The nervous wait to exchange....

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I went to the ombudsman and successfully got £500 compensation, because Purplebricks lied on an advert about a house I nearly bought!

It took 18 months though!

Absolute scum of a company! That's not to mention being stealthily signed up to a subscription, for legal services via their 'proof of ID' bullshine!! Avoid!
 
Took a while but asking prices dropping. The next couple of months will give a good idea of the direction of the housing market.
 
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I know you should never try to catch a falling knife but it is making me a little twitchy about buying right now.
 
ver01@ said:
Took a while but asking prices dropping. The next couple of months will give a good idea of the direction of the housing market.
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I wonder if we will start to see houses coming back on the market as buyers panic and pull out.
 
fez said:
I wonder if we will start to see houses coming back on the market as buyers panic and pull out.
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If you arre buying, even at slightly over the current market, you are no longer paying rent and you will catch up in a year or two. Only people trying to flip property may come unstuck. Which in itself is no bad thing.
 
Hagar said:
If you arre buying, even at slightly over the current market, you are no longer paying rent and you will catch up in a year or two. Only people trying to flip property may come unstuck. Which in itself is no bad thing.
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Most people who are buying anything but cheap houses are likely just upsizing I would say so rent isn't a consideration. I am obviously just speaking about the sector of the market we are looking at but there are some large reductions on plenty of properties. The sort of reductions that would likely put you a good few years back if you didn't get that reduction.

If you overpaid for a house by £75k and then included all the moving costs, stamp duty etc you would easily be over £100k worse off. It would take a decent rise in the market to recover that.

I wonder if any government will even fix stamp duty to make housing more liquid. I assume not as the loss in tax revenue would be huge. Around £5bn/year. As we know, we are largely broke as a country so thats never going to happen but it would potentially pay for itself in other ways and allow people to actually buy and sell houses regularly without bankrupting themselves.
 
fez said:
Most people who are buying anything but cheap houses are likely just upsizing I would say so rent isn't a consideration. I am obviously just speaking about the sector of the market we are looking at but there are some large reductions on plenty of properties. The sort of reductions that would likely put you a good few years back if you didn't get that reduction.

If you overpaid for a house by £75k and then included all the moving costs, stamp duty etc you would easily be over £100k worse off. It would take a decent rise in the market to recover that.

I wonder if any government will even fix stamp duty to make housing more liquid. I assume not as the loss in tax revenue would be huge. Around £5bn/year. As we know, we are largely broke as a country so thats never going to happen but it would potentially pay for itself in other ways and allow people to actually buy and sell houses regularly without bankrupting themselves.
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Yeah, I'm thinking 10 or 20k losses. However i think that the market is liquid enough without losing stamp duty at the upper end. When it was done during covid it caused all sort of distortions. Again people buying and selling houses regularly sounds inflationary and speculative leading to increased prices as nobody sells at a loss or not many.
Punting property is not a real productive job IMO but many do it i know.
 
Hagar said:
Yeah, I'm thinking 10 or 20k losses. However i think that the market is liquid enough without losing stamp duty at the upper end. When it was done during covid it caused all sort of distortions. Again people buying and selling houses regularly sounds inflationary and speculative leading to increased prices as nobody sells at a loss or not many.
Punting property is not a real productive job IMO but many do it i know.
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I would say the market is not very liquid at all at the upper end. Around me, anything that is ~200sqm and not in awful condition or out in the sticks is £1m+ in general. Thats £43k stamp duty. Then add in another £10-15k plus for selling your current house, moving costs and solicitors.

How many people are going to be moving house regularly when it costs them ~£60k?

I understand that house prices might rise in the short term if you magically didn't have to fork out for stamp duty but after a while that price increase would have been absorbed and not be a consideration.

If you're in an unsuitable house worth £750k and want to move, you won't be thinking "not a chance, I'm not risking another move that costs me £40-50k". So you sit tight.
 
Estate agents are asking my seller to change solicitors, apparently it's even worse than me just waiting for forms even they haven't had any communication.
 
F4FF3R said:
I went to the ombudsman and successfully got £500 compensation, because Purplebricks lied on an advert about a house I nearly bought!

It took 18 months though!

Absolute scum of a company! That's not to mention being stealthily signed up to a subscription, for legal services via their 'proof of ID' bullshine!! Avoid!
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Good.

Not enough people know about how bad those legal services are for their sellers either.

I do because we had to pull out of a house we were buying as they were still chasing basic paperwork after 6 months.
 
Lifetime legal it was!

Not only did they charge £60 to prove my identity so I could put in an offer! But then signed me up to a 'free' subscription for legal services that I didn't want!

It was only because I asked lots of questions about the subscription (thinking I had no choice! FTBer etc!) on the initial phone call, that they agreed to refund the payments.

I got the impression it was a regular scam. Sign people up to 'free subscription that won't renew unless you agree'.

Renewal email doesn't arrive. They take payments till you notice, and you have no recourse!

House buying really is the worst when there's companys pulling this kind of cr&p! :/

I could go much further into PB's role too...
 
F4FF3R said:
I got the impression it was a regular scam. Sign people up to 'free subscription that won't renew unless you agree'.
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Thats how most of these people work. Get caught so occasionally that when they have to give an compensation they have made god knows how much more from their ****** business practices already. The whole thing about Estate agents essentially working entirely for themselves, overpricing properties to get people on their books. Trying to get them to lower asking quickly and then prioritising buyers who use their in-house or affiliated conveyancing. That should straight up be illegal and they should be fined into the ground for that.

Nope. Just a slap on the wrist and a dictat from the top saying "Stop doing that! (please don't stop doing that but jesus christ guys, be more subtle)"
 
We have accepted an offer on our house :) full asking price after 2 and a bit weeks on the market. Chuffed. First time buyers too so hopefully that works out.

Now we have to sort solicitors and find a place to buy ourselves.

Don't want to rush it, but also feels very real now and suddenly feeling the pressure :D

Now regarding making an offer. We have viewed a house that we like, but where others are coming down, this one hasn't. It's been on the market for a few months and the agent tells me they haven't had an offer at all. I'm guessing it's down to the current price.

Is there a general consensus to what is/isn't considered a bit of a rude/lowball offer?

It's slightly over budget at asking. Mostly in good shape, just bathrooms need updating. It's up at 425. Park of me wants to offer 385/390 but then that's a big jump down.

What have you all attempted in the past? I'm thinking.. there's no harm, they can just say no
 
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It's always the price. Go and view it and offer to the last digit what you feel completely comfortable with and if it gets rejected, you know it was your best/last/final offer.

So if you view it and think well actually I'd only pay 370 - then offer that.

It's been on the market for months and maybe they can only accept 410 because of their personal situation?

Maybe this week is the week they'd take 380 and run?

Who knows until you take a gander and a punt :D
 
Well it took a while but we've now found a buyer for our house - a cash buyer which is even better!

We've put in an offer on the house we liked - that thatched one (see other chat) - which has been accepted and got surveyors report back today which lists a few things we suspected but not too bad so fingers crossed. It's an empty property so a nice short chain.
 
John J Sheridan said:
Well it took a while but we've now found a buyer for our house - a cash buyer which is even better!

We've put in an offer on the house we liked - that thatched one (see other chat) - which has been accepted and got surveyors report back today which lists a few things we suspected but not too bad so fingers crossed. It's an empty property so a nice short chain.
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Sounds like a result.

Viewed a property recently that had just come on the market and seemed to tick all the boxes for me. Arranged a second viewing so my partner can see it and with the expectation of putting in an offer (well, as long as she didn't hate it). The second viewing was cancelled and the estate agent has been giving me the run around for the last week with different excuses about what is happening and when a further viewing will be possible. Just been told that the vendors are having a "surprise pregnancy" and the house has been withdrawn from sale.
 
John J Sheridan said:
Well it took a while but we've now found a buyer for our house - a cash buyer which is even better!

We've put in an offer on the house we liked - that thatched one (see other chat) - which has been accepted and got surveyors report back today which lists a few things we suspected but not too bad so fingers crossed. It's an empty property so a nice short chain.
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How long did it take to sell?

We have been waiting 9 months now. Started at 450k, no viewers, lowered to 425k, and a fair few came in, but no offers. Thinking whilst it's summer and the house and garden looking it's best, a last push at selling this year, lowered to 400k and not one viewing! We're getting a tad disillusioned with it. We know it's a village out in the sticks, so it's not like selling a townhouse, but it's frustrating. Especially when it's a sought-after village. That said, even if we sold tomorrow, there is nothing on the market we want; it feels dead. No idea if/when it'll pick up. I think someone will get a very good deal when we eventually sell.
 
Sellers Solicitors apparently phoned up this morning kicking off about delays - all the delays are waiting for the TA6/TA10 forms they need to send the absolute muppets.

Fortunately not in a rush. But found out the sellers using Barratt's for the conveyencing and it explains a lot. Was however hoping to be in for end of August but without searched/enquiries being started yet it's not looking likely.
 
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