Houses

[Stevosevic]

1 hour ago, Xen said:

Possibly a silly question but I know next to nothing about house-buying so may as well ask. If there is a crash later in the year and house prices go down, are new-builds likely to be affected in the same way, or do they tend to hold their valuation a bit better? Feels like itd be slightly different dealing with developers rather than individuals selling their own home. We'll hopefully be looking to buy towards the end of the year/early 2021 and it'd be good to know what we might potentially expect from the market by then.

I wouldn't buy a new build to be honest with you mate. It's like buying a new car.

[UniFox21]

1 hour ago, Footballwipe said:

RE: Newbuilds. Davidsons have just crashed these houses by £20k in the last week. I don't know if that's saying something about the situation with or whether £320k was ambitious in the first place!

 

The surveyor who came round yesterday was saying something about how Housebuilders might be affected by help-to-buy ending for non first-time buyers? I don't know if that's true, just something he said.

Looks a properly lovely house, but I can't help feel the weird car parking bit under the house could've been better utilised as another room rather than a parking space.

[Leicester_Loyal]

1 hour ago, UniFox21 said:

Looks a properly lovely house, but I can't help feel the weird car parking bit under the house could've been better utilised as another room rather than a parking space.

Probably because otherwise you'd have no parking. I'd want to see pictures of the garden too before spending 300k on a house

[HowardsBulletHeader]

7 hours ago, Langley said:

 

Yes, they will be.  

 

if there is a crash new builds will be effected probably more because there is usually a premium on buying a nice new house. when you came to sell it 1 year later assuming house prices didn't move or went down you may be in something called negative equity. (say you have a house with a mortgage on it for 200k and the house is only worth 190k you have 10k in negative equity. 

 

What I tell my clients usually is - how long are you going to live in there.  A house usually is around 7 years. so any downturn you're probably going to come out the other side. and at the end of the day, it's a house. worst thing would be you have to stay and can't move. so think about around the house - can you add an extension etc. 

 

I'd never PERSONALLY buy a new build. best house to buy is one an old granny died in, needs all the work doing to it. it costs money to do but 

1) they're sold 

2) they're cheaper

3) you can do it how YOU like 

4) the money you're saving on your mtg you are using to add value to the house in decorating and modernising it  

Interesting. 

 

I'm an FTB and partly due to COVID and partly because before that we hadn't found quite the right house, we are still waiting it out. 

 

I get your "old granny theory", albeit if you are doing the kitchen, bathroom etc you're easily parting with £25-£30k right? I'm talking, I can do the bare minimum myself and I would need everyone else to sort nearly everything. 

 

I'm half on board with that logic, the problem for me is that 99% of the "old granny" houses have terrible layouts for what we would want and you're bringing in things like knocking walls through and chucking £25k at a decent kitchen. 

 

Am I overestimating cost because if you're doing all the work to an old granny house at £190k for example, I can't see it turning to a £240k with a decent kitchen which is what you would need to make your money?

[Langley]

17 hours ago, HowardsBulletHeader said:

Interesting. 

 

I'm an FTB and partly due to COVID and partly because before that we hadn't found quite the right house, we are still waiting it out. 

 

I get your "old granny theory", albeit if you are doing the kitchen, bathroom etc you're easily parting with £25-£30k right? I'm talking, I can do the bare minimum myself and I would need everyone else to sort nearly everything. 

 

I'm half on board with that logic, the problem for me is that 99% of the "old granny" houses have terrible layouts for what we would want and you're bringing in things like knocking walls through and chucking £25k at a decent kitchen. 

 

Am I overestimating cost because if you're doing all the work to an old granny house at £190k for example, I can't see it turning to a £240k with a decent kitchen which is what you would need to make your money?

We bought a house in 2014 for 93k. It’s now worth 145k plus paying off 30k off the mortgage. So it’s been a cracking investment. Buying the same sort of house all done at that point was 125k. 

 

it didn’t have a kitchen, central heating or double glazing. 
 

kitchen 7k, central heating 3.5k and double glazing 6k. 

depends on the house if they need doing or knocking about but you’ll do it out of earned income or after a couple of years you can re-mortgage and get some more out for a bigger remodelling. But on average you earn more and more each year whereas the mortgage is going to stay the same. Like with my wife and I our incomes have quadrupled between buying the house and now. so redecorating and things like that are a lot easier. 
 

what you need to remember which is probably the most important is that it’s a first house and it’s just that step on the ladder. You’re probably not going to do the remodelling on that first house. It’ll be the second or third. 
 

 

 

[FoxesDeb]

17 hours ago, HowardsBulletHeader said:

Interesting. 

 

I'm an FTB and partly due to COVID and partly because before that we hadn't found quite the right house, we are still waiting it out. 

 

I get your "old granny theory", albeit if you are doing the kitchen, bathroom etc you're easily parting with £25-£30k right? I'm talking, I can do the bare minimum myself and I would need everyone else to sort nearly everything. 

 

I'm half on board with that logic, the problem for me is that 99% of the "old granny" houses have terrible layouts for what we would want and you're bringing in things like knocking walls through and chucking £25k at a decent kitchen. 

 

Am I overestimating cost because if you're doing all the work to an old granny house at £190k for example, I can't see it turning to a £240k with a decent kitchen which is what you would need to make your money?

No way would you need to spend £25k on a new kitchen. £10k max, plus maybe the cost of ripping out the original which you would be able to do, would be plenty I would have thought. I would expect you could get a decent bathroom for no more than £5k too. 

[stix]

On 26/06/2020 at 16:30, Stevosevic said:

I wouldn't buy a new build to be honest with you mate. It's like buying a new car.

Is it though? I get that it might be the case right now, or in the next 12 or so months. 
 

We’ve just moved into our new house. It’s just turned 5 years old, and it’s value went up just over £20k in those 5 years. 

[Sly]

I purchased a new build 4 years ago. I got it valued last week and it’s worth £60k more. 
 

House prices are all relevant. 
 

The best advice I’d give to a first time buyer is over pay on your mortgage. 

[stix]

13 minutes ago, Sly said:

I purchased a new build 4 years ago. I got it valued last week and it’s worth £60k more. 
 

House prices are all relevant. 
 

The best advice I’d give to a first time buyer is over pay on your mortgage. 

Did you have much snagging for them to rectify? And after 4 years, what does NHBC still cover you for? 

[Wolfox]

On 16/06/2020 at 21:32, Wolfox said:

6 viewings  for mine a week on Saturday…. Been very strict around approach (no touching etc.)

6 x 15 mins slots back to back…. It’s such a pain presenting the house properly…. Takes ages…. Better produce an offer!

 

Viewing a house on Monday that I’m pretty sure we’ll like…. A nice Victorian roomy place on a leafy road…. Already have upgrades in mind…. I do enjoy a project!

Mayhem today

 

11 viewings in the end… 12 booked and 11 showed up…

 

One couple and their daughter offering £35k below asking on the spot…. I politely declined (always best to go through Estate agent for offers in my opinion)

 

2 lots turned up without face masks (my estate agent fortunately provided 50)…

 

Why is so difficult to understand not to touch anything?  It’s not tricky???  A clean and disinfect (hopefully) sorted that out…

 

4 sets of people people turned up @12pm due to to a booking screw up…. Had to balance it - one to tour, one at the front and two in the garden and manage the viewings…. One set just took themselves round the ground floor independently when I was upstairs…. WTF???

 

If I don’t get offers Monday from some of the responses I will be well pissed off….   
 

Doing house viewings is a huge ball ache…

 

Spleen vented…. Thank you

[Wolfox]

On 26/06/2020 at 15:09, Xen said:

Possibly a silly question but I know next to nothing about house-buying so may as well ask. If there is a crash later in the year and house prices go down, are new-builds likely to be affected in the same way, or do they tend to hold their valuation a bit better? Feels like itd be slightly different dealing with developers rather than individuals selling their own home. We'll hopefully be looking to buy towards the end of the year/early 2021 and it'd be good to know what we might potentially expect from the market by then.

If you want a new house and that crisp new house feeling, you’ll pay for it…. There is a new house premium any which way you cook it….

 

Help to buy schemes can be good for first time buyers, but, do the maths…. They’re not free…

 

I’m no mystic Meg, but I’d predict peak trough Q1/Q2 ‘21…. Follow price movements and time your move to match…

 

Are you handy as well as an athlete?  My first few houses I ripped apart and really enjoyed it…. Put you’re own stamp on it as well as add value…

 

And finally…. Get on the property ladder as soon as you can…. Don’t pay for the other guys mortgage…!

 

 

[Sly]

27 minutes ago, stix said:

Did you have much snagging for them to rectify? And after 4 years, what does NHBC still cover you for? 

Based on experience, it varies on builder, 

 

That house didn’t have many at all.

 

I’ve purchased some before though and had several pages on snagging! 
 

Some builders are better at rectifying snagging than others. Some don’t want to know, others couldn’t do more for you. I’ve had a mixed bag in all honesty. 

[Sly]

22 minutes ago, Wolfox said:

Mayhem today

 

11 viewings in the end… 12 booked and 11 showed up…

 

One couple and their daughter offering £35k below asking on the spot…. I politely declined (always best to go through Estate agent for offers in my opinion)

 

2 lots turned up without face masks (my estate agent fortunately provided 50)…

 

Why is so difficult to understand not to touch anything?  It’s not tricky???  A clean and disinfect (hopefully) sorted that out…

 

4 sets of people people turned up @12pm due to to a booking screw up…. Had to balance it - one to tour, one at the front and two in the garden and manage the viewings…. One set just took themselves round the ground floor independently when I was upstairs…. WTF???

 

If I don’t get offers Monday from some of the responses I will be well pissed off….   
 

Doing house viewings is a huge ball ache…

 

Spleen vented…. Thank you

Urgh! Sounds a right nightmare! 

[Wolfox]

15 minutes ago, Sly said:

Urgh! Sounds a right nightmare! 

If I get a sale… it’s worth it!

[Footballwipe]

10 hours ago, Wolfox said:

Mayhem today

 

11 viewings in the end… 12 booked and 11 showed up…

 

One couple and their daughter offering £35k below asking on the spot…. I politely declined (always best to go through Estate agent for offers in my opinion)

 

2 lots turned up without face masks (my estate agent fortunately provided 50)…

 

Why is so difficult to understand not to touch anything?  It’s not tricky???  A clean and disinfect (hopefully) sorted that out…

 

4 sets of people people turned up @12pm due to to a booking screw up…. Had to balance it - one to tour, one at the front and two in the garden and manage the viewings…. One set just took themselves round the ground floor independently when I was upstairs…. WTF???

 

If I don’t get offers Monday from some of the responses I will be well pissed off….   
 

Doing house viewings is a huge ball ache…

 

Spleen vented…. Thank you

Good god man. The £35k below is a joke. I'm going to assume that either your house isn't in the best condition (I doubt that) or they're just chancers who can't afford the asking price basically wasting your time.

 

I sometimes wonder why people offer so below an asking price. I don't know how long you've been on the market, but surely unless you're absolutely desperate to sell or the estate agent has completely overblown your houses value £35k under is so cheeky. I thought £8k was a smack in the face!

 

The thing I find about viewings, and I think several others can attest, is that after a while they grind you down. We only did six/seven for the sum total of two offers. I don't begrudge the people who didn't offer at all, but you whip yourself up tidying, organising, and then nothing comes of it. So doing 11 in a day I desperately hope you get something that's acceptable.

 

[Nalis]

2 hours ago, Footballwipe said:

Good god man. The £35k below is a joke. I'm going to assume that either your house isn't in the best condition (I doubt that) or they're just chancers who can't afford the asking price basically wasting your time.

 

I sometimes wonder why people offer so below an asking price. I don't know how long you've been on the market, but surely unless you're absolutely desperate to sell or the estate agent has completely overblown your houses value £35k under is so cheeky. I thought £8k was a smack in the face!

 

The thing I find about viewings, and I think several others can attest, is that after a while they grind you down. We only did six/seven for the sum total of two offers. I don't begrudge the people who didn't offer at all, but you whip yourself up tidying, organising, and then nothing comes of it. So doing 11 in a day I desperately hope you get something that's acceptable.

 

The only thing I can think of was that they were trying to use the dated tactic of offering a ridiculously low offer in the hope the seller meets in the middle of the asking price and offer and gets, say £15k-20k off the asking price. Particularly these days, its massively disrespectful and a waste of everyone's time.

[Wolfox]

2 hours ago, Footballwipe said:

Good god man. The £35k below is a joke. I'm going to assume that either your house isn't in the best condition (I doubt that) or they're just chancers who can't afford the asking price basically wasting your time.

 

I sometimes wonder why people offer so below an asking price. I don't know how long you've been on the market, but surely unless you're absolutely desperate to sell or the estate agent has completely overblown your houses value £35k under is so cheeky. I thought £8k was a smack in the face!

 

The thing I find about viewings, and I think several others can attest, is that after a while they grind you down. We only did six/seven for the sum total of two offers. I don't begrudge the people who didn't offer at all, but you whip yourself up tidying, organising, and then nothing comes of it. So doing 11 in a day I desperately hope you get something that's acceptable.

 

people can offer what they like in the end, it’s up to me if I accept…!!!

 

The house is in lovely condition, they suggested they’d want to spend £20k to put there own stamp on it…. Which is fine, but, I’m not funding it!

 

I asked about their position and as they don’t have to raise a mortgage, that does have a value…. £5k maybe, but, that’s it…  It’s priced realistically, I’m confident of that

 

The hassle isn’t showing people around, it’s getting the house spic and span…. I said to the estate we’d simply get it over and done with in one day…. 
 

it’s so difficult to judge, but, I suspect we’ll get a couple of offers tomorrow - I bloody hope so anyway!

Having said all of that, A house I want to make an offer on needs a fair amount of work and I think it’s moderately over priced…. I’ll be placing an offer £20k below asking as that is what I believe it to be worth…. There maybe a negotiation dance, but, so be it…. I don’t feel cheeky or bad for making an offer as I think I’ve got justifiable reasons…

 

12 minutes ago, Nalis said:

The only thing I can think of was that they were trying to use the dated tactic of offering a ridiculously low offer in the hope the seller meets in the middle of the asking price and offer and gets, say £15k-20k off the asking price. Particularly these days, its massively disrespectful and a waste of everyone's time.

They need to find someone desperate to sell…. I’m not and I told them so…!!!  

[UniFox21]

1 hour ago, Wolfox said:

The hassle isn’t showing people around, it’s getting the house spic and span…. I said to the estate we’d simply get it over and done with in one day…. 

Admittedly mine was only showing other students around my student house, but bloody hell if the place wasn't perfect we'd get an absolute bollocking from our estate agents (my 2nd year especially, ironic that they cared more on that than fixing my caved in ceiling). 

It was frustrating when they didn't have to book to view and can just turn up out of the blue.

[Xen]

On 27/06/2020 at 20:34, Wolfox said:

If you want a new house and that crisp new house feeling, you’ll pay for it…. There is a new house premium any which way you cook it….

 

Help to buy schemes can be good for first time buyers, but, do the maths…. They’re not free…

 

I’m no mystic Meg, but I’d predict peak trough Q1/Q2 ‘21…. Follow price movements and time your move to match…

 

Are you handy as well as an athlete?  My first few houses I ripped apart and really enjoyed it…. Put you’re own stamp on it as well as add value…

 

And finally…. Get on the property ladder as soon as you can…. Don’t pay for the other guys mortgage…!

 

 

Yeah, I knew it would come at a premium but I don't think I'd anticipated quite how much. Judging by some of the replies I think I've made my mind up now . I'd definitely got drawn in by the h2b scheme with the big deposit contribution, but I've rerun the maths now and by the time we're looking to buy our deposit should be more than enough (with savings to do work on it after if needed) for something else.

I've always loved the idea of a doer-upper, but whilst I'm pretty confident in my design skills, the handiness gene definitely skipped me . My dad is a former carpenter, has fitted windows and kitchens before and stuff like that though, so I'm sure we could make something work...

 

The new year would suit us well, so I like your estimation a lot! We've been renting the same place for way too long (coming up on 5 years) and even though we've got a great deal here it's still money going into a black hole so we're eager to get our own place sooner rather than later. Especially as mortgage payments could well be less than rent+deposit savings each month...

[Leeds Fox]

On 27/06/2020 at 20:34, Wolfox said:

If you want a new house and that crisp new house feeling, you’ll pay for it…. There is a new house premium any which way you cook it….

 

Help to buy schemes can be good for first time buyers, but, do the maths…. They’re not free…

 

I’m no mystic Meg, but I’d predict peak trough Q1/Q2 ‘21…. Follow price movements and time your move to match…

 

Are you handy as well as an athlete?  My first few houses I ripped apart and really enjoyed it…. Put you’re own stamp on it as well as add value…

 

And finally…. Get on the property ladder as soon as you can…. Don’t pay for the other guys mortgage…!

 

 

Some are.

[Leicester_Loyal]

Help 2 Buy scheme never appealed to me, you just end up giving the profit on your property back to the Government, plus new builds are overpriced anyway.

[Wolfox]

3 hours ago, Xen said:

. Especially as mortgage payments could well be less than rent+deposit savings each month...

Money is cheap… for a nice house you’ll be paying less than rent in a lot of instances…

 

I have been looking at mortgage deals and it’s not a significant premium to fix for 5+ years currently which may give you that degree of security in the short to medium term…

 

if you have the time, inclination and skills…. Fixing up a place can be very rewarding…. If you don’t have the skills…. Do the donkey work and hire a pro for the tricky bits…. You can tell when a kitchen hasn’t been fitted by someone who isn’t a pro or at least very handy

 

Tiling and painting etc are pretty easy if you follow the rules! And do the prep properly…. Would’ve loved YouTube 20 odd years ago!!!

[Jon the Hat]

On 28/06/2020 at 07:02, Footballwipe said:

Good god man. The £35k below is a joke. I'm going to assume that either your house isn't in the best condition (I doubt that) or they're just chancers who can't afford the asking price basically wasting your time.

 

I sometimes wonder why people offer so below an asking price. I don't know how long you've been on the market, but surely unless you're absolutely desperate to sell or the estate agent has completely overblown your houses value £35k under is so cheeky. I thought £8k was a smack in the face!

 

The thing I find about viewings, and I think several others can attest, is that after a while they grind you down. We only did six/seven for the sum total of two offers. I don't begrudge the people who didn't offer at all, but you whip yourself up tidying, organising, and then nothing comes of it. So doing 11 in a day I desperately hope you get something that's acceptable.

 

11 in a day is great!  Only have to clean and tidy once!  All of ours with 1 exceptions were on seperate days.  Painful.

[KrefelderFox666]

On 27/06/2020 at 20:45, Sly said:

Based on experience, it varies on builder, 

 

That house didn’t have many at all.

 

I’ve purchased some before though and had several pages on snagging! 
 

Some builders are better at rectifying snagging than others. Some don’t want to know, others couldn’t do more for you. I’ve had a mixed bag in all honesty. 

We purchased a new build off Jelson (who are top quality builders, some of the best around). Bought 4 and a half years ago for £220,000 and it is now worth around £250,000 (actually going on the market imminently as we are moving). We had very minimal "snags" on this and have been really happy in it. As was said above, it's all about house price movement whether you gain/lose. We went HTB Equity Loan (20% loan, interest free for 5 years). So when we sell, we lose 20% of the value but we had essentially a free mortgage on that share. It also enabled us to put a low deposit down which is what a lot of people struggle with, and now in particular with lenders capping products at 85% LTV rather than 90% or even 95%.

 

Persimmon get really bad reviews, the profits they make are way above most other builders and there are obvious reasons. Low costs, bigger margins. Bloor are meant to be good, they are local too. They have a site near us in Hinckley that they are going to build on. It's all about doing a bit of research on builders to make sure you don't get a bad deal.

[KrefelderFox666]

On 28/06/2020 at 09:49, Nalis said:

The only thing I can think of was that they were trying to use the dated tactic of offering a ridiculously low offer in the hope the seller meets in the middle of the asking price and offer and gets, say £15k-20k off the asking price. Particularly these days, its massively disrespectful and a waste of everyone's time.

I guess there is always two sides to a story. If the seller is massively inflating the value of their home, then they will rightly get either no offers, or very low offers. It's all about forming some comparisons to similar properties. Also, depends how much the house is on the market for, knocking £35k off a £1,000,000 property is not a lot. Wonder if that is the guide price for @Wolfox!!!