Moving Home - Zoopla Hurts!

HJS86

Hi Sugarwalsh

Thank you for your message.

We have been caught in a rotten situation. It seems we are the first generation who are doing worse off than our parents.

We feel the same about the housing agency. When we visited the property with Barratts, they informed us that another housing seller owned the other 5 flats in our block. We specifically asked whether this would be let to a housing service as we didn't want to share the building with DHSS and were assured this was not the case. Only to find out 6 months later when over night 5 new tenants moved in that this was exactly the case.

To be fair to our neighbours, they are loving people, who have never caused any problems and theres a real feel of 'looking out for one another' in the block. I.e. they'll sign for mail if you're out etc.

Thats a good idea about the letting agencies, I must just get on that tonight!

Thank you for your help

HJS86

Have emailed our right move link to 8 estate agents this morning in the area, just in case they have any landlords who are looking for another property to rent out.

Have also advertised it on facebook. Every little helps?

sugarwalsh

Everything helps. We put our house on the market the same week everything went really bad. Initially it went on at £165000 - reasonable the week before. A year later we sold to friends for £135000. We had to take a lower price and work hard at selling it to our friends who wanted it but didn't think they could afford it. Now they are very happy living there and so are we as we can revisit anytime! Interestingly once ours sold a few others also came on the market for £140000 and sold. I think it was just a case of finding the right price bracket.

We had a lot of viewings in that time and several people really interested but it was just down to who could raise the cash/sell their house first etc. The majority of people did find us via the local paper - people around here tend to move locally - but I still get emails from sites where we listed it for free and I have forgotten to remove it! All advertising and contact with people helps. Be shameless with your promotion - shop windows, free notice boards.... You will get there eventually.

Good luck and keep positive.

Megan

HJS86

Thanks so much sugarwalsh

Do you remember any of the free sites you used to promote your property?

sugarwalsh

Hmm, no! Just type in 'free house sales' and see what comes up. It isn't easy - we all but gave up many times, but we had to have more space (Too many children!!) which drove us on. Like I said yesterday though, really target the people who own the rest of the properties - I think it was a really awful thing of them to do. Perhaps threaten to take your story to the local press/MP? I know you said you are not comfortable with it, but you are in a corner and you need to come out fighting.
Megan

HJS86

Another 1 bed flat disappeared off rightmove today in our area. Not such positive news this time as the sellor had given up and had decided to rent it out instead. It was on for £93000.

Feel like the estate agent stalker! Lurking around waiting for 1 beds to disappear from RM lol

Caveat_Mortgagor

sugarwalsh wrote: »

We sold our own house - it requires lots of promotion, free websites, local paper, facebook, contacting all the people you know and asking them to pass the word on. We did have to take a big hit on the price, but that was just as the recession really started. It hurt, but hey ho, that is the reality. I owned that house for 10 years and bought it for £44000 (!) and sold it for £135000 - see, time can help!

Good luck

I know you are trying to help, but that strikes me as false hope. In the 10 years you mention owning the property, house prices went from affordable to insane, and you benefitted from it.
The OP bought when prices were insane and are going the other way. The only solution she will get is to fill the debt hole with a lot of money.

The only other option is to become political and see if someone will pay her off to shut her up. She is a perfect advert for all that is wrong with the type of housing scheme she entered into, and these schemes are the only solution the govt and housebuilders seem to have.

The numbers are just so convenient. The mortgage company knew only to lend £51k, the social housing company knew only to pay £51k. It seems the only person who didnt know the true market value was the OP. And she was hoodwinked with taxpayers money and collusion between the govt and housebuilder.

I am outraged at the position she has been put in, and everytime I see this thread re-appear I know that someone else has commented and HJS86 is doing her best to retrieve an awful situation that she should never have been allowed to get into.... and my heart sinks knowing that she's accepted that she's going to have to pay off as much as possible and find another fool to take on the property - sorry to use that word, but it really does highlight the true gravity of your situation.

Ive tried to advise HJS86 about who to speak to. I am certain she would get a lot of coverage, but I think maybe embarrassment / pride or the fear of the unknown is stopping her.

http://www.pricedout.org.uk

Good luck HJS86

dopester

Caveat_Mortgagor wrote: »

The numbers are just so convenient. The mortgage company knew only to lend £51k, the social housing company knew only to pay £51k. It seems the only person who didnt know the true market value was the OP. And she was hoodwinked with taxpayers money and collusion between the govt and housebuilder.

Fully agree with you on the first part. A story about how someone's house has trebled in 10 years is of no help at all to the OP.

When I dug deeper into this a while ago, I didn't post up my findings. (I'm not going to track back and find all the links I looked at.)

I looked at the housing association the properties come under, and they had another company associated with them (sounded £ loaded tbh, actively looking for new sites for building or to acquire from developers like it seems they did with the OP).

Anyway the HA may have bought for £51K in a big block but when I was looking at the HA website they were pushing shared ownership. Can't say for certain if that includes the OP's development. If it does though the £51K purchase price, whilst good for the housing association (unless prices fall back further in that area), they're trying to make money on with option shared ownership at perhaps price the OP bought at?

What I wonder is what information was presented to the OP at the selling stage? How far advanced were any discussions with the developer and the housing association about a total block sell? All the consequences implied if such proceedings were being advanced.

poppy10 wrote: »

Sad fact is, the flat simply isn't worth what the OP paid for it. The price was deliberately inflated using the government's HomeBuy scheme, which purports to help first time buyers get on the ladder, but instead provides a tax-payer funded subsidy to the developers while tying vulnerable buyers into taking huge mortgages on overpriced properties that end up in negative equity as soon as they walk in.

sugarwalsh

I'm sure that HJS86 was aware that I wasn't comparing her flat to my old house, simply that time can often help. As her and her partner were thinking (At that time) of waiting for a while and paying off her mortgage before putting the house back on the market. I was merely sighting my own experience to giver her some idea of how time can help. There is no immeadiate rush - they are planning ahead - so I think some patience and persistence is required.

Whilst I agree that what has happened is terrible some people simply do not want to use all the efforts fighting against the injustice of it all I guess.

Dopester - I am a little confused by your post? What does 'all the consequences implied' mean?

HJS86 - at least if someone has taken their house off the market then there is less competition!

Megan

dopester

sugarwalsh wrote: »

I was merely sighting my own experience to giver her some idea of how time can help. There is no immeadiate rush - they are planning ahead - so I think some patience and persistence is required.

OK then. Sorry. I agree with you if only for earlier into this thread the OP says they're impatient at possibly missing the boat to upsize in a buyer's market. They've already rushed to catch the boat once, at a price they thought represented value, and look where that got them.

HJS86 wrote: »

Well we thought that because we'd managed to get it at £80,000 even though it was originally on for £106,000 that we'd been the lucky ones and had managed to buy it at the bottom of the market. But obviously we were only half way down the fall!

The fear of missing the boat is just a case of pure impatience really lol, we're desperate for children and our current living quarters just arent big enough to accomodate all that a baby would bring. We're obviously looking at this fantastic buyers market at the moment with our buyer's hats on, when in reality, were a seller at the moment.

At least if they're paying down their mortgage on this place and if prices do fall further in the OP's area, the more expensive 'family' homes they covet are likely to fall too. However it's complicated by circumstances of 1 bed (flat?/apartment) don't tend to do well in falling markets, when younger people have more opportunity to go for the cheaper family homes.

And further compromised for value, I would have thought, by the OP's entirely privately 100% owned home (with mortgage and HomeBuy loan) in a development of either entirely housing association surrounded properties, or possibly HA shared-ownership planned properties. That may well have impact on values and what prospective buyers are willing to pay.

Shared ownership schemes are mostly for people who can't get the funds, or mortgage, to pay 100% of asking property price. And the OP is the only person in the development to own outright?