southeast

This is exactly why I try and stick to the philosophy of carrying on with your orignal plan/s and just see what happens in parallel (not that I always stick to this rule). What do I mean by this, well lets say you apply for a job, but your current employer makes you an offer you can't refuse, you should still go to the other interview regardless as you can never tell what will happen (i.e. you dont go for the interview and the offer you just couldn't refuse turns out to be a waste of time!).... You may have heard the quote 'markets often go further than expected, up or down, and defy logic', this defying logic could go on for the next 5 or 10 years, by which time one could have paid off a mortgage with a bit of overpaying. Its all about timing...... To one of the previous comments about renting becoming the norm, I still think people like the idea of owning regardless of HPI. The fact that you pay maintenance and lose flexability is no big deal if you accept this fact before making the decision. Afterall we buy cars when we could rent!

So if you take sites like the links to the DM and Estate Agent today the negative posts (or rather the bearish posts) are most likely from people on here, so not a representative view of the country. However if you read the comments on the latest governement/bank handout on the BBC almost everyone is against it, and sort of realises that debt isnt growth, so forgetting house prices for a minute the general theme that debt is bad seems to be getting through. However this may not equate to personal debt in their heads!

Forgot to add, but after our spell of renting we are starting to get annoyed with various aspects, including the agent, and I am becoming inpatient, and scared that our deposit might be at risk or end up being worth less (thats worth less, not worthless btw)!

I was torn between 'get it' and 'confused', I went for confused. I have had quite a few bearish comments from people at work recently, even from bullish people, but then a week or so later they revert lol. Thats why I was torn, example someone asked me if I still lived near to them, I replied that I had moved a little further away as we are renting after selling. The response,' yes think that was a good idea', this from a full on boomer generation type with a v nice house. Thats not the reason we decided to rent, just that buying and selling is a PITA and thought that it was low risk what with the state of the market and would allow us to take our time, get the house we want and this combined with the small possibility that prices could drop!

This very much indeed sounds like a monthly service charge. The statement that councils don't adopt is complete BS, there may be some areas within the development that remain undopted and communal areas and playgrounds and lighting in non adopted areas. £75 sounds way too expensive, I know a couple of people that have to pay these charges, one in a ~30 year old development and its about £20 a month (get a fair amount of benafit), and another in a <10 year development and they get charged about £35 a month for nothing! yes nothing. A few of the residents refuse to pay and some of the other residents garden the communal areas anyway and the lighting is broken! Say you want it if you can opt out, or work out a reasonable discount for say 10years worth lol. 106 argeements are to provide amenity or maintian existing ones, not for roads per se. i.e. new cycle paths, fund swimming pools, leisure facilities, maintain SSSIs etc. Thats why they are only charged on new houses and not extensions/replacements. There is nothing wrong with new builds per se, just some of the big mass prodcued ones! Some of the small builders 'can' build loverly well built houses better than anything in the past! If you have ever lived in a high quality, well sized new build you would never want to live in a house with 'character' ever!

Its a difficult call. I thought it would ease off a bit to be honest, I didn’t anticipate the widespread attempts at propping everything up at the expense of savers. I thought they would at least make token gestures to all the pensioners with savings. On this basis and the very latest uber printing/pumping attempts I went for flat! Way back in the early 00's I thought this can’t possibly go on and almost didn't buy, we upped our final offer on a 1st property by 1k and said to ourselves if they don’t accept it we won't buy. Well they did and to be honest I am glad they did or I don’t think we would be in much of a position to buy anything today. Again in the mid 00's we upsized and took out a mortgage that at the time scared us stupid, borrowing more than we really felt comfortable with (although it looks quite modest compared to the amounts some of the FTB'ers are looking at these days). In 08 it looked like things might get better, but interest rates plummeted, and for a short time this made us quite well off, low mortgage payments, but high interest on savings, but as this went on so long and bonus periods ended etc we are just stuck with low interest rates and having finally managed to sell after several years of failures and reduced offers, a 'reasonable' rent payment on a nice rental. Over this rental period we have looked at a few houses with a view to finding something nice that is affordable (not suggesting any significant reduction from peak, but just something good that could be lived in forever more, who wants to pay stamp duty at 3/4% more than once in their life ffs). Things have been missed, in hindsight other houses would have done! However after all this time and the relentless attempts at propping up the market I think it might be time to give in. Note we are in a good position to buy and could easily afford something nice/ok, I wouldn’t advocate people in their early 20's with small deposits buying as they can sit it out and see what happens, even if it only results in wage inflation (in the end). I don’t think there will now be anything that could be called a crash, not sure if I ever did to be honest, but I do hope that things will become more sensible, not for myself but future generations and the UK, even if this means I lose out a bit if I/we do buy in the near future. I think people are 'getting it' generally, but when it comes to their house, or their 'profit' it still gets forgotten, or its different here or whatever. In reality its quite flat round here with sporadic activity, some ups, some downs, some pretty big chunks off asking prices for some (the kite flyers etc that is, not real reductions) and a handful of quite substantial losses for people who bought at peak (I do feel a bit sorry for these people. However I dont feel sorry for anyone whos house is just not 'worth' as much as it was last week, even though they bought it in 1970 for 2k or whatever, they really annoy me!) Japan anyone?

Yea that one annoys me too. Its usually listed on something that is niether ordinary or stunning, but some odd looking house or a bit of a bodge, and putting 'architect designed' is somehow supposed to hide the fact!

Having graduated in the 90's I dont think this is the case. It started to go down hill when they intorduced fees in 96/97 or whatever, then they lowered the entry requirements and instantly devalued the whole system. This is very apparent where I work, very few people of my age group, but a lot of younger grads in their mid 20's, many of which dont seem to have an idea about anything (although there are a few good ones).

Didnt work properly earlier in the week, been really bad today. Havent had too many problems in the past. Struggled to get back on here to post this!

Down in the southeast it would seem that they only allow new building on greenfield near motorways, pylons and railway lines. All of which probably contribute to poor health, but it seems they're the only acceptable sites for NIMBYS. On another note, why do builders then cut so many of the trees down on these sites, they dont even always build houses on the bit where they have cut them down either. Why not leave a 10m thick buffer of trees between the motorway and housing develoment, crazy! or shock horror create screening between streets, with trees and green space! A housing development not that far from me, was a flood plain (not sure if defences were put in), next to motorway and A-road, pylons running right accross it (over the top of some of the houses), near a railway line and some sort of gypo/caravan site to boot. Oh and Wimpey build! What a combination..........No one else would have a use for it, sell it to wimpey for some 'sought after development' LOL.

This bit is sooo true: "The credibility gap between typical asking prices and resultant sale prices means that many buyers are being mercenary when it comes to making offers," he said. "Most have learned that an asking price is not necessarily a guide to current value and are often treating them derision. Selling has never been tougher." Nice house we like sold at peak, thinking of going in with an offer, its so difficult for people to accept less than they paid though (physcologically), you can sort of feel sorry for them (a bit). Its the old people who bought for 50k or whatever and have their 500k house up for 700k and wont drop anything becasue its worth it. Its not the price, its that the wrong people are coming round who cant afford it init! If a house is priced correctly, or even slightly cheaply it sells around here in days (even before hitting rightmove). What is getting me at the moment is that even some of the overpriced stuff is selling eventually. What is frustrating though is the figures take so long to appear on the sold price websites that you cant get an accurate picture of the market in a reasnable timeframe. I think I have a pretty good handle on the local market, its just everyone else doesn't!!!!

My area, not too far from Farnham seems to be booming at the moment, well at least a lot of SSTC, which is very depressing One for you Farnham boys though, http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32922118.html, been reduced from 550 to 500 to 475, think it may have started in the 600s, cant remember, maybe 625. Looks like the road is an issue!

Why waste your time complaining, if you think they are d*cks now, wait untill you upset them lol..... When we have viewed distressed sales, auction lots, open days there are always shed loads of nosey people who just want a look, loads of sarah beenie wannabes too etc. We have once or twice maybe over the 10 or so years of buying and selling had back to back viewings with other people and that is annoying, however from an agents point of view it can be more time efficient i guess. Last time we sold a house we had an entire day of bookings, not quite back to back, and that takes it out of you I can tell you (did the viewings ourself rather than the agent).......having one dickass round for a viewing is one thing, but 10 or so couples in a day, the re*ard questions start to get annoying. Generalising now, not in relation to the op but..........I dont really believe the consipracy theories about EAs getting their mates to come round etc, I just think they can convince some of the timewasters to look at yours, they know they are timewasters but if they get people round in the first week it makes them look good, or people who can't quite afford it, on the basis that 'you can always make them an offer'.

There was something similar round this way, although not holiday related. An old semi-detached cottage couldn't sell for like 300k more than they paid in 2004 (yes they wanted over 700k for something 'worth' about 400 ish) so converted the garage to a one bedroom detached 'house'. Then lowered the price of the main house and wacked the one bed 'house' up for nearly 200k, I dont think it sold, maybe they manged to rent it out who knows (a quick rightmove comparison report search just made me chuckle though, it looked sooo bad). Its now the worst house in the best street, Phil/Kirsty buy buy buy!!! The thing is although they put in a nice looking kitchen, it was still obviously a garage, due to the narrow long nature of it. Someone would have to have been a complete moron to have bought it for that price (or any price in my mind). They still havent sold the main house after about 2 years on and off the market. Now has the added advatage of an annoying 1 bed 'house' in the garden too lol!

In my area of the southeast I would say house builders fall into three categories and only one of them truley delivers a good quality home that I would want to live in. The three categories I would say exist are: (1. really good low volume, 2. Upper end of the mainstream 3. mainstream volume rubbish) 1. Small local builders that build a handfull of houses between them each year, i.e. using proper materials, wooden windows, hand made roof tiles, good qaulity brick work or reclaimed bricks, or perhaps oakframed houses. There are about 5 or 6 local to me that I can think of, probably a few more kicking about. One of which we bought a house from and it was of very good quality. 2. The likes of Bewley and Berkley (sorry spelling) who are a little better than the mainstream builders and provide a better product, but at a price. I have seen quite a lot of their houses round here sell at quite a discount when the first owner sells up. i.e they were paying a premium for the quality. 3. The big household names. We looked at a house recently by one of the big names, and although the birck work etc look ok the windows appeared to be the cheapest plastic going and the internal fittings such as doors were the most rubbish carboard type things you have seen and for a mere 700k bargin! So there are nice good quaity new homes, but they are few and far between, and if you want a big plot there is going to be a serious premium to pay. Finding your own plot is one way to go, but not one we have managed yet, and we have tried very hard to find something decent/affordable... So in answer to the question search for local builders on the web....

Ha ha, this post has cheered me up. I am not surprised though ret*rds..... Assuming that an agent has made a reasonable effort at marketing there is then only ever one reason a house doesnt sell....price....you just have to balance the plus and minus points against it (someone will always buy at the right price as everyone has differnt priorities). There is a house near me, which would be of interest if it wasnt priced 150k over-the-top, and the sellers think its because of the road apparently (well its not that close) I guess the feedback has just been polite to avoid the P word. Its been on the market for something like 4 years on and off, so it must be the price, DE-luded lol...

No I was refering to one I posted about, didnt put a link though as i dont want to identify exactly where I am, but an expesive part of the south east........

cant rememebr if I posted this before but. House came onthe market in summer 2010 for around 450 couldnt sell, increased asking price to like 500, went under offer, never showed on price reports though, didnt know what had happened. Now on for around 550k genius (so obviously never completed) . At the time one of the local agents said it wasnt even worth 450 apparently.......I will watch with interest lol... The trouble is people compare really nice properties in really nice areas to theirs and overlook the drawbacks. That particuar exmaple is in a nice area, but in one of the worst streets (I'm being a snob here btw), they have also done some pretty rubbish extension into the garage type stuff too.

I know sometimes new properties lose a bit as people have paid a premium, but this seemed like a lot to me considering the timeframe.

Not on facebook or twitter, so can anyone who is 'retweet' or 'like' or whatever so that all your friends see it too.............I even think the article sounds a bit harsh, we were/are fast giving up any hope of the market changing for the better..... although to cheer some of you bears up, look at this drop (see zoopla link, No 3) sold 2003 £450k, sold 2012 £375, so take the drop, add stamp duty/buying/selling fees, plus a bit of diy, you must be talking 90k to 100k loss! From the outside and detials it looked like a very nice house too! http://www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/spencers-wood/grovelands-road/

Well thats just made my day....not!

In my limited experience fees seemed to be anywhere between 1% and 1.7% plus VAT (although I have heard of people paying 2%!) On the couple of occaisons that I have sold property I have negotiated them down quite a bit. BUT this may be a false econemy, as with too little incentive they cant be bothered. The first property I ever tried to sell I negotiated a 1% fee, and to say they were useless is a compliment. I changed agents to one charging 1.5%, they still didnt sell it quickly but got a lot of people throught the door, so we knew it must have been overpriced in the end. They got us a sale, but the most surprising thing, when the buyers pulled out they made a lot of effort to get it sold again, so much so that 4/5 out of the subsequnet 10 viewers actually said how good (yes you read that right, good) the agent was. So the question why they didnt make this effort to start with, they got a second offer in just 2 weeks flat! I have heard of people offering more if the agent gets a higher price, rather than a straight percentage, dont forget it really needs to be worth their while for the lazy so and sos to make any real effort.

Strutt and parker telling people to be realistic, that made me laugh, out of all the agents around here they are the biggest over valuer by far, i have seen so many at 15-20% off the original asking price when they finally sell. Even then they sell at around or just below 2007 price, so they really are taking the michael! The houses in the examples are hardly cheap are they ffs!

To be honest its best not to make threats with anyone about pulling out etc, is just annoys everyone. Your best bet, considering you have already spoken to the oweners, is to polietly contact them again and say you are surprised it is still showing as available as you had asked the agent to make it clear there was an offer. Give them some confidence by telling them how soon you will be having the survey done etc. If it is them who are insistant at still marketing it then they will probably be a pain to deal with in the long run anyway!! Most people are ok when you speak to them, its the second guessing etc which often causes the fall out, i.e. no communication, and communication through thirds parties like useless agents! good luck

I have never known anyone get a valuation for anything different from what they have offered. Obviously some people get valuations for less based on defects, but personally I haven't seen this. so its a sort of....sounds about right....approach, as long as the deposit is big enough they dont give a to*s. This worries me as when I come to buy again I want an imparitial view to support that I am not paying too much, however I don't think I will get it!!!