UK Landlord Forum / Life

Here's an article explaining how to profit when house prices slide. It covers the basics, and a bit more. There's a rundown of what buyers, sellers, new landlords and established landlords should be doing.

Full Article here

Just for the record, the article also gives a rundown of the best mortgages currently available:

Quote
If you are going to play the waiting game, however, it makes sense to secure your mortgage deal because the best rates are disappearing fast.

Philip Oke, 42, an IT consultant, and Jacqueline Ekokobe, 34, a solicitor, signed up for a two- year fix with Abbey at a rate of 5.44% for a £949 fee. However, before they were able to fill in and send their application form, the deal was withdrawn.

They then went to a broker and managed to secure a three-year deal with Abbey at a rate of 5.72%. Although the deal is more expensive, it does not have a fee.

The top deal at the moment is HSBC's two-year fix at 4.99%. This has a fee of £1,499 with a 10% deposit. Another top deal is West Bromwich's 5.59% rate with a £999 fee, or the Co-op Bank's five-year fix at 5.54% and £699 fee. Both require a 10% deposit.

And finally an off-the-wall tip for buyers: if you want to avoid stamp duty, why not build your house yourself. Ross and Sharon Patterson, both aged 46, are building a property that will be worth an estimated £950,000 — but they will pay stamp duty of only £2,000.

Normally a property worth £950,000 would face stamp duty of 4% or £38,000 but, with self-built properties, tax is due on the land and not the completed property. In the Patterson's case, their plot cost £200,000 so they paid only 1% or £2,000.

Ross, an experienced self-builder, said: "Not only do you save on stamp duty, the property on completion is usually worth about 25% more simply because it exists."

I've always wanted to build my own house. I would never move if I did!

One day maybe... 

Yeah, that would be cool.
But I don't know if I could deal with all the stress of building...

Fag i will build it for you son, just tell ma what ya want son

Quote from: propertyfag on April 07, 2008, 01:13:54 PMBut I don't know if I could deal with all the stress of building...

Ahh, it'd make it all the sweeter in the end for me.