BoldAsBrass

Indeed. Mine cost the equivalent of 2 pints of beer which I've given up anyway as part of my New Year resolutions.

I'd only consider listing that with someone like Savile's or Staggs or Chesterton Humbert. I know this end of the market quite well - the people that run those agencies KNOW people. Although your place is not real 'top of the market' - it is close enough to mean that it is not going to be sold to someone who spends their life looking at Rightmove. Or driving around villages in the country looking in local Estate Agents' windows.

People looking to buy at this end of the market ring 'someone they know' at one of the agents I mentioned above and tell them what they are looking for. If, as a buyer, you ring someone at Humbert's and tell them what you want - and they haven't got anything on their books that suits - they will know what Savile's have on their books and will do a deal with them. It is how the £1.5 million + market works.

Hmm, this forum seems to be a bit haywire. Replied to a post from International Superstar and it put the post at the end of the thread.

or did sterling just go down?

 

have you managed to actually sell it for 50k more?

 

 

 

25% more what?

Regarding sterling - I don't care about sterling. I sold a house and got paid in pounds. I stuck the money in an English bank and, 7 years later, bought another house in pounds. Whether sterling went up or down against gold does not interest me at all and I don't see it as a useful way to measure house prices.

No, I haven't actually managed to sell it for more.

The house next door (on an estate, identical) has just sold (7 days on the market) for 75k more than I paid for mine. (And, yes, actually sold - we have new neightbours) I've spent 20k on kitchen, bathrooms, carpets and flooring so I reckon 50k is a fair figure. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy about this - for the sake of my children - but the point I was making was that there has been enough HPC hot air over the last 10 years to power the economy for decades).

And, when you ask '25% more what?' - 25% more than I sold up for in 2003.

Quite how it worked out I don't know, but with the interest earned on the money while it was in the bank (back in 2003/4/5/6/7 the interest paid the rent and more besides - so, somehow, the money in the bank started building up) and the fact that I bought our present house cheap (it needed doing up and, 2 years ago, the market was still recovering from the 2008 shock) - I seem to be about 50k better off than I would have been if I'd stayed put. Lot of fluff in the figures though - I've had a few good years at work too.

Old Quote:

 

DrBubb, on May 24 2009, 03:11 AM, said:

 

I reckon that prices will fall from 35-50% from their Dead Cat Bounce high in the next few weeks,

to the Low in 2012-13.

== UNQUOTE ===

/see: http://www.housepric...ic=115350&st=30

I sold to rent in .... oooohhh, let me think back .... right back at the beginning of the HPC site .... yes, that was it, I sold to rent in December 2003.

Just the straight NINE years ago. I really, REALLY can't believe where those 9 years have gone.

And, if I'm honest, I would say that the house I sold then would sell now, quite comfortably for 100k more than I sold it for, or, roughly, for 25% more.

I am willing to admit

• I know nothing
  
• My opinions count for nothing
  
• In matters financial I am always wrong
  

How many others will attend the Truth and Reconciliation site - HPCwasAloadOfBolleaux.com

Edit: I did buy back in 2010 and, unbelievably, the house I bought has gone up by about 50k since then. But, as we all know, it's not real. None of it is.

Haven't people in the UK yet worked out that the Boomers are going to Downsize??

 

Why stay in London, when you can get something nicer elsewhere for half the price?

Obviously just an anecdotal observation. I don't know that many people - but quite a few people I have spoken to over the last few months are not downsizing - they are making arrangements to share their accommodation with their kids. Either by extending/adapting/going in to the loft etc. to create separate(ish - not enough for 2 or more council taxes) or by building what are technically 'mobile' homes in the garden.

My wife and I are about to apply for planning for a big double storey extension on the side of the house - about 1000 sq ft (which will incorporate one of the pair of garages) which we will move in to. The house will fairly neatly divide into two giving both of our sons their own roughly 1000 sq ft each of 2 bed accommodation.

I've mentioned this plan before, on here, but I only repeat it now because it is remarkable how many people I mention my plans to and they are either already considering something similar or, next time I see them, say they're giving the matter serious consideration. We are young baby boomers - just 60 - so most of my peers, like me, have youngish adult children who have missed the property ladder - or are too young to get on it. People 10 years older than us seem to have managed to offload their kids - nearly everyone I know still has their kids living with them.

Because it's correct, though the 'penny hasnt dropped' yet for the average person. And i doubt it ever will. Joe Soap gets to say yeah my property is still worth X, forgetting of course that X buys far less of everything else then it did before.

How many people sell their house and buy electricity with the money?

The vast majority of people buy a house to live in. The only factors they are interested in are:

What they earn

How much their mortgage is

Whether general inflation makes it harder for them to pay their mortgage

Whether their house price has gone down in nominal terms or in terms of how many ounces of gold you would need to buy it is of no interest whatsoever.

Nor does the price of houses in terms of ounces of gold mean anything to anyone other than someone who sold to rent and put all their money into gold.

If the price of gold halved tomorrow, would you think that house prices had doubled?

If gas halved in price tomorrow, would you consider that house prices had been affected?

Right...

 

A QUIET CRASH has happened in the UK:

 

"House prices in virtually all parts of the country excepting prime London have collapsed. It’s hard to believe if you live or aspire to live in Kensington, Richmond or another prosperous location, but it’s true – and it’s impossible to understand the overall economy, as opposed to the London bubble, and British politics without getting to grips with these statistics.

The average home in Britain sold for £163,910 in the third quarter, according to Nationwide. That is 11 per cent below the all time high reached at the height of the boom, when the average home was changing hands for £184,131 in the third quarter of 2007. But these figures are in nominal terms. Since then, inflation has substantially eroded the purchasing power of the pound.

The inflation-adjusted figures reveal that the peak to trough real terms decline has now reached around 24.2 per cent"

Boy, why is this trotted out over and over again? The purchasing power of the pound, in house buying/inflation terms, is only relevant to house prices.

"Wow, my electricity bill has gone up again. The purchasing power of my pound has been eroded. I now need £50 a month instead of £40 a month to pay for the electricity I use. The house I want to buy is the same price is it was, yet, somehow, miraculously, it's now cheaper for me to buy the house because it's more expensive for me to buy electricity! It's a miracle!"

CS and BaB as builders what are Unity construction houses like? Guess the words "barge pole" is in the answer.

No comprendo? What do you mean?

If you mean that a house built by me should not be touched with a bargepole - I spent 20 years in construction. Everything from dual carriageways, tunneling, high rise offices, hotels and, at the end of my 20 years when I stopped working in London, housing.

I have built loads of extensions over the years, fitted my own central heating (not allowed any more - well, not the gas bit), done my own wiring (not allowed any more), dug foundations, laid bricks, cut roofs and so on. I know more about the technical side of construction than any local builder and most site agents you get in commercial house building.

If you buy a house from me - or a house that has had an extension built - you can rest assured it was built by a fanatical nutter who made sure everything was right. I even put fixings into plasterboard at the recommended 150mm centres - as opposed to the one a foot you get from a tacker.

Build cost?

Academic. I spent 20 years in the construction industry, son No. 1 works as a builder ... so, labour free.

Materials - I don't know, haven't priced it yet. At least 60k I should think.

As opposed to each of the lads having to find a quarter of a million for a 2 bed house in the same area.

Fair play BaB. How much rent you gonna charge them, you sectret BTL'er

Rent? Errr, rent from children ... sorry, no comprendo. Never had any rent from my children! Not one penny. Have have a few digs ... 'living here scot-free, treat the place like a hotel, hot water sir? yes, no problem, please allow me to pay the electricity bills, house heated 24/7 in the winter, that would be my pleasure sir.

Dimitri Orlov has a sensible idea.

 

He talks about how :

 

+ Because of the poor jobs market, children are moving back with their parents,

+ With a single household: children have little savings, and parents have pensions

+ The family is being "intermediated" by banks - the parents savings is doing poorly, and children cannot borrow

 

The FAMILY SHOULD DISINTERMEDIATE THE BANKS - and act as their own bank, because the banking system is going to fail them.

 

The parents might consider buying a bigger home, or even a farm or business with their pension money,

that would provide a job for the children.

 

This would have a better chance of working out, than "trusting" the banking system

Plans are afoot chez BoldAsBrass ... we have a 4 bed detached house with a load of room on the side ... for a double storey extension which will provide about 1000 sq ft of living space. Myself and my good wife will occupy this (2 bed, 1 bath, I open plan living area) and the rest of the house will be divided, in due course, to provide (almost) separate 2 bed units - one each for our sons. We'll build this ourselves over the course of the next few years and not take on any debt.

My (2) sons will be able to live mortgage free and with up to 2 kids (sharing a bedroom) at a pinch - and we'll be on hand for baby sitting duties when that time comes.

It's not ideal - we had hoped to have a bit more freedom when we retire - and I'm sure the kids would prefer to strike out on their own - but, life is not ideal and, from the kids point of view, being able to start out in life mortgage free is a huge bonus. Plus, we will not be creating actual separate residences, so they won't be able to sell up and buy somewhere bigger, without us all doing it - and the same applies to us of course. As I say, not ideal, but not too bad either.

Well, well - house next door to my brother's just sold (well, okay, Under Offer). But went 'Under Offer' within a week following an 'open evening' where he reckons about 5 people viewed. 80k more than he paid for his identical house (admittedly, needing 20k spent on it) 2 years ago.

This house price crash - there seems to be very little evidence of it in London (where I work sometimes), the South East (where I live) and the South West (where I visit regularly).

It just ain't happening.

Give the man some due. When weakness has been expressed against BDEV deflationary pressures have taken ther toll on UK house prices. The difference is a free market versus and centrally controlled market that we now have in the UK. So any weakness in BDEV is a buying opportunity. The QE effect raises the asset value in nominal terms when valued in sterling. Set against gold has been a different matter. In the Soiuth East over the last 6 - 9 months sterling has out performed gold against house prices, but my view is that this is about to term again.

I am not 'having a go' - we are all guilty of interpreting facts to suit our position. But I really don't get this particular proposition - that Barratt's share price foretells the movement of UK house prices.

House prices in Berkshire since 2000

Barratt's share price since 2003

Where is there any correlation whatsoever?

Those that work in the construction industry traditionally were always the first to see a slow down in the economy. Equally a pick up in this sector usually heralded that green shoots lay ahead. Bubbs uses the BDEV chart as a gauge to an economies health ie that being the construction industry. If he is seeing signs of weakness based on this data and on strong volume then things may not be looking too rosy in the near future.

Hasn't he been predicting the imminent demise of UK house prices for 10 years now? And for a long time basing the next leg down on Barrat's share price?

10 years on from the birth of sites like HPC and still no crash.

I still expect a serious slide in UK House prices into 2013 or later.

Well I don't. Haven't had it yet, can't see where it's coming from in the next year.

I went to visit friends at the weekend where I used to live near Wokingham in Berkshire. I saw little housing development of 5 detached houses crammed into a plot that as far as I can remember used to contain one bungalow with a long garden. Anyway, being nosy, I had a look around. Two are sold, three are available. Usual modern estate fodder, nice looking from outside, nice landscaping etc. but from the point of view of what you get for your money ... smallish houses, tiny back gardens, a single garage and crappy shared parking arrangements.

I used to live in a 4 bed estate detached house not too far away - and it's worth about £450k. These new builds - and two of them are sold - with people living in them are OVER 800k.

I was flabberghasted. The madness continues with, as far as I can see, no end in sight.

These are the properties http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-37675859.html

Hayes and surrounding areas are not as wealthy due to drugs and crime, as you might think.

 

Remember many non western familys live around Hayes and many were into buy to let very heavily in the 90's well before buy to let became a mania.

They seemed to have a good understanding of fiat money

And gold is part of their culture.

 

I wonder if they swapped gold for property in the 70's etc ?

 

I could introduce you to multiple family's who have benefited from multiple rentals and own businesses.

 

Seeing their offspring driving around in top of the fange vehicles

Is something that often left me baffled as a kid.

 

How could the locals of a " poor area " have more wealth than many of the other upper class local areas , and further.

Amazing change in 50 years. When I was growing up there in the 50s and 60s the place was full of immigrants working in the factories - EMI, Callard and Bowser, Walls, Nestles etc. All those immigrants came from Ireland,

Wales, Scotland and Liverpool - and we had a community. Times have changed. Then the place was full of Scots, Irish and Welsh people - now the Scots want nothing to do with us. It's very sad.

We took the lowest valuation of 395, probate is 375, so I guess 375 would make it neat and tidy.

I'd give it to a local agent and let them have a go. Where I live near Guildford they're still getting away at daft money ... and I go back to where I lived until a couple of years ago regularly to see family. A house on an estate where my sister lives is being sold by one of these £495 fixed price agents and they have not had a sniff according to my sister. Other stuff on her estate is still selling in the 400k to 700k price bracket.

What do people think of Hillingdon?

 

It sounds like a big improvement in transport (in that area) is coming...

I won't bore you with the details ... I grew up in Hayes and, even as a child, could not wait to get out.

I last went there a few years ago to attend a memorial service for an old friend. I got there early and took a stroll up to the town - along Coldharbour Lane and Station Road. I closed my eyes and memories of me as a primary school child flooded back. I could see myself standing at the bus stop waiting for the 204 or the 98. Belfields the bakers where you could buy a stale iced bun for a penny at the end of the day. The newsagents where the old lady who owned the shop sold Woodbine singles. And then I opened my eyes and thought 'who turned this place into Beirut?'

I grew up on a council estate where nearly everyone kept neat front lawns with white alysum and blue lobelia along the edges - with marigolds, fuschias and prized roses behind. With back gardens where men grew potatoes, peas, carrots, cabbages and runner beans. Where everyone had a compost heap.

On that same estate now many of the houses have brick walls with wrought iron fences and gates - and bloody great 4x4s everywhere. Drug dealing and crime certainly does pay.

I could not tell you to what extent the whole area is now one big chav infested shitehole with almost none of the original inhabitants left. From my peer group, almost everyone got out of there.

A Convoluted argument

 

Now second-time buyers face huge mortgage leap as cost of trading up rises three foldBy Daily Mail Reporter

 

8 June 2012

 

Hefty: Those wishing to upgrade from their first-buy flat to a second buy bigger property are being priced out of moves

The cost of trading up from a first-time buyer property to a second home has almost tripled in the past decade, says a survey.

 

And one in six of those trying to move up the property ladder has to turn to their parents for help, asking for nearly £13,000 on average.

 

The price difference between a typical first-time buyer flat and the semi-detached home desired by many ‘second steppers’ has risen from £14,000 ten years ago to almost £41,000

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2156570/Now-second-time-buyers-face-huge-mortgage-leap-cost-trading-rises-fold.html#ixzz1xLXACDeH

 

How do they know what a first buy and second buy home might be?

Are Brits frigging robots?

For instance, they might move from London to a cheaper city, and buy bigger for less

Just this very day an old friend told me they are selling their house and splitting the proceeds between the children - and they are moving into one of those awful mobile home parks for the retired - because their children are getting on for 40 and cannot afford to move up the property ladder. The son has at least as good a job as his father had at his age - yet he has no chance of owning a house like the one he grew up in - unless his parents sell up and give him a load of money.

Strange days indeed.

Yet, they are taken from what is generally considered to be the most concise (actual sold price) data set there is (whereas, AFAIR Home use asking price data). You also have to take inflation into account; there's been a fair drop (real) due to that too.

 

You just seem to have a knack for being in the rare places where nominal prices don't fall.

 

You know, a bit like the "rain god" in the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, you could be the "high house price god"

 

(sorry, couldn't resist, was reading it last night )

No, they are sold prices. They do have asking price data as well (I think) but I am clicking on the 'Sold prices since 2000' links and, to be honest, I have only looked at 4 or 5 counties - dotted about the country - Berkshire, Devon, Nottinghamshire, Northumberland - I think they were - and they all show the same thing ... which is not much like the graph that was posted based on Land Registry prices. The Home Sold prices are based on that data too ...

Perhaps it is just your area that has these problems after all BaB.

 

Have a look at the Land Reg figures FaFa posted on HPC

 

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=179453&view=findpost&p=909058791

 

Nice graph.

 

Of course, small pockets in some of these areas will be doing well, but overall, it seems it really is just London that has not been hit with prices significantly lower since the peak.

 

Don't loose all hope just yet BaB

But that graph looks nothing like this graph for Berkshire - where I lived until a couple of years ago. That shows prices pretty flat between 2007 and now.

As does this one for Nottinghamshire

I looked at a load of different counties a while ago. They all show the same thing. Prices went up a lot but, depending on area, it was either ages ago or before 2007 and that, one way or another, the market has been pretty flat (apart from Londo) for 4 to 5 years now.

Which makes it feel less like a boom every day.

Plenty of deja vu in the last few posts - the same arguments have been dissected to the nth degree a million times on HPC - 10 years ago.

A little anecdotal - a friend in Winchester (outskirts - not the very pricey city centre) - retired some years ago, been thinking about downsizing a bit and giving their adult children some money.

4 bed estate box - pre credit crunch - 2007 - were fetching £350k. Post credit crunch - 2009 - down to £315k - 18 months on market. (Not theirs, a few doors up).

2012 - agent in to value - £400k apparently (okay, it's not sold yet - I know!)

Where I live - 4 bed detached a few doors away from us has just gone on for £540k. Until recently - they were all in the £475k area.

Leaflet from estate agent through letter box in the last hour - 4 bed detached houses desperately wanted in the area - why not get them round? These leaflets are usually a sign of an agent that thinks he can sell your house - not take it on for a laugh for a year.

What, the feck, is going on?

Eldest lad inherited a bit of money from an aunt recently - and he has a savings nest egg built up over the years from pocket money and grandparents etc and, with a bit of a stretch, he could buy something in poor condition to do up. He works in the building industry. I've been preaching the house price crash message to him for years - while he is watching (and helping) his mates and his boss buy up houses, do them up, and make a profit.

I haven't got the nerve to say anything any more. Worse case he'll end up with somewhere to live and not be paying some bastard's mortgage for them.

I liked living there - I think Marlow itself is over-rated, far too congested and house prices insane - especially for houses that are sited on what were watercress beds (and flooded a few years back). In Marlow Bottom we also got loads of red kites - a welcome flying object. I seldom went into Marlow.

 

I'm in Chesham now. Fantastic place to live.

 

Toying with advertising in ebay and gumtree - anyone ever had success with these?

Just an observation ... I have seen loads of houses advertised over the last few years with one of the commission free agents or the DIY house sale 'pack providers' ... I can't think of one where, a few months later, one of the boards belonging to a local agent did not go up.

Good luck with it though - agents' fees are a bloody outrage. Why, in your case, they think SIX THOUSAND POUNDS PLUS VAT - making 7.2k in total (based on 1.5%) - is a fair price for sticking a property on Rightmove and fielding a few phone calls baffles me. I'd happily pay them on the same basis I pay a solicitor. On an hourly rate. £50 an hour for a relatively unskilled, unprofessional job - 10 hours work (absolute max) - £500.

One agent valued at £450! And he was a senior partner. We took the lowest valuation.

 

I lived in the house for a few years as a lodger. The M40 was never noticeable - except perhaps a strong northwest wind but even then not bad at all, and I'm sensitive to noise. What seemed to get worse over the years was aircraft noise!

 

Yes the feedback is that it's a good location but too small. Reviewing price end of month.

I must be sensitive to the noise. In Frieth - every time you step outside the house when it is quiet - it is there - a constant drone in the background. Drives me nuts I must admit but, to be fair, you can hear road noise in the background almost anywhere in the South East. Marlow Bottom is in a dip - you must miss the worst of it there. Frieth is up in the air - second highest village in the Chilterns.

I used to love watching the endless little planes from Booker towing the gliders up. On a summer Sunday you'd see loads of them circling above you and, occasionally, someone would whoosh over the house on their approach. You're right though, I had forgotten the aircraft noise. I can remember standing in the garden a few times pointing a pretend gun at the light aircraft - there are days when it is bloody constant.

I like the fact that you got local agents to value and are using a fixed fee agent from Bournemouth to sell - the local agents will be sitting there now like preying mantis(s?) waiting for the fixed fee agent to fail and for you to come, cap in hand, to them. (That's how they will see it.) I lived over there during the 1988 house price bust. Before the bust there were 13 agents in Marlow - a couple of years later there were 6.

I am selling a house in Marlow. Probate sale. Chalet style on at £395 - SL7 3PW if you want to look. Tip top order.

 

Anyway, three viewings in as many weeks ALL DOWNSIZERS. Thing is, feedback reports house is too small!!

Interesting to see you are using a fixed fee agent - be interested to know how that works out.

Know the area well - used to live in Frieth. Kind of really a 2 bed house in that most people would think the bedroom on the ground floor is a dining room. Best part of 400k for that - boy, it's a lot of money for a small, family house in an okay area. Marlow is nice and the surrounding villages are nice ... Marlow Bottom has a big housing estate and the drone of the M40 as one's ever-present background noise. Prices are still truly nuts.