Having lurked on these wonderful pages for a year or so, it is time to contribute, and have you support or ridicule me as the case may be! (I am thick skinned and genuinely interested in your opinions).

We live broadly in south manchester/cheshire.

Sold our house in October having had it on market for 13 months and so naturally feel very fortunate. As a property bear, we substantially reduced the price to make sure it sold before things got really sticky. Made very little indeed in 3 years of ownership, but frankly not complaining...

Currently renting a pleasant 5 bedroom 'executive home' in north Derbyshire for £1,300 per month which is less than the mortgage payments on the old house. As the house is better in every way than the old, being bigger, better garden, nicer area, so the STR thing has made an awful lot of sense. But it is too far out from my workplace in Manchester and so we do want to move.

Have found a house we really like. It is not in Hale/Altrincham areas for those who know this area of the market, still expensive but less demand. 5+ bedrooms. Interesting house and suits our requirements in many ways. On the market since May 2007. Originally on for over £800,000 which is frankly a joke. There is no long sweeping driveway, garden is only 1/4 acre as a previous owner ago sold most of back garden to a builder 20 years ago. Asking price down to £700,000 which would have been on the right lines for late 2006/early 2007 boom time.

Appears no meaningful interest in the house. EAs have let slip that might go for £640,000.

We reckon that offer of £600,000 is appropriate at the moment, as owners are pissed off, having bought their replacement home a year ago and now having to rent it.

Have a flat to sell in Manchester city centre, which as you would expect is not going very fast, but at least is getting decent viewings as I have put it on at a 15% discount to similar properties. Was not a BTL but my main residence for many years before getting married so don't jeer!

Can afford to buy (and more importantly pay for - the two are obviously not synonymous!) the house without selling the flat but will make a substantial dent in monthly outgoings until flat is sold.

Am I mad to make any offer in present climate? £100,000 off asking is a fair whack off though. We think only 20% chance of offer being accepted, but am not minded to offer more until flat sold. But my wife will just want to up the offer until they accept (wholly contrary to my instincts) so grateful for any food for thought.

Obviously, you the merry reader do not know our full circumstances (and less would I give them) but observations of a general nature are greatfully received.

I wouldn't, that's less than 15% off asking price and you may have trouble selling the flat. It's your decision of course, but you did ask.

No no no no and NO!!!
And DO NOT let the other half encourage you to up the offer just to secure the deal. It could be financial suicide, especially as you will probably lose out on the flat by a substantial amount.

These threads are popping up more and more - they are really boring.

You know the answer HOUSEPRICECRASH.CO.UK

£600,000 & North of Watford????

Does not even compute now!

Think 2013, violent, out of control wasteland Britain.

Ask yourself, will fings get better or worse.....cos they darned sure never stay the same

It all depends on your priorities.

If you have found your 'dream home' and you can afford it, then I can see that it must be a tempter.

However, if you are thinking purely rationally, then now is a crazy time to be re-entering the market. We are still at the stand-off stage, where sellers won't reduce to a realistic price, and buyers won't pay what is being asked.

Over the next couple of years, values will really start to fall.

£100k off asking means nothing. The asking price is completely irrelevent.

Why not offer to rent the house off them so they can move into their replacement home? Then make an offer to buy it when the time is right.

I was just going to suggest that.

Hmmmm, should you follow your (self-styled bullish) instincts, or ask for advice from a community called housepricecrash?

Alternatively...

AWOOGA!

Yes, bonkers.

Offer £455K (thats 35% of £700K) either they accept or they will never speak to you again - thus solving wife issue.

This week's Moneyweek described the UK housing market as toxic and advised readers to stay away from buying. That is pretty much my view.

I read somewhere last week that within a year of the 1929 crash that house prices in the US fell by 90% and then people jumped in to buy only to discover that houses then fell another 90% from their remaining 10%, people who had bought with cash lost everything and those who had bought supopsedly cheap property with a mortgage went bankrupt as the banks demanded back their money.

Northern Rock shares have fallen from £12.50 to 90p and then nationalised.

Other bank shares are off at least 50%.

Builders shares are off similar amounts and Barratt's may be technically in breach of bank lending covernants.

This housing crash has only just begun.

The trough after the 89/90 crash was around '95.

You're barking - Come back in 5 years.

Whereabouts exactly is this?
£600K is a lot of money for south Manchester unless you're talking Hale/Halebarns, which by your comments you're not.

My parents do up houses around there and they have noticed that there are loads on the market at the moment up that way.

Is it legal to be that bearish MT?


That wont be allowed to happen here because NR's 'loan book is good'

Sell up, move to a better country. Get more bedrooms, a few acres for less than half the cost, better schools, lower cost of living, better weather and money in the bank. I can't believe people aren't taking their money for nothing and running.

When we sold out house last year, one EA said something like "This is the type of property that buyers will mortgage sky high for". Are YOU buying such a house? if so then realise that you have a lot less competition now.
Never underestimate how much a seller (or the EA) has "got your number" and knows how much you're willing to pay because "you love the house".

FWIW

- The sellers won't accept your price - If you wait a few years, the 2nd owner might.
- If you are going to buy another house, sell your flat first and use the released equity.
- Only buy a house that you can own outright.

I may have bought another house and I accept it will fall in "value" but I sure wouldn't have 2 houses!

Damn right.

Moderators; can't we shove these off into a seperate sub-forum now?

No don't do it, bide yer time.

A friend of my mums sold her new build which is next door to Kevin Moran for 1.2 Mil , there is life outside the southeast of England, I agree with you about the housing nightmare to come but you need to get out more.

I was thinking the same thing.

This idea that £600k is now some kind of massive saving on a house that was once 'worth' £800k is ridiculous.

If the EA is suggesting they'd let it go for £640k and if there was a buyer willing to pay that now then that would be what that house is worth, if a buyer could be found. That's now in beginning of 2008 when the property slide has only just begun.

If you think £600k is a bargain then fill your boots but these threads asking for advise on purchases now because they've come down a few % from some joke price originally being asked are just getting tedious.

Sold to rent October 2006. Not looked at a house since, until...

We looked at a house yesterday at £495k. It is a new build that has been for sale for about 2 years - previously at £650k IIRC.

We can rent a similar house for £1300 per month.

Based on the latest quarterly drop of 1.6% in Scottish prices, we would be £4000 a month worse off by buying vs renting at the asking prices.

There is no point making an offer as I would need it for <<£350k to be totally happy.

So we're looking for the next rental property as we have to leave this one (5 bed 3000 sqft £875/month awesome location) by the summer.

I know lots of you think this guy is a troll but he sounds genuine to me and this is a classic example of the dilemma of the STRer. As I mentioned in another thread I have found a house I would like to buy and I'm struggling between the folly of buying at the top of the market and the feeling of limbo at living in a place I can't decorate or expand or make my own.

At the moment common sense is winning but it is naive to ignore the emotional aspect of buying and owning a home. There will be plenty of people like the OP who have bought for a variety of reasons even though they know that rationally it is a poor financial choice.

The reason this market is going to crash so hard and so fast IMHO is that people's emotional response won't get a look in when the banks simple refuses to lend them the money.

Look, I don't mind if he's trolling or not, it's just boring.

Some might argue that having a forum called housepricecrash where the majority of posts seem to be regarding Gold, the FTSE and the end of the world is pretty boring

Sell the flat in Manchester, don't buy the house in Hale, plunk proceeds in Gold bullion. Wait. Profit. Retire.


All in that order.

This is the dillemma facing all married men.

His logic versus her emotions.

And we all know who is going to win the battle, don't we?

Even if it means losing the war...

And they would be bang on the money.

So you write your a property bear yet your profile is that of a bull , do you know the differance ??

Lets say you are a genuine poster , offer them £499k , tell them thats all you can afford also everything over 500k pays 4% stamp on all of it , at 600k do you want to give Brown £24,000 ?? At least at 499k you only have to give that Pig £14,970.

Stop encouraging this thread!

Or what !

Paddles must be bitter about Wales beating England........

Got to be a troll. His rental is way over the odds.

He mentions South Manchester and then North Derbyshire in the same post which means he's near to me.

5-bed exec to rent £950pcm at the most, a friend has just been offered a stunning new-build one at £850.

Prices fell to 1% of their pre-crash value?

Troll or Tool , he/she can't even make his mind up if he's a bull or bear check my 9.04 post , when i posted that their name was at the bottom of the page so their still around ........lurking as they say The've sure got a lot of posts to answer as well .

Completely agree - something about "not trying to catch a falling knife?"

Anyone know of another anonymous website where I can get advice on what to do with six hundred thousand pounds please?.

Try this for the 600k a bit more certainty and completely anonymous

http://www.casino.co.uk/

Yes, this is the problem with making any offers now. If the financial system is not broken now nothing will break it. If the wheels are coming off and the VI`s are just trying their best to spin things a bit then we are going to see house prices hit the floor( where a lot of them should be anyway) In a year or two £600,000 will buy a very, very nice home, not some place with a builders yard out back.Come on get real, the press are determined to have their "Great Depression" you are a millionaire man!

Well, I have enjoyed reading your views, particularly from:

- Those with good advice (Downtraded, Tuffers, Mr. Yogi)

- The funnies (Bloo Loo, Laura)

- The muppets (Paddles - you post and bump an allegedly worthless thread... yawn & grey shark)


And yes, posting on housepricecrash, I do possess a preconception as to what the bottom line of the advice received will be, but I was more interested in analysis rather than being told 'don't do it'. Not a troll, though the scenario does contain a little bit of artistic license. A few cretins with no idea of the greater manchester housing market though (£600,000 too much outside of Hale!!! - try Bramhall, Disley, parts of Marple, Heaton Moor where you will get a substantial but hardly outstanding house for that much, even now (though I accept you will keep getting more for your money); £850 per month for a 5 bed exec home in south manchester: maybe by a council estate in Stockport, or maybe mitchbux you are just easily impressed by your mate!

The headline point has to be that at in the dying days of a bull market you have to stand back and consider whether a price drop makes something good value rather than just a little less expensive. The psychology of housebuying makes that much more difficult to recognise objectively than some of the armchair economists out there seem to appreciate. My actual line: am waiting for the flat to sell before a big purchase - that is the best hedge against the price of my target, as one poster helpfully identified. As it was bought for a five figure sum 10 years ago, I am pretty relaxed.

Oh, and the "bull" - set that by accident and doesn't seem to allow any change. So it will just have to keep upsetting the bedsitters. Or can I change it?

And how can he mention boring and then have a pic of JW staring us in the face. The irony.

Are we really interested in the opinion or postings of members who are looking at houses to the tune of £600,000 ? If that's your story, you don't need help or opinions from us, the majority of people here can't even afford an average house.

You said you were renting in North Derbyshire and commuting to Manchester. Agreed that £850pcm would only get you a 5-bed hovel/brothel once you get past Disley - but that is Cheshire for you.

£850 a month will get my two solicitor friends a beautiful 'exec' 5-bed new build in North Derbyshire, in catchment for a sought after local primary. The house has so many fancy branded bathroom suites she's threatening to lock half of them so they don't have to be cleaned. Rentals are much lower in ND because of the foul commute. £1300 pcm in ND and you are being done.

Easily impressed - no. I have mates with much bigger, more prestigious properties and even those would not rent for your supposed rental in ND.

Heatonfan please could you give an update on what happened with your offer and what your thinking is now? If I remember correctly, you sold in Bramhall?

Hopefully you won't get the trolling responses from the die-hard southerners who can't understand how anyone can live outside of Twickenham now we're in the sub-forum.

Cheers,
RK

Sorry RK - I don't follow this regional forum much.

Have to laugh at my original post now - it was before the "Should I buy or rent" thread was pinned to the top of the main forum. I hadn't taken any notice of any similar posts, so I probably deserved the troll accusations.

Oh, I offered £600k knowing it would be rejected and indeed it was, with no counter offer. Nothing wrong with testing the waters and we left it at that.

Sold up in Disley, October 2007, still renting in Bramhall as at December 2008 with a lease through to June 2009.

The manc city centre flat sold in the summer though with a real haircut from 2007 prices, though I made a good profit from purchase price simply because it was bought so long ago. Had I not been an avid follower of this site, it would no doubt still be for sale chasing the market down like a thousand other city centre flats.

Wife is now an avid Moneyweek reader and so I have not been under any pressure to buy a house for quite some time now.

The target house is, needless to say, still for sale. I suspect that £600k seems rather more attractive now! Will consider our position generally in the new year having casually started viewing a few properties in the last few weeks to see what is out there. 15% down and with a recession just coming into play... there is no rush.