Buying a property, is it for real

[finace]

It's very confusing in the current environment to decide on the best time to buy property.

While its being reported that the house prices are falling down, in reality if you ask any estate agent / developer they insist that the demad has not been greater so there is no reason for them to reduce the prices. The situation gets even more funny with the mortgage providers throwing in tantrums.

What's the best course of action, buy or keep still till situation improve.

And, does it make sense to go for repossed / foreclosed properties.

[AshfieldFOCUS.com]

The problem is that you can't predict when the bottom is.

I think now is a good time to buy, but I would have also said that a year ago, not knowing that the prices are likely to collapse. The thing is, looking at history, property prices always go up over time. The longer you keep it, the better its value.

The trend has been that property prices double every 7 to 10 years. This has happened for many years... I know the prices of property my parents bought 40 years ago and I know its current value, and the doubling period appears to hold true. My first house I bought 23 years ago, I bought for £10K. It is now currently worth £70K to £80K, thereby keeping up with the doubling. (Sometimes, you get fluctuations... when I sold my first house, I sold it for 30K 3 years after I bought it, so it had tripled in value in a SHORT time, but just after that, we had the recession in the early 90s. My last house, it tripled in value in just 7 years. My current house has not quite doubled yet in 6 years).

Reposessed can represent good value for money, though not as much as it used to. You can typically get a house with up to about 20 to 25% discount. The only problem is whoever was kicked out may have done something. (Usually they don't, but there are stories on here of them doing so... things like fish behind the radiator or in the curtain poles, holes drilled in water pipes etc.)

Hope this helps.

[googler]

I'd suggest that, unless you or your parents have sold recently, that you don't really know the current market value of either house......

Whilst prices may have been progressing like this quite happily from 2000 to 2007, say, do you really think they've been progressing at the same rate through 2008 and 2009 so far ?

EAs or their vendors may not be reducing the asking prices, but they may change their tune once you make them an offer....

[Red Kite]

For what it's worth I reckon that sellers are having their heads held in the sand by estate agents. Either or both are going to come down with a real bump in the not to distant future.

[crystal_10]

There are at least two days of the year that give buyers the edge. Would you like to guess which two days are best for buying a home?
Every spring, as tulips struggle to poke through melting snow in the North and rosebuds cautiously open in Southern climes, sure as tootin' real estate signs begin multiplying like bunnies across the country. Soon as the For Sale signs are mounted on the posts, swarms of activity buzz in the streets as sellers, buyers and real estate agents crawl out from wherever they hibernated for the winter to welcome the spring sales season.
There is nothing like a spring real estate market. Offers fly over FAX machines and cell phones ring constantly. Everybody wants a deal, and everybody wants to sell. Typically the marketplace is flooded with inventory. There is more on the market in the spring than any other time of the year.
It's also the worst time to buy a home. Except for one day. There is one day in the spring that a buyer will have the edge against all the other buyers.
The second best day of the year to buy a home is Easter Sunday.
A buyer looking for a fixer on the outskirts of downtown Sacramento lucked out last Easter. A home came on the market at an attractive price. The buyer immediately inspected the home and wrote an offer. Fortunately, the listing agent was also the seller, so it was very easy to present an offer. The offer was signed and accepted on Easter Sunday because there was no competition. Come Monday, offers started rolling in, but it was too late.

• Easter falls sometime between March 22 and April 25.
• It is the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical moon after the vernal equinox.
• The vernal equinox falls on March 20th or 21st, depending on the year.

The first best day of the year to buy a home is Christmas Day.
Almost nobody looks at homes on Christmas Day. But buying on Christmas Day is a smart move. If you scout out the homes on which you'd like to make offers a few days before Christmas, you'll be better positioned. Why is Christmas Day so attractive?

• People are in good moods, celebrating, opening presents, enjoying family.
• People are more inclined to be generous, even if it means coming down on the price. "Hey, it's Christmas, hon; just sign it."
• Few buyers are out looking at homes during Christmas week, so the chance of multiple offers or any competition whatsoever is very low.
• Home prices are at a 12-month low in December.
• If a person has their home on the market over Christmas, that person is definitely serious about negotiating and selling that home. You can bet on it. Better yet, why not write an offer?

Of course, the key is to find a real estate agent who will a) work on Christmas and b) be aggressive enough to worm her way into the seller's home without batting an eyelash.

[AnilPuri1974]

Hi I am a property investor from Wolverhampton with a portofolio of properties in excess of 1.2 million its never a bad time to buy property in my experience and in recession periods you will always get a better deal, I have completed a transaction on a property recently the sellers could not afford the mortgage paymets however it was not a reposession, the property was marketed for £195k I asked the sellers how much they were looking for and they advised just enought to pay off the mortgage which later turned out ot be approx £145k I made an offer of 140k which they accepted I purchased the property 18 months ago and had the property valued last week at £225k, its never a bad time to buy and NEVER believe the press fgo with gut instinct.

[Chris Gough]

I suspect house prices will continue to fall for a couple of years yet in most of the UK, I would hold off investing in the market.

[Chris Gough]

I suspect house prices will continue to fall for a couple of years yet in most of the UK, I would hold off investing in the market.

[jodieB]

its been in the news today house prices have gone down and no-one is hardly buying

[Chris Gough]

Just to clarify my previous post I do think prices will tend to fall but as usual there will be regional disparities. I live in Northern Ireland and in terms of the UK I think we have suffered the most, we had way too much price inflation and as a result we are now encountering sharp falls in prices. I would imagine places like London and the south east would be a bit more immune to sharp falls.