Does anyone want to join me waiting to find a house to buy?

Slinky

We're not selling to buy, and we're not in a tearing hurry either, having said that we saw this house when we started looking round the area but never thought it would come up for sale. Timing isn't ideal, we'd prefer to buy in a few years and move straight in rather than renting it out, but who knows whether it would ever come up for sale again in our timescale. It's very individual, although it's a semi, the one next door is much larger and would be way too big for us if that ever came up.

copperjar

I'm struggling a bit with some of the pricing going on as well. My favourite village I know a good price when I see it (and I don't see it! Very rare for one to come up in my price range). But expanding the search into other areas, I have no idea. The semi we really like I think is about £35k over priced compared to other houses for sale/recently sold in the same village. But that can't we right?! What am I missing?

What are your views on west facing gardens?

Slinky

Where we are looking is over 100 miles away and the properties are very individual so it's hard to compare against others in pricing.


I'd prefer west facing to north! If you're into BBQs and spending evenings in the garden they're good for that.

Kitten868

Omg yes the pricing! They've stuck £30k on everything since we have sold so we can't afford to stay. It's madness. We've put reasonable offers on overpriced houses and been rejected and they just sit there on the market.
We aren't too picky. We want a house with a garden. That's sort of it.
We've sold and despite being a leasehold flat they want us out now and have sent completion documents. It's been about 4 weeks! How is that possible? We were worried about selling so did it pretty much chain free thinking we would get somewhere. It is picking up a bit. Been considering getting the ea to leaflet but I don't think they work, what do you think? X

copperjar

Kirsty and Phil often do the leafleting thing and I've read success stories on here. I would consider it but I've no idea of the prices in certain streets and would probably get people interested at £70k over budget!!

I'm nervous about moving into rented in case prices continue to rise and we price ourselves out if we don't find something this year

Bonfire_Bride

Yep! Me! We accepted an offer last week and are currently searching. Torn between two properties but not sure whether either is the one at the moment. Still have some time left i suppose.

9ja4life

Phirefly wrote: »

So you own a property which is not your primary residence, are currently renting your home and are looking to purchase a new primary residence? Have you looked into whether you are liable for the new second home additional 3% stamp duty?

We were in your circumstances and were liable for the 3%, taking the total stamp duty on our purchase from 12.5K to 26K. Ouch. You'll be ok though if you sold your primary residence prior to 26/11/15.

Yes to the above and yes, we'll be liable for the additional stamp duty as well as CGT as we've not lived there since 2013! We did sell in May and the buyer pulled out the day of exchange after requesting a 20k drop off the price. We've rented it out and will put it back on the market next year. Our additional SD will be about 24k so some serious ouch! We're hoping to sell it within the 18 month refund period.

I have been waiting for a job offer to concentrate our search. Now I know I'll be working in Kings Lynn. OH works in Norwich. We just need to find that rural sweet in between spot!
We want land, room for an annex and detached. Not asking for too much!

Phirefly

9ja4life wrote: »

We're hoping to sell it within the 18 month refund period

I don't wish to be a purveyor of doom but we also had hoped to sell ours within the refund period then discovered that even if we had sold it, we'd not be eligible to claim a refund as we had been renting our current primary residence when we bought a new property. You can only claim back if you OWN your current primary residence.

Forgive me if you have it all in hand and I've missed a vital detail which means you will be exempt, I don't mean to keep prodding at you but I wish we'd have realised we weren't going to be able to claim a refund. Instead we've had to rush through the sale of our property before our purchase completes and hope the vendors of the house we're buying are prepared to hang fire. It's been a HUGE stress!

Hopefully you'll discover that you fulfil some of the accidental criteria loopholes that this whole ridiculous, rushed legislation has inadvertently created but I urge you to double check and make sure.....

Slinky

Kitten868 wrote: »

Been considering getting the ea to leaflet but I don't think they work, what do you think? X

Why not do your own leafleting? My friend sold her house to somebody who leafleted them. It worked really well as she was planning on selling after she got married which was quite some time in the future, but speaking to the purchaser, he was happy to wait on their timescales for the right property.

What have you got to lose? You'll only be targeting properties you'd actually like to see inside of so it's not going to cost a lot of money or take days of your time surely.

hazyjo

I'm planning to leaflet too. There have been a number of success stories on here. Definitely wouldn't ask an EA to do it for me. I get loads of those and they go straight in the bin. I'd take a letter from someone much more seriously! I've already got something drafted, but will adapt it over the next few months.


Not got a buyer yet as not planning on moving 'til next year.


Jx