Wednesday 6 August 2014

In the end, The Forces Of Darkness ground me down...

... and about an hour ago, we bought the house we've been renting for the past six years (for cash, of course) for an absolutely insane amount of money (thirty years' rent, if truth be told), but that still looks pretty reasonable when you look at what similar houses on the same street sold for over the last five years.

:-(

21 comments:

Derek said...

My commiserations. Sometimes you have to ignore the economy and think about keeping the FoD happy. It's for the best. At least you were able to pay cash.

Anonymous said...

Farewell Mark Wadsworth, we shall forever mourn your loss.

In other news, welcome to the new, highly-bullish-on-house-prices Mark Wadsworth!

I'm sure you'll fit right in... :)

Mark In Mayenne said...

Ha! Fraggle :)

Mark Wadsworth said...

D, I shouldn't moan, what about all the poor buggers under forty who'd have to take out a five times income thirty year mortgage?

F, I'm not bullish, I'm deeply pessimistic about everything. We are all knackered, just some more than others.

Derek said...

True, and hopefully you were able to take advantage of the stock market surge since 2009 with the house cash.

So far I've managed to avoid trouble by the simple expedient of buying a cheap house in a nice spot in Nova Scotia. This has kept everyone happy while allowing us to cash out in over-priced Calgary and rent.

JuliaM said...

Welcome to....the Dark Side! Mwahahahaha!

James Higham said...

LVT?

Mark Wadsworth said...

D, no, I don't dabble in shares, that's another huge great scam.

JM, it's far worse for the others.

JH, yes of course, if we Baby Boomers are inflicting this sort of pain on each other, how horrible must it be for people under 40 who missed the 'bus? Give everybody a fair crack, say I.

Woodsy42 said...

You may now decorate it however you wish, refit it if you wish, build an extension should you want to and luxurate in the situation that you can't be thrown out by the landlord.
And (God willing) enjoy your 'free' house in 31 year's time.
You'll become a 'homey' yet.

Mark Wadsworth said...

W42, no, I'm going to leave the house as it is. You know those "property makeover" articles in the papers? Ours is like the "before" photos.

And I will never be a Home-Owner-Ist. Deliberately ramping up house prices is an evil, evil policy.

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX Mark Wadsworth said...

D, no, I don't dabble in shares, that's another huge great scam. XX

Difference between the stock floor and a down town bookies?

On the stock floor they are SOMETIMES better dressed.

Woodsy42 said...

"You know those "property makeover" articles in the papers? Ours is like the "before" photos."

So is most of mine now, houses are homes not fashion statements. But when we bought it we changed it around a lot to get it the way we wanted it.

Lola said...

In re the 'before' photos. Mine would be except for Mrs L's prodding. now, my 'shed' is fantastic...

Also, it occurred that it should be pointed out to MW that has paid about 175k for the actual house and about 425k for the plot. Hmmmm.

Mark Wadsworth said...

W42, of course most houses of the reasonably well off are fashion statements. It's just that yours and mien are anti-fashion statements. That is still a statement.

L, as to the price split, exactly, correct. Which is why I don't bother with surveys of the building when I'm buying a house for cash.

Graeme said...

are you able to explain why?

Mark Wadsworth said...

G, explain why what? You have to ask a proper question and I'll try to answer it.

James James said...

Hi Mark, if you don't do shares, what do you do with your money? Private investments, gold/other currencies? ...

Mark Wadsworth said...

JJ, like most Boomers, mostly I "invested" in land. When I had spare cash I either just left it in the bank or speculated in currencies.

But now I am skint again so it's all academic.

Piotr Wasik said...

MW, I understand your argument about LVT-ing people that bought houses say 2 decades ago; subsequent house price gains are indeed due to rising land values. They got their land virtually free. But you bought at current prices, so if you were LVT-ed now, you would pay both for land when purchasing a house - which you already did - and LVT atop of it. It seems to me that recent house buyers would be hit unfairly with LVT, no?

Cheers,
Piotr

Mark Wadsworth said...

@ Piotr (aka Flashman, Uncle Tom, Hamish Mc Tavish and other silly names he uses).

Why would it be "unfair"?

As long as LVT replaces other taxes, we are all still better off (apart from a few Homey elitists, but sod them).

And if prices were to fall anyway, of course I'll be a bit miffed, but we'd still all be a lot better off - high house prices are really bad for the economy.

Piotr Wasik said...

@MW

I am not Flashman or any other nick from the list, I have always been Piotr on HPC website, I just realised what to do to change my display name from "Unknown" to "Piotr Wasik". I am a programmer and "Flash" in my BuboFlash.eu website comes from "flashcards" for learning, not from Flashman the HPC poster :-)