Tips for making an offer on a property?

D.P. said:
See as I said earlier int his thread, the British people have to get over this ridiculous idea of having to buy a house.
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You may well be right D.P, but how do we transition from the situation now to this situation where renting during retirement is viable financially? Currently it simply can't be done, so it's not the 'British people' who are to blame for this it's the policy makers and the economists. The British people can't simply change their approach and everything would be fine, because the system is not able to support renting for life.
 
coupe69 said:
Spoken like a true renter ;)
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Haha, aside from when I was at uni (which was a lifestyle choice to live in shared accommodation with other students, plus uncertainty about where I'd want to live after uni, and the inability to afford to buy), I've never rented, unless one counts a period after uni where I lived with my dad and paid him a nominal sum to live there. In hindsight I wish I had rented when I first moved out rather than buying but that's water under the bridge now.

coupe69 said:
What a ridiculous statement. At least there's an end goal (final payment) to a loan/mortgage, unlike renting which is never ending. Unfortunately landlords don't tend to care if you're retired or not!
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That still doesn't make renting dead money. Interest on a mortgage technically doesn't have an end goal in the way you describe either, the only reason you get to a final payment is because you make repayments, whether that be via a repayment mortgage or as a lump sum. You'd be paying interest indefinitely if it weren't for that. You could die before you pay off your mortgage and in some cases have lived a harder life up to that point because you may have had less money available to spend on other stuff.

As for the argument about a mortgage being better value than renting, that's a separate discussion, and one of the reasons I've never rented because I've considered buying to be better value than renting in the areas I've wanted to live at the time I was looking (plus other factors like not being accountable to anyone for what I do to the property etc, no chance of eviction, capital appreciation etc).
 
Saying 'we need to get over the obsession with buying' just comes across as 'I'm alright jack'. Why should I be doomed to a life of magnolia, poor quality and outdated kitchens, broken fences, low maintenance patio gardens?

I want to have a home to do what I wish with it. I have a dog, and 9/10 lettings agents won't entertain the idea of a pet. Should I ship him off to battersea?
 
D.P. said:
Why buy when you get higher return from stock investments, you have to pay interest, you don't receive dividends, you have to pay stamp duty, legal fees, owners insurance, maintenance, property tax and you have 1 large single investment without diversification to mitigate risks? What happens if house prices drop 50? What happens if interest hits 15%? What happens if you have to move to a different city or even country due to changes in your job?
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interest is tt an all time low. it's not that much. obviously if your borrowing £10 million it will be a lot. but if your borrowing £100K it's not much at all.

you don't receive dividends but you receive an appreciating asset worth more than dividends in the long run.

stamp duty - well you have to pay tax on income too or are stocks all tax free?

legal fees - it's a tiny amount of money compared to what you pay for a home. i also got £750 cashback from my mortgage company which helped pay towards this.

owners insurance - my buildings and contents insurance is buttons. i think after cashback from quidco it was like £60 for the year. £5 a month.

maintenance - even renters need to pay for this. it's lumped in with their rent if fully furnished otherwise they need to pay out their own pockets

property tax - what is this? council tax? you still need to pay this if you rent.

most of your points are pointless if not all of them
 
I've rented and bought in both Germany and the UK. Here is my opinion.

Germany Renting:
- Great rent controls and you won't get thrown out on a whim
- Everyone has white walls and wooden/lino floors. If you change *anything*, even putting a picture up, you need to ask permission from the landlord and you'll have to return it to white walls and wooden/lino floors.
- Don't expect to have a kitchen installed, many places you'll just have the sockets and plumbing there and you'll need to fit a kitchen and then remove it when you leave (bizarre eh?)

Germany Buying:
- So much red tape, it took me about 9 months to buy a flat with no chain. Very difficult to get a mortgage at the time (2003)
- Don't expect there to be a kitchen when you move in
- Rates/maintenance can be pretty high along with ground rent in a flat

I preferred owning my own place in Germany, because I didn't have to have white walls and I didn't mind spending a bit more on a kitchen as I planned on keeping it. But it's obvious why more people rent over there than in the UK.

In the UK I would always advise people to purchase if possible, the rent controls here are ridiculous and there are just so many scummy landlords and estate agents. It's so much nicer to have a place that is your own and that you can turn into a real home without fear of being turfed out. I've never felt 'at home' whenever I've rented either in Germany or the UK.

Also, I don't feel there is any loss of job flexibility if you own a place, actually many of the ex-pats I worked with in Germany owned houses in the UK and kept them on as investments - with other people paying their mortgage and giving them some extra income on top. If I decided to uproot now and move abroad (not entirely unlikely) then I would be able to cover my mortgage and in addition make around £700 a month if I kept our house and rented it out.

It's a no brainer to me based on my experience.
 
^^ so in Germany, what happens when you retire and need to continue to meet rental costs from your significantly reduced income?
 
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danlightbulb said:
^^ so in Germany, what happens when you retire and need to continue to meet rental costs from your significantly reduced income?
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State pensions in Germany are a higher proportion of average salary than in the UK. Average rents are also about a third higher in the UK compared to Germany.
 
The last house I bought in the UK I paid asking price, the house had been on the market for 1 day.

We had had our eyes on the house for some time. We knew the neighbours and from a location (motorway proximity, schooling, amenities, broadband etc) perspective we had our hearts set on it.

The moment we had an idea that the current owner was selling up I was all over it.

The owner was living overseas and we tried to contact her (neighbour had email address) without an agent to see if we could do a deal without anyone else showing interest because we thought it would be popular.

No luck and we went through an agent.

I did not haggle I offered the asking price straight up. After we offered.....apparently two other families (possibly phantom)came to have a look and also offered. The vendor then contacted me finally and told me if I could get my solicitors instructed first it would go to me.

I was already in the process of this, and 6 weeks later we exchanged and then completed.

Our dream home.......



11 months later after I had spent a small fortune refurbishing it I moved the family to India....../sigh

We do still own the property though and I would not consider selling. For me its a possible retirement location for me and the missus.
 
Rifte said:
11 months later after I had spent a small fortune refurbishing it I moved the family to India....../sigh

We do still own the property though and I would not consider selling. For me its a possible retirement location for me and the missus.
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And this is a classic example of why people living abroad should not be allowed to own UK property. It is just removing property from the market that we need available for use now, in this country, for our citizens.
 
It pays to do your research, know the area you're buying in and various factors like; the spread of types of houses in the area, what they're up for now, what they've gone for in the past, max prices achieved, recent low prices and when these were achieved. Also look at how much work the house might need doing (also compared to past sales) and put a reasonable mental figure against these to help set your market value.

If you have all this together, you'll know exactly whether the asking price is reasonable or not and how much you should offer. At the end of the day, there is no set price and it's all about opinion, so your idea of what a house is worth may not be the same as the owner and you may never come to an agreement, but that's just house buying.

We recently bought in an extremely competitive area, however the seller had set an high price thinking they could cash in. The house was up for £430k, but in reality is was probably only worth £400-410 so while they got a lot of interest, they didnt get any offers. We eventually offered £375k providing examples of recent sales and identified areas of the house which were out of date/end of life to justify the reduced offer. After a lot of back and forth, they eventually accepted £380k, however we would've paid £400k. On the flip side, we could've easily lost the house to someone willing to pay "over the top" just to get the house.
 
danlightbulb said:
And this is a classic example of why people living abroad should not be allowed to own UK property. It is just removing property from the market that we need available for use now, in this country, for our citizens.
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Not going to derail this thread.UK citizen here, I rent it out and pay my taxes. I also bought it pre me making the decision to leave the UK.

It also offers me the opportunity to come back if things don't work over here.

Your ideal is ridiculous

I have homes in Australia, Singapore and three in India as well. I suppose I should sell those?
 
danlightbulb said:
Yes. Absolutely. You don't need them. Pure greed.
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Well fortunately for me you will never have the ability to do anything about it, so I will continue with my 'greed' as you call it. ;) Or as I call it....using the means that I have available to me to secure my pension (UK pension schemes bring generally poor)and the immediate/short to mid term futures of my children.
 
People and house prices always make me laugh...

If I try and sell a £200 laptop for £300 and no one buys it, everyone will agree I've priced it too high and suggest I drop the price.

If I try and sell a £200k house for £300k almost no one will be able to work out why I cannot sell it.. totally beyond most people to figure out I need to drop the price
 
danlightbulb said:
And this is a classic example of why people living abroad should not be allowed to own UK property. It is just removing property from the market that we need available for use now, in this country, for our citizens.
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seriously?

the guy moved abroad due to work most likely. what if he then gets a job offer in the UK?

he only has 1 property in the UK not 100 like other people. so I think your being very ignorant when you state this is a classic example of why people living abroad shouldn't be allowed to own property in the UK.

No it isn't. Some guy in China probably owns 100 homes in London. That would be a classic example. Not this guy with his 1 ex family home in the UK. Seriously. If I was offered a job abroad paying 10 times as much I would go and I wouldn't sell my UK home either.
 
danlightbulb said:
Yes. Absolutely. You don't need them. Pure greed.
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Lol.

You don't know how this kind of thing works at all.

My family has homes in India. They have land over there (farms) so they have houses next to their fields which can be in different parts of India (not all of their fields are within the same area), etc. As India has become more modern they don't want to live out in the sticks anymore or in among just fields. They want to live in the city so they bought other homes in the cities near their land and moved there and then choose to move to and from their land from their city homes when they need to do anything. They cannot sell their farmhouse as nobody wants it without the land which they live off. So it's a catch 22. They cannot sell the house unless they sell the land and if they sell the land they will have no regular income. They don't do any of the work themselves just manage it as labour is so cheap you can just employ people to do all the work for you.

So they should sell their only source of income to please you? I don't think so.
 
Made a perfectly honest and genuine offer of only 5% under asking on a property today and next thing I know I'm being asked 101 questions from the estate agent about why the offer is so low and how much deposit I have! Can't stand the ******* leaches. Just put tje damn offer to the vendor and get on with it! Said property is vacant and has been on the market for a few months now and even got to the point where they've dropped the price a couple of times and had some cheap and nasty carpets fitted to make it "presentable." We're not shy to make lowball offers and know the market value in the area very well but offer was more than reasonable!:)
 
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