Buying A House: C or D?

Prices did fall in London after 2008 but they rebounded in a couple of years I think. We did negotiate down by about £15k the first time round and I think that due to a confluence of factors (location, improved transport) it'll broadly retain its value. And in any case we're buying it as a home and not an investment.

I suppose part of me is wondering what will happen if things continue to tank in the economy and one or both of us does lose our jobs, but that's going to be an issue even if we rent. But is there anything to be lost by trying to lower the offer?

Well, they could think "eff these clowns" and go with someone else who will pay more. Obv.

The flat could be lost, but it depends how you handle it. If you're this close to exchanging the seller could go one of three ways; 1; haha, no way, we're practically done, nice try: 2; fuck you, someone else will buy it at asking or current agreed price, the market is strong: 3; what's 10% at this point when I've made loads on this portfolio already, let's keep the buyer and push the sale through.

Nothing in the survey you can hang a reduction on?

We're in a similar position but nowhere near as far down the line; we've accepted an offer on ours and had an offer accepted on where we want, but it's more expensive than we fully wanted it to be. Seller hasn't had it marked as sold STC yet and hasn't found somewhere to move to. Somewhere similar has come on the market and we're viewing it Thursday. We may use that as leverage to negotiate down. But moving is the right thing for us to do now so we'll go ahead as long as we keep our buyer.

But definitely go ahead if you're buying it to live in; people panic halting house purchases is what will cause issues with the market.

Scik - well no. The other thing the seller could do is take the flat off the market and let it out while she waits for things to improve. She inherited the flat from her parents and has been living in it for nearly 40 years, is moving in with a partner in the country who is also selling his house, so the risk of doing that is relatively low. It's a big lump sum but I don't think the vendor NEEDS the money this minute now, and we're not in any kind of chain.

In which case I'd not risk it.

My colleague has also had her buyers suggest 20k lower price due to Brexit. She's a bit pissed off as basically being forced to sell and the survey was really good so is probably going to push back as much as possible. I think 10% is quite a big discount to ask for tbh

lol getting major funeral home vibes from the first floor of this house http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/13443-Detroit-Ave-Lakewood-OH-44107/2098080948_zpid/

lol is that where they shot My Girl?

it was a funeral home

https://www.google.com/maps/place/13443+Detroit+Ave,+Lakewood,+OH+44107/@41.485058,-81.7846067,3a,75y,184.5h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m4!1sPaRqOB6aE_1JG78G00WtgA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x357d109eac18aa84!6m1!1e1

How is that anything but a funeral parlor?

Though I admit, I didn't realize funeral parlors had residences upstairs.

I have a very shaky grasp of personal finance but if the Bank of England cuts the base rate next week and there's scope for inflation in the future, would it make sense to remortgage now?

I still have 14 months left on a decent two year fixed rate atm.

dunno but the tracker we took out 4 years ago has been a blinder.

Whether it makes sense to refinance usually depends on (1) how long you plan to stay (2) how much money you'll save compared to the refi fees. In order to know whether it make sense for you, you'd have to know what the difference is between your current rate and the rate you'd get, the fees you'd pay up front, and what your new monthly payment would be. I started to think about doing it again recently because it looked like I could get a rate that would pay for itself in a little over a year. In my situation I wouldn't want it to be much longer than that because we're still uncertain about how long we're staying, but I don't see moving in less than two years, so breakeven in a year saves us a good chunk of money even if we do move in two.

we made an offer last week! but we were outbid :(

we are kind of relieved tbh, the house is amazing and has a much larger lot than is typical for the neighborhood but it's located on the town's biggest road, a six-lane boulevard. we were very hesitant about that w/ the noise/traffic, but it is a scenic blvd lined w/ beautiful houses and we initially felt the yard size compensated for the house's location.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/17437-Clifton-Blvd-Lakewood-OH-44107/33489293_zpid/

my house in Ill-annoy is still available!

we have stopped paying the mortgage and are playing chicken with the bank: do they take a short sale or do they want to go through foreclosure? we don't care, either way we don't make or lose any more money. if they foreclose then our american credit rating takes a hit but we have no reason to move back to the USA now that I have a permanent position in Paris, with more job security than I had even in the tenured faculty positions I had in the USA.

good luck! kind of cool/crazy that you can just let your american credit tank w/o consequences

Have I come on this thread to say "fuck house hunting?" Fuck house hunting.

Ha, that's not just the town's biggest road, but a concurrency of two federal highways screaming past your door.

Cool house, tho'.

people love living on it though! some of the town's most beautiful homes are on it. but yea ultimately we are relieved

also it's not evident in the photos but the garage is in shitty condition, leaning heavily to the east and w/ broken-up asphalt on the ground, deep grooves from cars parking in it. weirdly they re-did the entire roof (not just the shingles, but the beams and everything) but the bottom half is about to collapse. a tear-down and rebuild would've been required for sure

I take Clifton several times a week. Traffic moves slow (35mph) and it empties out at night. There's a sweet bus route on it too.

Oh good, Redfin totally underpriced this renovated place with a finished basement in the neighborhood we want.

I hate the very idea of getting into a bidding war. Ugh.

Seems dumb that single-round, sealed-bid, second-price auctions don't get used for buying houses, they're the best kind of auction.

this house is a little smaller than we want but it is such a cool house http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1452-Larchmont-Ave-Lakewood-OH-44107/33497406_zpid/

I don't believe in getting into bidding wars. The way I see it, it's too hard to avoid paying an irrationally inflated price once the competition gets your blood going. And also there's never a good reason that you have to have *this* house *right now.*. And if you do bid, you have to know your max in advance and be prepared not to go over.

we did have an escalation clause when we made an offer on that other house a couple weeks ago, but yea we had determined a maximum in advance and our initial offer was only a little below the maximum anyways

we are no closer to buying, each house has plusses and minuses, nothing excites, it sort of sucks that you need shelter in order to live

live in the forest imo

you need shelter but you don't have to have a mortgage

we would be happy to rent forever but the place we're living now may get sold and there aren't a lot of standalone houses for rent around here. So it's move the family into an apartment or buy something. (Also, my wife is more positive about buying a house than I am, and it's our average level of enthusiasm that ultimately matters...)

in Paris rents are (shockingly) absurdly high but also supply is very low, particularly if you want more than a tiny studio, so the competition is very hard, even for 5 story walkups in not great parts of the city. but buying a place is much less demanding. it's not cheap: we're looking at 500k to 800k euros or so, but it's doable, just need to save for 5 years or so to get 20% (can't really do mortgages around here for less than that, unlike in the USA where we put 0% down both times).

Sometimes I sort of regret buying in a co-op where we had to do 20% and a higher rate co-op mortgage when we could have waited a few more years and done a house with a low down payment and lower interest rate. I guess at least we locked in our monthly housing cost and got the chance to build some equity/get some appreciation.

yeah we got a very low interest rate on the 2nd house with putting (almost?) nothing down. that's the house that we're now trying to short sale or foreclose on. so, no equity.

our next apartment will hopefully be social housing, since by law 5% of housing has to be reserved for state employees like me. but that's also super competitive. still it's heavily subsidized and we're in the running for one at the moment.

when I was on the faculty at st@nferd my housing was also heavily subsidized, we lived on s@nd h1ll road for right around 2k a month, in a 3 bedroom.

this kind of shit is like the only place in my life that I have to be a realass grown-up & I don't like it.

saw this house this weekend, interior was very stunning but the trim and other exterior wood (whatever wasn't covered up by the fuckin grotesque vinyl siding) was rotting in places, roof is in very rough shape, we strongly considered making an offer but idk it seems like it would be a lot of money we'd have to pour into it

open house was a complete zoo and we found out today 8 offers came in yesterday

oh here is the link http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1616-Belle-Ave-Lakewood-OH-44107/33499336_zpid/

$215k

another beautiful place but it is also on the same 6-lane road as the house i mentioned a few weeks ago :( http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/13915-Clifton-Blvd-Lakewood-OH-44107/33494593_zpid/

That's a wonderful house. Love the bathroom and the garattage out back.

Kinda love the street it's on too:

"So how do we get to your new house, marcos?"

"Take Highway 20."

"Ok, Highway 20... and then?

"That's it. Just get on Highway 20 in Boston and go west. We're the 430,657th house on the right."

I live 600 feet away from Interstate 40 and love it. The traffic sounds like the ocean at times.

lol

Our chain is finally complete, and we have paid for searches and surveys.

A friend of mine grew up right off of I90 in Syracuse and freaked out the first time she driving in Seattle and realized it was 2700 miles and only three turns to get to her house.

ME: "See, you could take that road almost all the way to the Atlantic Ocean without stopping! And if you go back the other way, you'd end up in California!"

DAUGHTER: "What about this road we're on now?"

ME: "Well it terminates in Fort Worth, Texas. Listen, I was talking about I-40 back there. Eight states!"

whoa yall check this place out http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9402-Madison-Ave-Cleveland-OH-44102/33327570_zpid/

I've seen that listing before, it's really something.