r/UKRealEstate

​Hi everyone,

​My dad is looking at buying a 3-bedroom rundown house at an upcoming auction in Birmingham. We have no prior experience with property auctions or major renovations, so I want to make sure we don't get in over our heads.

​Property details:

​Location: Birmingham

​Type: 3-bedroom house

​Guide Price: £40,000

​Link: https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/74403764

​A few questions for experienced buyers and renovators:

What are the ​final Price Expectations: Knowing how low guide prices are usually set, what do 3-bed houses listed at auction end up selling for in Birmingham?

​Renovation Costs: what is a realistic ballpark figure for renovating a house like this in today’s market?

​Hidden Red Flags: What specific things should we check in the legal pack or during a viewing before considering a bid?

​Any advice or warnings would be greatly appreciated​

I’m looking for some advice on what is a pretty grim situation. I was a first time buyer in 2020, used HTB to buy a new build 1 bed leasehold in SE London in a nice development for £400k (40% HTB loan). Clearly that was a terrible decision but what’s done is done. 

It’s now on the market for £315K. In common with the many other identical flats on the market in the development, we’re getting very little interest and are facing the prospect of losing a lot of money. The reality is we need to move, we have a baby on the way and a 1 bed isn’t going to be practical for much longer. 

Obviously we can’t rent it out without paying off the HTB loan, which would be £126K assuming the flat is valued at £315K. I could pay off a little over half of this with savings but with the ever declining value of the flat  this seems like it would be madness. 

Being resigned to taking a large financial hit, does anyone have any advice on what the least most awful option would be in this situation? 

Looking to buy a property in an expensive UK city wirh a garden and if I can, 2 beds. Torn between cheaper option - flat, and more expensive option - house. Any advice? What should I do?

Flat: after mortgage payments and essential bills (groceries, utilities, dog insurance, car running costs etc), I’d be left with around 800-1000 to spread across savings and all additional spending including any home improvements. Pros - able to save cash fast, can overpay mortgage and build equity, less stressful, allows more flexibility if I want to change job in the future/do a career pivot. Cons - doesn’t feel like a home to me/feels temporary, less nice home space, would cost me money moving if I sell and buy again to a house in 5 ish years.

House: after mortgage payments and essential bills as above, I’d be left with about £500-700 per month for all additional spending. Pros: feels like a home!! Can stay there a good long while, feels like I’m improving financial situation through property and likely to have larger increase in value over a flat. Cons: would be quite tight money wise, could only save a tiny bit at a time for a good long while until mortgage was lower, less flexibility, would maybe save money longer term if I could stay here for a while rather than moving again.

I’m not going into this with a huge buffer either - I have around 4-6 months emergency fund in savings in case I loose my job, and that’s it.

I am also interested in getting a lodger to help cover costs but don’t want to rely on that, and worried the spaces I’m looking at are too small to have a lodger in - ie. I’ve fallen in love with a little house with a single second bedroom which is only 60 square meters total.

I feel stuck as have opposing wants - to become financially more secure/have more worth to my name, to retain flexibility so I can pivot career or try something new, and to have somewhere that feels like a proper home. I’m also 40 so not a super spring chicken, though still some time!

What would you do? Is there anything I’m not considering here? How tcan I make this work for me and what is the best financial choice??

FTB couple in the process of buying a 2 bed 2 bath garden flat - £500k close to completion. (No service charge or ground rent) in Zone 3 London.

But surveys came back with:

-Moderate to high risk of surface water flooding and F rating - High risk in 5 and 30 years from now.
-High risk in natural ground movement and substitence.
-Missing building regulations paperwork from extension

We really love this flat but concerned for future resaleability, re mortgageability and insurance costs. We basically don’t want to inherit such issues and prefer piece of mind. Insurance doesn’t cover both flooding and substitence. Are we over-reacting wanting to pull out?

We are planning a move to another county in the UK, our house is up for sale for £489k. We’ve seen the perfect house for 410,000. Our offer has been accepted pending the sale of our house. We’ve had half a dozen viewing so far and three offers. one fell through - they pulled out after a few days, one of them was 40k below asking price and the third we accepted – 10 K above asking but we’re waiting for them to sell their property. We’ve been on the market for three months.

We have a rental property that brings in a grand per month and we are now considering taking out a mortgage to be able to fund the new house.

We are very unsure about this because at the moment we are mortgage free on both properties so we do understand what a fantastic position we’re in.

Spoke to a Mortgage Advisor today who suggested we take out two buy to let mortgages so we end up renting out two properties. This will allow us to buy the property that we love and move sooner rather than later, the longer we leave things the more likely the property we love will get snapped up by someone else.

My husband is 62 and I’m not too far behind, renting out one property is enough admin for me - as well as putting through the tax returns et cetera. I’m not sure I want the hassle of renting out the property that we’re currently in because it’s over 100 years old and will need maintaining.

I crunched some figures into ChatGPT and it seems to think I SHOULD rent out the two properties, take out the two mortgages and I’ll be quids in after 10 years or so. The thing is we’re not greedy. We’re know we’re a very very good position already having one rental property and no mortgage. I don’t want the next decision we make to be out of fear but I also don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to better ourselves just because we want an easier stress free life.

Both ChatGPT and the Mortgage Advisor are looking at this as a long-term investment. Have I got the wrong mindset? We want an easy ride now into retirement I don’t really want the hassle of more renting and having two mortgages.

I've got a good idea of what peoples advice will probably be, but would be good to get some opinions.

Im a 29 year old single male living in Essex. After sharing a flat with a friend for a few years and struggling to save I moved back in with my parents just over a year ago and I've been fortunate enough to be save around £12,000 so far.

Keen to get my own place again in the new year and only had renting in my mind, but now thinking that buying a property would be more sensible. I woud be able to fund a deposit of at least £15,000 in around 6 months or less from now and probably a bit more if needed. I earn decentlyl, £35-£40k per year, possibly more depending on commissions.

So you now you have some context, my question is this - is there really any reason not to buy over renting? Anywhere half decent in terms of rentals sand still not amazing is minimum 850-900 per month for context. As in a small 1 bed flat in a questionable area mostly.

What important costs are there for me to consider? Am I missing something obvious? I'd appreciate all and any advice

I suppose based on despoit property price range would be £130k - £150k, and a similar property to what I would rent. A 1 bed flat or similar.

I’m just about to exchange and complete on a house in England. The house I’m buying was done as a part ex on a new build so now the new build company own the house. The house currently is a lease hold with 68 years remaining, I was initially happy to purchase the freehold. I have since found out that the previous tenets have converted the garage unlawfully and breached the terms of there lease. As a result of this I have had 8k took off the purchase price of the house in the sellers hopes that I will accept and sort the freehold out my self (cost of title is 8k) . The issue is that because there is a breach of the lease hold if I am in the process of buying the freehold title and the house is inspected and the garage conversion gets pulled up I am the one who will face legal consequences and liability. However if I own the freehold title then the garage is nothing to worry about it is simply the time frame of acquiring the freehold title where the issue lies. How likely is the property to be inspected? Does anyone have a similar case/been through the same and what were legal costs?

Deciding whether to move out of Luton so our young children will get into better schools. However, we love our home, wonderful garden space and great amount of parking that we currently have. Our current area and road is peaceful, although the local schools are not good. Anyone experienced moving out and regretting being less connected and not having services as accessible?

Looking through savills / allsops and plenty for sale in london usually housing association sales

Who in their right mind is buying with cost of work and RRA and stmp duty to justify the prices - Some of the flats are not even cheap but continue to sell and i cant see investors paying bridging finance and making a profit

Has anyone here actually bought in auction recently in london and if so why?

We are buying a share of freehold flat in that area

I put an offer in on a flat and it was accepted about four months ago so I could relocate closer to work. My daily commute is 110 miles. I don’t know what my solicitors are doing, but I’m a first time buyer with no chain and neither solicitors will give me a move in date. I’m fed up with waiting and my daily commute leaves me with no free time and I’m beginning to get mentally and physically sick. I can’t afford to rent/ lodge whilst I wait for the solicitors.

I don’t know whether to pull out of the sale and completely change careers. In the private sector I would be earning an extra £15-30k per annum which I could desperately do with

i was going to wait until the New Year to see if there’s any change. the place I work for should be getting a new director this year and I’m going to ask for a raise. If I don’t get it, I will hand in my notice. I don’t see the solicitors completing by this date anyway. is this wise when I’m risking finally being able to get on the property ladder? Also are there any risks/ costs to pulling out of a sale?