A perfect 'buy or rent' comparison

jamescredmond

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's a tricky call. To buy or not to buy.
What was the personal tragedy that lead to the repo.
Where are they now.
Do they bear any grudges.... (big one that).

And going round their home and knowing that possibly the kitchen top you're making your toast on is part of the borrowing they did that tipped them over the edge.

It's a shame when people have bought a house, then done it up with money from credit and that's what's been the catalyst of their downfall.

I think it would be hard to live with it as it is, yet I'd be touched by the tragedy of their loss if I tried to alter it.

Imagine stripping off new wallpaper, knowing they spent £20/roll on it just a year before .... tragedy.

can empathise with this, but by buying are we part of the problem or part of the solution?

back in the early 90's I viewed a repo that had been trashed by the prev. owners. I couldn't believe the damage! every room had been vandalised. remedial work would cost @ 8K. a young family (so I was told, by neighbours) had fought tooth and nail to keep the prop. going, only to fail.

is it any wonder they blitzed the place before the bailiffs moved in?

I didn't bid on the prop. cursed by a sense of conscience (and still am), but someone did - and set to work ASAP to return it to good state, then rented it.

I guess the argument would've followed the line of 'I'm providing a quality prop. to rent for someone who needs it'.

now I ask you: who's worse: me, for not going for the deal or the prop. developer, who bought and spent money and gave a rental opportunity, in the absence of social housing?

I smile when people talk about the 'thatcher' legacy. it's nothing of the sort.
it's an ongoing revolution.

a labour gov. that sells off national assets, still. indeed....................

Generali

The reposessed person still owes the debt so you're helping them by buying their old house as it reduces what they owe.

Life is full of risks and we can choose to take them or not. If you borrow a load of money from a bank to buy a house you're taking a risk. My grandfather was a factory foreman (ie not a rich bloke) and saved up to buy his house for cash because he never wanted to owe anybody money.

merlinthehappypig

Originally posted by neverdespairgirl I've posted real life examples, such as http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...ostcount=1964:

"This same place in WC1 is both for sale and for rent. For rent, it's £795 per week. For sale, it's £1.1 million. I work that out as being a gross yield, not including fees, maintaining it, all the rest of it, as well under 4%.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetai...a_n=2&tr_t=buy

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetai..._n=3&tr_t=rent"

I appreciate that - I've used real life examples as well. I probably didn't word my OP correctly. What I meant was here is a house that we were seriously going to buy and here it is now for rent, allowing me to do a direct comparision, for our circumstances.

Late nights and no sleep have led to dulling of my brain!!

merlinthehappypig

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've been thinking about finding my local auctions and organising a get together of people to go to one.... we could all stand and shift about, giggling in one corner, watching what went on.

Then a pub lunch.



Pub lunches rock. I never get to have them usually.

Auction + Pub Lunch = ftw

(ftw is an Internet term meaning 'for the win', which means it beats anything else)

You can certainly count us in - what a great idea.

jamescredmond

you can count me in as well.

an auction house packed to the rafters with mse'rs.

and no-one buying.

then a decent pub lunch afterwards, when we could all giggle like a bunch of schoolgirls at a sugababes concert.

let us know where and when.

lostinrates

I've not been to an auction ever. A lot of the houses I am (fantasy) looking at are being sold through auction. It would be a good idea I guess to go to a few as dry runs. I am TERRIFIED at the idea of bidding on a property though!

As for buy v rent its a really tough comparison. Renting (DH is lodging near work I'm erm, scrounging off my family!) we making a lot more comprimises. We would rent a one bed flat thinking it would be short term and of minimum outlay, buying we'd want to think about geting stuck in it and would be buying for our needs not just this year but for the next few years (i.e. could we stay for a minimum of five years, or up to 10 years). Ultimately we are probably going to be the unpopular two home people. DH is always going to have to work in a city (possibly out of UK) but we will both always want to live rurally in the UK (dogs, chickens, horses.). we are determined not to ad to the statistics of people who have overreached, but the longer we wait the bigger our needs become. The only bonus to the witing and saving is we hope to cut down on number of moves through out our lives. Ideally we are hoping if land rices drop we could buy the land we would want to live on and then save again to build. But then we start the sweating over whether plannig would be granted.

Gosh, I went off topic, eh. OK, well, I'm going to go to an auction I think.

Fred1_2

I'm not in the market for buying another property at the moment - I neither have funds nor confidence, but in a couple of years, when I've rebuilt my savings and house prices have fallen, I could be tempted into an auction house. How does the auction system work? I assume the sale, when the hammer falls, can only be "subject to contract" and if there are problems with the survery and/or mortgage, the buyer can withdraw? I can't imagine they are all cash deals anymore.

myhooose

This conversion looks rather interesting!


http://www.eigroup.co.uk/onlineauctions/lotpub.asp?a=10597&l=494181

kennyboy66_2

Generali wrote: »

The reposessed person still owes the debt so you're helping them by buying their old house as it reduces what they owe.

You have really no idea what situation previous occupants are in. They could have gone bankrupt.
I would have no problems buying a respossed property - but I would not kid myself that as a consequence I was "helping" the previous owner

LittleMissAspie

I have a real-life example, the house I am living in now. The current landlord bought it in 2006 for 137,500.

We pay 650 to rent it.
An interest-only mortgage would be 687 plus maintenance.
A repayment mortgage would be 896 plus maintenance.

We have one drawback and one drawback only - I hope the landlord has a big enough LTV that he is making a profit and doesn't get repossessed! I am less worried about that now than I was. Having gone through with the unsettledness of moving from a lovely big 2-bed flat to this smaller and not-very-nice house, I am more confident about moving again.