House sale fell through

HugoSP

!!!!!!, that's not always true.

In any market houses that need work will be cheaper, but with higher rates they may be no more or less affordable than they would be in a better market.

If the OPs house was under offer and poss worth £150k with work needed, but would be worth say £170k in good order, then in a more depressed market it may only be worth £135k in its current state but worth £155k in top condition.

People won't necessarily shy away from houses that need work in a depressed market, OK some might but it's not necessarily a given.

If the OP could do the work himself then this may be the way to go. However we don't know his circumstances, or exactly what needs doing to it.

If I were the OP I would prioritise the work in order of importance taking into account 2 sets of criteria.

1) Fabric of building (eg, the roof should be fixed before he pays for a new kitchen)
2) Marketability/buyer concerns - not necessarily the same criteria as above. For example, decorating the outside/replacing the front door, or front garden may improve first impressions.

Kitchen and bathrooms need to be clean, but that is about it as a minimum. If these could be afforded once the other more important issues are sorted, then it may pay the OP to do so, however, in the event that funds are lacked they must at least be kept clean, and maybe benefit from a redecorate. At least this will give the impression that the house is being taken care of.

If the OP can only afford a kitchen or a bathroom, I would tend to spend the first money on making sure there is a new white suite in the bathroom. Buyers will want to change the kitchen to their taste before ripping out a newish white suite, and replacing it with another new white suite.

Although they may want to change the style of the bathroom in the long term, buyers have a huge choice of colours and styles available when it comes to kitchens. Bathrooms come in a range of styles but only one colour. An astute buyer will redecorate and accessorise around your new white suite in the short/medium term.

HugoSP

pamaris wrote: »

Can you drop the price and tell your buyer to pass the savings down the line to keep the chain going?

I know someone who did this. The buyer at the bottom of the chain was going to pull out over a £1000 shortfall. The other 4 people in the chain each contributed £250 to keep the chain going.

It worked.

theGrinch

change your estate agent or add new ones and give a bonus to the salesperson that closes the deal.

epz_2

HugoSP wrote: »

The fly in the ointment here is that FTBs need places to live. If prices fall too much then we're into prices that BTLs will pay. If a BTL investor can get some 5% revenue he will buy. Some properties are close to if not on the mark now.

In any case if you want to rant about high prices, why don't you go onto the HPC thread at the top of this forum? It was put there for exatly that purpose. The OP wanted advice, not views. If we want views we will ask for them.

that assumes most btl landlords are cash buyers, how many banks are going to lend on an assest which is droping in value and has likely bankrupted many of their customers.

the impression i get is most new btl'ers are the same as dotcom'rs the are pilling in cause house prices can only ever go up , once they see they dont they will be a lot less of them throwing cash into a declining market.

A_Nice_Englishman

theGrinch wrote: »

change your estate agent or add new ones and give a bonus to the salesperson that closes the deal.

Read and understand your contract with the estate agents before you do that. You may well end up paying commission to all of them if you're not careful.

HugoSP

epz wrote: »

that assumes most btl landlords are cash buyers, how many banks are going to lend on an assest which is droping in value and has likely bankrupted many of their customers.

the impression i get is most new btl'ers are the same as dotcom'rs the are pilling in cause house prices can only ever go up , once they see they dont they will be a lot less of them throwing cash into a declining market.

There are still btl mortgages out there, though I would be reluctant to entertain one at the moment as the deals are not as good. We remortgaged earlier in the year and seemed to have got the last of the good deals, Whatever the value does in the short term we know we'll make money on the rental, and when the fixed rate deals up in 5 years we will look again. Then the rent will have gone up, help maintaining a margin on the costs to own.

BTL lenders look at yield when assessing an application, as well as value, so sometimes it's not as easy to get a btl mortgage as it is a homeowner mortgage.

BTL investors take a long term view. Stocks can be sold quickly, however most btl investments are a minimum term of 5 years. If the following apply then it could be a good investment, still:

• Price is set low. Hardly a lot of competition out there at the moment in some areas. If you think prices are going to drop say 15% then you simply offer to reflect the risk.
• Rent is sufficiently more than costs including long term mortgage payments.
• Long term rental market looks promising because people can't afford mortgages and need somewhere to live.

The future for property prices looks uncertain but provided the investor can put the money up for the long term, he is likely to make money. I don''t see any of our properties going up in value in the short term, fortunately our portfolio is largely self financed so we can ride out the storm.

You are right in that people who are just coming onto the bandwagon with 95% btl morgages and NOT negotiating hard, are not savvy. I would certnainly not start to build up a portfolio now, unless I could negotiate really cheap prices and yield was good.