kara gee

It seems that the higher the arrangement fee, the better the rate. Often the 2 balance out when you work out the amount paid for the tie-in period. IMO rates will go up soon, so best to fix now if you can afford the rediculous arrangement fee. My guess is when rates start to go up, arrangement fees will go down, but if you wait, you may lose the chance of getting a 10 year fixed too.

Ok, I'll stop being lazy. Here's a handful. History of house prices http://ainsworld.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/...-prices-part-1/ I million + in Negative equity http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11...llion-edge.html Moneyweek – Good stuff http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/prope...hart-14664.aspx http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/prope...fall-14709.aspx http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/prope...-yet-14700.aspx http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/prope...fall-14677.aspx

That'd be a cool job, getting paid whilst sitting on my bum reading HPC all day. Sign me up!

My family have lived in 3 houses in tne past 18 months. It's really not fun moving esp with kids, but I've found each move to be really beneficial in the short-term. If you have a couple of months to find a new home, that will give you the opportunity to look for a lovely rental home. (Don't buy). My advice would be to ring the rental agents at least every other day, don't trust that the agent is working in your best interest to find you the best home. My experience is most agents are listless, un-trustworthy, careless and don't give a s**t about anyone. Look specifically for homes which haven't previously been rented out. Agents seem to think it's ok to show a family round a tatty student digs. The owner of my rented property has moved to OZ with his family and couldn't sell. It's a lovely family house which has been looked after. I saw it on the first day it was marketed and made sure I was the first to view and immmidiately applied for it. Although there is a glut of rental homes, you need to be super-quick to get the nicest. Good Luck and don't be pressured to buy.

I don't think there's a function on HPC, just meant on your IE. Actually just posted a new topic to see if anyone has saved such articles (save trawling through the blogs). I wouldn't mind keeping some of these news blogs myself.

I'm trying to get together a list of 'BRILLIANT' news articles that have been posted on the News Blog on HPC in the last few months. Factual, statistical and truthful articles only. Graphs, charts, tables, facts and figures etc. I'm guessing there are a few people who might have saved some of the links (I haven't unfortunately)of these great news links. I want to get this list together in order to counteract all the recent property ramping lies that are being spread through these 'green shoots' media posts recently. Thanks KG

There's been some brilliant factual and statistical articles posted on HPC even in the last few weeks (i haven't saved them though, but they'll be on the blog, otherwise I would have included the links). These blow all the ramping out of the water and affirm what you already believe. Might be worth keeping a few in your favourites as a bit of a reminder to keep the faith.

Ahhh, I think you're right. There's so much 'green shoots' property ramping at the mo, it's easy to become dispirited with the whole thing. Total-Injustice - My advice is, keep reading the FACTS, ignore the ramping nonsence, you know deep-down these are just tricks into making us feel insecure in the hope that we'll jump back into the market way prematurely. It's fine to real the ramping rubbish, just make sure you can counter-balance all of it with factual articles too.

If I had that sort of money, presonally I'd buy a care home. And make it the best care home around. I'm sick of hearing about old folk getting treated like sh*t when they can no longer look after themselves. We're an aging population so that's not a business that'll go down the pan. If you can turn a small profit, great. Otherwise a bit of altruism never hurt anyone.

QUOTE (kara gee @ Apr 10 2009, 09:17 AM) I went to an auction recently too and was shocked that nearly everything sold to close to the asking price. Worth looking at the guide price though.....what would it have been in Easter 07? Methinks current guide prices are down on what they were. I also think there's a lot of cash floating about. If you had £200k sat in a bank earning nothing, or you could buy a decent property outright and rent it out for £700 a month, even if the house depreciates and rents reduce a bit, you'll still get a better income than leaving the money in the bank. As someone said before, with so much economic uncertainty getting your cash out of the bank may not be a bad thing. Also as bullish as this may sound, 'desirable' areas haven't dropped to the same levels as say city cantre flats or poor towns. I agree, I was just speculating why people would be buying right now. Not what I'd do if I had a spare 200k floating about.

You've just agreed with what I said then, that desirable areas aren't declining at the same rate as undesirable areas (and city flats). Also what you and I consider desirable/undesirable are possibly 2 different things. I'd quite like to live in the peak district near my mum with a lovely view from my back door. T'aint gonna happen though as these sorts of properties are way out of my reach and continue to sell at close to peak figures. I'd love it if it wasn't true, but it is!

I think probably a lot of us on here who are careful with our money and haven't bought stupid houses and 4x4s we can't afford ('cause we neeeeeed them), are probably not feeling any effects of the recession at all. (as long as your job's ok). But there are thousands feeling the meltdown rightnow. I doubt the depression will cause riots on the streets, we seem to have become way too llistless for all of that. It's climate change that's going to lead to the real meltdown.

Yeah, I'm trying to get my head around the same thing at the moment, I posted 'A question to the Bulls' earlier about the same thing. I think about my children and I'm scared. Why is it good for them to pay 6x salary for a house? I'd be happier knowing they'd be paying 2x salary and just higher taxes to support the elderly etc.

I went to an auction recently too and was shocked that nearly everything sold to close to the asking price. Worth looking at the guide price though.....what would it have been in Easter 07? Methinks current guide prices are down on what they were. I also think there's a lot of cash floating about. If you had £200k sat in a bank earning nothing, or you could buy a decent property outright and rent it out for £700 a month, even if the house depreciates and rents reduce a bit, you'll still get a better income than leaving the money in the bank. As someone said before, with so much economic uncertainty getting your cash out of the bank may not be a bad thing. Also as bullish as this may sound, 'desirable' areas haven't dropped to the same levels as say city cantre flats or poor towns.

Sounds like a brilliant idea. As long as this doesn't affect you too much like if you have kids, would it lower your working tax credits etc. They're sneaky and are good at smelling a rat, make sure you cover all bases. However, it;s very admirable, lovely to see you're looking out for your nan. It's the way of the future, we HAVE to start looking after our elderly and stop relying on the state. Good work.

I've been racking my brain for ages now trying to genuinely look for reasons why housing prices shouldn't fall or even that they should continue to go up as the bulls among you think they should. The only reason I can think of is that those who bought their homes during the last few years will end up in negative equity. I agree, that is an awful financial situation if you need to sell, but I can't help but think that the the numbersa that would benefit a massive drop, would out-weigh massively those who bought at peak and now 'need' to sell. What actual economic benefits are there for housing to remain astronomically high? I can only see negatives to high housing costs. But am I missing something? Bullish news articles talk of 'recovery', but prices going back up to 07 levels? I just can't see any benefit to anyone other than those who bought around that time. I'm just trying to get a rounded viewpoint here, not trying to be a self-righteous smug so-and-so.

Drat! Will try and catch later on iplayer. Obviously racing is way more important! Not that whatever Darlinghad to say will have much truth to it

So what does it mean?? For the likes of me for example who sold up in 07 and is happily renting with no debts and cash in the bank. Keep trying to find out through other posts too but ne relpies. It's why I joined up here really, to try and understand the economics a bit better.

What do you mean by move out of cash? I'm missing the obvious!

Not paranoid, just interested. Actually your initial post seemed really genuine and it sounded like you had your head screwed on but just looking for a bit of advice until you said the 'creepy mate, creepy' bit. Bit offensive. Could have just used the 'EA' excuse instead. Then no bother. If you're serious about selling, go to auction. your property will sell for what it's worth. Or you could draw out the process for an age with the useless EA's meanwhile your house will be deprieciating further and potential buyers will know it. If you get a sale, I wouldn;t jump into buying the old werck unless you are absolutely ruled over by your heart and it will be your family home for a long time. Instead, go into rented on a 6 month contract, sit back and watch. If the wreck is being over-run by proceedable cash offers and jou feel you just can;t lose it, then go ahead and buy. You'll need to be in rented anyway whilst doing up the place. Otherwise sit back, relax in your rented pad and wait patiently for prices to come down further. Then swoop.

Timak - Where abouts are you looking?

Wooaahh.....ok, I've been going over thread after thread trying to get my head round all of this, but struggling a bit as the posters on here are mostly up to speed, I need an idiots guide or something to set me straight. Anyone have time to answer these for me? Who runs the IMF? Where will the IMF get its money from? How does EU eg. UK, give money to IMF? Brief best/worst case senario? Daddy Bear, after reading some of your previous threads, does your plan for buying at 30% off peak still stand and how much longer are you prepared to wait? I appear to be in a similar position to you and although I need to form my own opinion, I'd just like to clarify what your plan is if that's ok. Thanks

Apart from a couple of posters, it looks like general opinion is 'leave well alone'. Gosh, that'll be tough to do, but you're probably right. The information is out there if they want it. So it can be added to the long list of subjects to avoid......politic, religion, money, economy, climate change and hpc. So Pretty much anything imortant and interesting. Football & celebrities it is then!

If like me, you're a (secretly) smug STRer, and/or obsess to wierdly fanatical levels about the current markets. (From what I've seen on this forum so far, there are quite a few). Do you, should you, and would you 'advise' (bad word) or give pointers to you friends or family with mortgages? It just seems that every mortgage holder I know are blissfully unaware of what's going on in the world. Example: A recently married couple I know have 2 mortgages between them. I want to tell them to jump ship NOW, sell at auction and except a bit of a hit. (both bought around 2004, so shouldn't be too much of a loss). They are good friends, and feel like I can talk to them, but just wondering what the best approach would be. Anyone else had these sort of converations wiwth their mates? How did it go? Or should I keep my nose out of other folks financial affairs?

Can you just do an online credit check yourself? I'm sure experien have been advertising free credit checks recenty. Sorry I don't have an answer for you though.