Owning your own home

Take a deep breath and relax, stop acting impulsively and stop throwing money at the problem. We've offered on five properties in the last year, every time we totally fell in love with the house and every time we got fucked. But guess what? A better property always shows up, think with your head and don't give up your equity so easily. My tuppence.

@Apone - @inchpincher speaks the truth. Take heed.

Wow. The London and South East property market, eh? Terrifying.

FTFY.

What a shit way to go through buying somewhere. :-(

If you were trying to move to Cambridge, as we are, you would not think that. If anything it's more bonkers. Stupid fucking housing market.

Anyone else want to bag an exclusive BR1 postcode? Another one just came up.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57462884.html#_full-description

@apone sounds suspiciously like the agent / buyer are trying to play you for a chump. walk away mate! he's not worth it etc...

But Zeros tho...

@Apone unless that place is incredible then to jump 40% from 125k to 175k in a moment is huge. What else is there in the area that's been valued at 175?

Now I'm worried we've just made an absurdly high offer, tickled the seller's fancy and are now about to come unstuck on a bit of agenty bullshit.

You won't take the flak from this, the agent will. Don't worry about it.

@ChainBreaker?

He already bought Bowie's old flat, or something. Round the corner in the bad part of town: Bromley.

Did you know there used to be a wall between Downham and Bromley, to keep out the "vulgar people"?

http://www.historytoday.com/michael-nelson/gated-communities-class-walls

Clearly we need to build it again and Mexicans will pay for it.

I did not. Pleased to see it was to keep Downham people out of Bromley and not the other way around...

@Apone - i also went to school in Hertford, and would second your comments! Which one did you have the pleasure of going to?

And GLW the house purchase - sounds difficult, but i envy your move to the coast, i get more and more tempted to abandon London as time goes by

i also went to school in Hertford

Me too. SBS for me. This is weird.

We asked for Martin Browne originally, but he was busy so we got someone called Claire Ennever Dormer, and when we complained about her were then passed on to a trainee called Gulum Aktan.

I called and complained to Martin Browne again yesterday, who was grumpy and unhelpful and seemed affronted that he bore any responsibility, despite the fact he is the partner in charge of the residential practice. Giving him a bit of a rocket seems to have had an effect though, because we know have another partner on the case called Paul Wilson Smith, who is experienced and knows his onions.

Lesson learnt that a recommendation for an individual doesn't mean the rest of the firm will be any good. I can't say my limited experience of Martin has been particularly positive, but I do seem to have someone effective and proactive on the case at last.

We've been in process for 25 weeks know, and my wife is 28 weeks pregnant. Not confident about which is going to complete first. My sense of humour about it is pretty thin.

Oh look, I found a money pit under the shitty laminate flooring in my kitchen.

1 Attachment

Sorry to hear that.

I've dealt only with Martin on my last two purchases and he's been very helpful on both occasions. The last was only a 6 week process!

As you say, clearly a recommendation for Martin does not necessarily translate to a recommendation for Gisby Harrison.

Ugh yeah pulled up a loose floorboard in our bedroom the other day, about 3ft of crawlspace, probably useful storage for someone willing to clear it out, line it and build trapdoors. Too many dead spiders for me ugh ugh!

@turtlerecall - i was at SB too, 93 onwards. Shit that is a long time ago

I never really raised it on here before but I also had a terrible experience with Martin and the firm. I will not be using him again.

I've had amazing experience with 1st property lawyers. All online and phone based. I dont know what proper lawyer charges but we paid less than £500 for their services on a £280K+ freehold house. Plus all documents and conversations are digital which is a big plus.

We went in with recommendation of 2 of my friends who used them for their purchases.

That's not bad... We can go in jointly!