Tried And Tested Successful Buying Strategies To Ensure Buying At A Good Price

[Alfie Moon]

During the 1990s house price crash my brother and 3 of our friends, in 1995, decided the time was ripe for buying houses (and they were right!) and used a strategy of identifying 5 or 6 properties that they liked, would be happy to live in, and went to view them. On the properties they liked they put in offers of -30% to -40% all at the same time. They had to put up with rejections, annoyed Estate Agents, etc. but all of them ended up buying houses for between -25% to -35% of the asking prices. And all of them were really happy with the houses they got. It really is a strategy that lots of buyers should be using now, and over the next 2 to 3 years to make sure that they buy a good property at a really good price. After all - do you want your money (and we are talking 10s if not 100s of thousands of pounds - depending on people's budgets) to go to Estate Agents and the mortgage lenders or do you want it to go into your savings, pensions and maximising the quality of life for you and your family, including children if you have any (now or in the future)?

Any other people know of tried and tested property buying strategies (that ensure you buy as cheaply as possible) either from the pst, including the 1990s house price crash, and/or the present?

[Mildura]

During the 1990s house price crash my brother and 3 of our friends, in 1995, decided the time was ripe for buying houses (and they were right!) and used a strategy of identifying 5 or 6 properties that they liked, would be happy to live in, and went to view them. On the properties they liked they put in offers of -30% to -40% all at the same time. They had to put up with rejections, annoyed Estate Agents, etc. but all of them ended up buying houses for between -25% to -35% of the asking prices. And all of them were really happy with the houses they got. It really is a strategy that lots of buyers should be using now, and over the next 2 to 3 years to make sure that they buy a good property at a really good price. After all - do you want your money (and we are talking 10s if not 100s of thousands of pounds - depending on people's budgets) to go to Estate Agents and the mortgage lenders or do you want it to go into your savings, pensions and maximising the quality of life for you and your family, including children if you have any (now or in the future)?

Any other people know of tried and tested property buying strategies (that ensure you buy as cheaply as possible) either from the pst, including the 1990s house price crash, and/or the present?

They got their timing spot on there!

[Alfie Moon]

They got their timing spot on there!

Yes, indeed, as did everyone who bought that year and for several years after that. As with the 1990s crash I suspect there will be a big/long (several years) window of opportunity for buyers this time round as well.

[bug09]

The OP has got it pretty much spot on.

For me, it's: do your reseearch. Look at sold prices. Use the aerial view on bing maps to spot the same type of house in a different place on the street/estate. Then look at the council's planning portal to view block plans (these have house numbers on them) - take the house number info along with the aerial pictures, combined with house sale data (eg. nethouseprices) and from there you can build up a profile of house sales over time.

This works on the basis that over a number of years and given a large enough sample of properties, people will have surely moved in and out of an area, thus creating the history of prices. Obviously though, you cannot know from this whether one property was a wreck and another was immaculate. You can spot (from the aerial pics) which ones have the bigger gardens / potential to extend - which will influence price. Divorce buyouts usually stick out because they are approx 50% of anything else at the same time (understandably).

Clearly there's many things that can be researched. Above is just one example.