Stamp duty and houses on at above threshold

RubyShoes

LOL! I spend most of my time looking at the ceilings! I always look up to see what kind of state they are in, woodwork, plastering etc etc!

Hope your walk is successful LOL! You can fend off the competition!!!

Actually, the house we are buying is on a busy road, and I didn't mind ex council at all, depending on area. Maybe you can take the 'fussy FTB crown'

Jorgan - I don't like brown windows. Find them unbelieveably depressing, and could never live in a house with them, regardless of if they suit the style of the house.

Addy1

I don't mind brown windows at all, but the busy road thing is cos we both work shifts!
It's a good job that we all don't want the same things or everyone would be fighting over the same house!

I know what you mean about the ceilings, I only like nice plastering!

RubyShoes

I work shifts too Addy - im a midwife. I am also a heavy sleeper though LOL!!

Addy1

Oh I wish i was a heavy sleeper! That would open up about 50% more houses to me lol!

Just been for the walk. A few teenagers walking between the road behind and the shop down the road, but they were about 15 houses away. It wasn't that nice really, not very impressed! Nothing particularly antisocial though. But me and doggy might have scared them away! Going for a second veiwing on Tuesday so I will tell her my concerns.

Ooh a midwife, I just did my O&G placement and loved it! (final year medical student)

baileysbattlebus

I would walk away from the first property, if you aren't prepared to meet their price and they aren't prepared to negotiate any lower (at the moment) and aren't desperate to sell, it's going no where, especially if it's been on the market for 7 months.

One poster said don't fall in love with a house, they are right. But the vendors are emotionally involved with theirs, they have lived in it 7 years, it's their home, they may have put a lot of time effort and money into the house. Maybe they don't know that in some areas property prices have fallen or are falling. Not every one does, it's certainly not a topic that ever comes up at work or with friends, where in the last crash once it was happening people did discuss it, it was on the news, there were often programmes on tv about people who had been repossessed or a family with 2 children stuck in a 1 bed flat because of negative equity. It was impossible to miss. This hasn't happend yet.
If house prices have fallen in your area the vendors EA should be telling them what realistically they can get for their house. At the bottom of the last crash our EA did this with us, the figure we had in mind was £95k, this was what we had seen in the property papers for similar properties, he advised £80k and said propertiies were not selling for the advertised price and if we wanted a sale we had to price realistically, we took his advice and sold at the asking price. If he had agreed with our £95k, knowing that the market would only support £80k he would not have been doing his job properly, and if we had put it on the market at £95k, thinking it was really worth £95k there is no way I would have accepted £80k (we weren't desperate, just wanted somewhere bigger). And I know a house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay, but if you think it's worth 95k, then you will think it's worth 95k and will take a lot of convincing otherwise.

EA's should be honest with their vendors as they are in a position to know what property is selling for in the area, unlike the vendor who probably will only see advertised prices, not actual selling prices and not everyone has the internet or if they do they may just look at Rightmove etc.
It's obviously better for everyone in the long run, even the EA, as the shorter the time they have a property on their books the cheaper it is for them, I would imagine advertising isn't all that cheap and the advertising used to be included in the fees.

RubyShoes

Addy1 wrote: »

Oh I wish i was a heavy sleeper! That would open up about 50% more houses to me lol!

Just been for the walk. A few teenagers walking between the road behind and the shop down the road, but they were about 15 houses away. It wasn't that nice really, not very impressed! Nothing particularly antisocial though. But me and doggy might have scared them away! Going for a second veiwing on Tuesday so I will tell her my concerns.

Ooh a midwife, I just did my O&G placement and loved it! (final year medical student)

I just figured I would go and sleep in my son's room (at the back of the house!) if it gets really noisy! That and earplugs, and night nurse PMSL!!!

I'd go back a few times over a couple of weeks, if you aren't sure. Make sure you get a really good feel for the area first. Good luck with the 2nd viewing!

What area do you want to specialise in when you qualify this year?