Another finance Q - sorry! Is now a good time to buy a house?

It depends entirely on your circumstances. if you have a good deposit then it can be a good time to buy as houses are generally cheaper than they were a few months ago. friends of mine are ftbs who have managed to get £25k off what the vendor paid for it. which is, frankly, scary.

the bigger your deposit, the better mortgage deals you can (in general) obtain.

definitely worth a chat with an ifa about mortgage deals. ?

I think the problem a the moment is trying to sell and trying to get a mortgage. Given you don't have to sell and under the proviso of getting a mortgage, it's a pretty decent time as people who are desperate to sell are cutting the prices of their houses. If you have the funds and wouldn't want to move in the near future, it's pretty much a buyers market so I would do it.

If you wait for the "best" time to move you'll never do it - there's always soemthing. In my opinion its better to find a good deal for you at that point, ie a place that has what you want at a price you can afford. It's your home that happens to be an investment not the other way round.

Thanks all.

If we bought the house we'd live there for a long time, so I'm not worried about the housing market. It was the mortgage market I wasn't sure about. We've got a mortgage advisor appointment on Sat (with the EA, but it's free and we need to start somewhere!), so we'll see what she says and make a decision from there.

Somtimes the FAs at EAs are actually independant (as in, yes, part of the EA business but not tied to any banks or panels of banks) so they tell you about the whole market - good thing to ask when you go. our FA had a tendency to tell people they'd be better off going with bank x rather than speaking to him (when it was the case) which was very annoying from a commission pov ?

Thanks MooMoo, that's v helpful. I'll ask her.

Any other tips from anyone for a potential house-buying newbie?

Yes, move to Coventry and buy my house!

When you view the house ask them how much utility bills are, Council Tax is and it will give you a good idea of how much mortgage + bills you can afford.

Good luck!

Good idea. We live in an almost identical house in the next street up, so utilities should be very similar. That would show how good the double glazing is (or how bad our is at the mo!).

I would say, if you can get a mortgage, then go for it! Get your mortgage arranged first, before you see anything. Then you'll be in an extremely good position to haggle. We got 10% off the surveyed value of our house that we bought last month. Not bad, considering that less than 4 years ago we had to pay nearly 15% over the surveyed value of our flat to secure it.

And don't just look at the house you've seen! Have a good look round at others in the area and take your time. What's right for you won't go by you (cliche, I know, but one I like!). If the vendor thinks you're really, really keen, they might stick to their guns over the price. Let them know you're interested, but that you've got other places to see. Then try a cheeky offer, You never know, it worked for us!

Top tips for ftbs -

get your agreement in principle sorted with a FA asap - then you know what you can borrow and have it on hand to wave at poor starving estate agents, who will be inclined to give their clients the elbow into accepting your offer if it's anything like reasonable

be polite and vaguely disinterested with vendors until you get to offer stage. then be almost humble with vendors. generally speaking, vendors are ridiculously vain about their awful houses. when putting an offer forward, even to the ea, ask them to pass on how much you like the property but really your bid is all you can afford. if your AIP is much more, say it's all you can afford because of the work you'd want to do to get it as you'd like it for yourselves. your EA should really add in all this flattering crap when speaking to the vendor, even if you say 'it's a shithole, if they want more than that, tell them they're living in a dreamworld and can go *** themselves' but if you say it, it will remind them. it may be a long while since they last negotiated a sale...

see if there are any solicitors about and get quotes for conveyancing. then you can say you've got your solicitors lined up. all this makes you seem more ready to move.

watch out for red dust on woodwork, cracks in walls/coving that aren't the same width all the way along, stress marks in the front of buildings around new windows and doors, stand across the road and see if you can see missing slates etc. if you can but you like the property, have a survey but make sure you have that L&G insurance to make sure you can get money towards your survey next time if it brings up lots of bad stuff.

very exciting

To be really frank, no, now is not a good time to buy.

There isn't a single economist who thinks we are anywhere near the bottom of the housing market. In your position I would hold fire for at least a year, you'll either be able to buy a similar house far cheaper, or get a better house for your money. In addition, the banking and mortgage market should have stabilised (hopefully) by then.

That is, unless it's a completely unique house that rarely comes onto the market, or you really needed to be settled in a home.