House prices....

bingobangobongo

Not sure what the best move is - no pun intended!

getzls

BigAndy_79 wrote: »

I think the time to buy is now, tbh. Offer something a little lower and step right in. Chief economists have predicted that rates will begin edging up in 2012, so it is looking like being the right time to be looking. . . .

Just bid and accepted for house. We have been looking while, and the ones dropping are the ones that really want to sell, they go fast. Ie, seen two houses next door to each other, same houses, one at 145, other at 118 thous. Guess what sold in 2 weeks? Wish me luck building society head office give ok. Not bought a house in 24 yrs. Old story, ex wife got the house. She deserved it for sticking me so long.:)

tara747

BigAndy_79 wrote: »

I think the time to buy is now, tbh. Offer something a little lower and step right in. Chief economists have predicted that rates will begin edging up in 2012, so it is looking like being the right time to be looking. . . .

If IRs do go up in 2012, sellers will be even more desperate...

BigAndy_79 wrote: »

How did you amass so much on ebay, Tara ?!? You would be far better selling things locally - ebay fees are ridiculous these days !!

I have tried gumtree etc, but without much success. I agree that eBay fees are crazy, but it is the only place with any kind of audience. Any tips?

pgilc1 wrote: »

No we hadnt. there is £118K or so outstanding on the mortgage. IF we sell it now, we will probably get out ok, with maybe £10K in our back pockets - providing of course we kiss !!! of some buyer and they deem us worthy of selling them our house at a knock down price. OR we sit tight with it. The mortgage gets cleared every month and we've enough disposable income to see us through any times of non rental (it was rented out in 4 days last time, and theres a semi retired couple have taken it). So assuming a worst case scenario, say we average £200 a month of our own money over the course of the 20 years, and at the end of the mortgage its worth £250K, so we've put in £48K in our own payments and are getting back £250K.

Hows your maths now?



So his choices are 'make do' with his current house OR take the hit on the negative equity and absorb it as a personal loss OR rent it out long term and have someone else pay off his negative equity for him (someone like you maybe? )



So you're basing your knowledge of being a landlord on what happened two of your friends. Great!



Conversely, after getting divorced i ended up buying an end of terrace house maybe a couple of years before the start of the boom. I lived in it a while, then rented it out when i got together with my now wife. I sold it at the very peak of the market and walked away with a cheque for £100,000.

Your cautiousness got you nothing, my 'luck' cleared me £100K. Was staying out of it so wise?



Yes, you seem to have done quite well at building up a little nest egg. Well done!

What if the 'right' time is NOW and you're missing out, like you did last time around? Heres an example. A friend of mine just bought a repossessed end of terraced three bed house outside banbridge for £47K, which he bought for cash - i guess a lot like you could do. The house was £170K at the peak of the market. Hes spent £2K on it and is just about to rent it out. It has a side garden just wide enough to put another house on so he is currently seeking planning permission to build one in the garden, which he will then rent out too. He'll probably build that for £40K ish. Maybe a bit more.

Tell me HOW that is NOT the right thing to do right now, and now tell me honestly is your money working as hard for you in the bank as this guys is? Whos going to have the bigger return in 10 years? Oh, and hes just a regular guy, not some wannabe property developer.

Small sample size, I think you'll agree. I reckon that you're a bit older than me, so you were lucky that you timed your entry to the market well. I wasn't in a position to buy when houses were cheap, I was too young. And I am so glad not to have bought at or near the peak.

p.s. no, I won't be paying off anyone's NE I don't think - I can see us buying in the next couple of years. I have no wish to be a LL whatsoever, good luck to your friend but it's not for me. I just want a small mortgage, to be cleared in 5-10 years and to make my money work for me. In what way, I have yet to decide.

tara747

pgilc1 wrote: »

Lets hope shes declaring any profits to the IR.

No need to AFAIK, it's all my own junk that I'm selling off (doing a major declutter).

bingobangobongo wrote: »

Just to enlighten - we are in negative equity - 149k mortgage on a house now worth 100k. On a low interest rate of 2.5%and interest only.

But we now have over 50k of savings and are keen to move house into a bigger family home.

So the choices are:

1. Rent out our house and have a large deposit on a new house.
2. Pay off the negative equity and build up a smaller deposit, say 10% on a 200k house. Sell our current house.
3. Pay off the negative equity, rent our house out and then rent a bigger house ourselves.

Not sure what the best move is - no pun intended!

Only you can decide and I wish you luck in that. Have you considered my questions above?

motorguy

tara747 wrote: »

Small sample size, I think you'll agree. I reckon that you're a bit older than me, so you were lucky that you timed your entry to the market well. I wasn't in a position to buy when houses were cheap, I was too young. And I am so glad not to have bought at or near the peak.

p.s. no, I won't be paying off anyone's NE I don't think - I can see us buying in the next couple of years. I have no wish to be a LL whatsoever, good luck to your friend but it's not for me. I just want a small mortgage, to be cleared in 5-10 years and to make my money work for me. In what way, I have yet to decide.

Yes, i was lucky - very lucky. I know a lot of people were also lucky, and i know of a lot of other people who sadly werent.

Well, if you've been renting all this time, then you're definitely paying off someone elses mortgage, and quite likely their NE.

I think you're very right to be cautious as by anyones standards thats a lot of money that you've gathered up and no doubt its been hard earned.

Whilst we're probably at mutually exclusive ends of this debate, it sounds like we're in agreement that that market should bottom out in the next year to two years. Fingers crossed it works out for both of us.

motorguy

tara747 wrote: »

No need to AFAIK, it's all my own junk that I'm selling off (doing a major declutter).

Then you're right, no need to involved the IR. Due a declutter myself!

steveymp

IR's are almost certainly set to rise due to inflation alone:o

Checked out a new mortgage yesterday and the best I can get is 4.9% fixed for 5 years:( this is no fee however as its with my current bank and they pay the solicitors fees too:T Its a wee bit sickening as I currently have a 1% tracker and have been overpaying my mortgage for the past year to speed things up.

Sold my house this morning for 20,000 under last years asking price and have an offer in for another house at 20,000 under their asking price, they wouldn't take offers from anyone in a chain, so fingers crossed;)

steveymp

I'm Homeless:eek:

House is sale agreed, and the house I have an offer on won't budge on asking price :mad: Ah well, looks like I'll be renting for a while and hoping the recession continues:rotfl:

Not all sellers are inflexible at present, I reduced my house price by 7% asking price and then agreed an offer 10K lower than that:eek:

I hope to be in a stronger position when all this now completes as I'll have 80k deposit sitting in the bank and be able to buy without a chain;) I can now join the rest of you and slag off the sellers now for asking too much:rotfl:

Whoever said moving home was the most stressful thing you can do, greatly underestimated that.

tara747

pgilc1 wrote: »

Yes, i was lucky - very lucky. I know a lot of people were also lucky, and i know of a lot of other people who sadly werent.

Well, if you've been renting all this time, then you're definitely paying off someone elses mortgage, and quite likely their NE.

I think you're very right to be cautious as by anyones standards thats a lot of money that you've gathered up and no doubt its been hard earned.

Whilst we're probably at mutually exclusive ends of this debate, it sounds like we're in agreement that that market should bottom out in the next year to two years. Fingers crossed it works out for both of us.

Indeed. I certainly have been renting for longer than I would have liked, but I couldn't help when I was born and when I entered the job market. The boom came along at a bad time - 2 years earlier and I would have bought at a reasonable price. But there you go. I just rolled up my sleeves and carried on saving diligently, and hopefully will be in a position to buy over the next couple of years and not be in NE. When you're risking a huge chunk of your money you do not want to lose any of it!!!

In the meantime, we are renting a really nice house with a lovely LL so we're fine. Rather pay rent for the time being than risk NE! I also reckon that IRs will go up, so buying right now would not be a good move.

Well done steveymp on selling your house, hope everything works out for you.

Old_Git

I had a house near Queens university valued in 2009 and again last week .
2009 value £150,000 - £155,000 .I didnt like the EA .
last week valuation same EA £120,000 -£130,000 .
They said houses are selling and parents are buying for their children .
I went to another EA who advised not to sell and valued it at £160,000 -£170,000 but said there are no buyers.