Help me - I'm weakening! (cant face renting anymore)

PasturesNew

TT1 wrote: »

With everyone waiting and waiting and waiting......and waiting to buy, what will happen to prices when all these people decide to buy?

Dead cat bounce?

Annpan

Whilst reading your posts I get the impression most of you live in the London area. Move to the West Midlands for a bargain. I know several really nice places for sale in great locations. Expect to get low pay though!

merlinthehappypig

Annpan wrote: »

Whilst reading your posts I get the impression most of you live in the London area. Move to the West Midlands for a bargain. I know several really nice places for sale in great locations. Expect to get low pay though!

No thanks. I spent most of my teenage years desperately trying to get out of the West Midlands and have no desire to go back. Not interested in London either (neither is my wallet.....)

merlinthehappypig

PasturesNew wrote: »

Apart from your need to be settled, there's no rush .... plenty more opportunities in the pipeline in the coming few years.

I hope you find something soon though as I know you have made your decision and it's what's right for you/your family.

All the best.

True - though the near £600 a week for my MIL's care home is a pretty powerful incentive! That and her continual complaints.......

clobber_2

I loved London but realised fairly early on in our relationship that for the price of a two bedroom flat in London we could afford a five bedroomed detached house in the Midlands...so I was the one that moved, LOL.

jamescredmond

I can sympathise with the OP's predicament.

I've had the luxury of walking through my own front door since the late 80's - bought just before the massive HPI, thank God.

IMHO, fc123's advice is prb. the best way forward.

it might be a depressing prospect, but by continuing to rent and setting a 12 month deadline the OP will have set a clearly defined target together with a distinct possibility of a cash save.

but: where needs must the devil drives.

if the OP is that desperate to get out of renting, then there really is no choice.

much soul-searching in the days ahead, methinks.

izzybusy23

ruggedtoast wrote: »

So we’ve been renting this one bed flat for 3 and a half years, as long as we’ve been back in the UK, nesting instinct is strong in the OH (we’re in our 30’s). We find a new 2 bed place with a garden somewhere nice in North London, put down a holding deposit, and realise we have just been totally misled by the agent.

Its already furnished, and not to our taste at all, all along we’ve been told it was fine to get the landlord to move out stuff we don’t want – now a week before we’re due to move in we find out its not fine at all, he wont move out any of his furniture so we will have to dump all of ours or pay to put his in storage.

The agent wont refund our holding deposit as we cant prove what they told us, and we don’t realistically have time to find somewhere else anyway – to make matters worse we now see that the place is on Rightmove for sale! OH is heartbroken that all her plans for how she’d make it a nice long term home for us to have a family in have come to nothing. I’ve been on the phone all week but there’s nothing that can be done as even if we walk away from our deposit we have no flexibility on leaving our current place as someone else is moving in.

And this is the rub. 6 months ago, despite having good jobs, perfect credit and a largish deposit we would have to stretch ourselves to get even a 1 bed flat somewhere horrible. Now with the price drops we could feasibly afford a 2 bed flat somewhere nice. In 6 -8 months time when we can get out of this new tenancy we might even be able to afford 3 bed flat , or even a little house.

OH says “what about everything you’ve said about the market falling, and waiting a couple more years?” Shes not keen at all to buy a flat and thinks we could get a 3 bed house by waiting.

I just cant take renting anymore. I hate it. The insecurity, feeling like a visitor in someone elses house, having to constantly worry about tenancies and deposits and what you can and cant have in your own place.

I know prices will probably go down more and I know we would probably get a better deal by waiting but – good grief – we’re in our 30’s with above average salaries, savings and no debts and I just want us to own a little place to have a family in. Is that wrong?

I’m really feeling totally torn as for the 3 years I’ve been back in the UK I’ve been the strongest advocate for not participating and waiting for the inevitable crash – but now its happening I don’t know if the miserableness of renting is worth the potential gain of waiting for the bottom.

Your thoughts?

I'm 36, DH is 34, I've been renting for 3.5 years, we earnt £46k last financial year (which is pretty good for where we live) and there is still no way in hell I would buy a place or even get a mortgage. I also hate renting, but I would much prefer to rent and have a buffer for when food, petrol and utilites rise even further, rather than be mortgaged to the hilt on something overpriced, have no spare cash for ever increasing bills and to add to that watch in utter dismay as other similar properites continue to fall in price.

Each to their own, but renting for another 2 years isn't going to make any difference to your way of life NOW, but could make a whole difference to it in 2 years when you have a much bigger deposit and much smaller mortgage on a lovely HOUSE!!!

Good luck whatever you choose. :beer:

izzybusy23

TT1 wrote: »

With everyone waiting and waiting and waiting......and waiting to buy, what will happen to prices when all these people decide to buy?

There will be a hell of a lot of repossessions waiting in the wings, and people sick of this country and emigrating... hence those waiting to buy will fill those who either overstretched themselves or bailed out of a sinking country.

Prices ain't going up again in this decade. People who get repo'd will keep well clear of the housing market after having their fingers severely burnt.. give it 15 years and the whole cycle will start again when people's memories have faded and the whole sorry thing will happen all over again.

silvercar

Originally Posted by TT1
With everyone waiting and waiting and waiting......and waiting to buy, what will happen to prices when all these people decide to buy?

Accept that you can't pinpoint the exact lowest point in the market (especially as there is usually 3 months delay between offer and completion).

I would prefer to buy when prices are still dropping, when the market allows me time to look around and find my ideal purchase, when sellers are grateful to find a buyer and are willing to accomodate their foibles (completing on certain dates, agreeing to repairs, etc).

Rather than feeling that the pressure is on because prices have bottomed out, so if I don't buy quickly I could miss out. Where sellers are not so helpful, pressurize me into quick decisions and I feel that any attempts at negotiations will have the seller looking over my shoulder to find the next potential buyer.

TT1_3

izzybusy23 wrote: »

There will be a hell of a lot of repossessions waiting in the wings, and people sick of this country and emigrating... hence those waiting to buy will fill those who either overstretched themselves or bailed out of a sinking country.

Prices ain't going up again in this decade. People who get repo'd will keep well clear of the housing market after having their fingers severely burnt.. give it 15 years and the whole cycle will start again when people's memories have faded and the whole sorry thing will happen all over again.

I agree that prices won't go up for a while but i don't think there will be a massive crash as people are prediciting.
Buyers that are waiting will see the crash isn't happening and slowly keep the market ticking over.
As i said in an earlier post, buying now with the 'threat' of a crash is the smart thing to do.