Potential First Time Buyers...look away now

george_2

Cheek of this estate agent, pleading for FTB to return to the market

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2647315.ece

As a country where the average salary is in the region of £18k, she appeals for FTB with a budget of £200,000 to come and see her.

Any financial institution which offers this to a person earning less than £20k is irresponsible at best, wreckless and dangerous at worse.

Rant over Sorry :mad: :mad: :mad:

darwin-rover

Estate agents bumping up house prices and allowing people to get gazumped etc. are the main cause of soaring house prices anyway . So they have some cheek .
If estate agents were regulated (like the government said they were going to be a long time ago) , and if their fees were capped (like the government said blah , blah , blah) , we wouldnt be in this mess now . Even DINKYs are finding it hard to get on the property ladder now .

motorguy

george wrote: »

Cheek of this estate agent, pleading for FTB to return to the market

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2647315.ece

As a country where the average salary is in the region of £18k, she appeals for FTB with a budget of £200,000 to come and see her.

Any financial institution which offers this to a person earning less than £20k is irresponsible at best, wreckless and dangerous at worse.

Rant over Sorry :mad: :mad: :mad:

I think you've misread it.

She appealed for first time buyers to contact her, for reasons she subsequently gave such as buyers not wanting to be gazumped as happened a lot last year and thus not looking at houses anymore. She did not appeal for first time buyers with a budget of £200K to come and see her.

What she did give was the example "If a first-time buyer came to me with a £200,000 budget I would have at least six properties for them to look at", she was merely stating if someone who was a first time buyer had that budget (possibly buying with a partner or being on a significant income) then she would have half a dozen properties they could view - as opposed to the situation last year when investors where buying up property at any price.

Also you're equating first time buyers with the average salary and then having a rant about it - she didnt say "would all first time buyers on £18K please come and see me so i can put them £200K in debt"

leftieM

There's no doubt that the market has cooled. I think that you now have a choice of houses and you can buy at or below the asking price. I imagine that, in real terms, prices have fallen.
It was nice of the Belfast Telegraph to give Cowley's a plug wasn't it!

Colin_Kee

"With mortgage repayments of up to £1,000 a month for a rental income of £400, the figures don't add up once you pay the rates and other costs."

I've been saying this all along. There are now 9 house in our development for sale, about 7 of those are properties which were/are rented. The first "For Sale" sign went up nearly 4 months ago now and non have sold yet. Asking silly money still (£235,000 for a house which cost £100,000 1 1/2 years ago).

My advice to the FTB, keep an eye on properties of interest to you, really do your research into the area, find out the prices similar sized properties have sold for very recently & be cheaky with your offers. I really think now the short term (Inexperienced) investors who jumpoed on the Bandwagon are starting to panic. Especially those who don't have tennants in the houses (and believe me there are loads of those, 3 of those 9 are unoccupied in our development) Some houses now have multiple agents selling them in our area, a sure sign someone wants rid of them quick.

Both of my house buying experiences led to cheeky offers being made, both a number of thousands below the asking price, and both successful. You just have to do a bit of Digging, it's amazing what you can get a home owner or estate agent to admit to if you put the right questions to them.

C..

leftieM

Colin_Kee wrote: »

There are now 9 house in our development for sale, about 7 of those are properties which were/are rented. The first "For Sale" sign went up nearly 4 months ago now and non have sold yet. Asking silly money still (£235,000 for a house which cost £100,000 1 1/2 years ago).

Does it make you nervous that your house might fall in value? I must say that an increase of 135% in 18 months is pretty huge. Our house hasn't gone up anything like that much. A house that sold for 119k in Jan 2003 sold for about 230k this Feb. It's ex-council though and NI folk would rather live with their parents or out the country than buy ex-council. The upside of that is that few investors bought here so we don't have many private rental properties lowering the tone .

wifeforlife

FTB's stay away!!! Theres a very good reason the investors dont want these properties, play the game and wait just a while longer IMHO

Cate

master_blaster_2

this happens everytiome there is a 'gold rush' .... investors get in quick buy as much as they can then get out as soon as they smell a dip..... thats why they are investors and we are 'mere' workin' folk.
it kinda reminds me of the money trees of a few years back (remember them)
that smart money was in and out and didnt care what happened to anyone who came after .... those who came after got badly burnt and a lot of people lost money they couldnt afford to loose.
hopefully with property they wont loose money ... but the MASSIVE gains have gone and it back to 'normal' or stagnent growth

ginger_nuts

from 2008 NIHE will not pay housing benefit directly to landlords but will pay it to the tenant .Propertys built before 1945 and relying on housing benefit for payment must be inspected by the council before any housing benefit is paid . This will put some landlords off .

marcais

darwin-rover wrote: »

Estate agents bumping up house prices and allowing people to get gazumped etc. are the main cause of soaring house prices anyway . So they have some cheek .
If estate agents were regulated (like the government said they were going to be a long time ago) , and if their fees were capped (like the government said blah , blah , blah) , we wouldnt be in this mess now . Even DINKYs are finding it hard to get on the property ladder now .

When it comes to gazumping then the sellers are as much at fault as the estate agents.

We sold our house for £152k last year. We agreed the price in April and didn't sign contracts until August. In those 3 months we had 2 people contactthe estate agent offering more money, which the estate agent is obliged to pass on, and we had one bloke call to the door offering £10k more than we had agreed without even asking what price we had agreed.

If someone gazumps you and goes, say, £2k more than you've agreed then the estate agency will only see £20 of that added onto their fee, with the agent themselves barely getting a rise in their commission.

So, while I'm not exactly defending estate agents, it's also not fair to place the whole blame for gazumping entirely at their feet.

Colin_Kee

Leftie, Not in the slightest nervous, luckily we bought our house a year and a half ago now and have no immediate plans on moving and besides its all relative, if one housing "sector" drops, the others usually follow. as the artical says. No first time buyers means those looking to get to the next rung of the "Ladder" can't move either and so the effect knocks on. I would also agree with cathy in some ways in saying to hold off. the market seems all a bit unpredictable at the moment. Will PPS14 be scrapped/modified? Will the knocking down of existing houses to build 4 in it's place be halted? Will all those empty houses around N. Ireland be occupired at last and then everyone will realisee that there isn't actually a housing crisis!! (What Housing Crisis???)