Trying to buy a house in this area is near impossible

[Otta]

When I bought recently I used obe of these faceless companies "premier property Lawers" and whilst it was reasonably cheap, they were pretty shit.

If I was doing it again I'd spend a bit nore on someone with a smaller caseload. I felt like I was having to do half the work I'd paid them to do!

[LondonMix]

The solicitors in my transaction were total pants. They were without a doubt the weakest link. Told us that nothing was outstanding and when we spoke directly to our buyers it turns out there had been a series of questions outstanding for two weeks that hadn?t been passed along to us?

[Loz]

I've had wildly varying experiences within the same solicitors. The conveyancer I had for a failed sale was OK, competent but nothing great. When I lined up another sale, I went back to the same company and got one of the most useless individuals ever. Fortunately, she left the company and she was replaced by someone who was a bit slow, but very, very diligent and her work saved the sale after some last minute complications.

I think all conveyancers have a big workload shoved onto them, which is why they take ages to respond to any emails.

I've also used one of those cheapie on-line companies for a reasonably simple mortgage change. They did the job, but they work on job queue system, so you get a different person every time you contact them. You get no single point of contact to work with, which is not good.

[cle]

It's a real shame that Rightmove/Zoopla/Prime Location don't make it easier for people to list their homes privately?

Places like ES and Gumtree are more for renters.

But people hunting to buy a flat or home will most likely use those sites. I could easily whizz round with an iPhone camea, write a description, dig out my floorplan from when I bought it (and photoshop out the agent logo) - and do the viewings and negotiation. It's not a high skill job by any means.

I wish Rightmove etc were more open to this with a flat fee for listing. 2% on a 750k sale is 15k for example - which could be the difference between tiers of LTV on your next mortgage, or a good whack of stamp duty (another robbery).

Are there any people who've bought or sold privately, and how did they do so?

[El Pibe]

"But people hunting to buy a flat or home will most likely use those sites. I could easily whizz round with an iPhone camea, write a description, dig out my floorplan from when I bought it (and photoshop out the agent logo) - and do the viewings and negotiation. It's not a high skill job by any means."

ok we rented, but we did this (though we legally owned our floorplan) and it was a piece of piss!!

[HelBel65]

No connection but I happened to read about this company in yesterday's Sunday Times - latest venture by the bloke who bought us Poundland and became a multi millionaire in the process!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2588481/Poundland-tycoon-sell-house-390-Supremo-sets-sights-estate-agents-fixed-prices-website-allow-owners-cut-middle-man.html

http://www.estatesdirect.com/

[Earl Aelfheah]

The government is enabling our dangerous and damaging addiction to property speculation.

They have increased the Right to Buy ?discount? to ?75,000 or 60% of a houses value (70% for a flat). A year ago the maximum discount in London was increased to ?100,000. Public assets acquired over a long time are being thrown away - sold off way below market value and for significantly less than the cost of providing replacements. Many (36% according to a 2013 London Assembly report) are now being let by councils from private landlords, or by individuals who pay the crazy rents demanded from housing benefit (i.e. paid by the taxpayers who also paid for the houses to be built in the first place).

Many of these discounted council houses are acquired by speculators, buying properties through ?deferred transaction agreements?. Meanwhile, incentives for buy-to-let are higher than those offered for any other investment.

All of this is a insane. The government claims to want to bring down the deficit ? well the best way to do this in the long term is to stop pursuing policies which stoke up house prices and rip off rents (thereby hugely increasing the housing benefit bill), stop selling off public assets at a huge loss, stop incentivising property speculation (as opposed to ?home? ownership) and invest heavily in new social housing... In my opinion

[Zebedee Tring]

Beauval Road - four bedroom house on offer for ?1,175,000. Unbelievable a few years ago, though if a Frogley Road house is potentially worth c. ?900,000, this would not be excessive. Crazy, however, for people trying to get into, or move up the property ladder.

[Mustard]

I thought the right to buy discounts had dropped drastically at one point. That's what I had heard from people trying to by their council property. Sounds like they have zoomed up again. Why would this be?

[Earl Aelfheah]

The same reason as 'help to buy'- because no matter how unsustainable, ill advised and ultimately damaging current housing policies may be, they have in the short term stoked up property prices, encouraged more consumer spending and 'improved' the economy. In the long term of course it is ruinous, but there is an election approaching.

[Earl Aelfheah]

The recent pension reforms will exacerbate the situation further, pouring more money into the buy-to-let market. Future generations pay for it all.

[fizzmoll]

Here's an interesting article to contrast the current situation in Britain: http://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2014/02/02/in-worlds-best-run-economy-home-prices-just-keep-falling-because-thats-what-home-prices-are-supposed-to-do/

[Mustard]

rahrahrah Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The same reason as 'help to buy'- because no

> matter how unsustainable, ill advised and

> ultimately damaging current housing policies may

> be, they have in the short term stoked up property

> prices, encouraged more consumer spending and

> 'improved' the economy. In the long term of course

> it is ruinous, but there is an election

> approaching.

But why would the local authorities do themselves out of money by ramping up the discount? Surely they should be concerned about their budgets.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Discounts are dictated at national level.

[Mick Mac]

cle Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's a real shame that Rightmove/Zoopla/Prime

> Location don't make it easier for people to list

> their homes privately?

> Places like ES and Gumtree are more for renters.

>

It's pretty easy to get your house on rightmove for a flat fee - just google it, lots of online companies who list there for you cheaply, did it recently or a rental property.

I even googled it for you ... http://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/privately-advertise-and-sell-your-house-on-rightmove/

[Loz]

fizzmoll Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Here's an interesting article to contrast the

> current situation in Britain:

> http://www.forbes.com

Meanwhile demand for owner occupation is curbed by German regulation. German banks, for instance, are rarely permitted to lend more than 80 percent of the value of a property, thus a would-be home buyer first needs to accumulate a deposit of at least 20 percent. To cap it all, ownership of a home is subject to a serious consumption tax, while landlords are encouraged by favorable tax treatment to maximize the availability of rental properties.

I can see that going down well...

[hpsaucey]

And then you get idiotic comments by kris hopkins on newsnight -housing minister - in charge of policy - beggars belief!

[StraferJack]

with who loz?

obviously you were being sarcastic but you can see the benefits of the german system right?

[Loz]

Given the number of people complaining about BTLers, taxing home owner-occupiers and big tax advantages for landlords will cause a riot, SJ.

[Mellors]

> They have increased the Right to Buy ?discount? to

> ?75,000 or 60% of a houses value (70% for a flat).

> A year ago the maximum discount in London was

> increased to ?100,000.

This is true, although very few social tenants qualify for Right to Buy - you basically have to have been in there for a very long time indeed (since the 1980s/1990s or before).

Most people are eligible for Right to Acquire instead which gives a discount of between ?9k and ?16k.

[PokerTime]

That's not correct Mellors.

The conditions for a tenant to exercise 'right to buy' are as follows;

It?s your only or main home

It?s self-contained

You?re a secure tenant

You?ve had a public sector landlord (eg a council, housing association or NHS trust) for 5 years - it doesn?t have to be 5 years in a row

There are different discount levels for houses and flats.

Houses

You get a 35% discount if you?ve been a public sector tenant for 5 years. The discount goes up by 1% for every extra year you?ve been a public sector tenant, up to a maximum of 60% ? or ?75,000 across England and ?100,000 in London boroughs (whichever is lower).

Flats

You get a 50% discount if you?ve been a public sector tenant for 5 years. The discount goes up by 2% for every extra year you?ve been a public sector tenant, up to a maximum of 70% ? or ?75,000 across England and ?100,000 in London boroughs (whichever is lower).

So to qualify for the maximum discount on a flat in London for example, you'd need to have been a tenant for 30 years....but after just five years, you can get 50k off a flat with a market value of just ?100k.

[Earl Aelfheah]

I'm no expert on Right to Buy but my understanding is that you only have to resided in your council house for 5 years. Right to Acquire applies to Housing Association properties. Could be wrong though..

[PokerTime]

You are correct Rah (see my post above). Mellors is writing nonsense.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Oops, cross posted there PokerTime

[StraferJack]

I dunno loz

Renting is more "normal" in Germany isn't it. People who want to buy don't face inflated prices. Ditto people who want to rent, and with a plentiful supply on the market it looks like buyers and renters are better off than here