Best time to buy a house/flat

Ema · Post by **Ema** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:16 am

house price going down, interestsgoing down, more houses in the market because of lay-off. No down-payment needed in some bank... Best time to buy a house/flat (or second flat) yet?

**Sponsor:**

Ema · Post by **Ema** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 12:46 pm

no one is buying or plan to buy?!

Mook · Post by **Mook** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:36 pm

I've always found that 11am is a good time.

btw. If you're looking to buy I'll happily sell you mine...

raamv · Post by **raamv** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 4:48 pm

not yet!!

Amandine.K · Post by **Amandine.K** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:00 pm

Cory wrote:
Ema wrote:house price going down, interestsgoing down, more houses in the market because of lay-off. No down-payment needed in some bank... Best time to buy a house/flat (or second flat) yet?
No down-payment? Where's that?

Yeah I'd like to know too!

Mook · Post by **Mook** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:07 pm

Nordea were giving 100% loans.

btw. downpayment is completely the wrong term

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:32 pm

Mook wrote: were

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 7:24 pm

Nordea call it "initial capital", but who cares what the correct term is... we all know we are talking about c-a-s-h.

http://www.nordea.fi/Personal%2bcustome ... 19812.html

I read the Nordea pages and I'm still totally confused as to what OwnGuarantee is. I assume it is a loan with a premium rate and includes some kind of an insurance policy. So you can only get a standard home loan (Euribor +0.4%) on 75% of the value of the property and then you apply for an OwnGuarantee (whatever that is) for the rest. Hype. Which probably works out significantly more expensive than a 100% loan.

At least it will discourage people from taking out 110% loans so they can fit a new kitchen (or take a holiday) with the extra cash

Mattlill2000 · Post by **Mattlill2000** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 8:36 pm

We just bought a house after selling our townhouse. It sure is a buyers market and prices are falling all the time.

No down-payment?

If you don't have enough collatoral or vakuus, then you can buy vakuus and that will cover the downpayment.
If your planning to buy and can wait, then wait and watch as the prices keep dropping and lowball offers will be the norm.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:37 pm

I have been thinking about whether or not it is actually better to sell our place soon (while prices are still high) and maybe buy again later when prices are much lower (as predicted).
I'd hate to be stuck with a whopping big loan on an apartment that is no longer worth the amount owed. Especially seeing as it is possible that we move back to Australia within five to ten years....
We cold still get more for our place than we paid for it and i don't how long that situation will last.
If we found a sweet rent deal then i'd definitely think seriously about doing it. We had a really good rental agreement when we lived in Tapanila a few years ago, we paid about 500e a month and lived right next to Fallkula eläintila.

Mattlill2000 · Post by **Mattlill2000** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:06 pm

[quoteI have been thinking about whether or not it is actually better to sell our place soon (while prices are still high) and maybe buy again later when prices are much lower (as predicted).[/quote]
You can always list your place and if your fortunate enough to sell it for a good price, then you can get some good deals. The buyer is in the drivers seat. Almost every showing we were at we were the only ones there, and there are a lot of choices. Anyway I think the 500€ a month for an apartment is a thing of the past.

cressers · Post by **cressers** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:08 pm

Pete wrote:I have been thinking about whether or not it is actually better to sell our place soon (while prices are still high) and maybe buy again later when prices are much lower (as predicted).
I'd hate to be stuck with a whopping big loan on an apartment that is no longer worth the amount owed. Especially seeing as it is possible that we move back to Australia within five to ten years....
We cold still get more for our place than we paid for it and i don't how long that situation will last.
If we found a sweet rent deal then i'd definitely think seriously about doing it. We had a really good rental agreement when we lived in Tapanila a few years ago, we paid about 500e a month and lived right next to Fallkula eläintila.

Dropping already, dont confuse asking price for actual sale price.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:05 am

Mattlill2000 wrote:Anyway I think the 500€ a month for an apartment is a thing of the past.

We got lucky with that rent deal because we were essentially housesitting.
The owners went for a round the world yacht cruise and didn't exactly 'need' to make money from the rent, they just wanted someone to look after their apartment. Luckily for us their trip took about 1½ years!

If my wife were to get work with the church again (once the bub is old enough), we could also apply for subsidised housing. We lived in Viikki years ago for much cheaper than the normal going rate.
The thing with our place is that we put down 20,000e before taking the loan. I'd really hate for that money to disappear completely!

Tiwaz · Post by **Tiwaz** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 7:18 am

One should not forget that if you do not have money to buy the house/apartment right away, you will be stuck with your bank for a good while.
Makes price joggling bit more of a challenge for average buyer to make profit in any way.

For average joe, best time to buy a house is when you need one, find one that fits your needs and think your economy can handle the debt.

If you have lots of spare change hanging and are thinking of investment... Well, I doubt people in that position need much advice from this board. Banks and firms are tripping over themselves to handle their money.

Mook · Post by **Mook** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 10:27 am

Cory wrote:
Mook wrote:btw. downpayment is completely the wrong term
So what is the alternative to down-payment?

Well, downpayment is more like the amount you pay to the buyer after you're offer is accepted i.e. a deposit

The money you actually buy the apartment with is just cash, some of it

might come from a loan. I guess that collatoral is the best term.

The other way to get an 100% loan is to get a guarantee from a 3rd party, like the mother-in-law...

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