This week I was invited to give a talk to a group of young men and women who no doubt will become first time buyers in the not too distant future.

I was invited to Flour Daniel, one of the largest local companies.

The talk was centred around “Getting Your First Mortgage”.

I gave a powerpoint presentation, along with Matt Penfold a former Estate agent who now works with me in the Frimley office.

Matt showed using a graph Read more »

House prices rose 1.2% in May on April, offering evidence of activity in the UK housing market, according to figures from the Nationwide building society.

The annual rate of house price falls eased from 15% in April to 11.3%, with a typical home now costing £154,016.

Over the past three months, house prices fell by 0.5% compared with the previous three-month period, the lowest quarterly drop since January last year.

But lets not get too carried away here.

These kind of headlines may sell newspapers and the information for the Nationwide is in the public domain. But I hope that people generally wont jump the bandwagon.

This could well be a false dawn and sellers might just be tempted to put up their prices too early, led by estate agents who promise to sell at a higher price than the market allows.

Although I am optimistic about the future of property in the local area and feel that prices will go up over time, the way this headline is being presented in the media, is that the green shoots of recovery have started.

I hope they have and certainly we are the busiest we have been for months, but we are still not out of the BIG R, officially anyway.

But there is no doubt that there is more confidence in the market. I know of one family who were gazumped last week when another buyer upped the price on a property being sold for £295k by £8k and we haven’t had that for a while.

But there is a definite shortage of property for sale as people have decided to stay in their existing home and get the builders in to extend. Plus of course it is so expensive to sell your property…..but don’t get me started on that.

Estate agent friends of mine report there 3 or 4 people going after 1 property and in this kind of scenario, the buyer has every right to put their price up because it is in demand.

So I say good luck to anyone who is in that situation, but I hope we don’t all get carried away and forget that a house is an investment for the future and one of the best investment you can make.

Plus one set of figures doesn’t give you the whole picture.

If I can be of help please contact me or one of my staff.

Michael

email: michael@mumsltd.co.uk

What does it take to be the best mortgage adviser in Camberley?

• You’ve got to be on the ball…We are

• You’ve got to know where the best deals are…We know

• You’ve got to have a team that works well together…We have

• You’ve got to have a team with real world experience…We have

• You’ve got to give straight talking advice…We try our best

• You’ve got to get the deal that matches the clients wishes..We try exceptionally hard

And also, you got to try that little bit harder to look after you customer.

Here’s an email from one of our girls to me:

Michael I thought you might like this little story……….

An example of how great our service is – Called client to get an email address from her and was advised that she doesn’t have one because she had accidentally spilt liquid on her laptop so it now doesn’t work!!!  Also her dishwasher has broken down……upon checking her details, noticed that she arranged her Buildings & Contents insurance through us.

I asked her if she knew that she could claim against her contents insurance – She was elated as she had not even thought that she could do this – I was able to confirm to her that she had the correct cover, gave her the claim number and her policy number.  Armed with all the relevant information she can call her insurer without having to dig through all her paperwork.

Another happy MUMS client.

What can I say..All of us here at Michael Usher Mortgage Services, do try to go the extra mile. So how can we help you. Call me 01276 670777

Michael

0.5% Bank Rate is good, but…..

Home owners in Surrey and Hampshire have seen their mortgage payments slashed in the last 5 months, well those that have a tracker mortgage or those we have helped recently to secure low mortgage rates.

Now the Bank of England have decided to print more money as well, (what a good idea, I wish I could do that) what we need now….is more lending please and all we can hope is that the banks do start to make funds available for desperate house buyers.

But of course we will all have to pay for it in the end. You can’t just print more money like its going out of fashion and not worry that this kind of action will not come back and bite you on the bum, because it surely well.

But, like the government, let’s not worry about that now, lets get the economy going again and worry about those other things in the future.

The local housing market.

I have been talking to quite a number of estate agents in Camberley, Frimley and Farnborough and they have all been saying that they are busier now than in the last 12 months and in some areas and with certain types of properties, prices are stablising.

But the banks and buiding societies are making things tougher all round. They are still insisting 0n 15, 20, or even 25% deposits, in fact its said that the government are contemplating on making it a law that there should be a deposit of at least 15%. Not sure about that.

10% deposit would seem fair and indeed workable. My first mortgage in the 80′s required 10% and yes it was hard to find that money, but I worked harder, did a job on the side and finally saved enough money to get my first house.

Prices of houses are higher now, but we all earn a lot more now.

Houses are also more affordable than they were this time last year and I know I keep saying it, but you can still get an even better bargain if you negotiate!!!!

So now its a case of saying hooray to 0.5% interest rates if you have a certain mortgage, but boo!!!  if you are a saver. Swings and roundabouts comes to mind. After all some savers had it good for so long.

As Forrest Gump said “Life’s like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

If I can help you in any way with you mortgage, please email me through the website or just pick up the phone, I wont bite.

Michael 01276 670777

website

Recently we held a disco in aid of the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice in Farnham.

Chloe from the hospice came to collect the cheque.

I don’t know how she’s going to pay it over the counter.

Picture courtesy of Aldershot News

The Bank of England has reduced interest rates to a record low of 1% from 1.5%.

Back in October last year, the Bank of England rate was 5%.

Great news for house buyers, especially with tracker mortgages, but of course bad news for savers.

Of course this is the 5th interest rate cut in five months and I believe this will help to stimulate the housing market.

Already I have seen some loosening in the market and some banks are willing to listen and offer mortgages.

The media/press continue to churn out the bad news, which is not helping, but we as independent mortgage brokers are making headway and getting mortgages for our clients, today, this week, YES THIS WEEK.

I’m not saying its easy, but we are constantly in contact, on a daily basis with banks and building societies checking on the latest deals around.

It may suprise you to know that certain banks and building societies put out offers for just a couple of days, before withdrawing them after selling the multiple that they wanted… Thats where we come in and win as independents, because we hunt out the latest deals.

I do feel sorry for the savers, but with interest rates lower, those on tracker mortgages especially,  have benefitted by having reduced mortgages, meaning these mortgage holders will have more money to spend in the local and national economy, which is good for us all.

So with all the savings you have made on your mortgage, go spend some in the local restaurants and shops and do your bit, but don’t spend it all, save some, put it into Gold, prices still going up and you can invest in a gold bar for less that £80….

If you would like to change your mortgage to a tracker or fixed rate, give me a call 01276 670777

Michael

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Hi just thought I would give you an updated on the fundraising disco we hell last Saturday.

I had hope that we would raise somewhere in the region of £3000, but I am really pleased to announce that we raised £6500.

I am so pleased, it was a fantastic night and over 250 people came along to hear all the old soul  and funk tunes.

In fact it was so succesful that I have been inspired to do it again next year.

Thanks to all who donated and helped

When we get all the monies in from the auction, we will be making a presentation to the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice Farnham.

Michael

Hi,

I thought I would publish something that appeared in one of the mortgage business trade journal “Mortgage Introducer”.

I think it goes to show that money is still being lent for mortgages, despite what we hear consistenly in the TV News

“27 January, 2009

In December, net mortgage lending by banks rose by £2.9 billion according to the British Bankers Association (BBA).

This was lower than in November and below the average of the previous six months. Consumer credit remained subdued, falling by £0.4 billion net, while personal deposits rose by £4.0 billion. However, the significant falls in Bank Rate and the financial sector turmoil affected both lender and customer activity in November and December, so monthly movements are less indicative than usual of trends, according to the BBA.

BBA statistics director, David Dooks, said of the latest data: “This first opportunity to compare 2008 with 2007 shows that gross mortgage lending by the main high street banks totalled £170 billion, some 23% below 2007’s total of £221 billion.

However, lending by the rest of the mortgage market was half the previous year’s total, showing how mortgage lending became much more concentrated during the year. The banks approved less than half the 2007 number of loans for house purchase, reflecting falling demand from households facing greater economic uncertainty and double-digit falls in house prices over the year which led to a wait-and-see mentality.

“Consumer credit was very weak in December as people reined in their credit card spending, despite early Sales and heavy discounting by retailers. This consumer caution was also reflected in personal deposits, which rose strongly.”

The annual growth rate for net mortgage lending was still in double digits at end-year and reflects the main banks replacing other lenders in the market. During 2008, banks’ net lending rose by £48 billion, compared with £62 billion in 2007. In 2008 as a whole, gross lending was £170 billion, some 23% lower than in 2007.

Approval activity appeared to increase slightly during December, but was more likely to reflect delayed activity from November. In 2008, house purchase approvals were 52% lower than in 2007. Approvals for remortgaging were 14% lower than 2007. Approvals for equity withdrawal & other purposes were 33% lower in 2008 than 2007″

A lot of technical info, but interesting never the less.

Michael mums

Wherever you look its “Doom and Gloom”, I try not to watch too much TV news, I mean how many times can you listen to the news presenter read out bad story after bad story, without getting peed off.

Last week the housing minister Margaret Beckett, said it was a good time for 1st time buyers to be buying homes. She was slammed for not recognising that our recession problems are not over. But I would like to defend her.

Yes that’s right, well up to a point. You see, it is a good time for first time buyers to be “looking” at property, so they can get a feel for the market. Now you notice that I didn’t say buy…

Of course they could buy if they have a big enough deposit and they can negotiate another 5-10% off the curent asking prices.

Most people who are desperate to move, are waiting for the price of homes to reach what they percieve to be the bottom of the market. When will this be?

Well in my opinion, sometime later this year I believe the value of houses will stop falling, then prices will stick for a while and the start to rise next year. Maybe not as dramatically as before, but they will rise in the foreseeable future.

And our 1st time buyers have to be ready. Now compared to this time last year, there are not as many mortgage products available, but there are a few alternatives and I would be glad to talk to you about your options, just give me a call 01276 67077

So I believe first time buyers should be taking a look at the market and getting a feel for the market.

As a 1st time buyer, what kind of deposit do you need?

Well the ideal customers from a lot of the banks and building societies point of view is a customer who has 20-30%, because the mortgage lenders are worried that the value of houses, still has another 10% to go down yet, so they want to minimize the risk they take..

But 10 and 15% deposit mortgages are available, but they come at a cost. If you want further information and options, call me and we’ll talk

Bye for now

Michael
mums

Don’t buy a mortgage today, that’s the message I am giving my clients.

I like most people was surprised by the 1.5% reduction of rates by the Bank of England. But the mortgage market is a little unstable and volatile at present and will be till at least the middle of next week.

All of the banks and building societies have withdrawn their tracker mortgages, which means that if you buy a fixed rate mortgage today and the bank rate goes down another .5% or even 1% then you will have a more expensive mortgage than you should.

On the pessimistic side, if you get a fixed mortgage at 5.5% and the economy goes tits up and we see interest rates up to 5,6, 7,8% or more, you will have been glad to obtain a “cheap” mortgage.

Hopefully next week the lenders will come to their collective senses and bring back trackers or lower fixed mortgages.

So until next wednesday or so, do not get talked into buying a mortgage until things settle and better deals come back to the market.

Have a great weekend.

Michael

Michael Usher Mortgage Services