Housing market

[Berrichonne shrimper]

Can I have another nickname please, I'm an athiest. :dim:

Nope as you are never wrong you are THE POPE,infallable to the core.

 

[Berrichonne shrimper]

I'm a first time buyer, and finding it hard. Need to be near a station anything half decent which is in my price range is gone after a day.

Why not look to buy with friends or a friend.

 

[united we stand]

Yes I understand the difficulties, Back in 1988 my mortgage went up to £500 per month on a take home pay of £800 working in London cost me £100 in travel expenses. Had to have two part time jobs just to eat and pay the rates.

Careful of the service charge. I know a local Estate agent/thief who took over a large contract and pushed the charge up to around £200 per month on very average flats. When they came on the market he was buying them up cheap, probably 15/20% below the market price.

I bought my first house in 1987 with my best mate. As you hinted, mortgage rates went up to 15%! We had two great years (19 years old when we bought it) but then we both moved back home , owed more than we eat the in a year and had to rent out the house as it had neg equity and the rent was less than the mortgage!

then to add insult to injury this meant that I decided to never borrow again, except for a mortgage, and to only have a mortgage that we could easily afford assuming zero pay rise and no bonus ( bonus could be up to 40%. The result being we didn't stretch ourselves on our next house and so on. Had we been more adventurous without being silly I would have been at least £150.000 better off

 

[Jim Levenstein]

Why not look to buy with friends or a friend.

Buying with the girlfriends. We have a decent enough budget just being able to see the property and get a bid before someone else is the hard bit. Can see why prices keep going up

 

[MK Shrimper]

Buying with the girlfriends. We have a decent enough budget just being able to see the property and get a bid before someone else is the hard bit. Can see why prices keep going up

Not sure if I think you're lucky having more than one or I should pity you :smile:

 

[Jim Levenstein]

Not sure if I think you're lucky having more than one or I should pity you :smile:

That's easy - Pity

 

[mrsblue]

To be fair only in the gaff im sitting in but im sure MK AKA THE POPE will hark up that im wrong.

MK is always wrong in everything.

 

[MK Shrimper]

MK is always wrong in everything.

I think you're confusing me with yourself.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Exactly its a no win if you don't currently own.

Both myself and my partner work for the NHS and don't command big salaries and we can't afford to buy or rent a decent 3 bed property. For two people putting in the hours and serving the local community I find that hard to take.

Out of interest, is a three bedroom house people's expectations of a starter home?

 

[MK Shrimper]

Out of interest, is a three bedroom house people's expectations of a starter home?

Depends on the size of the family buying really.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Out of interest, is a three bedroom house people's expectations of a starter home?

Maybe not a starter on the property ladder, usually a flat or 2 up 2 down terrace: BUT certainly it would rank as a basic family (2+) home.

 

[rigsby]

Out of interest, is a three bedroom house people's expectations of a starter home?

Yes. Two people working should be able to comfortably afford a three bedroom house. Its exactly what we need to build and lots of, not one bedroom starter homes.

 

[OldBlueLady]

May be my imagination, but things seem to be levelling off a bit. We're still getting some agents over-valuing consistently by £20 - £30k on a bog standard house just to win the instruction. Then, when the house gets down valued - as they inevitably do - it's actually at the level the more sensible agents are saying to start with. Just going with the agent with the highest valuation isn't always the best idea.

Mind you, some buyers are coming in with offers way over asking price too, purely because stock is such a problem in Benfleet. There's really not very many "starter" homes in the area, it's flats or three beds pretty much. There's a few bungalows but these are in huge demand.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Yes. Two people working should be able to comfortably afford a three bedroom house. Its exactly what we need to build and lots of, not one bedroom starter homes.

Not sure about this as the minimum wage is still at a ridiculously low £7.20. So a bit less than 20k a year. I do think a starter home or flat needs to be at max 80K for 1 bed and a 2up2down house at 120k. More social housing, of this sort, for low income WORKERS (who then do right to buy) is urgently needed.

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

Saw a dump in Pitsea yesterday going for 240k. It needed full refurbishment.

Even dump areas are now beyond us.

As a nurse it's a joke. Still at least my 1% payrise will help.

As a nurse can you not use the 'key worker' scheme? Not sure how it works.

 

[Mad Cyril]

May be my imagination, but things seem to be levelling off a bit. We're still getting some agents over-valuing consistently by £20 - £30k on a bog standard house just to win the instruction. Then, when the house gets down valued - as they inevitably do - it's actually at the level the more sensible agents are saying to start with. Just going with the agent with the highest valuation isn't always the best idea.

Mind you, some buyers are coming in with offers way over asking price too, purely because stock is such a problem in Benfleet. There's really not very many "starter" homes in the area, it's flats or three beds pretty much. There's a few bungalows but these are in huge demand.

You are forgetting the huge number of nail bars, hairdressers and takeaways on Benfleet high Street and friendly pubs such as The Benfleet Tavern that must attract upmarket families to the area.

 

[Benfleet A1]

You are forgetting the huge number of nail bars, hairdressers and takeaways on Benfleet high Street and friendly pubs such as The Benfleet Tavern that must attract upmarket families to the area.

Ah, The Benfeet Tavern, the last of the old flying bottle pubs. A couple of old westerns were filmed in there back in the day.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Ah, The Benfeet Tavern, the last of the old flying bottle pubs. A couple of old westerns were filmed in there back in the day.

I tend to avoid all the pubs in Benfleet for various different reasons.

I love The Barge Gladys though.

 

[Benfleet A1]

Is that the one on the creek?

 

[Mad Cyril]

Is that the one on the creek?

It certainly is.