Still going
I think we can get a few more weeks out of it. Their tenants have moved out now so no more rent to try on.
The nervous wait to exchange....
- Thread starter noj
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I think we can get a few more weeks out of it. Their tenants have moved out now so no more rent to try on.
High is 401k on zoopla! mind you, the last house we viewed was put up at 475k and sold for 75k over :| zoopla estimated it to be worth around 430! I think this market is skewed but it also makes me wonder, how will the banks valuation go. Fully booked this weekend, when we called(30 minutes after listing) they instantly asked if this is the house we're trying to view.
How long has it been up? If it's a forever home then i'd try not to look at the "over-paying" part. If you live there for 20-30 years then overpaying by 22k (5%) will seem insignificant. Also most of it will be out of your control anyway, if other viewers put in over asking offers then you're left with pulling out or playing the same game.
Still going
I think we can get a few more weeks out of it. Their tenants have moved out now so no more rent to try on.
They've not been pushy about getting things going?
They are coming over from Switzerland this weekend to look at the property. I think they want to make a decision after this.
yeah makes sense, to be honest we can go up to 450 but I'd rather not pay that much as I don't think the house is actually worth that and the only reason it'd be at that number is people overpaying due to current market.
I think if it all checks out we'll go in around 420k mark and see what we get, that'll give us plenty of space to adjust the offer depending on how we feel.
Man of Honour
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The market is crazy right now. We lost a house per day while we waited until the weekend to see one. Hardly anything available, easily £75k up from September and crazy offers coming in. We’re fortunate that we can, and did throw money at it. Clearly this just escalates with such high demand. It remains to be seen if even this one works out. We’re about two weeks from having all the cash in the bank, but even in what sounds to be such a strong position I worry.
They were clear but there's really absolutely no reason to have an arbitrary upper limit. The fact they are 'regular' savings accounts (as in, you can't be a millionaire and lump in 500k to get the immediate 25% bonus, you have to pay in slowly and with an upper limit per year) there's protection against it being mis-used. It literally means anyone south of Birmingham is in danger of ploughing their life savings into one, only for the market to continue to rise and then all of a sudden they lose out. It's an awful idea. And like me, if you opened one with the idea of buying your first home yourself, what happens if a few years down the line you get married, start a family, maybe even need to move down south and are suddenly looking at properties twice as expensive? It's a nonsense.
Yeah i don't disagree, and i can almost imagine when these things were put together many years ago, they never envisioned the market rocketing off like it did.
I think you're being way too kind. They were only announced in 2016, the market has been rocketing off since what, the nineties?
I think you're being way too kind. They were only announced in 2016, the market has been rocketing off since what, the nineties?
I can't argue with that.To be fair, 2016-2019 were not exactly rocketing in the housing market. When we sold in 2019, the market was really flat in our area and not much going on.
The people who bought our house, recently sold it for £50k more than they paid and while still very presentable, from the pictures they did literally nothing to it. It still had some of the fixings in the walls for pictures we had up when we lived their.
The people who bought our house, recently sold it for £50k more than they paid and while still very presentable, from the pictures they did literally nothing to it. It still had some of the fixings in the walls for pictures we had up when we lived their.
they're doing an open-day so that's the earliest we can see it sadly. Which means there will be a bidding war as the house is presented well and looks very tidy. Price is also reasonable for the area - compared to nearby properties. I'm hoping we get somewhere with this, we've been looking for months now. Have yet to even get an offer accepted.
I think that might depend on where you are! When we were buying in Portsmouth in late 2016/early 2017 the market wasn't just on fire, it was a raging inferno. For example: Property A went on the market at 09:30. We called at 09:35 and were the third people to request a viewing. We viewed at 15:30, by which time there were 5 competing offers in. We were offer 6, 17.5% above asking and not in the lead. It went to sealed bids the following morning. We went up to about 20% over asking and in the end we managed to squeeze out of the agent that we were nowhere near what it went for. We lost out on half a dozen suitable houses in similar circumstances. We eventually found a place that was valued sanely but was seriously poorly presented by the vendor and their agent so we had breathing room to negotiate in a more traditional timescale.
We completed in April 2017 and to date that house has appreciated by over 50% through a combination of buying smart, market insanity and about £30k of renovations. That's not pie-in-the-sky agent numbers either, that's as valued by the bank for a remortgage last month.
Man of Honour
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I feel your pain, I really do. Hopefully it’s like the open house we were invited to after we offered years ago where no one turned up.
Lisa was great. Really helped me.
It should be clear that if you are looking at houses near the limit you shouldn't do it
For me i knew that was never going to happen. It was the majority of my deposit!
I think I absolutely maxed it out.
Just had a look. Yes. It was 20k of my deposit from Lisa in January 2020
16k of my money. 4 from hmrc
It should be clear that if you are looking at houses near the limit you shouldn't do it
For me i knew that was never going to happen. It was the majority of my deposit!
I think I absolutely maxed it out.
Just had a look. Yes. It was 20k of my deposit from Lisa in January 2020
16k of my money. 4 from hmrc
fingers crossed! honestly this whole process is just shocking.
that's easier said than done.
if I recall correctly when we joined LISA(few years ago now) the limits were different, one number for london, one for outside. We both lived in London back then.. if I remember right the limit was 350k for areas out of London, which was our very max budget wise and we were really hoping to spend around 325k.
fast forward to 2020-2022 and that 325k gets you a flat and you now need to spend 450-500k to get what was 325k back when we started.
the only way out of lisa is to either:
pay the penalty and take the money out
or find a property under this "magic" 450k limit. - proving very difficult.
we expanded our search radius from 5 miles, to 10 and now 15. At this rate we'll be moving to Scotland haha.
Deleted User 298457
Deleted User 298457
No. LISA has never discriminated. You're thinking of Help2Buy which was only on new properties and in London it was like £750k.
It is a flat £450k limit. It is just idiots (myself included) didn't expect to buying a first time house at/above £450k.
ah you're right! we did transfer from help to buy to LISA a while ago, that explains my confusion. Honestly, 450k for a first time home is ridiculous. Me and my other half do well for ourselves at our age(early 30s) and I honestly can't image how people who earn less can afford anything, unless they get chunky deposits from parents/grandparents etc. My mate dumped everything and moved to Scotland after trying for years to buy here(west sussex).
Ah you were thinking about htb. Yeah that was a nasty low limit.
About earning less..
Me (44k) and my partner (24k) with a mortgage (210k) certainly don't feel rich at all. Despite earning over average, and having relatively low costs (both full time WFH, no kids ever).
Fortunately I wanted to live in a Cheaper area (Wales) by choice. Would absolutely be priced out of London with what we had. I don't know how anyone with average conditions lives there.
But even with this mortgage it's the interest rate rises and energy price rises that could turn comfort into hopefully not a struggle, but moderate life changes.
If we are in the above average earning with below average costs and having to make careful plans it really shows what the below average are facing.
If I ever move again probably need a house price crash or a lottery win really. And I really do want to move again.