Where to start?

Rachylou1981

R_P_W wrote: »

Are they actually selling though?

I have friends that have been trying for nearly a year to sell their property. You property could take a few months or more to sell, so it would be advisable to save as much cash as you can between you in that time.

What value of property would you look at buying?

I have checked out rightmove and yes there are houses selling in our streets recently for the prices I mentioned. I would imagine landlords are hot on snapping them up too.

The area and 3 mile radius we want to buy are selling from £80,000 to £180,000.

I feel it all depends on my house and whether I can sell it for profit to get some kind of deposit or whether I have to rent it out and the sooner I do something the better. We both will start saving from now really.

Wobblydeb

Rachylou1981 wrote: »

Neither of us have savings but we both have quite a lot of disposable income and can save a lot very quickly. Although saving a few grand whilst not moving forward will seem a little pointless to me - is it not best to just go for it and try to sell?

Changing your saving/spending habits is going to be the hardest part of the process for you. If you find yourself either stuck unable to sell, or facing negative equity, you will finally understand the point of saving. Get into the habit now, and you'll give yourself much more flexibility in the future.

Rachylou1981

Wobblydeb wrote: »

Changing your saving/spending habits is going to be the hardest part of the process for you. If you find yourself either stuck unable to sell, or facing negative equity, you will finally understand the point of saving. Get into the habit now, and you'll give yourself much more flexibility in the future.

Oh of course we realise that and will change our spending and saving habits ASAP (we have a holiday to Vegas booked in July though which is not a good save option. Ha).

The good thing is that we are in no rush but I do feel that the sooner we start the ball rolling the better i.e. my house may be on the market for a while. I think we just need to see what our options are in terms of how much it is valued at by official estate agent rather than guesswork, whether it will have any interest or not and how long is too long to try to sell/give up and try other options.

The other options being rent out or trying a part ex and we don't really want either but depends on which is best for us money wise.

Ciderarmy1987

Rachylou1981 wrote: »

Neither of us have savings but we both have quite a lot of disposable income and can save a lot very quickly. Although saving a few grand whilst not moving forward will seem a little pointless to me - is it not best to just go for it and try to sell?

I don't want to name my actual area but the 19,000 houses round here are literally very run down with no decent decor/fixtures/fittings and those streets are mainly rented houses with DSS tenants. My street is one of the better ones with most owned privately and not rented out. The better houses such as mine are going for £40,000+

Neither of you have savings and you are worried about negative equity.

Do you realise that this means when you sell your house you will still owe the bank money and have no savings to pay this, as well as having to pay EA fees and Solicitors fees

On top of this if the area you are looking to buy in has a price range of 80K-180K you are looking at needing at least around 10K to buy a house(deposit and fees)

I think that you and your BF need to really sit down and look through things as looking in from the outside it appears you have very little chance of being able to buy where you want to right now and will take a good few months/years of savings (depending how much you can save each month) to get to where you want to be!

Rachylou1981

Ciderarmy1987 wrote: »

Neither of you have savings and you are worried about negative equity.

Do you realise that this means when you sell your house you will still owe the bank money and have no savings to pay this, as well as having to pay EA fees and Solicitors fees

On top of this if the area you are looking to buy in has a price range of 80K-180K you are looking at needing at least around 10K to buy a house(deposit and fees)

I think that you and your BF need to really sit down and look through things as looking in from the outside it appears you have very little chance of being able to buy where you want to right now and will take a good few months/years of savings (depending how much you can save each month) to get to where you want to be!

Yeah, I am aware that we need a lot of advice and have a lot of working out to do (which is why I'm here as I am a bit clueless). Obviously, I bought over ten years ago when the market was so different and boyfriend is not on property ladder at all so it's as if we are starting from scratch.

I don't think my house would sell less than the mortgage worth and I guess if it comes to that then we may need to think about him moving in for a while to save up more funds.

I am guessing that most of the advice here would be just to save as much as possible BEFORE trying to sell? Which is understandable, I am trying to get as much advice as possible

Ciderarmy1987

What I would do is as you have not much of an idea of what you can afford or want to buy is to go out a view a few houses. I know that you may "fall in love" with a house how you have to just accept you are just doing research. [might mean you have to slightly lie to EAs, I wouldnt tell them that you need to sell and be quite vague about your budget. Just try and see as much as can at different prices to find out what you want to buy]

When you have found out what you want then it will be easier to get advice on how to get there.

Right now I would advise you to make a spreadsheet listing all of your income and outgoings each month and try and budget for a set amount to save each month. Try to set this at a realistic amount and have a bit of wiggle room built in. I would then transfer this amount to a savings account as soon as you get paid and try to forget that it exists.

I wouldn't put your house on the market yet unless you are confident that it will sell for a price that will allow to buy a house that you both want to live in.

Hope that makes sense

Rachylou1981

Ciderarmy1987 wrote: »

What I would do is as you have not much of an idea of what you can afford or want to buy is to go out a view a few houses. I know that you may "fall in love" with a house how you have to just accept you are just doing research. [might mean you have to slightly lie to EAs, I wouldnt tell them that you need to sell and be quite vague about your budget. Just try and see as much as can at different prices to find out what you want to buy]

We did have a cheeky search together at the weekend and fell in love just by an advert. It was £109,000 and is something we could both afford but obviously that is just with our incomes and no other finances such as my house taken into account. I'd worry going to look at it would tear me apart and make me feel guilty for not being in a better position to buy

When you have found out what you want then it will be easier to get advice on how to get there.

Right now I would advise you to make a spreadsheet listing all of your income and outgoings each month and try and budget for a set amount to save each month. Try to set this at a realistic amount and have a bit of wiggle room built in. I would then transfer this amount to a savings account as soon as you get paid and try to forget that it exists.

I do above anyway and it's how I save for holidays/big expenditures in the house. We are going to Vegas in July and so need to try and save alongside that but I already have enough to take now and its only April. Boyfriend obviously needs to do something similar

I wouldn't put your house on the market yet unless you are confident that it will sell for a price that will allow to buy a house that you both want to live in.

Hope that makes sense

Yeah that does make sense. I think a valuation with no pressure to put it up for sale will be a good move (after I do a few odd jobs)

Rachylou1981

Sorry about that message looking odd with the quote answers

Ciderarmy1987

Rachylou1981 wrote: »

Sorry about that message looking odd with the quote answers

Message looks fine,

Think you are doing the right things.

If you know what you want to spend roughly then that is a start.

I would advise trying to get a 10% deposit so 11K + fees etc, as no stamp duty probably could be just under 2K


If you are selling you will probably need around another 5K in selling fees.

So with a mortgage of 32K you will need sell for around 50K to be able to let you move.

Remember when an agent comes round they are going to be try to get business and they have lots of different tricks etc such as giving a high valuation. I would try and do a lot of your own research on Zoopla and look at SOLD prices of similar properties to ours over the last year or so.

I probably wouldnt look at the house if you are worried about falling in love with it

Rachylou1981

Thanks. I think I am a bit naive when it comes to how much I think I will need to pay mortgage off, to include all the fees that come with the whole process as well as having a deposit for a new place. But I did expect 40K to do all of that, so you saying 50K makes me realise that my figures are not really realistic.

I have checked Zoopla and its like I said earlier with houses selling in last 3 years for as low as 19K and as high as 55K for my area. I guess I feel its all guesswork. I did have it valued in 2010 and it was valued at 42-45K but that was one agent and I didn't go through with putting it on the market and I am aware the market changes dramatically in short spaces of time