Any first time buyers

[Pickledonion24]

Deposit off 150000 house budget 300000 max 350000 if perfect house booked my first viewing today

Not meaning to be negative, but are you sure you want to buy now?

Well I need to no where else to go family house Is being sold parents are moving I could rent I guess but rent would be double my mortgage payments on same house

What’s your question?

Why wouldn't you want to buy now?

Just wanted to see if anyone else was first time buying trying to get a mortgage hit thought it would be nice for us all to have some support along the way

I'm hopefully a ftb very soon. Just watching to see what they do to stamp duty next week

Haven’t thought about stamp duty changing

(Sorry mumsnet hq ) I found the MSE forum really helpful they also have a guide for first time buyers and a forum for peeps waiting for mortgage offers. You should be able to get a great deal with that amount deposit ....everyone on Mumsnet seems to recommend London and Country mortgage advisors. I chose one I knew through a friend he was base miles away in Leics though!

Get all your paperwork together now so not a mad rush. Bank statements ID etc...make sure you can prove where deposit is coming from ..start asking friends for recommendations re solicitors and if you can and you are not in a chain look to get a non credit search agreement in principle

No reason not to buy now

No reason not to buy now... apart from the biggest property bubble that has ever existed, all fuelled by QE, ''emergency'' ZIRP and numerous ''Help to Buy'' wheezes all designed to prop up prices at artificially high levels.

Sure but that bubble ain't popping any time soon. Stagnating a bit maybe, but not popping.

A quick look on Rightmove will show you prices are dropping, and fast at that. Everything is either being reduced or not selling at all. In my area of London some houses have been dropped 15-20% and these are prices that would have been achieveable last year. The media is yet to report it but it's happening alright!

I'm looking as well OP. FTB also. I have everything in place but not much suitable coming to the market round here at the mo. Hopefully after Xmas there will be an influx of suitable houses.
I don't have your budget, but as a pp stated above, things are rapidly being reduced here too. There was one that got reduced even before the open day, so I'm guessing they had no one booked in!
There is one I really want but they want too much for it. Estate agents have said they won't accept anything under xxxxx but if the price miraculously drops they'll let me know.

We just sold our flat in London for its asking price. Less than a week on the market.

But I live in a part of SE London which is still quite affordable. I suspect the worst hit places are ridiculously priced parts of London e.g. Islington, Hackney, Kensington etc etc

And yes I do need to buy at least next year. I have the threat of homelessness over me and simply cannot afford to spend 100% of my salary on a 1 bed flat. Most I can afford to rent is a tiny room in a house share. I am in my 30s and just want some stability in my life.

Yes I understand it is difficult. Three years ago we were paying double our mortgage renting a house smaller than the one we purchased.

If you're comfortable with the idea of being in negative equity for some time to come, then it's fine to proceed regardless.

In some circumstances, with London rents in particular, negative equity is still cheaper than renting over a prolonged period.

As a FTB you'll be in a strong position. Make sure you don't overpay and under offer by decent margins. Avoid properties that are new on the market as most agents are still massively over pricing.

Prices are certainly not dropping round our way (North West City)

I think it depends on the area. Prices are holding strong here and houses are going quickly. Again I’m in the north west about 5 miles from Manchester in a popular area.

Prices aren’t dropping round here either (north east). But then in my area they still haven’t got back up to 2006 levels. Not everyone lives in London.

Of course London isn't the only housing market, but house prices are such an instrumental part of the UK's economy, you'd be niave to think a house price crash in London won't affect other cities.

Again, because the media are not reporting it, it doesn't mean it is not happening.

You can look at any London area on Rightmove to evidence this.

I'm in a cheaper outer London borough and it's obvious here.

The fact prices haven't yet dropped in your areas is even more reason not to invest now, surely!

If it's necessary as the OP states, then make sure you don't go out making asking price offers.

It is a buyers market. At least know that!

House got taken of the market hoping they’ve only done that so no one buys it before Christmas I really like it :(

Hi OP

We are FTBs!
We are in London and have been looking on/off for the last year or so.

Earlier on this year we had our offer accepted on 2 properties (at different times!), however, they both unfortunately fell through.

First one, the vendor decided to go with a higher offer a couple of days after we had the survey done so we lost almost a grand on this- we declined the EA's suggestion that we stump up another 15/20k to secure the sale.

We completely lost trust in the vendor once they pulled that move.
Hilariously enough, that property is now back on the market after the sale fell through- asking price is now 15k more than they were asking for in early 2017 and it has been on the market for several weeks now.
We are NOT tempted to go back to it.

Second property we had offer accepted, held off on the survey/homebuyer report as we didn't to get screwed again. Luckily we did as a couple of weeks later the vendors decided that they didn't want to sell after all, and they put the property back on the rental market.
Total bloody waste of time!

So, I have kept an eye on Rightmove on an almost daily basis.
Lots of murmurs about the market going to collapse, it being a bad time to buy etc.

However, we are keen to buy something soon- mainly so that we can get out of this rental trap. Yes, we could spend the next year or two "watching & waiting" but it seems pointless.

It seems like a buyers market currently (we're in SE London) and we are most certainly not scared of making cheeky offers!

We will probably try to avoid any buy to let properties/landlords looking to sell up...from recent experience they tend to not want to negotiate at all, often they change their minds and just put the property back on the market if the price is not exactly right.

We need sellers who NEED to sell e.g. pregnancy, divorce, probate

We'll see- good luck to all the FTBs out there!

We were first time buyers In january this year.
Had searched for 6 months for a property and each house we offered on (approx 10 of them) wen for over asking and we were out bidded.

The house we ended up buying went £3k over asking and was a total doer upper (unlivable condition).

We spent the next 6 months working on it and moved in in June.

Its been hard work but well worth it.

There is lots of scaremongering about property bubbles but that has been going on for years now and if you listen to it, no one would ever buy anything.

As long as you are careful about your chosen location and dont buy something that would be hard to sell on again, I cant see any problem.

This is the added bonus of buying a doer upper.

Ours as an example:

2 bed terrace victorian house.
Advertised at £297k.
Sold to us for £300k
Deposit put down of £30k.
Spent £20k on the refurbishment.
It has since been valued at £365-£370k, so we have added more value than what we put in, and even if the house price should drop in the next 5 years of us living there, we have a decent amount of equity for there to be some level of wiggle room if needed.

We couldn't stretch to any more than £30k deposit, and that was the minimum our mortgage provider would accept.

We used an independent mortgage adviser and have an excellent fixed rate of 2.14%, so our mortgage payment is nearly £200 less than the small 2 bed flat we were renting before buying this house.

There is a loft ready for conversion and scope for a rear extension which will make the house more appealing to others in future, or if we needed extra space and decided to stay here.

What i'm trying to illustrate with the above, is that by considering all avenues, you can buy something that might be considered a 'safe bet', and hopefully be able to weather any future uncertainty.

If you bought in the last 2 years in central London your property is worth less than you paid for it. Prime Central is being hammered. Chelsea/ Kensington etc