Owning your own home

Argh, they want asking price, i went in £25K less...

What would you do?

Pay the asking price

why the itchy feet then? by the sounds of things you could comfortably afford somewhere easily if your looking at places with a price tag 600k+. you worried more about committment with the mrs or being on the hook for the mortgage?

Depends on your situation. My girlfriend and I were paying £17,412 per year on rent. It got to the stage that I realised that not making a strong offer could potentially delay me by another year (and thus pissing the best part of £20k down the drain, and seeing house prices further rise).

Was this your first offer? Make another offer a bit higher (high enough to be a serious new offer, but not too high) but expect it to get rejected, then come up again to an amount lower than asking price based on what you think the vendor might stomach losing out on.

Reasoning: By this point you've made 3 offers and offered more each time. By the time you've made the 3rd offer you're going to be losing patience with them and potentially looking elsewhere so the vendor might be more likely to think you're a good bet and accept your offer. Also they will feel like they have negotiated well but making you offer more (two times no less!) and feel better about losing out on the asking price offer you were never going to make.

Excellent points you make.
OK offer 2.
Target is 50
Made first offer at 25
Second offer 35? 38?

It is getting to the point where every £K counts.

@mands: how long has it been on the market for? From memory, all of the decent(!) agents are on rightmove et al, so you should be able to see what's happened with the price over the course of time.

Who's the agent?

Ah interestingly, this has been on for at least a month. The full time that this has been listed, I cannot be sure of.
Originally listed with another agent, they removed that advert and it was relisted with Foxton (oh joy) recently, 2 weeks ago.
The price on it with the previous agent had not moved either, because I was keeping and eye out, to see if it was being reduced.

From my original snooping, the owners are loaded, Prada bags, posh shoes, etc and I hear are not in a chain with this place. I think they can afford to wait for the right price.

Foxtons are going to try the angle of "mands can move asap so blah blah blah..."

Fuxtons ALWAYS overvalue their instructions by between 10-20%, but if it's been on at this price with another agent, it's because the owners clearly had all and sundry through the door for valuations and forced the other agent to market it at the price that Fuckwits came in with. The simple explanation for this is that the vast majority of London agents charge between 1.5-2%, whereas Foxtons charge a minimum of 2.5%. In Foxtons' defence, they have an incredible marketing machine which they have to pay for...

They do this for two reason: 1) to appeal to the money-grabbing side of the vender and 2) in order to actually get the instruction itself.

Their issue (and they invariably ALWAYS come unstuck) is that because purchasers are super savvy these days, they know when something is too much. The problem they then have is that when the viewings dry up and the vendor asks them what's happened, they always push for a price reduction. This generally puts them in line with the rest of the neighbouring or similar property.

Second offer accepted, awww shit....

Happy days.

Be well aware that they'll be on your case daily from now on to get a survey done etc.

Did you get the call from Alexander Hall?

We had a valuation from Foxton's recently and was explicitly told,

"we will mark up your property by 15% then bus people in from a more expensive area and convince them it is worth it. They don't balk because it is more for their money then they will have seen in their chosen area and they have no frame of reference for going rate for your area."

@mands excellent news, now you'll have a protracted period of shitting yourselves to look forward to, good luck.

Did you get the call from Alexander Hall?

Ha!

@bodieanddoyle @WjPrince It's so transparent that they do that as well, every place we viewed with them was always a little distance away from where we actually wanted to be, and a little bit over budget, and they would always stress it was 'worth making an offer'.

@well_is_it Are you dead set on Walthamstow? If not, follow the standard E17 > E10 > E7 trail and see how much more you'd get for your money here. There's a sourdough pizza place on the way soon...

Anyone have any experience getting a mortgage when self-employed?

My girlfriend and I have a deposit of around 40k and want to buy a 2-bed in Brighton between 200-300k.

I'm self-employed. My girlfriend isn't registered as such (despite having worked that way for a couple of years so could be facing a fine/tax bill). I had a shit year-ending April 2014 because I overdosed on buying camera equipment in 2013 and didn't think to play the 'few expenses looks better to lenders' card. This year looks like it will have paid off though:
2012 - good, 2013 - good, 2014 - shit, 2015 - excellent.

Yet I spoke to a mortgage broker who basically said I didn't have a chance in hell which wasn't the answer I was looking for.

I won't apply in any formal sense until after my tax return next month just so I have that to back me up.

We currently pay 2.5k a month rent and do so pretty comfortably.

Any tips welcome.

2 or 3 years of accountant certified books (depending on the lender) was what we were asked for...

Mrs rhowe just needed to demonstrate 3 years' tax returns in the form of a paper forms you can order from HMRC (SA302). This was for YBS (who also trade as Accord).

Yeah I will be doing it in the next 1 year. Going to speak with a mortgage advisor to see what we could afford, I'm hoping it's around £500k but a bit unsure, I'm only 26 which I guess is where the slight uncertainty comes from. But fuck it!

Shouldn't be a prob. I used a good mortgage broker who talked me through this as I was in the same situ. PM me for his deets.

Ta all, yep - have heard of this SA302 thing. I do have an accountant so I will ask his advice and all after the 5th.

@bodieanddoyle - Alexander Hall - yep I spoke to them but they, I think, gave up on me as I was like "yep, that's what my other broker said"

bus people in from a more expensive area

ha yeah I got bused from Canonbury to Cally Road. Kind of prefer Cally Rd though.

@CYOA

self-employed

I'm limited co but contractor, similar but different. My broker, who, PS: takes no fees! Apparently defined the way lenders lent to contractors and other non-regular employed people.
He may be work speaking to for more "creative" ways of looking at your income. PM me.
£2K per month rent, jez, good on you.

@Tenderloin speaking with brokers is free so do it. Tackle a few. Don't think I was asked my age. Give approximates on other stuff, like what % deposit you got.

She doesn't use an accountant. I just help her do self assessment online each year. Was dead simple, although the mortgage company wanted to see some info about her business, where she advertised etc.

^^^^^that hotel at the foot of the col d'aspin has just been emailed to Mrs Ludd. We have been fretting about escaping to the foothills of the Pyrenees to run a bike based b and b for years, and this one looks to have all the ingredients for a complete catastrophe. What has happened there, and why did they not tidy up before the agent turned up with a camera?

This is all sounding far more promising than the miserly outlook offered by 'Colin'. Thanks all.

Try contractor Mortgages. They could help as it's their field.

http://www.contractormortgagesuk.com/