Owning your own home

It all depends what are the savings for.

You will pay more to finance a mortgage than you will earn on any savings - so from a purely financial viewpoint, paying for an extension from savings & leaving the mortgage alone is the cheapest thing to do.

Can't wait to move back to Norwich. So many nice houses. I wish someone would open a decent restaurant or two though.

@chrisbmx116 @Tenderloin I often look at Norwich houses still. There are some lovely ones for sale at the moment, including one of the medieval ones in Tombland.

Don't have any advice re. financing but am interested cos it's something I might consider in the future. It's a couple of years since I bought a first floor flat (on Seymour) and my solicitor specifically mentioned that roof costs were my responsibility. She reckoned that was unusual, maybe it's a ladder thing?

Are you leasehold or share of freehold?

Cheers all. The thoughts are similar to mine. I can probably just afford to do it with savings but that would wipe most of them out so I may end up going with combination of mortgage/savings.

I assume that if you're increasing the mortgage to fund a loft conversion they're only going to base it on current property value, not property value post-loft conversion which could give a crap deal for a couple of years.

Yes, I'm on the ladder too. I'm a share of freehold but each flat has a lease in place with the freehold.

Solicitor in Norwich but I'm buying in leyton

There are 3 or 4 good food spots and similar for coffee and clothes. Getting there. I'd like to buy a second home there at some point

From what I remember the leasehold basically has a line around the middle of the building with anything above it being mine.

I should check though, it's a while since I looked at them and it could make the whole thing irrelevant.

Your buying in wragby road aren't u? V average looking house has just gone under offer for just shy of half a million quid apparently

@andyfallsoff I lived in Hertford for 20 odd years. Went to Abel smith then St eds after. Sister went to simon ball, probably started in your year actually, surname noble?

Such a shame that Friends Reunited shut down.

Off to Margate then?

Nope. Too far. Although we do have friends in Ramsgate, Margate and Ramsgate are both too far for a 4 or 5 day a week commute. An hour (and a bit) is about my limit.

It's Faversham. Not quite the coast i'll grant you but close enough. It's on the creek with the marshes on the doorstep for runs, cycling and bird watching and the coast proper is just 10 mins away. It's a 1 hour fast train into london and I get a discount on the ticket with work.

We love the town. It's got really good vibes: nice cafes, record shops, book shops, guitar shops, a good food market, good folk music scene there and in Canterbury 15 mins down the road. It's got loads of great pubs as the shepherd neame brewery is there. It's got greenery and good schools it's closer to family and we have a couple of close friends there already. We've got a 5 month old baby and it feel like this our chance to trade up to a house that will hold all of us, any future additions, have guests over to stay and house a basement studio for me and my guitars... all for significantly less than the asking price on a 2 bed flat in SE23.

We love it here in Forest Hill but I feel like we'd mad not to take advantage of the relative state of the market in the two places to upsize our accommodation, downsize our debt and basically secure our future.

Still waiting to hear back which makes me think we've actually pitched it just right. If we'd gone too low we'd know by now and if we'd overshot they'd be all over us. Just got to wait to see what happens with this place now.

nice cafes, record shops, book shops, guitar shops, a good food market, good folk music scene there and in Canterbury 15 mins down the road. It's got loads of great pubs as the shepherd neame brewery is there.

latfh thread

I stopped at a pub in Faversham during a ride down to Whitstable. It was probably the nicest town I've seen in Kent.

Shhhhhhh!

Faversham's a nice enough place but it's a shame about the locals...

Isn't Kent just full of gypsy's and immigrants?

#sweepingstatement

Only as much as Islington.

Islington is full of arseholes

Yeah - ours hasn't quite gone through yet but is close. Glad to see we're not the only mugs paying over the odds!

And we're online. Anyone want to buy my flat? Forum discount. Collection only.

Dibs lounge if you split etc

I rode through Faversham on Mack's Margate ride, and thought it was a lovely chocolate box place. I thought "why don't I live here?" and Googled it. It transpired that the place is known as Chaversham and the town is a no go area after 5:30 as it fills up with drunken thugs. That's when I decided Kent probably wasn't for me.

A rumour put about to keep the riff raff out.

the town is a no go area after 5:30 as it fills up with drunken thugs.

Sounds like West drinks...

Dunno if you are going to be refurbing yours but keep an eye on number 2 Chichester. The ladies there (who were on location x3 a while back in walthamstow) are completely renovating theirs back to bare brick, bespoke sash windows, the works. Could be quite something and they have used plenty of different trades so could recommend some if you need any.

Also I have a massive ladder if you ever need it.