Owning your own home

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  • No hub required.
    Set it up on your wifi.
    Download the app.
    Open the app to view camera.
    You have to subscribe to the monthly service to be able to record and revisit footage - £240 a year.

    We got bought the indoor one for xmas last year.
    We only ever use it to see if our son is awake in his room.
    And as I type it sounds it dawns on me that it is pretty poor service and functionality for the cost!

  • £240 a year seems pretty steep. There are a whole load of ones out there that tie into Dropbox, FTP or whatever with no subscription. I paid about £40 for an indoor one that emails me a picture on movement and uploads pictures to FTP.

    Generally it seems the more you spend relates mainly to the ease of setting up.

  • This. That's steep. If I was better at that kind of stuff I'd get two of these and run them through a Rasberry Pi with Motion. Still kind of tempted to try that, but will spend a bit more if it takes care of all the learning / faff.

  • Any words of warning/comfort?

    We know who you are...

    But as it hasn't happened yet... fuck them.

  • I paid £40 for a cheap one to watch a rat. I'm sure China go copies of all the footage but me crushing the skull of a rate with a hammer isn't going to win any Oscars so they can enjoy it.

    £240 for a Nest thing can get to fuck.

  • Just come back from the meeting regarding the interest rate on the loan for my apartment. Ended up at 3.6% fixed instead of 4.7% and with adjusted repayments shaved 6 years of the running time. Paid ~£300 in fees.
    Went through all the numbers, before signing anything, and everything looked fine. And since there's no penalty for paying it off early, I'm now off to other banks to look for a better offer...

  • Morning. I'm potentially selling my flat which was a first time buy, so never sold before. I have arranged for a few estate agents to come round to do a valuation. What other questions should I be asking the fuckers other than:

    What type of contract/s do you offer
    What is your % fee of the sale price +VAT
    How do you market most homes (Zoopla + Own website etc)
    How long will it take for my home to appear on said sites/outlets
    What materials do they prepare such as Floorplans etc

    Any help appreciated, cheers!

  • What have you sold in the area recently? How did it go?
    Why should I chose you over otheragentco.?

    The practical stuff you are asking for will probably be written down in a contract style thing that they will foister on you.

  • Critically, ask who handles things once you're up and running with them.

    Lots of companies will send someone good to secure your business then pass it to the office juniors once you've signed up.

    On Zoopla you can count up how many properties an agent is showing as For Sale and how many Sold STC. The ratio gives a good indication of whether they can sell the stuff they list. From listing to completion is about 3-4 months, so if an agent is selling everything they list they'll typically have 25% for sale and 75% sold stc or 33/66.

  • Thanks Hefty and Howard, much appreciated.

  • Can anyone recommend a bricklayer in N London?

  • Yes, the guy who did our extension. I'll send you a PM with his mobile.

  • In the space of 2 weeks, I've put my flat on the market, sold it, foundd a new home, put an offer in on it and had it accepted.

    It hasn't quite sunk in yet. Please keep everything crossed for me! Here we go again...

  • We've now had a couple of agents round to value, waiting for a valuation and cost from the most recent but they're varying between 1-1.5% (+VAT, the sneaky cunts - as if anyone could claim the VAT back on a residential deal). Will probably go with the most recent if it's competitive as a) the cheapest was 'mate's rates' but charged for photos/floorplan and they seemed singularly uninterested in securing the business - if they're shit now I don't want to know what they're like down the line and b) it's a three-week sole agent contract and the guy seems pretty confident we'll stay with them after that, which suggests they know what they're doing.

    Edit: still not convinced at the possible £10k difference in cost between online/offline estate agents but with a contract this short it's probably worth a go.

  • Pretty far down the path of buying a leasehold property, but have just been informed of "major works" of an undefined cost. These comprise of roof maintenance (requiring full scaffolding), sorting out the communal areas (it's a small block so probably just a lick of paint) and other small bits and pieces. The Section 20 notice was issued in April, but the contract is still out to tender with builders etc. £11k in the service charge slush fund to deal with this. We are stretching ourselves to buy, so moving in and being hit with a £5k bill the next month would be a killer.

    Just had the costs back. £180,000. £16,000 per flat. Wow. So annoying, but also happy that I wasn't lumbered with this a week after moving in. I think we'll be walking away from this one.

  • Wowzers. Any news?

  • Re: VAT

    It's an odd one. There have been ASA rulings saying agents MUST quote inc VAT and the law says it too, but somehow most don't.

  • I suppose it's hard to change if standard practice is to not include it in the headline rate - puts people complying at a disadvantage. Annoys the shit out of me though. See also: vendors/suppliers for private events.

    On another note, does anyone have a good mortgage IFA in East London (or happy to advise over phone)? HSBC have thrown a bit of a spanner into the works and refused a mortgage full stop!

  • Nicely dodged.

  • I suppose it's hard to change if standard practice is to not include it in the headline rate - puts people complying at a disadvantage. Annoys the shit out of me though. See also: vendors/suppliers for private events.

    This'll be it. Fear of sounding 20% more expensive than your rivals.

  • Not just you. We've been trying to remortgage at just the wrong time. Have been dicked about incessantly by Clydesdale and we finally told them to do one when they asked us to up the principle by £60k before proceeding. The risk profile requirements for their mortgage portfolios seems to change hourly.

  • On the other hand, they are able to provided properly risk assessed mortgages where many other banks would point blank refuse

  • Not personal risk - the bank's risk profile across their portfolio. What is irritating is to engage with a lender on a single offer and then have them change the offer every 48 hours for a week and a half, after we had signed the initial paperwork. That's called a bait and switch and they can go and get fucked.

  • I can see how that could be irksome.

    They still use a paper-based system, you know...

  • They want you borrow more?! Or have I misunderstood? We really should have spoken to an IFA before hsbc - apparently it's not fine to borrow when you're relocating even if you need a <10% LTV loan and would have significant cash reserves.

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Owning your own home

Posted by Avatar for Hobo @Hobo

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