The nervous wait to exchange....

Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
90,818
Wow, expensive for you guys.

Just been quoted to move out of our largish 2 bed house for £260, fully insured etc :/

Ooof it cost us a bit more than £260 to move :s - 1x 7.5ton truck, 3x 3.5ton Lutons :( and we still filled another 2x 3.5ton vans and a pickup ourselves. (Was more than 2 bedroom heh).
 
Associate
Joined
12 Jan 2005
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344
Location
Norfolk
That looks great, congrats. :)

Slightly minor thing but they seem to have made an error in your floor plan - the gallery landing looked a bit odd here, having a pointless bit going off to the left, but on the picture you've posted there is actually a door there not marked on the floor plan.

Well spotted! Yes there’s a door there from the bedroom so it flows quite well :)
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jul 2004
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20,079
Location
Stanley Hotel, Colorado
what are you expecting to happen in the housing market at the moment with brexit (not trying to detail just interested)

I dont expect housing prices to go down especially with such an easy monetary policy ongoing. I know people might not think it relevant exactly but the Federal Reserve state side is cutting rates again, they never raised back to normal amounts anyway and its indicative of the overall picture which will lead to weak currency and house prices continuing at similar levels. I dont think now is a house price boom, UK has population growth etc. If anything brexit means we are more tied to USA in trade and currency not that ECB is anything near to a hard line policy.
Theres cost of housing and there is cost of finance and the interest payable is usually the greater of the two which means finding an amicable deal is probably a good reason to proceed. I know people hesitating but its only because they are caught in legal paperwork, the other problem is saving the deposit vs finding a house in range. Renting is a treadmill, I dont believe in waiting for nicer prices personally.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Mar 2004
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15,686
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Fareham
It's quite crazy what £575K can get you over at Norfolk, nothing like that in this sort of price range around here (Fareham).

Checking Zoopla I think it's because Fareham seems to have a higher average price/value by comparison. I reckon that would be an extra 100-150K down my way.

Looks awesome though I'd certainly be happy with that!
 
Associate
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12 Jan 2005
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344
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Norfolk
Moving across the border to Norfolk is definitely worth it for the house. We’ve looked at dozens of properties (some closer to Cambridge and significantly more expensive) and just haven’t found anything which compares with the size and quality of this one.

Mortgage applications have gone in and solicitor is instructed so fingers crossed we make some progress this week. We chose the flooring on Saturday and it will be installed in approx 3 weeks so hopefully we can exchange and complete on the same day shortly after that.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Aug 2009
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3,844
Location
KT8
With our exchange done and the removal company booked for Tuesday next week, this is our place:

DJp7yln.jpg

ZsUMsy8.jpg

The basement is full height, so going to convert it into a kitchen-diner area. When that's done we're knocking through between the ground floor dining room and kitchen to have a double-fronted rear living room. Then doing the loft into a double bedroom and large bathroom. First thing's first is knocking the two toilet rooms into one bathroom, and the garden which is a total and utter mess - we reckon 20-30 skips worth of stuff.

Other than the bathroom and the basement conversion, most of the other work will be a few years off I reckon, so we're going to give the whole place a lick of paint in the next couple of months. We've bought the place following the passing of an 80-something year old lady - it's very clean, but a little dated. Great location - we're about 50m from the Thames, 10 minute walk to Bushy Park, 2 minute walk to the train station and close by to loads of other areas (Kingston, Teddington, Richmond, etc.)
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Dec 2004
Posts
13,980
Location
Under The Desk, Wales
With our exchange done and the removal company booked for Tuesday next week, this is our place:

DJp7yln.jpg

ZsUMsy8.jpg

The basement is full height, so going to convert it into a kitchen-diner area. When that's done we're knocking through between the ground floor dining room and kitchen to have a double-fronted rear living room. Then doing the loft into a double bedroom and large bathroom. First thing's first is knocking the two toilet rooms into one bathroom, and the garden which is a total and utter mess - we reckon 20-30 skips worth of stuff.

Other than the bathroom and the basement conversion, most of the other work will be a few years off I reckon, so we're going to give the whole place a lick of paint in the next couple of months. We've bought the place following the passing of an 80-something year old lady - it's very clean, but a little dated. Great location - we're about 50m from the Thames, 10 minute walk to Bushy Park, 2 minute walk to the train station and close by to loads of other areas (Kingston, Teddington, Richmond, etc.)

Thats a lovely looking home you got yourself. Congrats
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Aug 2009
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3,844
Location
KT8
Thanks all.

Sounds a nice location too, must have been seriously pricey.

It's a strange one. I grew up in the area so a return to my roots means that I look at the local property market in a certain way. It's ******* depressing when I think about the houses my friends lived in versus the cost at the time. Property in Teddington, Twickenham, etc. was affordable to average families. Now it's not. As I work for myself, I've had to save and save and save in order to afford this place. Honestly we're slightly over-paying for it. I did speak with the estate agents once the completion had gone through and asked them to be honest with me about competition for the house - it had 6 offers within 24 hours of going on sale, 4 at asking price. The neighbour then confirmed this. They were about to go to "best and final offers" for all bidders, but the day before I went ~4.5% over asking price, and then dropped it to 3.5% after a few things came up in the survey.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Feb 2010
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10,740
Location
East Midlands
Thanks all.



It's a strange one. I grew up in the area so a return to my roots means that I look at the local property market in a certain way. It's ******* depressing when I think about the houses my friends lived in versus the cost at the time. Property in Teddington, Twickenham, etc. was affordable to average families. Now it's not. As I work for myself, I've had to save and save and save in order to afford this place. Honestly we're slightly over-paying for it. I did speak with the estate agents once the completion had gone through and asked them to be honest with me about competition for the house - it had 6 offers within 24 hours of going on sale, 4 at asking price. The neighbour then confirmed this. They were about to go to "best and final offers" for all bidders, but the day before I went ~4.5% over asking price, and then dropped it to 3.5% after a few things came up in the survey.

Looks a cracking house anyway :)

The two toilets thing is a little odd, definitely knocking them into one big bathroom would be high on my list of things to do.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Aug 2009
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3,844
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KT8
There's no downstairs bathroom though and having a second toilet is definitely worth it so I'd leave it.

They're tiny - used to be one larger bathroom but split into two when the place was converted into flat 40 odd years ago - and suffer from light issues and asbestos. If you look at the photo of the house front you can see the window indicating they were once one room. We're going to see if we can squeeze a small toilet into the space under the stairs in the basement, where a small utility area is planned. If not, then we may also put one into where the old kitchen is when we renovate that floor. There's only two of us and a baby, so no desperate need for a second WC for a year or two until the loft conversion is done. Although we realise a toilet on the lower ground floor would be ideal, it's tricky to squeeze one in.
 
Caporegime
Joined
19 May 2004
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31,386
Location
Nordfriesland, Germany
They're tiny - used to be one larger bathroom but split into two when the place was converted into flat 40 odd years ago - and suffer from light issues and asbestos. If you look at the photo of the house front you can see the window indicating they were once one room. We're going to see if we can squeeze a small toilet into the space under the stairs in the basement, where a small utility area is planned. If not, then we may also put one into where the old kitchen is when we renovate that floor. There's only two of us and a baby, so no desperate need for a second WC for a year or two until the loft conversion is done. Although we realise a toilet on the lower ground floor would be ideal, it's tricky to squeeze one in.

Ah, fair enough. Not having seen the place myself its hard to tell.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Feb 2010
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10,740
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East Midlands
Buyers solicitors playing silly beggers now :( Getting a string of really dumb questions. Wanting documentation for the staircase and carport installation! They were part of the original build, long before I bought the place. Tempted to tell them to sling it and put it back on the market.
 
Associate
Joined
23 Dec 2008
Posts
1,039
Buyers solicitors playing silly beggers now :( Getting a string of really dumb questions. Wanting documentation for the staircase and carport installation! They were part of the original build, long before I bought the place. Tempted to tell them to sling it and put it back on the market.

To be fair, it may have nothing to do with the buyers themselves. If it is anything like ours the solicitors ask queries without consulting the clients. Ours have asked for evidence of covenant permission for extension, conservatory, building regs for the boiler, extension etc, certificates for the electrics and more. They've also asked for indemnity policy to be paid for by the seller as there seems to be no documentation at all for anything.

I was surprised we weren't asked whether we wanted to take out the indemnity, or consulted before asking the seller anyway. The seller had turned down a 6k offer more than ours as they had already accepted, so I feel a bit cheeky now the solicitor is asking them to pay for more.
 
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