Is anyone moving now?

[okgo]

Do you regret not going higher?

The higher might be the asking of the next one and you'll need to go above that etc etc...

[C70R]

okgo said:

Do you regret not going higher?

The higher might be the asking of the next one and you'll need to go above that etc etc...

I don't think we would have gone "significantly" higher, to be honest. We bid what we thought it was worth, in the hope that our status as being chain-free would be attractive enough.

Apparently the vendors had a "tough" decision to make, and the agent obviously wants to keep us warm in case anything goes wrong.

A shame to miss out, but this isn't a forever home and we'll need to sell it in ~5 years for something more substantial/permanent.

[MrVert]

Sheepshanks said:

MrVert said:

Depending on size and complexity…plus if you have a friendly electrician….and depending on where you are….

3-4 bed house should be approx. £2-3k ish.

Had most of ours done two years ago, Midlands, old hoise, pretty complex and was just under £3k.

Those figures seem very low - did the friendly electrician work for beer money? I’d say you should be thinking of double that.

No…NICEIC Electrician, all fully documented and certificated.

I’ve been in commercial refurbishment all my life, so know what’s needed. Having a string of trusted tradesmen does of course help with these things…

[worsy]

greggy50 said:

Well ours has sold and we have just had an offer accepted on a property below (below asking price) which for us is ideal (15 minute walk to the city centre).

We were never really bothered around a detached like we have now and wanted a better location and the house itself is about 650 square foot bigger at circa. 1575 square foot.

We will be sorting the en-suite and changing the kitchen doors but overall its pretty much ready to move into

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/107154827#/

The only issue I have now is whether to take a 2 year or 5 year fixed mortgage... the difference is around £100 a month. We are putting down 15% deposit so my thoughts are play it safe with a 5 year fixed or so a 2 year fixed and push up to a 20/25% deposit at the time of the re-mortgage.

Thoughts?

I hope it is well below as they put it up 15k yesterday!

That kitchen looks like a nice space!

[greggy50]

worsy said:

greggy50 said:

Well ours has sold and we have just had an offer accepted on a property below (below asking price) which for us is ideal (15 minute walk to the city centre).

We were never really bothered around a detached like we have now and wanted a better location and the house itself is about 650 square foot bigger at circa. 1575 square foot.

We will be sorting the en-suite and changing the kitchen doors but overall its pretty much ready to move into

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/107154827#/

The only issue I have now is whether to take a 2 year or 5 year fixed mortgage... the difference is around £100 a month. We are putting down 15% deposit so my thoughts are play it safe with a 5 year fixed or so a 2 year fixed and push up to a 20/25% deposit at the time of the re-mortgage.

Thoughts?

I hope it is well below as they put it up 15k yesterday!

That kitchen looks like a nice space!

It had been up at 425k and it had sold for 440k on sealed bids and then fell through.

We paid 430k its probably 5k more than its worth but as soon as we rent for 6 months and pay the extra stamp duty that money will be eaten up quickly.

We wanted to be close to town and have a decent sqf so for us it's perfect.

A couple of houses without the extension on the back and a poorer spec went for 375k 2 years ago so I don't think its a terrible purchase.

We won't be making 27% in 2 years like the last house though but we will do 5-10 years in this

[johnnyBv8]

greggy50 said:

Well ours has sold and we have just had an offer accepted on a property below (below asking price) which for us is ideal (15 minute walk to the city centre).

We were never really bothered around a detached like we have now and wanted a better location and the house itself is about 650 square foot bigger at circa. 1575 square foot.

We will be sorting the en-suite and changing the kitchen doors but overall its pretty much ready to move into

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/107154827#/

The only issue I have now is whether to take a 2 year or 5 year fixed mortgage... the difference is around £100 a month. We are putting down 15% deposit so my thoughts are play it safe with a 5 year fixed or so a 2 year fixed and push up to a 20/25% deposit at the time of the re-mortgage.

Thoughts?

It's quite hard to say, as it depends on your circumstances, but remember to take into account any setup fees. If you get a 2yr fix, you'll probably have to pay it again over the equivalent 5 year period. So say it's £1k set up for both deals, you're effectively paying £500yr for the 2yr deal, or £200/yr for the 5 yr deal - which offsets some of your additional monthly cost.

I've just had the same dilemma, and after years of being on 2yr variable rates, went with a 5yr fix at 1.08% (40% LTV) instead of a 2yr fix at 0.95%. It didn't feel like there was much in it, beyond deciding what the potential was that I'd want to get out of the mortgage sooner. Both had the same setup fees (and the % rates came down whilst we were applying, which was lucky timing!). I also went interest-only, with the intention of overpaying, but the flexibility for circumstances changing. Great deals around at the moment, whichever you go for.

Edited by johnnyBv8 on Monday 19th July 23:31

[okgo]

I like the flex of two. Relations ships collapse. Children arrive. People lose jobs. Etc etc.

[littlebasher]

The chain we're in seems to be a right cluster f**K

Offer accepted in Feb, and we're still waiting!

Was supposed to exchange Friday, but unsurprisingly didn't. Someone further down the chain, who was originally a cash buyer, then needed a mortgage (couldn't get one) before going back to being a cash buyer. Friday comes and their solicitor decides they now need to do more money laundering checks on the source of their funds.

Couldn't make this stuff up.

The buyers of our place have since lined up a first time buyer as a 'standby'. They have got their mortgage offer in place, surveys done. Just need their searches to come back and they'll be ready to go.

So its now a race to see who gets their first, hopefully this week.

[Shnozz]

Complete finally tomorrow. Weather is hot and humid most unlike the UK and could do without that.

Also have some bits in storage that I wanted to collect some time in the next week to find not one available van for hire among all the rental companies. Apparently all out on long term hire to the Royal Mail and various couriers companies due to the significant rise of online shopping in recent times.

[Blown2CV]

littlebasher said:

The chain we're in seems to be a right cluster f**K

Offer accepted in Feb, and we're still waiting!

Was supposed to exchange Friday, but unsurprisingly didn't. Someone further down the chain, who was originally a cash buyer, then needed a mortgage (couldn't get one) before going back to being a cash buyer. Friday comes and their solicitor decides they now need to do more money laundering checks on the source of their funds.

Couldn't make this stuff up.

The buyers of our place have since lined up a first time buyer as a 'standby'. They have got their mortgage offer in place, surveys done. Just need their searches to come back and they'll be ready to go.

So its now a race to see who gets their first, hopefully this week.

agents seem to be blinded by the £££ and not checking things properly. I didn't really like estate agents anyway but this whole thing has made me despise them.

[kiethton]

Just had the list of queries from our buyer through - guess this is becoming more real and we're not far from our sale going through...our purchase on the other hand is taking some time - mortgage hopefully being applied for this week and guess that's at least a 6 week process...

I may have to find a house share for the gap :/

[JeffreyD]

We finally exchanged after being told it would be "tomorrow" for nearly 3 weeks.

In the end we found out that they were actually having to sell two houses rather than one.

I wanted to tell the FRO but my wife agreed to give them an extra week and they sorted it with a couple of hours to spare by giving a discount to one buyer.

They are buying 2 titles off us so and even then we had to agree to a delayed completion on one of them.

Overall a pretty crap experience, but actually looking forward to renovating our new place.

[SweptVolume]

C70R said:

Well, there were 7 offers within a week of it going onto the market, and we were beaten by one buyer "by a significant margin" according to the agent.

This is a rural village in a fairly desirable part of the world. No sign of the market calming down here...

It's definitely varied out there. Certainly first time buyer fodder (<£250k) is not really selling at all right now in my area (searches of properties added or reduced in the last fortnight within 5 miles show only 1 out of 22 marked as sold), and we've had to drop the (admittedly ambitious) asking price after receiving lots of online interest, but few viewings and no offers.

This surprises me as there are plenty of people who have kept their job who might previous have spent all their money on nights out and holidays, who realised over the last year that they can save enough for a 10% deposit.

It seems all the people who want to move have a bit more cash to spend, and the £350k-£650k region is still quite buoyant.

[greggy50]

I would agree its £300 - £550k ish that's selling quickly around here (Chester)

At around the £600k mark it starts to become unaffordable for a lot of people up North and the properties take longer to go unless they are in expensive areas like Knutsford etc.

In London I would suspect the figures could be doubled but I don't know the market.

[okgo]

Lots of stuff that's decent still moving in my bit of London tbf.

A couple of roads over a house similar to mine just achieved over 20% more than I paid 15 months ago... It's smaller but IMO slightly better than ours, but to get ours to that level is easily possible for not a lot which is intriguing.

[rah1888]

Blown2CV said:

littlebasher said:

The chain we're in seems to be a right cluster f**K

Offer accepted in Feb, and we're still waiting!

Was supposed to exchange Friday, but unsurprisingly didn't. Someone further down the chain, who was originally a cash buyer, then needed a mortgage (couldn't get one) before going back to being a cash buyer. Friday comes and their solicitor decides they now need to do more money laundering checks on the source of their funds.

Couldn't make this stuff up.

The buyers of our place have since lined up a first time buyer as a 'standby'. They have got their mortgage offer in place, surveys done. Just need their searches to come back and they'll be ready to go.

So its now a race to see who gets their first, hopefully this week.

agents seem to be blinded by the £££ and not checking things properly. I didn't really like estate agents anyway but this whole thing has made me despise them.

Difficult to see precisely what has happened here that the agent is at fault for?

[JeffreyD]

rah1888 said:

Difficult to see precisely what has happened here that the agent is at fault for?

It's difficult to see what they can do if people wilfully hide things.

Our buyers solicitor even lied on their behalf.

The system really needs an overhaul.

[C70R]

greggy50 said:

I would agree its £300 - £550k ish that's selling quickly around here (Chester)

At around the £600k mark it starts to become unaffordable for a lot of people up North and the properties take longer to go unless they are in expensive areas like Knutsford etc.

In London I would suspect the figures could be doubled but I don't know the market.

The stuff that's moving in my part of London (Z3 SW) appears to be only slightly above that level.

It's a mix of what appear to be first-timers (our new neighbours being a prime example - £450k for a 1.5-bed flat) and small family homes (£750k-ish for a 2.5-3-bed flat or house).

A friend of mine who paid ~£1.5m for a detached, family home in Z2-3 SE a few years ago floated the idea of putting his on the market and exploring a bigger house in the 'burbs. The agent said that he'd be lucky to get what he paid, as the number of people moving at that level was smaller than he could ever remember.

Edited by C70R on Wednesday 21st July 12:13

[kingston12]

There are two noticeable changes here in the SW London suburbs.

Firstly, the asking prices of older flats have gone down significantly unless they have private outside space. The asking price for a standard 2 bed flat in a block in a reasonable (but not really sought-after) location was £450k-£500k last year, but now seems more like £375k-£420k.

That's quite drop considering that most of the rest of the market is up quite significantly. Flats in the better location with gardens seem to be holding up and new builds are just as silly as usual.

Secondly, the volume of properties coming onto the market in the really sought after segment of the market (£800k-£1.3m 2-3 bed houses in certain roads) has totally collapsed after a real peak last year, perhaps indicating that most of the 'lifestyle-changers' have already gone.

[chopper602]

B0llocks, approaching the final furlong before exchange and the buyer decides he can't get the funds for the alterations he wants to make to the house after he moves in . . .tw@t

Edit : Three viewings booked for tonight . . .

Edited by chopper602 on Wednesday 21st July 12:40

Edited by chopper602 on Wednesday 21st July 13:50