Owning your own home

thats nicely done

There's some nice streets of 3 beds around Selby, Ranelagh, Worsley etc as you said, about 12 mins to either Leyton or Leytonstone Tube. Nothing came up around there when we were looking so we jumped at one closer to the Olympic Park. We originally got an offer accepted at the asking, but got screwed a few days later by the old "We've received another offer at the same price, you now have to throw everything you've got at it to keep it" line. So we paid £20k over. That was with Foxtons. We were trying to avoid dealing with them, but it happened to be with them so we went for it. They were actually very efficient compared with our other experiences with Churchills and Bairstow Eves. That was in September last year, and I'm sure the heat has come off the market since then so you probably wouldn't have to go much over the asking now.

I have to say, the commute from ours straight into the Olympic Park then Victoria Park then London Fields to Angel is the most pleasant and traffic free I've ever had. I actually look forward to it every morning. Any of those streets off Cann Hall or South Leyton would allow that and I thoroughly recommend it.

As for local amenities, there's a really good Romanian bakery on Leytonstone High Road, and an OK chippy, but that's about it for the moment. I expect this might change. Still, we can walk to Waitrose which is sometimes handy!

Interesting to hear about the agents, we've had dealings with most of them by now and there are only a couple - Outlook, Ellis & Co and surprisingly Estates 17 - who we didn't feel were just total bullshit merchants. Got to phone Haart and Allen Davies now, ugh.

[Why bathrooms downstairs rubbish?]

Read rest of thread. Explains somewhat.

they arent rubbish. they arent to my taste esp if they are the only bathroom in the house. but some people wouldnt mind.

id rather have the bathroom upstairs so i can sleep walk to have a pizz at 4am.

We moved to just south of Cann hall rd, E11-E7 border, around 4.5 yrs ago.
Was a very cheap area to buy at the time, obviously had to compromise a bit, not much in the way of 'cool stuff' right on your doorstep, if that's your thing.
The area is quite quiet, the local community is very friendly, tons of green space and new amenities (Olympic park etc) opening up.
Now have a family and feel quite settled here.
Our street has had an influx of Claptonites from E5 over the last 6 months so prices have shot up a fair bit. Leytonstone high rd and Woodgrange rd, Forest gate seem to be changing a lot.

Dunnies should be on the ground floor, as should everything else. Stairs = The Devil.

Stairs = The Devil.

Fact http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/790609.stm

How do you know your credit score is bad?

Debt does not necessarily equate to a bad credit score.

As a point of note - scores / ratings are also entirely arbitrary and proprietary to the lender. It's unlikely that you will be told what the criteria are for being loaned to, although some lenders may discuss details with you when you apply for more debt.

A lifetime of being a student which I am only now just emerging from has left me with a credit trail that would make a post-crash banker blush.

I'm pretty sure some bankers around here could spend your entire life's debt on a lunch.

Search results received, management pack has appeared. More queries sent to vendor's solicitors. Fuck.

Price. I was in Bow for five years and loved it but my budget stretched to a manky one bed flat in Bow or a two bed house with forty foot garden in E11. No brainer. Maryland is on Crossrail, that's the next big boost for the area.

Antic taking over the Red Lion can't be overstated as a catalyst for gentrification in Leytonstone, suddenly you saw middle class people that you didn't really notice before, people priced out of Stokey and Hackney are moving in. The borough currently has the highest house price inflation rate in the country (28%).

The Olympic Park developments are only just beginning, there's a lot of jobs moving to the area, LBWF has the lowest proportion of residents who work in the borough in London and I can see that changing. I can se the whole demographic changing in the next ten years, in a way it's strange to think that the perfectly lovely late Victorian housing stock is finally returning to being someone's prized home, after decades of stagnation and decay, since the fifties really.

Price is important. But location is key too. I'm selling in bow e3 right next to the park. It will take me exactly 15 minutes to get from my new house to my old flat. That extra 15 minutes gets rid of the horrendous service charge I've suffered for the past few years, gets me a garden and an extra bedroom.

I've been lucky that e3 has just about outperformed e11, but not by that much. The funny thing is that the house I'm buying was 250k give or take 3 years ago when I spent 250k on my flat in e3. The flat is worth about 10pc more than the house but there ain't much in it. People are realising that an extra 10-20 mins out gets them so much more, without having to spend 300 a month to get to work (which is what it would have cost me to get to work from bishops stortford where we looked at a nice cottage in 1/3 acre etc).

Ok there ain't many houses with those sized gardens in leytonstone but the convenience and cost savings of cycling to work will save thousands over the next few years.

What's Catford all about then?

I've just seen how much more it seems you get for your money down there. I've never lived south of the river and I'm not sure about a 15 mile commute involving Docklands but it looks interesting and I've just found an amazing looking flat there.

The people that live there will tell you they love it, but the town centre bit is grim. I think there is currently a master plan redevelopment of the centre, which will probably be good for it.

It's a big far from the action, too, but as a cyclist you can reap the rewards.

Go and have a look.

There's a lot of nice housing stock for not a great deal, however as BRM says you have a major traffic interchange right in the centre, which I can't see how they'd remove - which is a massive shame as if it did then Catford would be extremely desirable.

It's an ideal commute for my fiancée even if it would be a bit of a nightmare (or 'workout') for me, but the place I saw there earlier this afternoon was incredible, the sort of flat that we couldn't afford at all on Leyton/stone.

Maybe I'll move to Catford.

I like living in Catford.

This post brought to you by the Catford Tourism Board.

there's a giant fibreglass cat above the shopping center. so there's that.

Where abouts was the place you viewed?

A road just off Bromley Road (not being any more specific just yet...) which was nice and quiet.

Tom, what do you like about Catford?

Didn't see a lot/anything in the way of places to eat or drink, but I don't think I'd have any time to do that anyway if I had to commute to Chingford.

You'd have a Wickes and a Halfords on your doorstep! And a Waitrose just up the road.

I like it because I have a quiet parade of shops I can walk to in sub 2 minutes with a good butcher, a cash point and somewhere to get food. A very strong community/neighbourhood spirit, and all our neighbours seem to be lovely. A decent turkish supermarket (and restaurant) within 2 mins riding distance, a very good local pub and strong transport links when I'm not feeling like riding anywhere.
On the bike it's half an hour into town one way and half an hour to the top of Beddlestead the other. Peckham/Nunhead/Hither Green are near enough for zero-hassle seeing friends, Bromley (bleurgh) is near enough for shopping-shopping (and as awful as it is, it has some redeeming features).
It's rough around the edges in a non-threatening, nobody-cares-too-much kind of way. The residents and council are aware of its failings, but there's a strong desire to improve, and everyone I've met through the Catford Canteen/residents groups/pub loves the area.
Yeah the South Circular goes right through the middle of it, but on the roads off that things get very quiet, very quickly, with big houses and hidden greens. Plus everybody else in London thinks the area's awful, so you end up with people that actually want to be there.

Something like that, anyway. I like it because I'm there and I have to, but day-to-day I encounter few reasons not to.

it's no West Norwood tho.

which is 4 lyf.