Will anyone buy semi's these days?

mi-key

Put it on with 'needs renovation' and a cheap price and the BTL muppets will be tearing your arm off - maybe get a few bidding against each other and you can get the price upped a bit.

Theres nothing wrong with 60's houses - if you compare the size of rooms, garden etc... to most new builds a lot can be very good value for money.

I'm interested by cupid_stunts post - where are all these 24 year olds getting 10K and 30K deposits from ??? most mid twenties people I know dont have any money ( mainly due to having pi55ed most of it up against the wall or spent it on cars or holidays ) or have just finished Uni and have large minus amounts of money, and are starting their first graduate jobs on less than £20K a year.

Or do you mean their parents have given them the deposit ? I know this seems more common now, but I think its still a pretty low percentage of FTB's are being given big wads of cash by mummy and daddy so they can buy a house !

cupid_s

I said most people I know have at least 10k, which is true. Me and my husband are the ones who saved 30k to put towards our first house which we bought when we were 22. Neither my parents or his gave us anything towards it. But we did live with my parents for a while after we graduated to save money. And incidentally I have never worked (I am still a student lol), and my husband has never earned more than 14k a year.

My best friend and her husband are just looking at buying now, and have saved about 12k deposit, again with no help from their parents (they are both 24, she earns 14k, he has just got a rise to 24k). My sister has just bought her first house with her boyfriend, they had a deposit of 17k, neither set of parents gave them anything towards it.

I think the difference is me and my friends didn't/don't 'pi55 our money up against the wall', and even though we all went to uni we weren't stupid with our money and are paying our loans back so slowly that the student debt hardly bothers us.

We have just saved - I dont understand how people seem to think this is an alien concept!

helen_vasey

I can't understand why people buy terraced houses ( especially when they go for nearly as much as semis), most have terrible problems with parking, and in the future everyone will probably have to pay to park on the road. at least with a semi you get your own drive. when permit parking becomes the norm, will terraced prices take a nosedive? imho, the extra money for a semi was more than worth it as I would be driven mad by "musical parking".

mrsS_2

cupid stunt- well done for doing things the old fashioned way and actually saving a deposit!

however I am a little intrigued-if you both went to uni but bought a house when you were both 22- this only gives you about 18 months to save your £30000

- with you not working and husband earning £14000 or less, and no help from parents- how did you manage this?

even living with parents rent free for the entire time how this is possible?

you may want to post your secret formula on the debt free wannabe board!!!

cupid_s

i'll quickly explain it here....
And I realised I said I never worked but I meant full time - I've worked lots part time. Obviously that makes a big difference cos i got a job from when i was 16 to when i went to uni working every saturday night. I also worked more nights during the school holidays. I saved most of this money and coupled with birthday/xmas money/and some from BS when it merged I had about 7k saved by the time i went to uni. At uni I worked during the first 2 years and during every holiday and my parents did pay most of my rent. So I took out 13k loan but only spent 5 of this. Once I was going out with my boyf, he started saving and he still had 4k left of his loan when we graduated.

Then we moved in with parents for 18 months as you said. Although I wasn't working during that time I got a 9.5k student grant tax free which we saved. And during that time hubby picked up about 14.5k. 3k of this went towards our wedding and honeymoon, and we spent 4k on everything else in that 18 months (including giving my mom some keep). Meaning we actually had 36k. So we put down 30k and blew the rest on a round the world holiday.

Whits

Pauper_Princess wrote:

Whits - what are the semi prices like in Huddersfield? When we were looking to move from Dewsbury 5 years ago we looked at Hudds and Wakey and they were about the same in the areas we looked in. (Had to shelve the dream of moving to Honley as we both worked in Dews at the time and would've spent a fortune in petrol)

Prices range from about £110k for ex-LA houses in Bradley to £170k for houses in Lindley which is apparently an up and coming area.

I know what you mean about commuting, I work in Castleford and spend about £40 a week on petrol. I'd liked to have moved closer but my OH works in Hudds and loves her job too much to move to a different location within her firm.

Honley is quite a nice area but there are still some very rough bits.

Kirkhamgate is quite nice too, I wouldn't think you'd have too much trouble selling, just play up all the good points and remember that this time of year people are buying presents and not houses unfortunately.

Mrs_Optimist

To put a slightly different perspective we have a large 3 bed mid terrace with off road parking on the market. We are looking to buy a 3 bed semi (with garage preferably) because in our eyes that is taking a step forward in terms of the house we eventually want to grow old in. We would then progress onto a 3/4 bed detached house. We do not want to triple our mortgage and so are prepared to wait a few more years until we can afford the house of our dreams. So we are now second time buyers and I cannot see that we are the only homeowners who want to move on up the ladder. The OP should go with her gut instinct, if she wants to sell quickly reduce the price to make it more appealing. If she is in no rush test the market at a slightly higher price, you can go down, but not up in the housing market. Good Luck

Angela_D_3

Mrs_Optimist wrote:

To put a slightly different perspective we have a large 3 bed mid terrace with off road parking on the market. We are looking to buy a 3 bed semi (with garage preferably) because in our eyes that is taking a step forward in terms of the house we eventually want to grow old in. We would then progress onto a 3/4 bed detached house. We do not want to triple our mortgage and so are prepared to wait a few more years until we can afford the house of our dreams. So we are now second time buyers and I cannot see that we are the only homeowners who want to move on up the ladder. The OP should go with her gut instinct, if she wants to sell quickly reduce the price to make it more appealing. If she is in no rush test the market at a slightly higher price, you can go down, but not up in the housing market. Good Luck

I never said you were the only ones who wanted to move but answer me this, right now can you afford to ?
I know lots of mums from our playgroup started in a 2 bed terrace, their toddler is now coming up for 2 years old, they want another child and therefore the semi but the leap even for those who bought in 2001/2002 is too great they stretched to buy the terrace, another £60k for a semi is utterly beyond them and yet in 2001 you could have bought the semi for £60k.
House prices going up are benefiting nobody except Gordon Brown and the banks, it really does amaze me that people can't see how utterly stitched up you are being.

noyk

Angela_D wrote:

I never said you were the only ones who wanted to move but answer me this, right now can you afford to ?
I know lots of mums from our playgroup started in a 2 bed terrace, their toddler is now coming up for 2 years old, they want another child and therefore the semi but the leap even for those who bought in 2001/2002 is too great they stretched to buy the terrace, another £60k for a semi is utterly beyond them and yet in 2001 you could have bought the semi for £60k.
House prices going up are benefiting nobody except Gordon Brown and the banks, it really does amaze me that people can't see how utterly stitched up you are being.

well said! :beer:

roswell

cupid_stunt wrote:

i'll quickly explain it here....
And I realised I said I never worked but I meant full time - I've worked lots part time. Obviously that makes a big difference cos i got a job from when i was 16 to when i went to uni working every saturday night. I also worked more nights during the school holidays. I saved most of this money and coupled with birthday/xmas money/and some from BS when it merged I had about 7k saved by the time i went to uni. At uni I worked during the first 2 years and during every holiday and my parents did pay most of my rent. So I took out 13k loan but only spent 5 of this. Once I was going out with my boyf, he started saving and he still had 4k left of his loan when we graduated.

Then we moved in with parents for 18 months as you said. Although I wasn't working during that time I got a 9.5k student grant tax free which we saved. And during that time hubby picked up about 14.5k. 3k of this went towards our wedding and honeymoon, and we spent 4k on everything else in that 18 months (including giving my mom some keep). Meaning we actually had 36k. So we put down 30k and blew the rest on a round the world holiday.

Corrrection, you didnt have a 30 K deposit, you borrowed the best part of 30 K and used it as a deposit.