Bloody moving costs
Discussion
wiggy001 said:
I am in the process of moving at the moment. We used a high street agent to sell (@1%). Person we are buying from used an online agent.
I would never use an online agent based on my experience as a buyer.
This is part of the reason why we went with a high street agent. Further up the chain they are using an online agent and the feedback and transparency of how things are going just aren't as good. This could change in the future, but at the moment they still need some fine tuning IMHO.I would never use an online agent based on my experience as a buyer.
T5SOR said:
wiggy001 said:
I am in the process of moving at the moment. We used a high street agent to sell (@1%). Person we are buying from used an online agent.
I would never use an online agent based on my experience as a buyer.
This is part of the reason why we went with a high street agent. Further up the chain they are using an online agent and the feedback and transparency of how things are going just aren't as good. This could change in the future, but at the moment they still need some fine tuning IMHO.I would never use an online agent based on my experience as a buyer.
Useless, but you get what you pay for.
A colleague owns/lives in a London property. It's nice, but like most London property "over-priced" - they've been there a few years so have done quite well from equity growth.
When they looked to downsize/move, the SDLT worked out to a shade over £215K. Crazy - so, they're staying where they are.
When they looked to downsize/move, the SDLT worked out to a shade over £215K. Crazy - so, they're staying where they are.
I know a couple who live south of London - ordinary people who work hard and get paid decent, but by no means spectacular, salaries. Their house - a four bed terrace - which was originally purchased a long time ago at a price reasonably aligned with their incomes, is now worth about £1.3m. If they had to move to a like-for-like property it would cost them about £74k in stamp duty, which is totally at odds with what they earn. Put simply, they wouldn't be able to move, unless they relocated to a part of the UK where a comparable property might be about £250k. It's utterly daft.
MitchT said:
I know a couple who live south of London - ordinary people who work hard and get paid decent, but by no means spectacular, salaries. Their house - a four bed terrace - which was originally purchased a long time ago at a price reasonably aligned with their incomes, is now worth about £1.3m. If they had to move to a like-for-like property it would cost them about £74k in stamp duty, which is totally at odds with what they earn. Put simply, they wouldn't be able to move, unless they relocated to a part of the UK where a comparable property might be about £250k. It's utterly daft.
That's the thing, unless you are moving area to somewhere with much lower values, skyrocketing prices don't help homeowners at all as the next house will have gone up too and so the biggest difference is that moving costs have gone up as they are mostly directly correlated to sale price. If you aren't moving it doesn't really make much difference anyway other than being able to take out more extra cheap secured financing, not a big deal for majority of people.The biggest winners by far are the banks, as people take out more and more financing to fund these ever more expensive houses, mortgage terms get longer and 'home owners' end up simply renting the capital for life from the bank!
sealtt said:
The biggest winners by far are the banks, as people take out more and more financing to fund these ever more expensive houses, mortgage terms get longer and 'home owners' end up simply renting the capital for life from the bank!
Well DUH...! Lol.Don't be offended, I'm only kidding.
But the banks will always be the winners!
If I gamble £10k in the casinos I have to repay it.
If the bank gambles £Billions, I have to repay it.
Doesn't get much better than that!
Vron said:
Why anyone is paying an estate agent 1% in the days of online agents like Housenetwork for £800 all-in I do not know. I've used them four times. I'll never use a high street agent again despite their bleating about 'service' and 'having premises in the area' everyone looks on Rightmove now. The days of high Street estate agents and paying them thousands of pounds for a few phonecalls and printing off a few brochures are finished.
I guess with any profession EA are good and bad, I've just sold my property and had loads issues with the chain. to the point we are going to rent now as the house we are buying the chain has stalled on my purchse, but its price still that make it worth hanging on for. The Estate agent for our sale has been great at chasing and keeping me informed. plus showing people around and getting decent pictures, etc, I still begrudge paying anyone because I'm tight, but I'd never use one of these online services over a good estate agent. (The Personal Agent in Ewell if anyone is interested)
wiggy001 said:
I am in the process of moving at the moment. We used a high street agent to sell (@1%). Person we are buying from used an online agent.
I would never use an online agent based on my experience as a buyer.
I have a bit of a vested interest in this, however I am not alone in coming across many nightmare situations where vendors are using online agents. The upfront fee means the online agent has no interest in the deal completing. I have got to the point that if a potential buyer is in a chain with online agents (we check the chain information unlike online agents) we will suggest to a vendor that they don't accept the offer as we know that there will be no communication, there will be no highly incentivised agent who only gets paid for success further up or down the chain making sure the deal progresses. I'm pretty sure that if you spoke to 10 people who have used an upfront paid online agent at least 7 would never do it again.I would never use an online agent based on my experience as a buyer.
Rangeroverover said:
I have a bit of a vested interest in this, however I am not alone in coming across many nightmare situations where vendors are using online agents. The upfront fee means the online agent has no interest in the deal completing. I have got to the point that if a potential buyer is in a chain with online agents (we check the chain information unlike online agents) we will suggest to a vendor that they don't accept the offer as we know that there will be no communication, there will be no highly incentivised agent who only gets paid for success further up or down the chain making sure the deal progresses. I'm pretty sure that if you spoke to 10 people who have used an upfront paid online agent at least 7 would never do it again.
True, but there has to be some middle ground. I dont accept that an agent does double the work for a flat priced at £2m as he does for £1m so why should he earn double? I think small flat rate with a VERY tiny % linked to sale price is the way forward. There's an argument for a little more outside london. But frankly my last property took a week to sell, and the agent got £14k for his "hard" work. The flat was right next to his office too, a 2 bed flat, so not exactly taxing. Someone selling a 4 bed house ex-london for £250k would have more work to do and earn so much less.Contrasting that to my solicitor who spent 2 months on it, because the other side were super anal, and he got paid £1k for his trouble. Given the choice options, on the next one I sell I am absolutely 100% going to take a punt on an online estate agent. Paying £700 vs £14k its not even close.
With % based pay like it is, there's no wonder lots of high streets in London are basically 10 estate agents and a shop, they do the same amount of work (if not less) then agents outside of London and earn 4x the money from it.
On the stamp duty thing, my boss just paid over £250k in stamp duty alone to move to his new house.
£250+k in tax. Just...wow.
Our house would likely be priced today at £1.2-1.3m, depending on what someone would be willing to pay for it in a pretty stagnant London market. A meaningful upgrade in terms of space would either be something costing about the same but a long commute away, or something around the £2m market in my neighbourhood. So somewhere around the £150k in stamp duty mark these days.
We'll be digging a damned basement to get that space, before paying that to HMRC, thanks very much. I have a feeling we are staying put for a while.
I saw this house as a stepping stone to the "dream house". The reality is it is likely to be a permanent home in London, only to be moved out of if we are making a meaningful move geographically.
I think that stamp duty will, in the Suutheast at least, really slow the housing market down. Not necessarily a bad thing.
£250+k in tax. Just...wow.
Our house would likely be priced today at £1.2-1.3m, depending on what someone would be willing to pay for it in a pretty stagnant London market. A meaningful upgrade in terms of space would either be something costing about the same but a long commute away, or something around the £2m market in my neighbourhood. So somewhere around the £150k in stamp duty mark these days.
We'll be digging a damned basement to get that space, before paying that to HMRC, thanks very much. I have a feeling we are staying put for a while.
I saw this house as a stepping stone to the "dream house". The reality is it is likely to be a permanent home in London, only to be moved out of if we are making a meaningful move geographically.
I think that stamp duty will, in the Suutheast at least, really slow the housing market down. Not necessarily a bad thing.
Edited by Harry Flashman on Wednesday 18th January 15:29
Edited by Harry Flashman on Wednesday 18th January 15:58
I think many really under estimate the costs of moving. At the moment I am looking for my first home and its a a choice between buy something to move to until a dream home or wait for a dream home but when I cost up the cost of moving I think well I am just going to blow away 20-30k for no reason and then have to spend approx the same again to move to a home I want.
Depending on your area (I am in scotland) I always find it so odd when people get happy that their house has gone up by say 10k in X number of years.
Depending on your area (I am in scotland) I always find it so odd when people get happy that their house has gone up by say 10k in X number of years.
To counter the above, we sold ours last spring via a normal estate agent. Once the EA had the instruction on a weds, we had a Saturday open house and accepted an offer on the Monday. It didn't hit Rightmove until a few days later. All our prospective buyers were people 'on the books'.
It probably helped that the market was red hot at the time and as the sale progressed we appreciated what the EA was doing to earn his money as the sale nearly fell apart numerous times.
At the beginning we were tempted by the onlines but unless it is a really simple, straightforward sale I'd stick with the high street ones as even a little research will tell you that they can be useless once complications arise.
It probably helped that the market was red hot at the time and as the sale progressed we appreciated what the EA was doing to earn his money as the sale nearly fell apart numerous times.
At the beginning we were tempted by the onlines but unless it is a really simple, straightforward sale I'd stick with the high street ones as even a little research will tell you that they can be useless once complications arise.
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff