Owning your own home

What is the difference between 'guide price' and 'Offers in the Region Of'?

In my recent experience of talking to estate agents:
Guide price = a range, hoping for more than lower limit but wanting to appear in more searches.
OITRO = owner wants X amount, agent doesn't expect to achieve it.

Thanks, we looked at a place today that hasn't been decorated since the 80s and needs a lot of work, with a Guide Price of £305k. Currently in a debate over how low to start the negotiations.

I guess it depends how that price compares to similar sized places in the area. If the need for renovation/etc is priced in then you might not get anywhere but I don't see the harm in trying low.
Also depends how much competition there is where you're buying - our agent told us that when people see a fixer-upper they tend to go a bit mad and feel they're already getting a bargain, even if the work to bring it up to standard pushes it well over ready made equivalents.

@BleakRefs @hobo @aroogah cheers all- it's a great feeling. Though the whole 'responsibility' thing is weird. Only now realise just how little I had to do before.

I'm a leaseholder (one of two) and the freeholder has upped the monthly rate by 400%. That's seems a bit steep to me so as they haven't responded to my emails is there an ombudsmen to contact? The freeholder is Hyde and so massive and generally shit.

We are also looking into buying the freehold but know some people who also did it and lost the will to live

400%!

Generally there will be a clause in your leasehold detailing what the ground rent is and terms under which it can be increased.

Is that service charge or ground rent? Presumably ground rent is stipulated in the lease and I think service charges have to be justified by some forecast of spend. Are they doing any extraordinary works?

It's weird isn't it! I've had that old Marvel phrase going round my head for the last few months, 'with great power comes great responsibilty'. Responsibility is the flip side to power isn't it? Renting gives you no power but it also gives you no responsibility. Homeowning is the opposite. That reminds me, I should get this place insured. Blimey.

The ground rent has stayed the same but they have thrown a couple of £000 in for some sort of tests and fire service and assesmemt under the variable part. I've emailed them asking for a detailed breakdown as my understanding is any significant costs must be approved or informed before hand.

Also they wanted keys for the place but couldn't confirm how or where they would be kept

I wonder whether the £250 per leaseholder threshold applies in your case. For works above that level they are meant to consult with you and send out a Section 20 notice.

Yep. Power to walk around butt naked; responsibility (liability?) When the bath falls through the floor!

I've been doing the former in my rented accommodation for years. Am I going to be arrested?

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/may/16/leasehold-uk-homeowners-ground-rents

As if buying a house isn't expensive enough ... £1250 in fees to the lender, because they won't make enough from me over the rest of the mortgage term?

Fuckers.

@hoefla - interesting read.

Seems out of proportion to the actual effort involved in originating the mortgage, doesn't it.

Their ideal scenario is for customers to switch product every few years to keep triggering these fees - with interest rates this low they have to squeeze every drop out of the lemon.

I've been part of the residents group since the purchase of our apartment in January and have very quickly come to realise that ownership of leasehold isn't anywhere near as free and easy as ownership in freehold is. We're struggling to get a 60% owner represented residents committee so we actually have the right to challenge management fees etc and audit books to check our fees are being spent appropriately and that extra works and payments are being spent as advised. Until there is a 60% majority we, as owners and residents, have fuck all say on anything they charge us and they can literally do as they please with no one to answer to. I find this frankly fucking ridiculous as 1% or 100% there should be some legal obligation to recognise an owners right to challenge what he is being charged!

Not the glamorous "owning my first house" I was hoping for!

Where's my garden, my upstairs, my garage, oh, and my house?! Oh yeah, London......

I like mountains (or at least large hills) and I like the sea. Where in the UK do these two criteria collide. Proximity to an airport optional or large train station for access to London a bonus. If the property is seafront then you get extra bonus points. Below 500k. And some vague cultural centre less than an hours drive. And... And...

Basically does a website exist where your can bung a load of criteria in and arrive at your dream home and that website is not Rightmove or Zoopla?

You're basically looking at Scotland imo.

I spent a lot of time up in Montrose as a young musician, we crashed with this dude who ran a second hand bookshop up there, called Bob. Good lad. Anyway he bought this place for about £150k at the time (early 2000s) and it was a country house, no other way to describe it, with fireplaces in every room, one of those big imposing country house staircases going up the middle, it even had a library. I'd wake up and watch the north sea crashing grey and greasy into the shore. Few hours from Edinburgh but only an hour from Dundee airport, whch is an hour and a half from London.

Wales (somewhere nearish Cardiff).
Near Bristol? Exeter? Chester?

Need more info on what you want for 500k? 1 bed flat or 4 bed house with garden?

Nowhere in England.

Scotland or Wales possibly.

Ayrshire? Like where Graham Obree is from.

To widen your options consider having a pokey £250k flat in the culture place and a little £250k house in the nature place.

Wales near Aberystwyth.

Lovely coast. Lovely mountains. Loads of places under £500k.

(Meant to be a reply to @CYOA)

come cut my grass, its ridic