No viewings

[Ellena646]

Hi, we have been on the market for four weeks and not had one viewing. The agent just keeps repeating "It's August, very quiet" on a loop, although we are now in September. Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same thing. Not sure if it's the agent, the market, the price... Never been on the market and had zero viewings in the first month before...

Good luck finding cheap rentals nowadays. A mortgage will mostly always be cheaper than renting monthly. Plus you are paying someone else’s mortgage whilst renting, How foolish is that!
I know lots of people who rent and cannot save for a deposit due to the ever increasing price of rents. Especially now landlords are selling up to avoid CGT increases on second properties. Finding rentals is getting more and more difficult every day. It’s very hard to buy a house once you are stuck in the rental rut! No one savvy wants to rent for the rest of their lives.

Yes, a credit crunch with higher borrowing costs is exactly what they are suggesting.
As I've said lots of times previously, I think they will cute base rates in the short term but they may well be forced to raise them in the medium term. I don't think that the rates are the chief factor here though. I think we will see a deterioration in the economy and rising unemployment next year and ongoing which will cause the housing market and equities to fall.

If you take out a mortgage, it definitely isn't an end to your financial obligation; it's just the start of a new one. If, on the other hand, you are able to rent cheaply and save enough to become a cash buyer, it is indeed the end of that financial obligation.

@SunflowersAndSquash may be very wise to refuse to pay current prices or she may be very misguided. Time will tell. Either way, it's a personal choice.

It’s like turning on the tv and watching an episode of Victor Meldrew 🙄

Where can you find a rental cheap enough where you can save to become a cash buyer 🤣
I suppose there is a caravan site 🤷‍♀️

Obviously it's harder now rents have gone up but I know people who have done it. It's actually cheaper to rent than buy in lots of areas. Some people house share and/or live frugally. Some people live with their parents or in properties owned by family for low rent. Some people do these sort of things and then inherit from family in their 40s and are able to buy. Some people benefit from the flexibility of being able to move to areas with a higher salary or cheaper housing costs. A mixture of solutions are possible for some people. Some people choose to take on large mortgages but that's hardly Shangri-la either.

As opposed to buying a house and paying for 25 years then you own the asset outright… 🤔

I would rather do this than pay for someone else’s mortgage, which is effectively what you are doing whilst paying rent.

Plus a mortgage will, in most cases, be a lot cheaper than any rental now a days.

@PauliesWalnuts How do you feel your viewing went yesterday?

Very sensible post, most of the rental stats don"t come close to reflecting reality, there are many many variations of "renting".
A mortgage is a 25 - 30 even year debt commitment with money markets dictating how much you will pay back over the decades while rent is based on wages and will get the landlord in trouble if they raise rents too high, mortgage debt on the other hand is going to go as high as the money markets dictate.

If you rent for 25 years you are paying your landlords mortgage for him regardless of the rental price, where as you could pay off a mortgage in 25 years and own an asset outright.

Sorry but I completely disagree that renting makes financial sense especially as finding a rental now is almost impossible, expensive and you are at the landlords mercy whilst you are there.

Every year you are renting is money down the drain as opposed to paying towards owning a large asset instead.

rainingsnoring · Today 14:55
Quote’ Obviously it's harder now rents have gone up but I know people who have done it. It's actually cheaper to rent than buy in lots of areas. Some people house share and/or live frugally. Some people live with their parents or in properties owned by family for low rent. Some people do these sort of things and then inherit from family in their 40s and are able to buy. Some people benefit from the flexibility of being able to move to areas with a higher salary or cheaper housing costs.’

Maybe if you rented in the 80’s and chose to rent until now, and you now want a market crash so you can spend your saved up money, (after paying your landlords mortgage in the process!) but we are talking about people today who are making a decision for their future with extortionate high rentals right now and lack of rentals also!

Not to mention that living with mum and dad would not be the most desirable option for most adults with a family and waiting for an inheritance may be a long wait for some…

Many landlords don"t have a mortgage. Rent is a "cost" in accounting terms where a mortgage is a "debt", two very different things with very different legal aspects. A landlord with a mortgage, especially if it is a large debt, is really at the mercy of tenants because a void will be very expensive, especially with the new council tax rules some councils are using.

I am seeing literally dozens of "To Rent" signs up now, the economy is obviously taking a hit as people cut back and the first line of employment to get hit looks like pubs, take-aways, shops etc. the sort of places that employ young people who will scuttle back to parents leaving landlords high and dry.

"Owning a large asset" isn"t smart if you overpay for it them get caught in a rate raising cycle, it is one of the dumbest investing moves you can make, especially as property is totally illiquid and you won"t be able to bail out in a crash.

None of the options are very 'desirable', including taking on a 30-40 year mortgage, which seems to be pretty commonplace now. The heady days of being able to pay off a mortgage between 25 and 50 are long gone.

What you would rather do is irrelevant to the choices that others may make.

You have completely missed my point.

Every penny you pay towards a rental is money you will never get back. Gone forever.
If you pay off a mortgage after 25 years you will have the asset and any increase in value from the asset.

Even if the asset has devalued, you will
still have the asset whatever it is worth.

Whether a landlord has a mortgage or not is completely irrelevant and I am
quiet surprised that you even mentioned this point tbh

Good points, the debt bubble has created massive problems for society.

"f you pay off a mortgage after 25 years you will have the asset and any increase in value from the asset."

You have already lost any increase in value to interest, it is a front loaded cost, if the asset loses value you still pay the interest though.

As said previously, rent is a "cost" for a necessity (shelter) do you complain that the money you pay for food is "money you will never get back"? The landlord also has to do all the repairs which is another benefit over renting the money from the bank at interest (mortgage) and paying for all the repairs on top.

Whether a landlord has a mortgage or not is very relevant because no mortgage debt means being able to price rent sensibly to keep tenants long term (long term income stream) A landlord buying in the last few years trying to match their increasing mortgage debt costs with rent is just heading for void, double council tax then bust with a ruined credit score.

Quote: ‘You have already lost any increase in value to interest, it is a front loaded cost, if the asset loses value you still pay the interest though.’

Not if you pay the mortgage off before 25 years which I did myself.

According to rainingsnoring quote from previous post: ‘if you are able to rent cheaply and save enough to become a cash buyer, it is indeed the end of that financial obligation.

If someone can afford to pay rent AND save to become a cash buyer according rainingsnoring, then you can afford to buy a house with a mortgage and pay it off sooner to avoid high interest repayments as most mortgages are cheaper than rentals. Fact!

Landlords have to pay for repairs and rightly so all the money they earn and they get the asset at the end of it!

We will have to agree to disagree on this one.
I for one will be encouraging my offspring to get on the property ladder asap.
Renting off a landlord is money down the drain.
Owning an asset at the end of it will always be the better option long term.

Well I really hope they aren’t listening to your advice! : Live with mum and dad until you are 40, house share or rent for 20 years and pay the landlords mortgage in the process or wait for an inheritance.

How about buy a smaller house to start with, live on your own, pay for your own mortgage with your wages over 25 years (still happens) and then you have a secure roof over your head by age 50 for retirement.
Plus you can maybe sell your asset and maybe buy a bigger house in between.

Most people won"t be paying their mortgage off early now, they will still be paying in retirement, prices need to crash, everyone knows it.

Negative equity is a much more dangerous trap than renting, you can easily move to a new cheaper rental, you can"t move away from a mortgage debt once you take it on, unless you pay off early which as I said isn"t really an option for most recent debt holders if we are being honest? If you were that flush with cash why bother with a mortgage in the first place?

The "renting is dead money" argument isn"t really a fully formed or sensible economic argument in my opinion, but unfortunately it has gotten a lot of folks into trouble with too much mortgage debt and higher interest rates.

Quote: ‘
Negative equity is a much more dangerous trap than renting, you can easily move to a new cheaper rental’

Maybe before, not now, there are waiting lists for rentals, they are becoming increasingly unaffordable and harder to find.
As long as buyers buy what they can sensibly afford and not expect more than they should mortgages are a lot cheaper than rentals. Buy within your means and as long as you are paying less on a mortgage than on rent you should be ok, just don’t get greedy! 🤷‍♀️

Quote: ‘unless you pay off early which as I said isn"t really an option for most recent debt holders if we are being honest? If you were that flush with cash why bother with a mortgage in the first place?

This statement is ridiculous, you can pay off a mortgage in stages and down the line. I didn’t start off with cash in hand either and paid it off gradually. According to rainingsnoring people nowadays can afford to rent cheaply and save enough to become a cash buyers! So I’m sure they can afford to pay off their mortgage in stages to avoid interest payments.

"there are waiting lists for rentals"

Where do the people live while they are waiting? What is to stop them from continuing to live there?

What if the landlord wants to sell up? Renting is not guaranteed accommodation for life. You are at the landlords mercy. Which again, are further negative points for renting as opposed to buying. The list goes on…

Can I just say it's not so simple as'just buy' - we had a business issue at one point and had to sell and rent - and at the point we were in a position to be able to buy again were beyond the stage that it's simple to get mortgages again over a reasonable period without a huge deposit . Luckily we do have the income to rent nice places and there is less competition at the level we look at and we have a long and good track record plus no pets, no kids at home. Long term we will buy if we inherit ( on paper we will but you never know with care needs etc) otherwise if needed we will rent an over 55 pleasant the point we stop earning so well -

"What if the landlord wants to sell up?"

I believe only a court, or a tenant, can legally end a tenancy, the landlord has to wait until the property is vacant before selling, plenty of time to find another rental.

What is next on the list?

A mortgage debt isn"t guaranteed accommodation for life either, if you can"t pay (interest rate spike for example) you are out (even quicker than it could take to evict a renter?)