky point.

Karmacat

Tony, I'm in a situation related to yours; I've just put my house on the market - EA said put it on for £280k, expect £270k (which I think is optimistic). I may downsize a little when I buy, due to age and income, I'm not sure, and I'm looking on the web at everything in my target area between £220k and £300k. I also went to an open house viewing yesterday that was slightly (a couple of hundred yards!!!) outside my target area, for the experience. I know what you mean about disrupting people in their homes, simply for experience, tho I wasn't doing that this time, but remember that they've probably done much the same thing themselves. This is a massive, massive purchase - you can't be expected not to cast your net as widely as possible.

DVardysShadow

Tony_R wrote: »

If you had read my opening post properly, you would have seen that our original budget was £240,000, and £250,000 is our maximum budget regardless of the stamp duty thing.

Thanks for your helpful response.

It is a question of your focus. Do you want to get good value for money, or do you just wish to get the benefit of the Stamp Duty exemption?

downshifted

I'd look at everything that met my criteria up to £300k but I would be careful not to fall in love with anything! Whether you are able to get vendors to reduce to the level you can afford depends on their position and yours. If it has been on the market a while and they really want to sell they will have to face the reality of what is being offered, especially if you are in a really good position to buy. If they can't accept your price then be prepared to walk away!

Tony_R

DVardysShadow wrote: »

It is a question of your focus. Do you want to get good value for money, or do you just wish to get the benefit of the Stamp Duty exemption?

We do not have the extra money to cover the stamp duty. Even if we offered, £250,000.01, we would have to pay another £7500 which cannot be added to the mortgage. We do have extra money but that is our fall back fund/money to carry out any necessary repairs etc.

This house was available for £250,000 3/4 months ago, which they accepted until it fell through last week. We offered that £250,000 again, and I'd imagine really they would settle for £260,000. But in reality we would be paying £268,000. Which we cannot afford. I am not trying it on.

If they don't accept it, which I feel they won't, we will just have to move on.

Debt_Free_Dreamer

We bought our house for £255 and got hit by the stamp duty.

The seller had already come down from £285 to £255 (in negotiagtion with another buyer) and would not budge any further.

At the time we reckoned saving the £30k and the future value of the house once it was done up, made the hit on the stamp duty worth it. However, it was still painful.

With failed purchases (it was the 3rd house we tried to buy and those surveys (full) and legal fees soon add up) It cost us £18k to move house.

Still makes me feel sick to think about it.

Would I go over the limit again, yes if I thought the house was worth it.

cccs1986

Debt_Free_Dreamer wrote: »

We bought our house for £255 and got hit by the stamp duty.

The seller had already come down from £285 to £255 (in negotiagtion with another buyer) and would not budge any further.

At the time we reckoned saving the £30k and the future value of the house once it was done up, made the hit on the stamp duty worth it. However, it was still painful.

With failed purchases (it was the 3rd house we tried to buy and those surveys (full) and legal fees soon add up) It cost us £18k to move house.

Still makes me feel sick to think about it.

Would I go over the limit again, yes if I thought the house was worth it.

Couldn't you have paid £249,999 and then £5000 for fittings - you would then have avoided Stamp duty