Just been looking at the online valuation on my home. One is quoting highest of £682,000 and another highest of £778,000. Just goes to show these online valuations are not even worth looking at.
A house is only worth what people are prepared to pay
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You can expect those values to start reducing once the hike in mortgage rates work through the system.
Yes they will fall like a bomb if they sell at all. Been looking at other companies doing “on line” valuations and neatly all want to know too much such as email addy and tele number so they can pester any enquiry you make.
At least Sue and I are happy were we are and have no intention of moving. Any information about properties around here Sue seems to know , I wonder why 
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Have you had a change of heart since your post of almost exactly a year ago?
Exactly right. “The value is what you get”, as Buffet put it.
Bruce. NO change of heart like the place too much
at long last we have eventually got this place as we want, the last improvement was a new front composit door and UPVC window alongside, oh and a new lounge and conservatory carpet.
I think this being out 5th move will be our last. Sue likes the area and I love this style of house. It has taken a few years to pull it “straight” after “Mr Bodget” had done his best to balls up everything he touched. Some people don’t deserve a nice house and this one was left to him by the lady owner whom he and his wife looked after until she died.
If I listed what needed doing you would wonder why we bought the house in the first place. I can’t think of one part that didn’t need attention, from soft wood conservatory outside sills to heavily greased up oven in the kitchen where even the grill didn’t work, just to give some idea
Bruce
It is nice to know what one invested money in will increase in value whatever it is, be it old cars or property.
Maybe living the the outback of Australia with termites eating away house structure things are different, or finding a poisonous snake of spider in the toilet ready to kill you reduces property . prices in you area. Personally I don’t think having a skippy Kangaroo on your doorstep ready to kick hell out of you is my ideal place I would want to live in. 
The thought of having to fly hundreds of miles to spend a day at the seaside I wouldn’t do. 
Wow, you’re worth a couple of bob 
I always say if you’re not planning on selling, it doesn’t really make any difference what your home is worth and if you are selling, you’ve got to pay the same sort of prices for your new one
You only benefit really if you’re downsizing or moving to an area where property is cheaper.
Mum and Dad sold their quite small 3 bed in London to retire down here and were able to buy a house with a bigger garden, renovate /decorate it and refit the carpets etc and still have enough over to fund a nice comfortable lifestyle on top of their pensions
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Maree
if you rich then £10 is peanuts but if your not well off £10 is a fortune. It is still still the same £10. having grafted and saved if we can do it so can anyone else
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I’m glad you’ve got the nice home you worked so hard for 
But a lot of young people nowadays do graft away just as hard, just to keep their heads above water with nothing left over to save to buy a house 
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I don’t think they do Maree.
How many give up going out for a meal or give up holidays to save?
How many have more than one job each?
How many work all weekends when possible to earn?
How many still want to pay for any sort of entertainment, ie theme parks etc?
Before living together or getting married.
This is what we did gave up nearly everything to get our first house. Interest rates were around 15% at the time. We started of with nothing in 1970 and in 18 months we had save £1600 by 1972, on weekly wage of about £20- £30 (did extra jobs/overtime) . That is grafting not playing silly bugger like now who want it given to them on a plate with state handouts.
Not only that I but guzzumping was rife and houses were selling the next day of going on the market or asking price increase when looking. the only way we got a very small middle of 3 terrace house was through my cousin in law who did renovations and owned properties. Absolutely no chance on the open market, enough to make one cry with frustration. I remember it so well
It actually makes me want to chuck up listening to their moans about how hard it is and do nothing about it.
SO please don’t tell me they graft they don’t know what the word means
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OK, we’ll have to disagree there
I know there are lots of young families who simply can’t afford going out for meals or to go on holiday ever, let alone give them up to save!
Having several jobs, all of them low paid, is practically par for the course nowadays, just to keep their head above water
As is working week-ends while the other has the kids and not being able to dream of treats like theme parks
These young people are working harder than you and our generation did, with little hope of home ownership ever
They work all these hours to live in poverty just to pay the basics, no luxuries, nothing they can cut out to save. No hope 
I know you worked hard to have your home and I’m glad you have it and hope it’s a blessing to you. I was lucky too, our generation was
But I’d like the youngsters now to have the opportunity for the same too I think life is very tough for many
I know so many of them work all the hours God made but still live in poverty and I totally disagree that they want it handed to them on a plate or state benefits
(But wealthy pensioners still get handed a state benefit in the form of state pension)
And. I don’t think they’re “moaning” when they ask for justice and a better deal in society, I think they’re right
So, as I said, we’ll just have to accept we disagree, I don’t want to hi-jack your thread any further, so I’ll leave it there 
I agree with most of what you are saying about how our generation had to work hard to get together the deposit to enable us buy our own homes. We also furnished our first home with second-hand things we were given by relatives.
However, not all young people expect handouts though realspeed. An example would be my grandson and his wife. They both have loans to pay back for their university degrees but have worked extremely hard and now have their own home - no handouts from the state or their parents. They didn’t marry until they had saved for their mortgage. Last month they went on their honeymoon to Japan, eighteen months or so after their wedding - they married during the pandemic when only 15 people, including the happy couple, were allowed to attend. Again they saved up for this trip with added money given as wedding presents. They both work - my grandson having two jobs. So there are exceptions to both your view of young folks and that of Maree’s too.
Maree
you hit the nail on tfhe head. Have kids before having a home for them, no wonder they can’t afford a house. Mine was a low paid job by the way. Also running up huge debt by going to UNI doesn’t help just to get a worthless degree that is no good in the business world. A bit of paper
saying you have a degree doesn’t earn money
Quote " These young people are working harder than you and our generation did," unquote what a load of boll*cks. how many do an 18 hr day which I did at least two times a week doing two different jobs? later on I did a 5 day 60 hr week as an apprentice with the firm I worked for.
I have no idea where your comming from but a completely different one from me. What were you doing in the 1960/70 I wonder to earn a living and how much were you paid?
Sorry Maree but you don’t have a clue of thiose times
Pipsqueak
Sue and I got married in 1972 and all we could afford for the home was a cooker and fridge and bed. The coffee table I made at night carpentry school. We paid for our wedding for a sit down meal for 72 guests as well
We nearly didn’t have a honeymoon. Sue worked for a firm in london and the ground floor was a travel company. The manager when he wanted confidentual typing done Sue did it even though she didn’t work for them
Knowing Sue was getting married he asked if a honeymoon was booked, obviously that was well out of the question, we had to scrap enough money together for the wedding that left us nearly broke what with buying a house as well…
a few days later Sue again was doing work for him in her lunch break and he gave a bombshell of a surprise. He asked if a two week stay in a 4/5* hotel in Tunsia including flights would she be interested in… Of course she had to decline money would never stretch that far. So he said not even £25 for both of us to go!!! to say being knocked down by a feather is mild . Hence our honeymoon was in Tunisia
Saying times were hard,how many now spend a couple of hours in a shop during sale time seeing if they could afford 50p milk pan? we did. Just as one example
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I don’t trust those online valuations either - they base their valuations on info from the Land Registry, which records the amounts the property was previously bought for plus the value of similar properties in the same area and the market trend for price increases or falls in that area and a few other general factors, such as area crime rates, local school ratings etc.
My son-in-law works for a large estate agent in their IT Dept and his job is to write their IT programmes - he tells me these calculation tools are pretty generic and cannot truly reflect the current market valuation of a property.
The more unique your property is or if there’s very few properties similar to yours nearby, then online valuation tools cannot have enough information to base their calculations for a realistic figure.
As you say, a property is only worth what somebody is prepared to pay for it - and if increasing property prices in the area have pushed up the online value of my property, it doesn’t follow that I would be offered that online valuation if I was to sell it - and if I did, I’d probably have to pay a similar price to move somewhere as nice, so it would not give me any profit.
I would only profit from the increasing property prices if I wanted to downsize, move to a cheaper area or if I was moving in with someone else - so the value of my house is just a meaningless figure to me - unless I was considering selling it and moving on.
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I think your knowledge of other’s graft is on a par with your knowledge of Australia, which is to say non existent
The main online valuation site is Zoopla…it lists my house as an inner terrace which it isn’t so its not possible for me to get an online valuation … I’m not sure these sites take much consideration of improvements made either or extensions.
I’ve just had my house valued by three different estate agents…the difference in their valuations is confusing… a difference of £400k from lowest to highest…they all said it was a difficult house to value as its a one off…I suppose in the end as someone else has said its only worth what someone is willing to pay.
Just edited to say Land Registry list the house as detached with large gardens so I’m not sure where Zoopla got its info
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Tell me all about Australia then Bruce with your vast knowledge I am willing to learn. Such as the sport of kangaroo chasing and splashing about in a billabong. I am also curious, so with your expertise those corks hanging from the hats. Can you buy them already sewn on or do you have to buy the hat and the corks seperately and attached them yourself? following on can you just buy the corks or do you have to buy a bottles of wine first? presumable if your running wearing one of those hats the corks keep hitting the eyes?
I understand that In the parks in Sydney you have to wear a hat with spikes on top to stop the magpies attacking you. So do you also have to have a head band torch at night to find your way home?? such strange things one has to do to live in Australia
That’s interesting Summer - I did a valuation on Zoopla some time ago and was surprised at the high value they gave for my home. I thought afterwards that it must have been based on the average for my street because the other houses are much larger than mine. However, if estate agents differ so much for your property you will find it interesting to find out out much it is actually worth when you eventually do sell.
There is a house in our village which went up for sale a couple of months ago - a semi which was attached to the village shop on a main road, with very little front garden. I had a nosey on RightMove and was surprised that it was on for in excess of £450,000 - it sold within days so I assume they must have got very near the asking price, so you never can tell!
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None of that would apply to my pile as I’ve extensively extended it since I bought the place to double it’s previous footprint.
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