The Good Ole Days

dfarry

I look at this forum everyday.... and mostly the posts are about problems, issues and hassles - quite often because because someone is being unreasonable, greedy or just a plain pain in the @ss!

Which got me thinking... has it always been like this...

Say go back 30 years - was the process much the same as it is now... was the moving process as confusing and frustrating as it is now... was every other person out to fleece you... could you be gazumped/gazundered etc.

I'd hazard a guess that it wasn't much different and perhaps it's the fact there is more information around now plus new methods of communication that make us more consumer savvy.....

But perhaps it was better in the good ole days?

cattie

My recollection of the good ole days is that not only were houses a heck of a lot cheaper, paid £4,750 for our first one back in the 70's , but that there definitely wasn't guzumping nor insulting offers from prospective buyers. In fact it seemed norm to agree to purchase at the selling price.

I do remember that some local councils offered mortgages up to 100% back in the 70's but the scheme was short lived.

There wasn't the competition for mortgage business like their is now, there was just the svr with not a discount in sight.

I think the whole process has definitely got worse & more stressful & troublesome over the last 7-8yrs

TJ27

My parents had aspirations to live in a posh part of the village, but their dream home was fifty quid more expensive that the house which they eventually bought. They just couldn't quite stretch the mortgage that far. That was in the early sixties.

Their "second best" home can't have dissatisfied them too much though. They still live there now!

:j

gallygirl

My parents stretched themselves in the 70's to but their 1st house - couldn't afford the extra £250 for a chalet style Wimpey so had to settle for the flat fronted one. Cue oil prices sky high, winter of discontent, rocketing interest rates (can't have been 15% surely - that's what springs to mind). Was touch and go for a year or so as to whether we could keep house.

Sounds familiar.... except even the doomeisters are not talking about 15% rates...

BobProperty

ali007 wrote:

....can't have been 15% surely - that's what springs to mind......

No, I think it got to 17-18% actually, but with inflation at 25% and wages pretty well keeping pace then it didn't matter after 2 or 3 years.

Martin_OB

Dan,

As I am a FTB who has been gazumped today, I echo your thoughts entirely. I sympathise with you and your situation. I know you feel for me.

I just cannot believe that in 2006 we are using an antiquated system for buying property, which is in the seller's favour - and unethical.

When and how is it going to change?

Join me, brothers and sisters....

Vive la revoultion!

Comrade OB

Angela_D_3

The revoultion will happen a lot quicker if you hold off buying a house, it's market forces, take away the demand (you) and the price will fall.
Stop being the problem and join the solution https://www.globalhousepricecrash.com

ABN

cattie wrote:

My recollection of the good ole days is that not only were houses a heck of a lot cheaper, paid £4,750 for our first one back in the 70's , but that there definitely wasn't guzumping

Have to disagree with you there.
The properties we were looking at in those days were around the £4000 mark but guzumping was rampant.

seven-day-weekend

We paid £3000 for our first house (which we still had) in 1976, but got gazumped. Luckily, the vendor was an ethical man, and told his wife (who'd accepted the second offer) that he'd already sold it to us and he wasn't going back on his word. However, we had to pay £150 more than we originally offered to match his offer.

Interest rates were indeed 15%. In fact, the way we paid our mortgage off early was by not reducing the payment when the rates went down again.