Strategies for keeping hope going until house prices drop!

hgllgh

the way things are going now we could be looking at a sharp fall in prices in the UK due to the "payments shock" of folks coming out of low rate mortgages to higher rates this year. This has happened in the US and in extreme cases such as Florida 50% has been wiped off in under a year. So this time next year you will probably be in a strong position to bargain as banks will want your custom as you have a good deposit and vendors who need to sell will need to reduce prices.

tbh you are in a pretty strong position compared to many over leveraged UK borrowers.

If you don't want to wait then you could look into buying at auction or buying a repo on the open market before auction as there will be loads of repo's over the next year. During the start of the last crash auction sale values were the real market value and were significantly lower than market asking prices. Need to do your homework if you go down this route. Talk to lenders and take their advice.

Maybe you could look at this as a short to medium term return to the UK .. 4-5 years to see how you get on. Then if you do decide to move you could even give somewhere else a try like OZ or Canada? My mum came back from Perth for 6-7 years then decided she wanted to go back ... and did just that... and she is 60!!!

kunekune

Hey, you are doing a great job of cheering me up. So long as OH's employer doesn't go under (won't say who it is - but it is not B&B) and so long as our LL doesn't go under leaving us unable to find somewhere to stay in October, we will get there in the end.

Hgligh, one of the posts that vanished on this frustrating morning was the one about how we had originally seriously considered Oz or Canada but can't. Because our son is disabled, the only countries we can live in are the ones that have no choice but to take us (unless we agree to pay for private education and all health costs ... that's not an option)! Human rights rules don't apply to immigration procedures.

kunekune

To apply busy_bee's set of principles for a happier day, I have just spotted a contradiction between two different things that worry me.

1. I am worried about losing our deposit because the paint is so thin and the plaster so soft that the walls are damaged already. There are mucky fingerprints all over, and it is impossible to wash them off because it is just thin emulsion.
2. I feel a bad mum because I won't let my daughter put up posters of Dr Who and I have not hung a single picture because of possible damage.

Er, if they are going to make us pay to repaint the house at the end (and I expect they will) what difference will it make???? I am off to ebay to -

1. Buy some of those wonderful sticky things so I can hang some of my pictures up (picture hooks are out for another reason - we don't have a drill and the walls are solid concrete, going by the frustration I can hear next door as they try to drill holes).
2. Look for an extra bookcase for the hallway so that all our books are out.

Now let's see if I can think of a way to put some plants in pots in the garden (there is no soil, only paving and gravel) without making it impossible for son to kick his ball around ...

lostinrates

Hey, kunekune.....I CAN help with the garden thingy...a bit! In rented I have really missed growing things too...we've been mainly in flats...but an investment in some window boxes (just the plastic tubs, not the fixings!) was mood enhancing! We've had strawbarries, salads, herbs and tomatoes all in the tubs, as well as flowers (pelargoniums mainly, because they are so easy to propagate and forgiving of weekends away without water!) the plastic tub will be pretty resistant to a foot ball, and tbh, if the plants get a wee bit of a bashing...well, its not he end of the world. My cats chomped on our so that I thoughts we'd never get acrop, but we really did.

Plus, I've bought things that would stay in pots when we get a house anyway....mainly small citrus trees, and they help the house smell great through the winter too.

poppy10_2

I've always put pictures up - nobody really minds, as long as you are not doing any major damage to the walls. Certainly blutacking a Dr Who poster should be absolutely fine, no matter what the contract says.

busy_bee_7

Rick62 wrote: »

Buying, I'm currently doing some mortgage broking, you may think what you read sounds bad, I'd say its much worse than most people realise. I think prices will come down over the next 2 years, of course you want to own your own house (as do I) but now is not the time, console yourself that you may well save £10,000's.

I agree with you Rick, and although I am not a financial expert and don't know much about mortgage broking I do think it is like you say: much worse than some people realise. Even if I was in a position when I had large enough deposit I would not consider buying right now, not even this year. Having heard about further credit crunch in the US, I think saving is our only option (as well as holding onto our jobs).

Kunekune, so if your are desperately wanting to get out of renting and buy a house, you need to ask yourself a question whether the time is right. I do think that having the oportunity to save a grand per month you will be in a much better position next year or in a couple of years' time.


BB

kunekune

I think a lot of this is about strategies, as the original title said. I totally agree that now is a bad time to buy. I would imagine there are other people in the same position as us - well, I know there are just from this post - and what we need is strategies to keep our chins up through these months or maybe years when renting is depressing us and we can't even say "but I don't have the money for a house" because actually we do. So, summarising the ideas here and some of my own -

- Take joy in the trickle of money into the house deposit pot. Celebrate saving. DH (who isn't always mean, LOL) suggested thinking of it like this: every £1000 we save rather than spend is £1000 less we have to borrow, but that means that in the big scheme of things, it is £1600 (or whatever) less we have to pay back.

Don't live entirely for tomorrow - as my sig shows, we ARE going to have a holiday this year, even if that means £2000 less towards the house deposit pot. I suspect that scrimping for too many months in a row might be counter-productive for many of us.

Be realistic about what we might gain when prices drop - yes, it could make a MASSIVE difference to the quality of the eventual house, but it might not. If the only reason for doing this is an extra bedroom or a fancier facade, it could be difficult to stay smiling when the crash takes longer or if eventually you jump and it turns out it isn't quite the bottom yet.

Within the confines of our letting agreements (which obviously vary in their strictness), we should do our best to make this a home and not just a house. That might occasionally mean spending a little extra money or even running the risk that a little deposit is lost. But it's a balancing act. Which is more important - £300 or so in 2 years when you have saved another £x and are buying at a good price and with a small pot to spare - or our lives now ...

Maybe don't read stories about tenants being thrown out because LL is selling up and then they can't find anywhere else to go. Or at least, don't do it when suffering from PMT, SAD or STRP (sell to rent paranoia).

hgllgh

kunekune wrote: »

Hey, you are doing a great job of cheering me up. So long as OH's employer doesn't go under (won't say who it is - but it is not B&B) and so long as our LL doesn't go under leaving us unable to find somewhere to stay in October, we will get there in the end.

Hgligh, one of the posts that vanished on this frustrating morning was the one about how we had originally seriously considered Oz or Canada but can't. Because our son is disabled, the only countries we can live in are the ones that have no choice but to take us (unless we agree to pay for private education and all health costs ... that's not an option)! Human rights rules don't apply to immigration procedures.

I'm amazed that that's the case!!

What is happening to house prices in NZ? the boom and bust seems to be world wide so if you were to go back to NZ you may find prices lower? Or was there another part of NZ that you thought you might like to live in?

btw if your DH wants to get back in to health related IT then the UK government seem to have a bottomless pit of money that is being poured into the national health (patient records) IT programme. In a downturn or recession, the public sector is one of the best bets for job security. Don't necessarily need to become a civil servant either ... just find the large IT consultancies that are running the contracts and apply through them.... it sounds like they need some help aswell :rolleyes:

Rick62

And don't think of renting as negative, think as a positive while you get more settled in your jobs, get to know the different areas and types of property you could live and think of it as a positive that you have plenty of time to find the perfect house rather than being rushed into it as many people have in recent years.

kunekune

I wish! In practice there are two barriers: first, they will only accept NHS experience and second, he wan't work for a consultancy if that involves travelling several days a week. Our family can't work like that. He got THIS close to a contract with BT global last year and then the hours became obvious: 12 hour days. The money is not worth it. I don't know why that apparent bottomless pit won't take someone who successfully designed data warehouses for the NZ Ministry of Health, but there it is. And, as you so kindly point out, they could do with him!

NZ is having a price collapse as we speak. But each move costs so much money. Only Auckland and Wellington are possible for us because of my job and his combined, Auckland has long been too expensive. We were in Wellington before, and like it (bar the earthquakes). We would only go back if it was a work promotion (ie, if they gave me at least an associate professorship/readership, which is in the realm of pigs flying for an academic with time-consuming children to rear) with all expenses, etc. Academics do get their relocation paid, which is nice.

BUt when we hit our mid-60s, it might be different. Ironically, because of being here for the last phase of our working lives, we will get UK rather than NZ pensions, but with NI credits for the 20 years we were away. We can then get it paid to us in NZ ... For retirement, it would be a great option.