Where do you sit in the grand scheme of things ?

[Huggy]

29 minutes ago, scottbeard said:

What does that even mean?!

Just using an exaggerated X Factor or Apprentice style percentage. You know the sort, "A million percent yes!!!". I'm not even after twice the amount of perfection either, so the value didn't need to be that high.

Or, in visual terms, a perfect amount of comfort in image 1 (although I suspect they have been MEWing, a lot) and the one I demand in image 2.

Turn it up to 11 I believe is the yoof version.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Huggy

[JB1973]

4 hours ago, ExeC-UK said:

I am curious as to peoples situations, and obviously don't be too specific as this is a public domain but where do you currently stand in the grand scheme of things? and what do you expect to happen ? 
.

Portfolio landlord.  I look at this site, as well as many other property sites, to see if I can pick up the general mood.  This site is predictably massively negative on house prices but I find landlord sites tend to be negative on the costs pushed on landlords but in general not too worried about house prices.  I guess most investors know property is a long term investment and that  it is all about time in the market, not timing the market.

I predict interest rates going up a little bit more, but not much further.  UK base rate max 3%. The country can't take much more and what sane decision makers are going to want to crash the housing market? Plus, I think inflation is already showing signs of slowing.   I am surprised that the rate rises so far don't seem to have done anything to cool demand for properties in and around outer London.  Porperty prices, rents and rental demand are all through the roof.  I thought 2019 prices were a bit high.  You would be disgusted at how much my portfolio value has grown since then.

I think the issue is that this country is largely about property.  Ask anyone with a lot of money in property what they would do with it if they closed out and most just don't know.  Somebody close to me won a lot of money the other day. Guess what the first thing she wants to do with it is?  Yep....buy a house.

 

 

 

 

[Rising_Damp]

33 minutes ago, scottbeard said:

What does that even mean?!

Two of everything (?)

[Nick Cash]

7 minutes ago, TheCountOfNowhere said:

Things must be bad, Trolly McTrollface is activating any old account to post nonsense.

 

Is that aimed at me?

[Sprite]

Looking to buy a 3 bedroom house in London but may have to compromise for a 2 bed flat soon if IR keep increasing.
Have had terrible experience renting so I am really looking forward to buying my own place and being 'King of my Castle'. 

I am concerned about the property prices declining but I think within a 5 year period, I won't have lost out - I can't see declines of 20% in London although I could see 5/10% which over 5 years may recover.

I only haven't bough sooner because I didn't have a high enough salary or deposit but the pandemic massively changed both for me.

[nightowl]

Saw this website way back in 2004 but still bought a year later....just shows how much notice I took of hpc posters lol

In reality, we didn't risk an interest only mortgage which were popular at the time and got a five year fix with the option to overpay to get the LTV down to survive any negative equity risk if having to re mortgage which saw us through the micro hpc of 2008/9 safely.

HPC posters of the time subtly influence our thinking back then, but I would take little notice of most posters now despite the possibility of a drop due to present economic headwinds.

Edited August 2, 2022 by nightowl

[fatspanner]

Bought last year after being fed up with renting a shitty new build for 5 years. Landlord wanted to increase the rent again and that was the motivation. 

 

Bought a probate which needed gutting on a 90% mortgage and  now it's close to done. I'm hoping we'll be down to a 60% ltv when the 5 year mortgage deal ends. 

[Bear Goggles]

Been renting for 20+ years, but in recent years have rented a large house in a prime location for a peppercorn rent (due to my wife’s unusual work circumstances). Have recently started trying to buy a house due to a substantial improvement in our financial situation. We could buy outright but will probably get about a 50% mortgage because I’m pretty sure I can beat the mortgage interest rate with the money invested elsewhere.

Do I regret not buying earlier? Yes, in hindsight it would have made more sense to max-out on a mortgage 20 years ago, but in that time I have built and exited a couple of companies, and taken a couple of sabbaticals to pursue my own interests and good causes. I don’t think I would have been able to take that risk or have that freedom with a large mortgage hanging over us.

We’re now financially secure as a family and I don’t expect to ever work full-time again, I only need work on projects that I enjoy, and I think one of those is now going to be renovating a house, but we need to find the right place first.

[Twenty Something]

3 hours ago, Si1 said:

We have a person who doesn't understand the price of financial risk or opportunity and who apparently is incapable of self editing.

Because you've been so bang on the money over the past however many years you care to look back? The thread that was brought up by @Martin_JD earlier from two and a bit years back very heavily features yourself squawking things like "what!?' and "You don't know what you're talking about dude" as if you're some kind of financial guru. It continues to fascinate me how those so wrong can be so convinced of their genius. 

 

 

[Blobsy]

I sit comfortably with my popcorn. The bulls are increasingly tetchy on here so it’s getting closer.

[fellow]

Joined this site in 2006 and was ready to buy in 2009 but was made redundant during the recession. Took 9 months to get a new job and took a few years to get on a decent salary.

Since then I've been reluctant to borrow so decided to save hard and buy with cash.

Finally saved enough to buy a decent house outright by 2020 but then obviously the pandemic hit so thought this would be a nailed on crash.

I've been lurking here the whole time but didn't post for about a decade until last year when the site went dead and I decided to create my own content to help make the site more interesting. Now I  have more belief than ever a crash is imminent.

[ExeC-UK]

4 hours ago, Flat Bear said:

What really does intrigue me, and I would appreciate an honest answer, is why you have decided this particular time to come back to this forum?

I think mainly during Covid, I thought it may have caused a crash then and wanted to seek viewpoints.

You have to take everything with a pinch of salt and its good to get a sentiment from posters on the economy etc.

+Theres not many decent forums that discuss economic issues even tho generally its a biased view.

[debtlessmanc]

Joined ages ago, family 2 kids

me and wife compressed in small terraced house (bought 1994) could get no place bigger paid off mortgage and waited for crash hence name. Joined this site as i felt that society should provide for families. Things just got worse and worse. I divorced ex as unworking in 2012. Much to my surprise met second wife then. Ex wife got house and pension. Then father died in 2014 and left me enough to buy with current wife and pay mortgage. I am here still, two children have no hope of ever owning that was always my worry.
 

[crash-and-burn]

I joined HPC (under another alias) pretty much when it first launched. I'd saved about 100k as a down payment towards a house around 2005, but kept expecting the usual cycle of boom and bust to take hold. Ended up in a relationship with a girl overseas, and eventually went from living in a small rented terrace on the outskirts of Manchester, to an old Haussmann apartment in a posh part of central Paris.

Thankfully I never took the bullet and purchased in the UK. After a few years we started a family, left the city and bought a house in a quaint part of the French countryside, no mortgage, just a small loan that was paid off after 5 years. We live a frugal, semi self-sufficient lifestyle, but don't have any debt, and still have the city apartment which gives a good rental income, and recently bought a house by the coast as another long-term rental, but with the idea of retiring there. None of this could have happened if I'd remained in the UK, coupled with a large dose of good fortune and luck.

In the grand scheme of things I know we have it good, but we're current asset rich and cash poor, so money does preoccupy me at times. The good thing is we've both gone through life being frugal, staying out of debt and having savings; there's not really any material things we want, plus I grow much of our food, so our cost of living is really low compared to most

Edited August 2, 2022 by crash-and-burn

[Orb]

12 hours ago, shlomo said:

Do you live in the North at the moment 

No, the midlands. 

[Stjames83]

15 hours ago, Huggy said:

I wonder how many home"owners" actually think it's their floor?

How many times we we have to go over this.

No. Even with a mortgage you have bought the house. It is yours. You own it.

The Title Document at the Land Registry will show your name as the owner.

However, you have borrowed money in order to buy it, just as you may borrow money from your credit card to buy a new suit/dress. The key difference is that the loan on the house has conditions attached to it, mainly that you cannot sell the house without paying it back. (there are one or 2 others..)

But meanwhile, for 25 years (or whatever) you can redecorate, extend, modernise, do whatever you want in YOUR house - unlike in a rented property.

Oh - and unlike a rental, you can't be asked/told to leave just because the landlord/bank wants you to.

[Mikhail Liebenstein]

I bought originally in 2000 (£132k), a 2 bed terrace, but then met my wife and by 2003 we'd traded up to to a 4 bed detached (£375k with £270k Mortgage). We then moved up again via a STR move in 2008-9 too a much bigger 4 bed, paying £750k with a £525k mortgage. The mortgage is now just under £300k and the house probably £1.5m.

Where the site helped me was seeing the 2008/9 crisis in the headlights as we actually sold the first 4 bed in 2008 and went into rented. We offered on the house we bought, but the  seller wanted £900k, however once Northern Rock Started blowing up etc, after 12 months on the market they capitulated and took our offer which was £150k below what they wanted.

 

It does require some bottle to go against the orthodoxy and if you get it wrong you can get stuffed. Certainly, I wouldn't have expected the current price rises to have continued since Covid, it does seem the money tap is what controls prices.

Edited August 3, 2022 by Mikhail Liebenstein

[Chunketh]

12 minutes ago, Stjames83 said:

Oh - and unlike a rental, you can't be asked/told to leave just because the landlord/bank wants you to

This.

as one gets older it becomes important.

[winkie]

Trying to make sure expenditure does not exceed income...... budgeting, and living more simply. Things that cost unnecessary money no longer want, desire or are required.....no longer save, no longer accumulate debt, try to no longer pay rents......if need to short-term only.

[shlomo]

1 hour ago, Mikhail Liebenstein said:

I bought originally in 2000 (£132k), a 2 bed terrace, but then met my wife and by 2003 we'd traded up to to a 4 bed detached (£375k with £270k Mortgage). We then moved up again via a STR move in 2008-9 too a much bigger 4 bed, paying £750k with a £525k mortgage. The mortgage is now just under £300k and the house probably £1.5m.

Where the site helped me was seeing the 2008/9 crisis in the headlights as we actually sold the first 4 bed in 2008 and went into rented. We offered on the house we bought, but the  seller wanted £900k, however once Northern Rock Started blowing up etc, after 12 months on the market they capitulated and took our offer which was £150k below what they wanted.

 

It does require some bottle to go against the orthodoxy and if you get it wrong you can get stuffed. Certainly, I wouldn't have expected the current price rises to have continued since Covid, it does seem the money tap is what controls prices.

Its nice to hear a good story.

[shlomo]

1 hour ago, Stjames83 said:

Oh - and unlike a rental, you can't be asked/told to leave just because the landlord/

I wonder how it would have unfolded If prices had gone negative.

[cruck]

20 hours ago, ExeC-UK said:

I have been a long time poster and changed to lurker after being burnt a bit by my decisions being influenced by the majority of people on here in the early 00's. (Had to use a new account as I forgot my 17 year old login!)

I took advice and made decisions by refraining from buying in 2003 and did not end up buying until 2015. 

Basically from what I see, post examples has never changed from what I saw back in 2003/4 on this site with exactly the same comments and sentiments just packaged differently. I find some peoples claims at 80% drops as crazy but obviously people are entitled to voice what they think.

I am curious as to peoples situations, and obviously don't be too specific as this is a public domain but where do you currently stand in the grand scheme of things? and what do you expect to happen ? 

Me.. well...

As mentioned I bought in 2015, the current equity in our house has 6x folded from our initial deposit (obviously speculative subject to house price values dropping/rising), we are on a 7 year fixed which ends in 2029 @ 1.65%.

The interest rates for the next 7 years do not affect me really, I'm planning on overpaying to reduce the capital down to a small amount for my final mortgage renewal at the end of the decade.

Am I a "Debt Slave"? .. Yes. Do I feel like I'm in trouble ? No... Do I feel like everyone's in trouble in general with things? Yes.

I expect rates to rise, inflation to eventually drop over 12-18 months, and rates to steady out around 3.5-4%. I expect property prices to drop from current values by about 20% over the next 2 years and steady out with minor YoY drop/rises after that. If wages spiral up, house prices will spiral back up, if rates go down, prices again will go back up.

I paid rent for 15 years and spent almost as much on rent as I could have bought a house outright for, but I did not because I listened to posters on here 18 years ago saying the same things. Im not saying its the same now, but I feel emotions and frustration blind peoples expectations.

I said many years ago on here about Gordon Brown, never underestimate the government willpower in trying anything to prop/help the housing market. Its been the same for 20 years now (and never used to be like this in the early 90's). And I don't think it will ever change.

I was registered on here back in 2005, been reading this site on and off since then, listened to different options on here, bought in 2014 in a Midlands town, relatively small mortgage nearly paid off from overpaying. Not really bothered about what it's worth, it's somewhere to live.

[hughjass]

Retired house paid for , £1200 per month pension income enjoy watching what is happening but am more worried about the state of the economy and price rises than I can evedr remember,

Been on here for 15 years expecting a huge crash, maybe will happen this winter.

[Huggy]

4 hours ago, Stjames83 said:

conditions attached

Yes, and so we need to distinguish between those who have no conditions attached and those that do. I think a few inverted commas is a fair representation of the identical outcome when a home"owner" and a renter don't pay their monthly dues.

It's also ripping the piss out of people who are so into the pwoperdeh religion that the title of homeowner is honorific. If they could put letters after their name to highlight their position, I'm sure many would jump at the chance.

For example, the Telegraph below has "homeowner" mentioned four times in this 500 word article from early today. They absolutely love it, as do their congregation.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/homeowners-cash-record-equity-cover-soaring-costs/

 

[Lagarde's Drift]

Bought a few years ago and cleared mortgage once the penalty repayment period was over. No debt and building cash pile for the bargains to come.

But in the grand scheme of things we are all dust so it doesn't matter.