how do i get clued up???

maggiesasha

hi

after reading many of the threads on this site and taking various advise my boyfriend and i have decided to rent for a couple of years whilst we save a deposit and pay off car loans so that we are in a good position to buy a house at that time. we want to keep abreast of mortgage developments and house price fluctuations etc but how do we do that?? is there a magazine we can buy or website to visit so we can keep up to date? we'd hate to not save enough or miss a slump in prices! any advice at all would be much appreciated please.

thanks.

Doozergirl

When you get your free paper each week, look at the property section. Look for the type of property in the area you would like to buy you will start to guage how asking prices increase/decrease over time. You will see which houses sit on the market for a long period of time because they are overpriced, so you will gradually learn what a reasonable price is for a property.

It costs nothing and is absolutely specific to your area, not general. It will be really helpful to you when you do come to buy as you will instinctively know when a house is right for the money.

Not sure where to look for mortgage information, I watch the news for any major changes and use my financial advisor to present me with the best choices available for my circumstances and explain how they work.

HTH

MrBen_4

I have found https://www.fool.co.uk and https://www.housepricecrash.co.uk to be a good source of unbiased information. The news blog and the message board on housepricecrash.co.uk are particularly good.
nethouseprices.com also has a news section and you can keep an eye on the prices properties are selling for in your area.

spottydog

Keep watching your local estate agents windows to get an idea of asking prices and how quickly properties are selling in your area, https://www.nethouseprices.com will show you actual selling prices although these can take a number of months to show after the property has sold. Unfortunately house prices are very area specific and while one area can be rising an area a mile away can be dropping due to trend (i.e. a while ago Victorian houses were very out of fashion and cost a lot less than equivalent newer ones but now they are popular.

For mortgages probably just continue reading whatever paper you read, watch banks windows and when you are in a position to think about buying speak to a Financial advisor in your local independent estate agents to see what you can borrow (and that you are happy borrowing) and find out what deals they have then also check the websites of the big lenders as sometimes they have web specials that are better.

Overall the main thing to remember with buying a house to live in is that it is your home and you have to be happy there, not your friend or someone replying to a post on a website but you personally and there is no one cap fits all when it comes to homes.

zag2me

MrBen wrote:

I have found and https://www.housepricecrash.co.uk to be a good source of unbiased information.

Unbiased?

MrBen_4

zag2me wrote:

Unbiased?

Ok the majority of users are property bears - but in general it is unbiased and free from vested interest spin. A good source of facts, figures and debate.

spottydog

MrBen wrote:

Ok the majority of users are property bears - but in general it is unbiased and free from vested interest spin. A good source of facts, figures and debate.

It always seems to me they have a vested interest but it's just opposite from the people that they always go on about being VI's (i.e. they have a vested interest in getting a crash).

Reading their forums normally provides me with amusement but I can't see how anyone could call them unbiased and their constant trolling of other sites makes me think of them as completely untrustworthy and childish.