Owning your own home

if I dealt with someone who was such a mug at negotiating a £300 fee I wouldn't feel that confident about them negotiating a mortgage deal then....

That fee will just be a standard affair, they'll figure that majority of people will just pay it, some will haggle and some will negotiate for it to be removed.

You get the guy down from £300 to £150, think you're the next wolf of wall street and then go with him. Nice sales tactic for him because they'll be making their real money on the mortgage itself

Watch out for the cap on house value. Late to the party on this one. Our broker didn't notice that we were over the value threshold so between the two of us we were a grand in cash down when the solicitor broke the news that we wouldn't be getting the payout.

Nah we knew it was the only deal we could get being forrin and on a visa and there was no way we could get a direct appointment in time, they get commission from vendor anyway.

that sucks! Your broker should have paid you out of his pocket!

Just got his quote through for this - I'm assuming he doesn't want to do it given the price!

@hugo7 @aggi re: Title deeds, I thought these were held by the mortgage company until you've fully repayed the debt?

Mortgage sorted. Indemnities in place. Contracts received on Saturday morning, signed and posted back recorded delivery with a couple hours. They should be with our solicitor this morning. The waking nightmare is nearly over.

Only fly in the in the ointment at the moment is that there appears to be an assumption that we will be paying for the indemnities required as a result of the seller's lack of planning and building control. Er... nope!

what he quote you? im after the same thing but cant even get someone to turn up to quote..

So far as I'm aware they have a charge over the property but it's not actually necessary to hold the deeds.

£1800

I'm having real trouble getting people to do the job.

How complicated is the job / how much of a hurry are you in? Invest in tools and take it very slowly?

fvck that

Doing it properly and well takes quite a bit of time and skill. It is much harder to make furniture to fit a space than to make it freestanding - this is why the chap who did ours only does freestanding now, but ours were quite far north of £1800 and I gather prices have gone up since then too but I think you might be after something simpler.

It's one job I definitely wouldn't recommend doing yourself.

Of the three people we had quote we would honestly have happily gone with any of the three as the winner just edged out the other two.

One of the other two was this guy:
http://www.nickmcauley.co.uk/

I can't find the third now but will edit if I do.

the amount of fucking tradespeople who come over to 'give you a quote' only to disappear into the ether. what their really doing is coming over to see whether or not they can be arsed.

It's pretty simple but I don't have the tools to do the job properly or the time at the moment.

I'm also keen to get it done because it means I can then move on to other stuff.

It's an alcove cupboard with 4 doors and a rail above this and on the other side a fitted desk and two shelves above it.

I'd given this as a rough guide:

I don't mind paying for something if it warrants it but what we had requested was pretty basic and simple. It's a spare room and we don't intend to be in the house >3 years and already having something custom made for downstairs.

I might message Nick just to gauge price and level of complexity

I shudder to think of the price you would have been quoted had you not mentioned @AirTime's name lolz

Can't put a price on quality ;-)

It does sound pretty simple, although I don't know how much of a quote is intrinsic - i.e. are there certain costs involved in doing something however basic.

This is the other chap we got a quote from:
https://karlrees.co.uk/

I'm pretty sure I'd change my number after I'd met you :)

I've been looking at shelving systems and weighing it up with making them myself, there's not much in it price wise as time I spend working on my own stuff is time I'm not making money.

The plus for me with Vitsoe or Royal System stuff is it has a decent resale value where my own custom freestanding pieces that I've sold for customers who can't find space for it when they've moved fetches about 20% of the original cost. Although that makes it good value.

Sounds like you need something knocked up in a couple of days and painted with a roller. That's 4-5 days labour + materials, couldn't be much change from £1200. Most of the guys who would do that for you are busy on building sites working in teams, the rest of us are focussed on quality and decent living standards as there's still a lot of demand.

No painting and I'm providing the materials - I thought it would be c £750 - 900

We're going to go with a Royal system for the very reason you've said @Airhead

@Fox I think I might give that chap a message as we're still going to want some fitted cupboards

Does anyone have any recommendations of someone who makes front doors and frames? It’s a relatively basic design (door blank with opaque glazed section) but opens into an open plan space so would need to be of decent construction and thermal performance.