What have I done?!?!?

sammiea1976

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

I'm not an expert on your market, but from the pics on the rightmove advert, I think there is a LOT you can do to make your house more attractive for the openday.

You need to decide what kind of house this is - is it a family house (number of bedrooms would imply it should be) or an executive house for people who like to have friends over to stay?

Either way, here are some suggestions to make your house more marketable

Put some plants in nice pots outside your front door (even if just for the open day)

I did this last year just before we had our first viewing, i am planning to do this later in the week and pop and get some new plants

Put some non-black items in your living room, maybe some flowers or cushions or something.

Good idea! Will get some nice cushions and put some flowers in the room

More flowers on your dining table (something colourful) and maybe some candles? Pop a vanilla pod in your oven on a very low heat to make the room smell lovely.

Was going to put some flowers on the table, thanks for the tip re the vanilla pod, will have to try that out!

Take EVERYTHING off the tops of your kitchen cupboards - it makes it look like you don't have enough kitchen storage.

I know it looks awful those few bits, forgot all about them to be honest, will make sure they are put away for open day!

Put more pots in the garden and on the patio - bright, colourful flowers. The garden looks completely unloved. Borrow table and chairs for your patio. You need to make it look like you use and enjoy that outside space. (You can take the pots with you to your next house).

Got a lovely table and chairs in the garage, will dig it out, weather hasnt been nice enough to do that so far, but will for the viewings, Will also get some pots as i agree the garden does need some plants!

Your bathrooms need sorting. What are all those bottles? If you have open shelving, you need to show any posh items and lose or hide any normal ones (baby talc, shampoo etc) in maybe some nice baskets or boxes? Same goes for make up etc. Fold fluffly towels and stack them up on a shelf or 2. Don't store things on the floor - it looks really scruffy and makes the room seem smaller.

As you can see i am toiletry mad!!! I have already decluttered the toiletries the other day and boxed a load up! Will declutter some more

Hope this helps, and good luck!

Thanks so much! It has really helped

sarah_elton

sammiea1976 wrote: »

Because there is no onward chain, we are buying the new place non dependant wether we sell ours or not!

Usually you'd say no onward chain if you were moving into rented or into another house that's already been bought.

Until you've completed on the other house, the buyers of your place will have to wait for you to do so. I.e. someone can't come in and say "great - no onward chain - I want to complete in 4 weeks".

sarah_elton

MrDT wrote: »

Without putting too fine a point on it, if the properties are in daddies name, and then you inherit the property one day (you may live at the house now, but as I understand it it's not yours), won't you be liable to pay inheritance tax on your home?

This is a genuine question, I'm a little confused here...

You're right.

To avoid inheritance tax, the assets must be in your name (not dad's) for at least seven years before he dies.

They blocked the loophole of people on their deathbeds signing everything over to their kids, by putting in the 7 year rule.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance_Tax_(United_Kingdom)#Minimising_IHT

"Outright gifts to another individual made during a person's lifetime are known as "potentially exempt transfers" or PETs. They are taxable if the person dies within seven years, but have the potential to become exempt from tax once the donor survives seven years. There is no reduction in inheritance tax if the donor dies within three years of the transfer. However if the donor survives three years, the rate of tax on the PET reduces by one fifth (to 32%) and then by a further fifth on each of the subsequent anniversaries (to 24%, 16% and then 8%) until the PET is fully exempt from inheritance tax after seven years. This is known as inheritance tax taper relief."

sammiea1976

MrDT wrote: »

Without putting too fine a point on it, if the properties are in daddies name, and then you inherit the property one day (you may live at the house now, but as I understand it it's not yours), won't you be liable to pay inheritance tax on your home?

This is a genuine question, I'm a little confused here...

I know nothing about inheritance tax, the new property will be in my name and my dads. So will i still have to pay that?

tinkerbell84

sammiea1976 wrote: »

Thanks so much! It has really helped

You should have done it for the photos really

Can you get your agent to take new photos when the house is 'dressed' for your open day?

oneandonlyboy

MrDT wrote: »

Without putting too fine a point on it, if the properties are in daddies name, and then you inherit the property one day (you may live at the house now, but as I understand it it's not yours), won't you be liable to pay inheritance tax on your home?

This is a genuine question, I'm a little confused here...

Yes you are correct, She will have to pay inheritance tax.

It all sounds alittle fishy to me, if you have saving of 17k then all you would need is 28K to buy the house. If your partner has such a well paying job then you could get a loan for 28K and pay it off over 5 years at about £520 a month.

sammiea1976

sarah_elton wrote: »

Usually you'd say no onward chain if you were moving into rented or into another house that's already been bought.

Until you've completed on the other house, the buyers of your place will have to wait for you to do so. I.e. someone can't come in and say "great - no onward chain - I want to complete in 4 weeks".

We have been told completion should be by the end of April! So there will be no issues there, if there was we would go into rented or move in with family.

sammiea1976

oneandonlyboy wrote: »

Yes you are correct, She will have to pay inheritance tax.

It all sounds alittle fishy to me, if you have saving of 17k then all you would need is 28K to buy the house. If your partner has such a well paying job then you could get a loan for 28K and pay it off over 5 years at about £520 a month.

But the house is nothing to do with my partner, his name is not going on the mortgage or the deeds.
The easiest way for us was doing it as is, my dad getting mortgage and remortgage, that way if partner and i split - he has no claims

sammiea1976

Can i go back to what i came here to ask???

I am scared that we wont sell our house well sell it without a huge price drop. Do you think we should keep dropping the price as the estate agent suggests, or we could rent ours out for a year pay the mortgage and the remortgage for a year and see what the market is like then - do you think the prices would have gone back up?

I read that a couple of you are in the process of exchanging, and are considering pulling out due to the recent price drops, and also requesting a drop in offer on the house you are buying - I wanted to know if this was possible to do? if it is possible who do you go to about this, the buyers direct/estate agents/the solicitor?

I thank you for all of your comments, but i really didnt come here to inform you of the ins and outs of my dads business, i came for some advice with regards to the above and if you were in my position what would you do.

Thanks again Sammie

MrDT

sammiea1976 wrote: »

I know nothing about inheritance tax, the new property will be in my name and my dads. So will i still have to pay that?

Can't say I know much about it myself but this did set alarm bells ringing.

Considering your dad has been savvy enough to raise millions such that he can give away 1.5 million in gifts to his kids; I'd be amazed if he hadn't looked into the tax implications. From what I understand, should your father die you would probably have to sell the property to release enough equity to pay 40% of the value to HMRC. That, or a big mortgage?

If daddy genuinely hasn't thought about inheritance tax I think you should arrange a chat about it soon as poss. I don't think he'd like to think that the 1.5m he's given away so his kids can live mortgage/rent free could be shrunk effectively to 900k, and you'd maybe all end up with mortgages to plug the shortfall gap... I know it's not a nice subject to broach, but it needs to be done.

I'd be over the moon if I had wealthy parents that could 'gift' me a house (fair do's though, I'm over the moon having the parents I've got - money or no ), but being so priveledged and then having half taken away would, I reckon, hurt so much more than never having 'had it' in the first place :eek: