Housing

Former Member

Ok my mate and I want to buy a house next near, and though we need yet to go and visit estate agents, I've been doing some preliminary searching on the 'net, but most websites are useless.

Does anybody know any good housing search websites for the UK, or north-west, in general?

Thanks.

Former Member

Actaully go to the estate agents, in the last three days we have seen 2 houses and payed our depost for the 2nd house that we liked most.

Bopz

Former Member

Your uni should have an accomodations agency to help you with this. Check on their website, too?

http://www.lsh.liv.ac.uk/

Open your eyes.

Former Member

We want to buy (or more to the point he wants to buy).

The uni deals with renting mainly.

I went for a wander down to some estate agents today... there are NO available places in our desired area, which is a bugger. Oh well I'll have to keep persuading him to rent...

Former Member

Originally posted by Rocks
We want to buy (or more to the point he wants to buy).

The uni deals with renting mainly.

I went for a wander down to some estate agents today... there are NO available places in our desired area, which is a bugger. Oh well I'll have to keep persuading him to rent...

What are the arguments he has for buying a place vs. renting?

Former Member

One of my mates is thinking about doing this, but his parents were looking round estate angents before christmas and even the scratty little terrraces on the top end of smithdown were 80k up. I guess you just need to keep going back in the hope that you'll find a good one as soon as it comes up.

With owning a house, you arent just throwing your money away and stand a chance of getting a return on your investment (especially if you have house mates paying you rent, but you're liable for anything untoward which may happen to the house.

Renting doesnt pay itself back, and in most cases you cant change it very much, but you dont have to worry if the roof falls in because you dont have to pay to fix it

Former Member

Originally posted by faerielights
One of my mates is thinking about doing this, but his parents were looking round estate angents before christmas and even the scratty little terrraces on the top end of smithdown were 80k up. I guess you just need to keep going back in the hope that you'll find a good one as soon as it comes up.

With owning a house, you arent just throwing your money away and stand a chance of getting a return on your investment (especially if you have house mates paying you rent, but you're liable for anything untoward which may happen to the house.

Renting doesnt pay itself back, and in most cases you cant change it very much, but you dont have to worry if the roof falls in because you dont have to pay to fix it

Yeah that just about sums everything up.

But I'm leaning towards renting... a 2-bed place shouldn't be too much to rent, though my mate wants to buy for the investment i think. I'm fine with that in terms of money obviously, but at least when you rent you have common appliances provided and also house problems don't have to be your problem!

Former Member

I'm renting. I dont have any other options as no bank in their right mind would give me a mortgage, and my parents cant afford to help me either.

But as yet thats about all I know about my living arrangements for the next few years.

Former Member

Originally posted by Aspartame
A mortgage should have have lower monthly payments than renting, but getting a mortgage in the first place isn't necessarily easy or cheap.

But surely then you'll be committed to paying for the house for a set period of time....?

Former Member

Could you not then sell it when you move away, and hopefully it will have gone up because you're likely to have made some improvements to it while you're living there (or not should the market slump as is being predicted).

Fingers crossed you would get enough back to pay off the mortgage and have some spare. I think thats the general hope/plan

Former Member

Originally posted by faerielights
Could you not then sell it when you move away, and hopefully it will have gone up because you're likely to have made some improvements to it while you're living there (or not should the market slump as is being predicted).

Fingers crossed you would get enough back to pay off the mortgage and have some spare. I think thats the general hope/plan

Yeah, that's the plan. My mate is an architect and he's here for 7 years, and he wants to make improvements and then use the house as an investment.

But there is absolutley nothing in the L15 area So we're probably now going to rent. They say its best to get it sorted in Jan/Feb time rather than later if you want somewhere decent, so that's why I'm steaming ahead now!

Former Member

Fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk fuk!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Just found the perfect place... perfect price, perfect everything... its been advertised since last May and it went YESTERDAY.

I wanna cry!

Former Member

Wooo. Did the Smithdown Ten (or more realistically eight) today, and from that I know know who I'm likely to move in with next year :hyper:
Still no idea where or anything, but woo. A few of my friends already have their deposits down and stuff. Its unhealthy. But at least it means they can help guide us through it all.

Former Member

Originally posted by faerielights
Wooo. Did the Smithdown Ten (or more realistically eight) today, and from that I know know who I'm likely to move in with next year :hyper:
Still no idea where or anything, but woo. A few of my friends already have their deposits down and stuff. Its unhealthy. But at least it means they can help guide us through it all.

Oh god don't tell me about the smithdown ten! Did it on tuesday, including the liver, gilmour (twice!) and saro wira bars. My memory ends at about 6pm i think! (we started at 11). Did you do it properly (i.e. 1 pint, 1 shot each time)? Amazingly i still didn't get a hangover though!

Former Member

Are you and your mate students? If so, how the hell can you afford to buy a house? If you rent you will usualy find that the rent covers water rates etc but if you buy they will all be an added expense. If the gas/electric/heating breaks you can call your landlord but if you own the house you'll be responsible.

Former Member

Right.

There are MASSIVE advantages in buying over renting, particularly if your mate is going to be there for 7 years. However, he needs to think about lots of things. If his parents are willing to put some capital up, he can get a mortgage, but they'll need to be guarantors on the property, so if the mortgage payments aren't in, the company who has the mortgage will go to them, as none of you have a fixed income as you aren't earning. Ideally, everyone wants to get on the property ladder ASAP, it's an excellent investment as property rarely loses value, but beware of 100% mortgages as they often have a lot higher repayments.

Rates aren't as much of an issue if noone in the house is earning, you get a vastly discounted rate if you're all students, plus the size of house you'd be able to afford won't bump them up too much - i'm presuming you're not spending over 100k? You'd have to pay bills etc anyway.

I actually can't remember the initial question of this post, it was more of a reaction to everyone else's comments.

Former Member

But what happens if you fall out? If one of you drops out of uni? What happens when you finnish you degree and he's still at uni? What happens if you decide you want more people to live with you?

I wudn't be so keen to restrict yourself as I don't think there are that many savings. Plus your a young uni student stop growing up and start having fun!

Bopz