anyone else looking to buy at moment?

[madeindevon2]

sold house stc for realistic price (at a loss to where i bought it 2 yrs ago) but finding other vendors less realistic in terms of their asking prices at the moment!!
anyone else finding this??
seems people still thinking their properties are worth same as last year and its just not the case realistically also the market is not going up this year either is it...
frustrated!!

yep, we're exactly the same. we took a huge cut off our asking price but other sellers don't seem to be willing to do the same. also there's really not much on the market so a bit fed up about the whole thing tbh!

We sold just before it turned pear shaped, moved out of London and found that outside of London don't want to sell for realistic prices, so there is a incredibly huge gap between a terrace/attached house and a detached one. Ironically prices where we lived in london totally crashed so it would be cheaper moving back.
Moaning in Midlands!

I would love to buy....but can't sell ours.

Your going to have to wait until summer I would say, we've had agents around to ours simply to listen to what they have to say.
2 out of 3 of them said that the spring is when it'll all shot back up and prices will rise by 5% (15% in all because they have to add last years loss), It was all I could do not to laugh in their faces, but if that's what they are telling people then you'll have to wait for the spring bounce not to happen (which it won't because 3 million will be unemployed by then), people who think they will get their mortgages paid whilst on the dole will be in for a shock, they only pay 1.5 above the bank of england base rate, which funnily enough has been reduced to practically 0 recently.
Reposessions will be rife, I'm considering training as a locksmith asap.
The fun has only just begun, hold onto your deposits until at least quarter 3 09.

We sold ours last March for a good price, a realistic price though not peak. In rented in a new area. The same houses on the market as this time last year, at like 5 or 10 K off - peanuts as a percentage. It's like Wake Up! Like Sorrento says, it's the fault of the agents who are just not realistic.
If something comes up will buy if I can get a good price, as I am desperate for my own house again and HATE renting, and mortgage would be lower than my rent. But think it's right to say September/October is when the prices will drop. That's when the unemployment and recession will really kick in.

i love one house nr us, its old house with huge garden, no neighbors, 5receiption, 8 bedroom, 2 staircase, detached double garage, loads of parking.
but it needs loads of work doing, very old fashioned inside. i just love 5 bedrooms are double bedroom with fireplaces. and 4 ensuite, huge family bathroom.its 370 ono.
the problem is our house is the same as it was valued 2 yrs ago, if we need quick sale may be less than that
estate agent told us its best time if we want bigger house. apparently only first buyers buying small houses these days, most bigger properties been on market at least 1year or more. or they most likely accept lot less than that they asking for the current economic situation. desicions, desicions.

prices will RISE 5%!?
are they living in a bubble/ there is NOTHING i can see to suggest prices will rise this spring. what reason do they give for this (agreed in previous years spring has seen an increase but this year? id be very interested in their reasoning tbh

Madeindevon, I think that's exactly their logic that prices have always risen so once this little blip is behind them we can continue with the wonder that is HPI and is great for all !
If an estate agent is under 30 then they will have seen nothing but rises so I try not to be too hard on them when putting them straight, over 30 they get both barrels !

Diva, where is this house? All I'm seeing here in Rugby is people hoping to get 350-400+K for four bed detached houses that need renovation, when the sold price of a semi is less than 200K. My partner went to see this house, they want 420, needs total gutting as the bathroom looks 20 years old, the people are in their 70s and they are holding on to get the top price. They are not the only one, but none of these houses have sold in the past two years. He also met a chirpy 87 year old who said to him, he wouldn't take a lower offer but will hold on for the market to recover so they can buy a bungalow and put the rest of the money in the bank. It beggars belief! We sold our house before the drop but still had to price it realistically, so our house sold but the other near us with inflated asking prices are still on the market!

He will be dead before that happens golden peach, silly buggers aren't they, keep looking.

We're planning on moving back to where our families live as we have a 10 month old DD. I feel very nervous about putting the house on the market and even more nervous about not being able to sell, having to rent ours out then rent ourselves in the new area! talk about unsettling. Decisions decisions! Does anyone know of a good website with any useful tips?

This is as good a place as any april but remember everyone has a basis one way or another, I lost a lot of money listening to one site and then some more by not listening to another lol

www.houseprices.co.uk. The figures for December buys are in, they are quite sobering. You can use this site to find out what property really sold for (you can only go back to 2000, though). We check it all the time... shock horror, we went to see this house the chap bought last year for 285 and now he wanted 300. Some people are out of their mind! He was hoping to make a profit in these hard times. Thanks to houseprices, you can demistify crazy asking prices.

Were wanting to buy our first home on a shared ownership basis sometime this year - we are so sick of renting where we are.

Its so frustrating so, me and dh are earning more now than we ever have before, joint income around 27 k and we still can barely afford to part buy a house where we live.

At the moment we are torn bewteen waiting and saving and believing that one day we will finally own our home, or finding a better and cheaper place to rent, as rents are falling too. Found a much nicer house in same area for much less than ours costs, but can't bear the thought of moving twice !

really hard to know what to do at the moment

Im gutted, trying to sell. We put ours on the market in December with a lovely house in mind round the corner that needs gutting. It went, but we thought we may as well keep it on the market and look at others. 2 others have now gone that we were interested in, and still ours doesnt sell. We've had 4 viewings in 4 weeks which isnt bad I suppose, but its first time buyers who would be interested in ours and they are just spending forever browsing from what I can tell. Who can blame them, its such a sellers market. To top it all the house we first fell in love with has just gone back on the market but at a lower price, and I can just see it getting snapped up again .

Feel so bad as we have 2 toddlers sharing a tiny room, and really want them to have a bit more space. At least we have a roof over our heads I suppose.

Caz, drop the price of yours then, every house will sell at the right price.

been to see more houses today.
still liking the one we saw first. its a large semi (5 large doubles) in st albans, herts. asking price 500k. our 425 offer was rejected but im just not sure how much we should pay for it in current times.
If you want a nose its beech road on with www.ashtons.co.uk 499,500. looking at houseprices.co.uk only helps to a small extent as houses in road are different.
but basically they bought it in 2003 for 205k and have added a large extension and done it up to high spec.
my head keeps telling me its only worth 425 but my heart is saying otherwise...
what do you guys think?

How much do you know about their circumstances ?
As others have said older people who bought their house for £1.50 back in 1950 can wait and hold out until 2015 when the market recovers, a young couple just made redundant are in a different situation.
Personally I would say it's worth £350 ish depending on the spec, assuming you like everything they've done.
Adding an extention doesn't necessarily even give you your money back but I'll be generous and say they've spent £100k on improvements. And we'll let them have £50k for living in a building site but that's it.
Please hold out, you've waited this long don't blow it now by blinking first. It is only worth what somebody is prepared to pay and why should you be mortgaged up to the eyeballs just because some spotted arsed estate agent, who holds no qualifications says so.

sympathise chatkins, we are in the same position, earning more now (although DH works for Honda so got 4 months off work) than we ever have and jointly earn about £35K a year but we still can't buy a house unless we go for a key worker scheme - but i am not sure about that now as it will cost us more in the long run. We are in rented accommodation and are longing to buy but will wait another year or so i think and see what our position is then. I'm liking sorrento's advice on here in various threads and am hoping that prices will come down more so that 'normal' working people like us could potentially buy our own home.

Sara the way prices will come down is if people refuse to go along with key worker schemes and the like and refuse to borrow 4 times their salary etc.
Thank goodness the media seem to be on board now, they were responsible for alot of the "buy now or you'll never get on the ladder" hype.
I bought my first house on my own at 24 yrs for 3 times my salary and a 5% deposit, my brother bought his (against my advice) for 3 times him and his girlfriends salary in 2007 and of course are now in negative equity and only paying the interest, would be £200 a month better off renting but then property only goes up doesn't it

Yes but will prices of houses (and i'm talking about a 2 bed, nothing big) ever go down to 3 times our salary? There is no way we would be able to buy a house for £105K at the moment. Not in this county anyway. And prob no one would lend us that. I guess the best thing is to wait, try and save some money and see what happens as however much we want a house, we don't want to be just paying the interest. My brother bought early last year. He earns £21K and is married with two DC. They bought a house for £123K with a 5K deposit. Madness! They are paying interest only too.

I don't know your income and outgoings sara so impossible to say but if the national average wage is £22k then the average house price should not be more than £80k max and yes I do think that day is not too far away.
Just sit tight, people like your brother and mine are causing massive damage to their own financial future and everybody else's.

Even Cardiff house prices are to a greater or lesser degree staying the same. Some ridiculous prices - a 2 bedroom semi detatched cottage that is not high spec but ok just on for £299,000 down the road from me. I would price our refurbed 3 bed cottage at £240,000 on a good day. Have some people not noticed the state of the economy?

Sorrento - we got 4 agents out to value it in December and we went with the lowest valuation. I would consider lowering it but the problem is we want to stay in the same area and the jump you need to make from a 2bed house to 3 bed is ridiculous, its like 50k easily. This house we've seen is 2 bed still but has potential to split into a 3 bed, which is why its affordable. What Im worried about is dropping our price just for this house and then it goes before we get an offer on ours. Then we'd be stuffed as we then cant afford anything else around here with the measily amount of equity left in it. .

You don't have to accept anything though Caz, work out the absolute lowest figure you can accept and then put yours on for that and put an offer in on the other house you like, if the deal doesn't go through then just don't sell yours.
Everybody has to drop not just you for the market to start moving again otherwise it's stalemate. However somebody will HAVE to move and that's when the ball starts rolling, once one person in the street sell for a lower price then that's the precedent set.