The nervous wait to exchange....

Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
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11,786
You need to stop reading advice from a year ago - the market is totally different.

Yeh you really need to familarise yourself with the local market, a basic way to do this is set up rightmove alerts your area for your price range. Youll soon get a handle on what sells quick for what sort of money, and what's sat on the market for a while.

I was looking at a place for 170k but the survey came back with 20k of actual work that needed doing. the vendors priced it like all it would need is a lick of paint and new carpets. Made an offer -20k from the asking price and they rejected it. I walked away. It eventually sold for 5k more than my offer, some months later.

No regrets though as the hassle of getting tradespeople in and the disruption wasn't worth the effort (to me), whereas it might be ok for a builder/roofer type person that could do most of the work themselves..
 
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Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2010
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21,949
Yeh you really need to familarise yourself with the local market, a basic way to do this is set up rightmove alerts your area for your price range. Youll soon get a handle on what sells quick for what sort of money, and what's sat on the market for a while.

I was looking at a place for 170k but the survey came back with 20k of actual work that needed doing. the vendors priced it like all it would need is a lick of paint and new carpets. Made an offer -20k from the asking price and they rejected it. I walked away. It eventually sold for 5k more than my offer, some months later.

No regrets though as the hassle of getting tradespeople in and the disruption wasn't worth the effort (to me).
That is much better advice than what the person so far has been given.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,058
yup i know.

So expect to offer 10% more than the asking price no what to stand a chance


How often does the market change lol.

Doesnt seem to be slowing down at all and ramping up more even though there is no more stamp duty discounts via covid-19.
The market can turn on a sixpence but that doesn’t mean it will. You need to consider what is driving the current situation.

The people that were most negatively impacted economically by COVID were not those that are your typical house buyer. Those that had a positive economic impact from covid are.

Combine that with the huge chronic shortage of labour, including across most skilled sectors, wages are getting up very quickly, much more quickly than they have previously. Sure it’s being balanced out by others that aren’t so the average is a lot lower but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

Covid and the subsequent recovery is very much the story of the haves and have nots. The haves are doing incredibly well for the most part but they are setting the prices for everyone else who isn’t. The haves can afford the extra cost and it’s driving prices.
 
Soldato
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West sussex
its difficult to find out what properties sold for basically.. as the updates are extremely slow(one house we offered "sold" in November and still no update on the amount it sold for)

it used to be ok as the prices moved by 1-2% or so but nowadays everyone is paying over.

I wouldn't say that 10% and over is the default, we offered 5% over and went from there.
 
Soldato
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21,949
There are a huge amount of lifestyle changes that are semi-permanent that freed up a large amount of wealth, as well. A season ticket for where I live is about £4k/year. Removing a car from a two car family could be around £450/mo. People who then sold their cars 'double dipped' with the favourable equity/2nd hand car market booming.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Apr 2008
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24,070
Location
Lorville - Hurston
Yeh you really need to familarise yourself with the local market, a basic way to do this is set up rightmove alerts your area for your price range. Youll soon get a handle on what sells quick for what sort of money, and what's sat on the market for a while.

I was looking at a place for 170k but the survey came back with 20k of actual work that needed doing. the vendors priced it like all it would need is a lick of paint and new carpets. Made an offer -20k from the asking price and they rejected it. I walked away. It eventually sold for 5k more than my offer, some months later.

No regrets though as the hassle of getting tradespeople in and the disruption wasn't worth the effort (to me), whereas it might be ok for a builder/roofer type person that could do most of the work themselves..
Its hard to find out how much properties were sold recenitly until it has all been completed.

I would only know if i directly call the EA and ask them if they can enclose such information.

Even properties i was interested in 2 months ago that were sold back then do not show up what price they were sold.

I have all the alerts set etc and generaly on the ball when requesting for a viewing but what i have found recently is that the properties i been interested or even midly interested in have gone for 10% or more above asking price so i need to decrease my max budget i set in rightmove etc

And if i do that then i might as well not look in the areas i am looking lol
 
Associate
Joined
25 Jun 2005
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1,129
After a few weeks of waiting our mortgage/survey valuation came back and it was undervalued as we suspected.. A bit of negotiation with the seller got to us a point where everyone was happy, it was a little higher than splitting the difference unfortunately, but an extra few thousand to secure the house which could well be a forever house, coupled with the fact it means we don't have to start again looking for another house I was happy to just do it, sellers market etc and we're better off than we would have been had it gone through at the offer price.

We've re-worked the numbers slightly with a higher deposit and lower mortgage to maintain the LTV % and a much better mortgage rate, we can overpay the mortgage by 10% and that combined with the actual mortgage payment now works out at just less than what the mortgage payment on its own would have been so all is good, other than our buyers solicitors are incredibly slow.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
Posts
11,786
its difficult to find out what properties sold for basically.. as the updates are extremely slow(one house we offered "sold" in November and still no update on the amount it sold for)

it used to be ok as the prices moved by 1-2% or so but nowadays everyone is paying over.

I wouldn't say that 10% and over is the default, we offered 5% over and went from there.

Yeh sold prices on zoopla for example are very slow to update, I mentioned rightmove above, if you set up email alerts for anything in your price range/chosen area, and also check the website once every few days, you'll soon start to notice what's no longer listed (sold) or reduced, or stuff that's been sat on the market for months with no reduction... clue if a house isnt sold STC after a month of being on the market, it's either overpriced or theres something else wrong, rough area, structural issues, etc.

It's a huge purchase/ long term commitment and you really need to arm yourself with as much info as possible.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Mar 2008
Posts
22,862
Location
West sussex
Its hard to find out how much properties were sold recenitly until it has all been completed.

I would only know if i directly call the EA and ask them if they can enclose such information.

Even properties i was interested in 2 months ago that were sold back then do not show up what price they were sold.

I have all the alerts set etc and generaly on the ball when requesting for a viewing but what i have found recently is that the properties i been interested or even midly interested in have gone for 10% or more above asking price so i need to decrease my max budget i set in rightmove etc

And if i do that then i might as well not look in the areas i am looking lol
I would say, just stick with it.

We nearly gave up too. As everything was going over and anything under our max was crap or needed a lot of work which we couldn't deal with as we need to move to a house we can live in comfortably rather than have a project.

it's crazy seeing the prices really, house was bought for £120k, current owner bought it for £155k.. we offered £432k 17 years later.

talk about good investment :D
 
Associate
Joined
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Location
Oxfordshire
Agreed the “10% plus” isn’t necessarily standard, very regional dependant, but I’d not bet many places are selling for under offers like it use to be the case.

Update today, we’ve had contract report back and contract and all other accompanying docs we now have to sign and provide bits for the anti money laundering checks.

Our solicitors asked on our behalf, without us requesting it, for a boiler and electric test to be done…so maybe those folks had that asked of them keep in mind it’s maybe not the buyer asking for it! I think we’ll pay for a boiler check anyway as it is almost 10 years old and been a few years since it’s last service.

Despite the chain uncertainty at least we’re getting or stuff closer to done now.
 
Caporegime
Joined
13 Jan 2010
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32,495
Location
Llaneirwg
The market can turn on a sixpence but that doesn’t mean it will. You need to consider what is driving the current situation.

The people that were most negatively impacted economically by COVID were not those that are your typical house buyer. Those that had a positive economic impact from covid are.

Combine that with the huge chronic shortage of labour, including across most skilled sectors, wages are getting up very quickly, much more quickly than they have previously. Sure it’s being balanced out by others that aren’t so the average is a lot lower but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

Covid and the subsequent recovery is very much the story of the haves and have nots. The haves are doing incredibly well for the most part but they are setting the prices for everyone else who isn’t. The haves can afford the extra cost and it’s driving prices.

This. This is very true.
Covid did me so so many favours. As I'm now over that line.
But below that line quite the opposite.

Indeed I saved loads. Both of us WFH, one less car, pay rise, little expenditure.

And I'm only Just over the line.

I can only imagine what the super rich have gained.
 
Soldato
Joined
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24,070
Location
Lorville - Hurston
This. This is very true.
Covid did me so so many favours. As I'm now over that line.
But below that line quite the opposite.

Indeed I saved loads. Both of us WFH, one less car, pay rise, little expenditure.

And I'm only Just over the line.

I can only imagine what the super rich have gained.
The problem is that its not just hosue prices increasing almost daily but also the factor that interest rates are going to go up in flames soon and so will energy and gas prices.

The amount i and my partner earn, we could go and blow our budget we set out now by 70-80k but we dont want to in anticipation of high inflation coming soon.

btw, our LTV we are loking at is 85% which is higher better than many people who do 95-90% LTV in the london area and that si off of the top max budget of the asking price of a house we would get.

if its almost 100k less of our max asking price budget, we could easily throw in more deposit to get it down to 80 LTV and laugh
 
Associate
Joined
15 Sep 2008
Posts
2,477
Martin Lewis has made a good point lately for those with fixed terms ending soon and the increases in the cost of living:

"So my great fear is we're seeing interest rates go up and fewer people are going to be accepted when they apply for a mortgage because more are going to fail affordability checks."

Just like with people weighing up the costs of fixing their energy tariff or staying on the SVR, it could be the same for mortgages with no ability to find a fixed deal.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,058
While I don’t disagree, mortgage rates have not gone up disastrously, we are still talking about 1% and historic low rates. The main issue is still energy costs.

The thing with mortgages is that you can play around with them at renewal, for example, you can make the term longer to make them more affordable. If you are really up the creak, you can go interest only for a period.

The positive thing about mortgage debt is that it gets inflated away over time. While other costs are going up faster than wages, the amount you owe isn’t.

I’m not saying people may not have problems, all I’m saying is that you have options.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Mar 2008
Posts
22,862
Location
West sussex
While I don’t disagree, mortgage rates have not gone up disastrously, we are still talking about 1% and historic low rates. The main issue is still energy costs.

The thing with mortgages is that you can play around with them at renewal, for example, you can make the term longer to make them more affordable. If you are really up the creak, you can go interest only for a period.

The positive thing about mortgage debt is that it gets inflated away over time. While other costs are going up faster than wages, the amount you owe isn’t.

I’m not saying people may not have problems, all I’m saying is that you have options.
agreed.. Our case we went for 25yrs and 3yr fixed, once that runs out we'll have to see where we are, but if required we can remortgage for another 25 or 30.. plan is to overpay the max(10%) and have less at the end of 3yr.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Apr 2008
Posts
24,070
Location
Lorville - Hurston
The property i low balled a few weeks ago still have that said property on sale after having multiple second viewings from others and the EA saying that they had potential people who are interesting in making an offer.

It’s the only property in the area i am looking at that hasn’t been scooped up within 48hours of first viewing.

I did make another offer increasing my amount by 30k and although they said no, they explained a bit why .

The EA said they have another batch of 2nd viewings (last weekend) and they also looking at how next doors property is sold. They said if we could offer 20-30k more , the owner may be interested??

So the next door is also selling up but there is two differences.

1. Its selling for 60k more.
2. Its fully modernised inside ready to move in but hasn’t done loft extension yet while the one i was interested in has.

I saw the one from next door last weekend just to compare and although the interior is all done up, the floors are not great and sagging at places.

The ceilings also have some crack marks so basically the floor boards and ceiling is in a very similar state then the one i offered for.

I don’t think that property is worth 60k more than the other.

All they seem to have done is added wooden or laminated floor, knock down a few walls that made the living room/kitchen open plan and slap on a new kitchen…
 
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