Houses, Flats, Rent & Mortgages Thread

[Devil]

5 hours ago, OrangeKhrush said:

The biggest thing with ownership is not owning but the maintenance. 

Maintenance or not owning a property is an investment that can be profitable. I live locally to Manchester Airport so I've seen property prices nearly double over the last 6 years. I've sold two of my previous houses and made nearly 200k profit. I've also  converted my current houses double  garage into an extension giving me another room which I've converted into my living room. I had it valued last year five years after I bought it and it was valued over 100k more than what I bought it for. I haven't put it on the market to be fair but I could easily sell up now and move out of town and be completely mortgage free if I bought in an area house prices are more reasonable. 

All this will be left to my two children as well. 

So a little bit of maintenance shouldn't put people off.

[Mel81x+]

On 24/04/2024 at 20:38, Viva la FCB said:

Potentially good news! My better half and I have an accepted offer on a townhome. We were pre approved and looking around for a few weeks so its come relatively quickly but we found the nearly perfect place for what we can afford. So far so good as they didnt even counter us, just straight up accepted everything. Been running around this week collecting bank statements and going over strata mins etc. We have an inspection friday and thats basically it before subject removal and then we have about 2 months before move in  

Congrats to both of you. Home ownership is quite the nice little journey and teaches you so much.

[Stan]

9 hours ago, Devil said:

So a little bit of maintenance shouldn't put people off.

This is true, but cost of it might. 

[OrangeKhrush]

9 hours ago, Devil said:

Maintenance or not owning a property is an investment that can be profitable. I live locally to Manchester Airport so I've seen property prices nearly double over the last 6 years. I've sold two of my previous houses and made nearly 200k profit. I've also  converted my current houses double  garage into an extension giving me another room which I've converted into my living room. I had it valued last year five years after I bought it and it was valued over 100k more than what I bought it for. I haven't put it on the market to be fair but I could easily sell up now and move out of town and be completely mortgage free if I bought in an area house prices are more reasonable. 

All this will be left to my two children as well. 

So a little bit of maintenance shouldn't put people off.

That is true, we bought the home as an investment and not only in the sense of money but for the family, what will likely happen is my parents will take over the place when my fiancé and I move but it will remain within the family for hopefully kids, my sister has a 1 year old son and if they wish to move to the Cape to lay new roots there is a house for them.

I also stated above we exercised first option to buy the property which was well below market value and we have found out why, we have spent near 400k on renovations and painting since and there is still a lot we want to do but will have to plan it in steps before we immigrate next year. 

[Stan]

Has anyone ever dealt with taking equity out of their property? Can you only do this when you remortgage, or at any time you want?

[MUFC]

11 hours ago, Devil said:

Maintenance or not owning a property is an investment that can be profitable. I live locally to Manchester Airport so I've seen property prices nearly double over the last 6 years. I've sold two of my previous houses and made nearly 200k profit. I've also  converted my current houses double  garage into an extension giving me another room which I've converted into my living room. I had it valued last year five years after I bought it and it was valued over 100k more than what I bought it for. I haven't put it on the market to be fair but I could easily sell up now and move out of town and be completely mortgage free if I bought in an area house prices are more reasonable. 

All this will be left to my two children as well. 

So a little bit of maintenance shouldn't put people off.

Things like a wet room downstairs are in huge demand. They can increase value by between 5%-10%. The key for house maintenance in my opinion is to do repairs ASAP or stay on top of general maintenance like papering and carpet changes/new floors. Too many people leave a repair or issue. In most cases doing it early usually results in a cheaper fix. People leave it for ages and damage can spread causing further issues. Long run it usually ends up costing more.

[Viva la FCB+]

7 hours ago, Stan said:

Has anyone ever dealt with taking equity out of their property? Can you only do this when you remortgage, or at any time you want?

Much like MUFC"s querstion earlier I could answer but Im not sure the same rules apply for you over there. So with a caveat over here you can; the bank will sometimes want an appraisal of your property but likely you can even just get what they call a heloc which is a home equity line of credit. Generally lower %'s then most loans as its a gurantee, esentially borrowing on your equity but the bank has gurantees with a heloc. For example you go to sell your house you have to pay them before clearing your mortgage etc. Alot of times you can work with the bank you have your mortgage with just cus its easier but you can also shop around for rates. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

11 hours ago, MUFC said:

Things like a wet room downstairs are in huge demand. They can increase value by between 5%-10%. The key for house maintenance in my opinion is to do repairs ASAP or stay on top of general maintenance like papering and carpet changes/new floors. Too many people leave a repair or issue. In most cases doing it early usually results in a cheaper fix. People leave it for ages and damage can spread causing further issues. Long run it usually ends up costing more.

Doing it early and doing whatever you're capable of doing yourself, so you don't have to pay someone, are good ways to save money while doing necessary maintenance on a house. I've learned so much shit working on my house fixing things that have gone wrong and the one time I couldn't figure out how to fix what I needed done, I was very fucking annoyed when I saw the bill. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

13 hours ago, Stan said:

Has anyone ever dealt with taking equity out of their property? Can you only do this when you remortgage, or at any time you want?

Yeah either by remortgaging or with a HELOC like @Viva la FCB mentioned. I've never done either though.

[MUFC]

21 hours ago, MUFC said:

Things like a wet room downstairs are in huge demand. They can increase value by between 5%-10%. The key for house maintenance in my opinion is to do repairs ASAP or stay on top of general maintenance like papering and carpet changes/new floors. Too many people leave a repair or issue. In most cases doing it early usually results in a cheaper fix. People leave it for ages and damage can spread causing further issues. Long run it usually ends up costing more.

@MUFC

[Dr. Gonzo]

10 hours ago, MUFC said:

@MUFC

I assume at your house every room is a wet room

[MUFC]

22 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I assume at your house every room is a wet room

[MUFC]

On 01/05/2024 at 22:27, Dr. Gonzo said:

Doing it early and doing whatever you're capable of doing yourself, so you don't have to pay someone, are good ways to save money while doing necessary maintenance on a house. I've learned so much shit working on my house fixing things that have gone wrong and the one time I couldn't figure out how to fix what I needed done, I was very fucking annoyed when I saw the bill. 

There are jobs which we'll be unable to do. But in some cases you can do some prep work. Doing it youself or contributing is way more satisfying.

[MUFC]

2 hours ago, MUFC said:

There are jobs which we'll be unable to do. But in some cases you can do some prep work. Doing it youself or contributing is way more satisfying.

@mufc

[Viva la FCB+]

Update on my situation; We are all moved in over the long weekend here. Everything went relatively smooth but my god im too old to do this again. Townhomes having 3 floors was not fun moving heavy furniture. Going in the idea is this is probably a 10 year home or so and im fairly sure we're hiring movers next time  It was great to have a bunch of help though and we where able to move everything around to where we needed for the most part. Tired, sore, happy and still somewhat excited is the range of emotions over the weekend though... time to settle in and unbox bit by bit.

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 hour ago, Viva la FCB said:

Update on my situation; We are all moved in over the long weekend here. Everything went relatively smooth but my god im too old to do this again. Townhomes having 3 floors was not fun moving heavy furniture. Going in the idea is this is probably a 10 year home or so and im fairly sure we're hiring movers next time  It was great to have a bunch of help though and we where able to move everything around to where we needed for the most part. Tired, sore, happy and still somewhat excited is the range of emotions over the weekend though... time to settle in and unbox bit by bit.

Unpacking takes fucking ages and I hate it. I moved in over a year ago and I think I've still got 2 boxes in the garage I just haven't been arsed to unpack. Probably should just unpack them and sell whatevers inside, because clearly it's not shit I ever need or use lol.

[Viva la FCB+]

31 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Unpacking takes fucking ages and I hate it. I moved in over a year ago and I think I've still got 2 boxes in the garage I just haven't been arsed to unpack. Probably should just unpack them and sell whatevers inside, because clearly it's not shit I ever need or use lol.

Yeah I can imagine. The one good part of moving a bunch would be widdling down a bunch of shit you dont need and be forced into it. Half of the unpacking is sorting through shit to get rid of. I had a storage locker for nearly 4 years of most of my shit when I sold my condo. Our basement suite I moved into she was already occupying so I didnt bring much with me at the time. We where able to clear half the garage from shit so I can at least park the one car in there and thatll be it for the near future. We actually found most of the basics in the initial unpacking but I cant for the life of me find my kitchen utensils.. the rest of the kitchen is mostly squared away though.