House Prices #3 Property market, buying and selling

[Notworthy]

What’s the best option re interest rates now then? We’ve put an offer in today for a house. Who knows if they’ll accept it but if they do, do we go for a two year fixed and hope prices come down or do we fix for 5 and suck it up?

Completely depends on your personal financial position. If you go for a long fix, you need to understand the penalties attached (if any). Personally I'd go on the SVR if I had a lot of flexibility in my budget to ride the storm but very few people would want to take that risk. Not sure I'd ever go for a fixed term in excess of 5 years unless there was a massive drop off in penalties.

 

[Yel]

The graph you shared earlier is quite interesting because it shows how actually the US has had the jump ahead of Europe & UK so arguably people should have seen this coming.

Oh yes they definitely knew this was coming, but as ever they try to delay the inevitable for as long as possible so that hopefully it's someone else's problem when it does come to the surface.

It's going to be painful for those that bought at the top with a short two year fix. But that is a very small number of people. Pain for anyone obviously isn't good, but house prices out of control causes so much damage throughout the entire country.

They did stress test with a base rate +3%. So many have been stress tested up to 5%. But really they should have stress tested the long-term average rates of 6% + 3%. The BoE is certainly not the white knight it's often portrayed as. There's an awful lot they've done wrong.

Mortgage holders that bought ages ago and have had many years on artificially low rates should be thankful for that rather than complaining that rates are now going back to the norm. I bet their mortgages now are still a hell of a lot lower than my rent.

 

[Notworthy]

Oh yes they definitely knew this was coming, but as ever they try to delay the inevitable for as long as possible so that hopefully it's someone else's problem when it does come to the surface.

It's going to be painful for those that bought at the top with a short two year fix. But that is a very small number of people. Pain for anyone obviously isn't good, but house prices out of control cause so much damage throughout the entire country.

They did stress test with a base rate +3%. So many have been stress tested up to 5%. But really they should have stress tested the long-term average rates of 6% + 3%. The BoE is certainly not the white knight it's often portrayed as. There's an awful lot they've done wrong.

Mortgage holders that bought ages ago and have had many years on artificially low rates should be thankful for that rather than complaining that rates are now going back to the norm. I bet their mortgages now are still a hell of a lot lower than my rent.

I'm definitely a big winner and very grateful. I had the benefit of relatively low house prices plus an offset mortgage at BOE +0.49% that was paid off in June so I've personally dodged lots of bullets. I feel for the young right now who have the opposite with high prices and high mortgage rates. I'd really advocate not buying anything now and just saving while rates are high.

 

[Bobbleowl90]

Offered 5k below asking on the house we viewed. Agents rang to say another viewer had offered asking price do we want to reconsider. We went in just above when we called back and spoke to somebody else who said they hadn’t gone in at asking, it was slightly below. They then went above us and it went to best and final. We didn’t get it. Estate agents love a bidding war and it’s not fair. Back to square one. We’ve been living with parents for 18m with a toddler after selling ours and it’s depressing and scary.

 

[Princesst]

Offered 5k below asking on the house we viewed. Agents rang to say another viewer had offered asking price do we want to reconsider. We went in just above when we called back and spoke to somebody else who said they hadn’t gone in at asking, it was slightly below. They then went above us and it went to best and final. We didn’t get it. Estate agents love a bidding war and it’s not fair. Back to square one. We’ve been living with parents for 18m with a toddler after selling ours and it’s depressing and scary.

Yeah they absolutely love to mind F you with the bids like an auction room blood bath. Makes everything so much harder than it needs to be in an already horrible process. Had it myself time and time again. It really wears you down. But you’ll get there eventually don’t let them get you down for long. I don’t know how they sleep at night! They’re playing with peoples lives

 

[OnlyHereForTheLolz]

Just to be clear. It's not estate agents who decide who get's the house. It's the homeowner. And they, and with this I mean you lot as well, want the best price they can get. And btw they don't have to accept the highest bid they can sell to somebody who offered less if they like them. But I'm yet to see anybody doing that

 

[WeepingCassandra]

Just to be clear. It's not estate agents who decide who get's the house. It's the homeowner. And they, and with this I mean you lot as well, want the best price they can get. And btw they don't have to accept the highest bid they can sell to somebody who offered less if they like them. But I'm yet to see anybody doing that

I know someone who did that, they had three offers - one way over asking, one on it and one just below. They sold to the one on asking because it was a period property in a tiny rural village and that buyer was someone who wanted to move back there after moving away for uni or something. The one who went way over wanted it as a summer holiday home.

 

[OnlyHereForTheLolz]

I know someone who did that, they had three offers - one way over asking, one on it and one just below. They sold to the one on asking because it was a period property in a tiny rural village and that buyer was someone who wanted to move back there after moving away for uni or something. The one who went way over wanted it as a summer holiday home.

That's really nice of them, thinking of the village. I'll be honest I'm 100% selling to the highest bidder I love me some money

 

[WeepingCassandra]

That's really nice of them, thinking of the village. I'll be honest I'm 100% selling to the highest bidder I love me some money

During lockdown something like 55% of the properties there were empty because they’re used as holiday lets or a bolt hole for rich Londoners to escape to the countryside and it’s killing the area tbh so I don’t blame them!

 

[Former_Antelopee]

That's really nice of them, thinking of the village. I'll be honest I'm 100% selling to the highest bidder I love me some money

So would I I don’t understand why people who don’t someone I know offered 10k above for a home for their family on a property which the money was being shared between 4 children who inherited it. They went with 10k lower offer since it was the first. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t take the higher offer especially when it’s being split between 4, surely you’d definitely want the higher amount

 

[Steph’s]

Just to be clear. It's not estate agents who decide who get's the house. It's the homeowner. And they, and with this I mean you lot as well, want the best price they can get. And btw they don't have to accept the highest bid they can sell to somebody who offered less if they like them. But I'm yet to see anybody doing that

The homeowners done that with us when we bought our house at the end of last year. There were two other interested parties and their agent pushed and pushed for for it to go to a closing date but the homeowners declined as they said they just got a good vibe from us! Our solicitor was extremely surprised when I explained the situation!

 

[OnlyHereForTheLolz]

The homeowners done that with us when we bought our house at the end of last year. There were two other interested parties and their agent pushed and pushed for for it to go to a closing date but the homeowners declined as they said they just got a good vibe from us! Our solicitor was extremely surprised when I explained the situation!

That is really lovely. Wish I could say I would be that nice!
Hope you love your new home

 

[Anne1448]

During lockdown something like 55% of the properties there were empty because they’re used as holiday lets or a bolt hole for rich Londoners to escape to the countryside and it’s killing the area tbh so I don’t blame them!

It's the story of the place where I live.

The village is dying because the locals can't afford to live there. So the older generation is either retiring alone or having to move out to be closer to their kids.

The store owners cannot find staff because the rent is now 3,000€ on average. During winter, the place is a ghost town but in summer it's packed.

 

[Meg78]

It's the story of the place where I live.

The village is dying because the locals can't afford to live there. So the older generation is either retiring alone or having to move out to be closer to their kids.

The store owners cannot find staff because the rent is now 3,000€ on average. During winter, the place is a ghost town but in summer it's packed.

Same here, our village has an average house price of £1.3million, no one can afford to stay

 

[a.pain]

Just to be clear. It's not estate agents who decide who get's the house. It's the homeowner. And they, and with this I mean you lot as well, want the best price they can get. And btw they don't have to accept the highest bid they can sell to somebody who offered less if they like them. But I'm yet to see anybody doing that

This happened to us, we offered on a house and were told there was another offer, we increased ours but they went with the other, which was £3k less than what we offered (I checked the land registry), and we were chain free so not sure what their motivations were

 

[_Laura]

This happened to us, we offered on a house and were told there was another offer, we increased ours but they went with the other, which was £3k less than what we offered (I checked the land registry), and we were chain free so not sure what their motivations were

Same happened to me! We viewed a house that was on the market for £300k but they had over 20 people view it so we went in a £310k. The estate agent called to say that it had gone to best and final, we went to £325k saying that this was provided the house was valued at £300k but said we could go a bit higher based on the valuation. We got a text (!) from the estate agent two days later saying that our offer had been rejected. Checked on the Land Registry and it’s sold for £311k. We were chain free as well. My best guess is that the buyers initially went higher then used the valuation to review their offer and the vendor didn’t want to put the house back on the market. It all worked out in the end as we got caught up in the bidding war and shouldn’t have been offering that much money anyway, but it is very strange indeed!

 

[margaretta]

This happened to us, we offered on a house and were told there was another offer, we increased ours but they went with the other, which was £3k less than what we offered (I checked the land registry), and we were chain free so not sure what their motivations were

I imagine aside from the valuation, when they got the survey back there was work to be done, and they renegotiated the price.

 

[a.pain]

I imagine aside from the valuation, when they got the survey back there was work to be done, and they renegotiated the price.

We are in Scotland so no surveys or valuations! They use the home report

 

[Branched]

A family member recently sold their house and didn't go with the highest offer, which was £10-15k (can't remember exactly) above the accepted offer. Their reason was financing concerns, they thought the higher bidder's mortgage would come back valuing the property quite a bit lower and they didn't have enough of a deposit to make up the difference.

 

[hydeist]

We are in Scotland so no surveys or valuations! They use the home report

It could have been a cash buyer - if the difference is only 3k I think some people would take that to have a quicker less-hassle sale.