Strategies for keeping hope going until house prices drop!

Savvy_Sue

tsstss7 wrote: »

Hi can't really help with your bigger problems but you could try these for hanging smaller piccies - I bought some recently and was pleasantly surprised by how well they worked.

http://www.3moutletstore.co.uk/storefrontprofiles/processfeed.aspx?sfid=89497&i=171752566&mpid=7744&dfid=1

That link doesn't seem to work for me.

I know you don't feel secure in your present house, but have you thought about looking at Housing Associations? You might not get one, a lot depends on where you are and how popular their properties are, but you won't know if you don't look into it, and you would normally get a secure tenancy, I believe.

Also I think this might go better on the House Buying Board. So ...

MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to the House Buying board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

tsstss7

hi

if the link above doesn't work for you too (not teccie enough to fix it I'm afraid ) try googling "hanging picture strips" they are basically like interlocking velcro strips that stick to the wall and can be removed without making a mess of the paint work. (they claim)

gingin_2

Wow KuneKune, I could have written a lot of what you say.

I am married to a Kiwi and have lived out there and also would love to live there permanently but husbands career meant it was not financially viable to stay.

We live in a newbuild rented house and I would love to buy, husband is happy to wait. We spoke to our landlord and said that we were going to be here a while and therefore could we break some of the usual renting "rules". We have pictures all over, we got a dog and have painted a couple of rooms, have you spoken directly to the landlord? He gave us permission for all of this and 4 years on we are happyish here. Not the same as you own home I know.

You are saving a lot each month, can you not use a small amount of that to put towards a treat for yourselves? A holiday or a weekend away, or something to really cheer you up?

My husband is the same as yours and doesn't want to buy, I have put my foot down and said I have about 18 months maybe 2 years of renting left in me (my kids are a similar age), I know we won't hit the bottom of the market but with no property to sell we should be in a good negotiating position and like you by the sounds of it should have enough of a deposit to cover potential neg eq situations.

Husband is also in a not in a recession proof career so we will just have to see how it goes.

pm me if you need to vent...

kunekune

Hey, here I am back where I nearly started ... was a bit worried that you wouldn't be particularly gentle with a house price crash psychiatric casulty. Please be nice and if you can't be, just don't say anything.

kunekune

Our landlord isn't even a person, it's a company. Great if you're worried about whether they have a BTL mortgage. Not so great if you want to ask them anything at a human level. We struggled to get permission to put up (our own) curtains, even though there was no sign LL was planning to put up anything on the windows at all. I do miss our old LL (we see him/his wife/their kids all the time because we use the same after school club). He was fantastic, but his fixed term BTL mortgage was coming to an end, and so we took the view it was best to take something suitable when it came up, just in case we had to do it in a hurry some other time. It was well worth helping with his uni essays!

carolt

Big hug :grouphug:- you sound really down. in reality, though you have very little to be down about (well, hormones excepted... :o0.

I'm sure there are many people here who can't imagine a life where they can save a grand a month - that's a lot of money, and should stand you in good stead if the recession does hit.

Try not to get hung up on renting - whether a landlord or a bank technically own your house makes little odds in reality. I do know exactly where you're coming from on this, because until jusy over a year ago, I felt exactly as you did on this. We then got let down over yet another house we were trying to buy, at just the point prices put on their final spurt - up about 20% in about 2 weeks literally. We'd been renting for nearly 3 years in this village, trying and failing to find the right property to buy, and been let down a number of times in buying. Because I only viewed this place as a temporary stop-gap, I hadn't really made the effort to make it nice, everything was in a mess and stuff still in boxes etc. It was a horrible environment. Then I finally decided enough was enough, we weren't going to buy at those prices, and were going to make our home feel like a proper home. The house is much nicer now, the kids' rooms especially, and though I'm still working on it, it just feels like a much nicer place to be.

We're, like you, not planning to buy for a couple of years at least, until prices have fallen to more reasonable levels.

My only advice, from my experience, is enjoy where you are now - spend a bit of money on storage, picture hanging things, whatever it takes, to make it a nice home now. There's no point in living in some imagined future or idealized past. Just enjoy the present, and each other's company. Take some time out with your DH (and the kids if you like) to enjoy the country you've chosen to be in - it's a great one!

Use renting as a good time to suss out where you want to buy; I'd say ideally rent very close to where you want to buy; but it sounds as if you're already settled.

Anyway, whilst I know that when you're down it can be hard to see outside that, it sounds like you have many blessings to count.

Good luck - hope it all works out well for you.

poppy10_2

Big hugs... but your husband is right,listen to him.

You can always get a long term lease on somewhere if you want stability - at the moment many landlords would jump at the chance of a tenant who can commit to a 2 year lease or more, and with longer leases they normally allow you to make non-major alterations to the house to suit you.

kunekune

"I know you don't feel secure in your present house, but have you thought about looking at Housing Associations?"

Far too rich, unfortunately (though this blessing, does of course, come with long working hours and a lot of stress). It would be nice to get a long lease, am thinking should look for one when this one is running out - I guess you have to find landlord who isn't going through an agent? Am feeling more on an even keel this morning, much food for thought from you all.

lostinrates

Oh dear, I really empathise and send big hugs too.

You're incredibly luck to be able to put £1000 a month away. My DH and I have a very good deposit saved and are recently returned here and unable to get on the property ladder. We simply cannot put £1000 a month away right now, but we're putting what we can away. We are also struggling to find something to rent that would leave us anything over to save at all. I really feel like joining you as a psychiatric creation of the potential HPC!

Its really awful, this feeling of limbo. Because of travelling for DHs work and various other reasons, I gave up my career and so, apart from bits and bobs of much lower paid work, feel insecure in that way too. Most of our stuff has been in storage for 5 years....and when we rent we'll probably not rent somewhere big enough to unpack lots of it, which is also horrid.

My DH is probably recession proof (my career, even if I could get a job with a 5 year hole in cv, which is really unlikely in that particular field!) is not. But, in UK, DH is starting again as a trainee. His firm have never not employed a trainee on UK qualification, but its still a 2 year contract as far as financing anything is concerned. We don't feel we can even support starting a family, which is incredibly frustrating and worrying. We recognise we are not in bad position as many, because DH earns (slightly) above the national average and albeit we are living separately...he lodging in London through the week, then joining me for weekends camping in my parents spare room, we have a roof over our head, so we also worry how people less lucky than us are coping.

There are times it all seems very bleak. You are not alone kunekune

pinkshoes

It's probably not a good idea to buy on the basis that your OH is not happy living in the UK, and until he is happy with the idea, then you shouldn't buy.

People have been going on and on about a HPC for years, and the only thing we've really seen is a few reductions, possibly due to the tightening of lending. In some areas, I doubt they'll see more than a year or two of stagnation. If you're buying a home that you intend to stay in for 10 years or so, then it doesn't really matter when you buy, but like I said, if your OH isn't happy living in the UK yet, then buying a house won't change that.

Could you not look at renting somewhere more permanently, where the landlord will allow you to make changes (paint, picture hooks etc...)? I hated rental accomodation as it felt like living in limbo land! In 10 years and many many rental properties (I moved about a bit!), I only ever came across 1 chilled out landlord who let me paint and put picture hooks up etc... and I was even allowed to paint the bathroom as I wasn't keen on the vomity orange colour.

I know it's harsh your OH is blaming you for his unhappiness, but I guess you need to remember that he made this move for you. Anything more you can do to help him get a more likeable job?