[Btl Amateur On Yahoo Answers]

Wow. I cant believe people make such a financial commitment without doing their research, weighing up the odds and factoring in a safety net. Some people are really putting their peckers on the chopping block by jumping into BTL without knowing the facts.

Quite a few landlords are going to catch a cold by mismanaging their portfolio and being over optimistic about the market

[Wolverhampton]

http://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_...mpton&all=1

Disagree the selling prices for detached houses has been falling since 04 in the midlands... the 'average' detached hous sells for 210k in wolverhampton, a drop of 20k since 04. The houses you see on rightmove never sell, the price is knocked right down before they sell...

walk through the actual sold prices if you dont believe me

http://www.houseprices.co.uk/e.php?q=wolverhampton&n=100

20 12/04/2007 £285,000 Det. F No Map 12, Bearnett Drive, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, WV4 5NN

Your own data is at odds with your own argument:

1 12/04/2007 £285,000 Det. F No Map 12, Bearnett Drive, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, WV4 5NN

2 13/10/2006 £195,000 Det. F No Map 12, Bearnett Drive, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, WV4 5NN

I have been monitoring prices round Wolverhampton and immediate surrounding area, not west midlands as a whole. I dont care what figures the rest of the midlands is being quoted for. I can tell you round here that asking prices round here are still rising for decent houses in decent areas as there is a shortage. Figures from websites and government stats wont tell you if the average price for a decent area of a town has risen or if a crap area has fallen. It will just show an average for the town/region.

[Wolverhampton]

Here is another example of overpriced houses and deluded vendors in the area (Wolverhampton):

5 Bed House

This house looks good on write up but there is one big thing that it does not disclose. Check the map and the aerial map links on the page. It is actually within 40ft of the M6. It is the house closest to the motorway and is only separated by a few trees.

I do like the write up on it where it states "close to local shopping facilities and with convenient access to the West Midlands motorway network". Your not kidding!!!

Even if the M6 wasn't there, for the area it is still overpriced. I remember seeing it for sale a year ago for £499K. Now they have it on for £575K!!!!

The mid boggles. I believe that they are just chancing their arm for someone to be daft enough to pay this for it. What they fail to consider is that if anyone is ready to spend this kind of money, they are not going to be numpties.

I pass this house regularly as it is on route to the inlaws so i know its exact location even if the map shows it to be a few houses away from the M6.

How annoyed would you be with the estate agent if they didn't tell you about the M6 prior to the viewing and you take time out to go and visit the property?

[Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics]

With the figures they are producing where they are still showing house prices to be rising, wont they essentially be showing house prices from say 3 months earlier when the house price was agreed between the vendor and the buyer? It takes maybe an average of 3 months to complete a house sale (especially when in a chain), so any effects of the recent interest rate increases will take some time to filter through.

Its difficult to say that the figures they are showing for last month are a true snapshot of current sentiment on house prices. It could be that house prices may have truly fallen but wont show in their figures until they complete the deal and show up on the figures for August, by which time the BOE has panicked on these figures and introduced further rate rises.

Just my little take on the situation as an amateur in all this

[Estate Agents To Crash Before House Prices]

I cant see this service from Tesco causing a revolution in how houses are sold.

Too many people need help and advice in selling a house. As already mentioned in this thread, survey of the house is needed with measurements on all rooms, a valuation provided, a liaison between the vendor and the buyer etc etc etc etc. I will agree that there are a lot of crap EA's out there and i have had my own fingers burnt by two bad EA's. However, this tesco website is not going to provide the service an EA provides. Like all things in life, you get what you pay for. For some people it may work out a good alternative, but I dont think for one minute that we are going to see "For Let" signs outside Estate Agent Offices because of this Tesco service.

[Wolverhampton]

Bloody hell - £500k for a pleasant 4 bed detached in Wolverhampton? The world has gone plain bananas. I agree with you about keeping away from the black country if at all possible. Its a shame to see an area decline the way it has, but thats no reason to live in it. and bring kids up there. I remember when Merry Hill went up on the old steel works - turned into a consumer haven and a haven for boy racers of an evening.

Thanks for responding - i had some great times in that part of the country (Banks Ale played a large part) but £500k for a nice detached home is way over the odds!!

It is mental money when there are much better places outside of Wolverhampton which are a bit more rural and much much better places to live. House prices in neighboring towns such as Walsall and West Bromwich are also mental considering they are s**tholes. People cant understand how bad these areas are unless you have been there. I grew up there and lived in Wolves and West Brom until the last two years. Now i live outside of the area, i cant understand why i didn't move out before.

As these area's are not exactly nice area's to live (crime, crap neighbours, concrete jungles, murderous traffic, low paid jobs) you find that the small areas that are "decent" (like an oasis in a desert of s**t) then the prices go mental. For the same money, you may as just move out of the town/city and commute in. The extra time in travel is well worth it. It would crease me to know that i am paying a mortgage on a place in an area that i hate.

[Wolverhampton]

I used to spend a lot of time in dudley and wolverhampton. Whats a pleasant 4 bed detatched going for there these days - say in a nice road with a reasonable garden (nothing too grand - just pleasant). Interested to hear your view.

For a decent 4 bed house in a decent area (Penn/Tetenhall) your easily looking at £500k+. There is a shortage of houses in this part of the market in this area. Most are 2/3 bed houses which range from £120K-£350K. You certainly don't get a lot for your money considering its Wolverhampton. Wolverhampton is a bit run down and has a lot of dodgy areas so the better areas are commanding a premium. I work in Wolverhampton and used to live there too but moved out a couple of years ago as I have two young children and wanted a better area for them to grow up in. 30 mins from the center of town, there are nice villages which seems a world away from the urban jungle of the black country

[Wolverhampton]

Regular viewer, rare poster.

I have just been reading through the Wednesday edition of the Express and Star which is the local rag with the property feature. Local EA, Connells have their usual 2 page spread. Of the 68 properties on display, there are 24 highlighted as "Summer Sales" with fair reductions on some. Thats 35% of their 2 page spread showing price reductions. There is one property, that was on with EA Berrimans, which is shown on property snake (under WV4) as dropping from £675K to £625K, but is now on at Connells for £599K!!!!!

I am not saying that prices are dropping in the area but when people see "summer sale" and over a third of properties showing reductions, added to interest rate increases, it will certainly make people think differently about the valuations they give on their own house or a house they are looking to buy.

[French Collapse Begins]

My mother and her fella bought three cottages out there just over three years ago. They have spent thousands on advertising and lots more doing the places up and in that time they have had just 6 bookings. The cost of running these places is a lot more than you think. When they come with a fair bit of land, there are massive expenses in just keeping the grounds looking tidy.

The revenue they have had from it has not even come to anywhere near covering the costs of the gardener, let alone advertising costs, repayments, etc.

The thing that is knackering them is that costs of getting there are too expensive (in Brittany). People can go to better places for less.

I would certainly look around the other cottages/gites in the local area that are renting and see how full they are before investing.

[Shropshire Area]

Shropshire’s house prices remained relatively stable last month as the county recovered from a string of interest rate rises which triggered three consecutive months of decline.The majority of estate agents reported very little change in local property values during February, according to the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Fifty-five per cent of Shropshire estate agents reported static prices during the month, compared with just 22 per cent who saw a fall. The rest claimed values had started to slowly rise.

They were cautiously optimistic for the coming months. Oswestry estate agent Jeremy Dell, the county’s RICS spokesperson, said: “The Shropshire housing market has been ticking over at a steady pace during February, with a respectable pick up in activity as we headed into March.

“Buyers are being cautious as the cost of borrowing increases following the recent base rate rises, but good quality properties are selling and often achieve their asking price.”

He added: “With the number of available properties remaining low, prices should continue to hold up well as we head toward a potentially busier springtime.”

Mr Dell said the Shropshire picture mirrored the national trend, where house price rises slowed to the slowest pace since last May as interest rate hikes have worsened buyer affordability.

But the county appears to be bucking the UK picture in terms of buyer inquiries, which are holding up well while footfall in many other parts of the country is declining. In some parts of Britain, one in five estate agents is reporting a fall in inquiries.

And nationally, new instructions to sell property have gone nine months without a rise - the longest stretch in seven years - although in Shropshire, a small increase was reported after a bad start to the year.

Harvey Williams of the RICS said the West Midlands market was cooling slightly on the back of higher interest rates. And he added: “Affordability remains a major issue for first time buyers.

“We are finding that first time buyers are becoming more imaginative about looking for ways around the problem of affordability. For example, we are seeing more shared ownership schemes in this region.”

Source