OH MY, The Most Stunning Beautiful Property

skaff

Matt

This is a very long thread (i know, i've just read the lot!) but i honestly believe 90% of it is unnecessary.

For my tuppence worth it would appear to me that your mind was made up before you wrote the OP. If you are at the stage of conveting garages and laying decking i would say that you have got past your issue with leasehold properties.

Also, and this isn't meant as a flame, if you had kept your options a little more open two years ago, perhaps that nice house in the bad area could have been a signal that the area was on the rise. Perhaps that little longer commute to work from the house a little further out may have meant that your time spent there would have been more appreciated. Either way, the 2 years of owning either would have meant a little more money in your coffers now rather than waiting for the dream home.

I appreciate that investing in property is scary. All on this thread know that feeling. However, turning down property after property because of one reason or another may mean that when you find your dream home, you can no longer afford it! Think of it like this. You could spend your life looking for your soulmate when Capt M was there all along. You just thought his alopecian cat was just too much of a downer for you.

Spend your time thinking about what you want and not complaining about what others have or don't have and i am sure you will be fine.

Good luck with your purchase!

tbs624

...and the mention of decking several times in this thread may lead us on to all sorts of fiercely debated issues....;)

Resist, resist........

f1re_cr4cker

im with the captain on this my offer wouldve been 150k!

clutton_2

i want to know what is happening under Nellys decking this week ??

Anyone ???

matt99b

f1re_cr4cker wrote: »

im with the captain on this my offer wouldve been 150k!

Well, its been a while so just thought I'd add a little update!

About the property - the estate agent has been calling us up about 3 times a week to "see if you've made a decision". We had to stop answering the phone, but then they changed their number and managed to get through to us again! We've had the estate agentt's supervisor, and then the manager onto us to make a decision! We keep telling them "We're thinking about it and will let you know as soon as we decide." But still they keep calling and asking!

I get the distinct impression the agents are very bored and have no business at all. One of them called me at work and said to me on the phone "Sorry, are you busy?" I replied "YES!!!" and he said "Oh well, at least one of us is!"

At one point the estate agent started pushing us and spoke very firmly down the phone to me, so I explained to him:
"We're still thinking it over, in light of current market we are being careful. We're not sure if we want to find ourselves in negative equity as first time buyers, as we don't know how long we will be able to live in that house job wise etc., we like the property so are thinking it over carefully and aren't going to make any snap decisions."

He then started saying loudly, insisting "LOOK. HOUSE PRICES WILL NOT FALL ANY LOWER. IT JUST ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN. NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME TO BUY. " Then he would calm himself down and say "I just don't want to see that you lose this property to someone else, because you're still thinking about it."

Previously he had tried to get into a discussion with me about house prices, and my answers to him were always "well, you can't really knows for sure what will happen to house prices.". He would get very firm with me " HOUSE PRICES AREN'T GOING TO FALL ANY MORE! THE MEDIA ARE JUST WINDING PEOPLE UP AND MAKING MY JOB A NIGHTMARE!"

I didn't want to get into a discussion with him about house prices, as he didn't seem rational (are any estate agents ever rational?!). So I just said "ok." and tried to end the conversation.

We're trying to think about the property on its own merits, without thinking about the irritating estate agents, but they are putting us off for some reason.

The agents also told us we could probably get the property for around £150k if we put an offer in. (asking price was £169,995). But we checked online and found it's probably worth £157k at the moment (several 3rd party websites will estimate the cost based on previous sales and market % increase/decreases in the area since those dates), so if we put in the offer of 150k, we think it would be 95% the current market value. This is all speculation and educated guessing though. If the property value falls further, we could find ourselves having paid £150k for a property with value £120k.

I think the estate agents' attitudes has put us off the sale a bit more. But apart from this, the fact that they can't seem to find any other buyers quickly could mean either the property is hard to sell, or it's just the current "buyers strike" affecting the situation. Either way, we don't want to find ourselves in negative equity or be stuck with any property for the rest of our lives because we can't sell it on.

We are sitting on our hands and thinking this property over, but in light of the current market situation, I can't see us making any quick decisions.

We are desperate to find a home though. We've had a lot of bad luck with landlords, selling on, new owners needing us to move out, landlords demolishing the building and us having to up and move out again, things like that. We've had to move pretty much once a year for the past 3 years and just want a break, and somewhere we can call home.

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether or not it's a good idea to buy a "home" for the sake of a "home" in current market, rather than an investment? Or should we always be thinking of our home as an investment?

So anyway thats the update for now!

tinkerbell84

Personally I think there's a big difference between a 'home' and an 'investment'.

If you are looking for a home, and the property meets as many of the needs you can forecast to need in the coming years, then as long as you're happy with the price you pay, it shouldn't matter.

Investment only matters if you NEED to make money on a property to meet your future needs (IMO).

themaccas

Hi Matt
I would be the first to encourage people to buy a 'home' on here even in the current climate. However if I were you I would walk away from this one. It sounds like you are looking at this as an investment, to get yourself on the property ladder and then move in a couple of years time. If I have got that right, I don't think this property is right for you. However, if this is somehwere you can look at as a 'home' and will be happy to stay put in for number of years even if you are unable to sell in 3-4 years time because you have negative equity/market still stagnant then it probably would be a good idea to buy.

We bought our previous house in January 1996 during the last housing market crash. We immediately fell in love and could see it as a long term home even though we knew we might have to move on in 2 years (OH in the forces). We bought it knowing we would still see it as a home for many years despite what would happen to the housing market. Fast forward to January 2008 when we DID have to finally move on, we were lucky to get a buyer quite quickly and moved 6 wekks ago. Even up to the last minute though I knew that if things fell through, although I would be ticked off, we would happily stay there for a few more years.

meanmachine_2

What a great thread.

I never thought I'd encounter any FTBer angier than me, but Matt, you win the prize. I can finally take off the hair shirt and give it to someone else...

So, zone 4, 20 mins to London Bridge. Hmm.. Where could that be? Forest Hill? am I close?

And I never thought, when clicking on this thread for the first time, that "the most stunning, beautiful property" would be above a chip shop!!!

Good luck to you Matt. Don't let those agents push you about.

And *love* the fact that you're searching for a flat in London that's entirely freehold. Classic!!

matt99b

meanmachine wrote: »

Good luck to you Matt. Don't let those agents push you about.

And *love* the fact that you're searching for a flat in London that's entirely freehold. Classic!!

Thanks for the good luck.

With regards to your last comment "classic", to be honest I'm getting a bit sick of these irritating remarks aimed towards us. Firstly, We're not searching for a flat in London that's entirely freehold. Freehold flats rarely exist, and we knew that from the start. We're searching for a house that's freehold, and it doesn't have to be in Greater London. We're looking within reasonable commute of London. It was never our intention from the start to buy a flat, but we fell in love with this one by chance. We were looking at houses. Most of the flats in the areas we're looking at are Share of Freehold, so this was a surprise when it turned up as leasehold. Secondly, the flat/maisonette is not above a chip shop. It's just up the road from a chip shop, and this was one of our concerns and reasons for the thread. Our reason for falling in love with the property was the interior, it feels like a house inside, the floors are rock solid and feels like its on the ground floor, exterior of the flat, and quiet, safe location. Obviously we're looking in our price range, which is at the bottom end of the market, so to find something like this was a surprise, despite the shops down below. The chip shop wasn't one of these pros, but was a con if I recall rightly. Finally, meanmachine, if you must join the gangs taking a dig at us, please at least do your homework first.

katieowl_2

My Lower ground/ basement flat in London is freehold Matt.....I'm also the 'owner' of the lease to the flat upstairs - don't think it's that uncommon in older conversions either as my friends flat in the East end has the same arrangement.

Regards

Kate