Owning your own home

Can't see the gentrification of E17 slowing down, in fact I'm amazed it took so long

Is Yopa like Purplebricks? would you recommend them?

The difference is that you pay Yopa on completion, so there's an incentive for them to actually sell your place. Our local Yopa agent was great - did all our viewings knew how to talk the place up to get the asking price.

since the offer was so much higher than sold prices in the area.

It is highly likely in that case, particularly given the horizon.

Bloody hope not, I still have to travel back to Hackney for Aesop and good olive oil.

Sounds like the ruthless stow bros way. Yeah go highest. Friend sold through them and literally I think they were sold up something chronic.
You buying in area also?

👋🏼 When does the dust and destruction begin again?

It's even happening in the satellite areas. I'm in Leyton. I bought my flat for £190k in 2017, the one above me sold for £250k a few months ago. It's fucking bananas.

Yeah fuck the Stow Brothers, orrible cunce...

D Day is the 18th... not at all ready.

Nah m8 moving out of Lunnon, can't afford it and don't want kids to grow up here.

Yes it's stow bros but to be fair they're the best of a bad bunch, we had a meeting/valuation with a girl from Douglas Allen and she outright admitted to creating bidding wars that don't exist to get buyers to up their offers for no reason!

That's a very good point.
I wonder what the banks tolerances are for over or under valued properties.

About 5pc is a valuers tolerance. A lot , in reality, depends if they are working on their own insurance or whether they are an employee and they are covered by the firm...

Viewed a place today that had a big electrical cable running down the middle of the garden.

Turns out it was to power the sauna at the bottom of the garden ...

One guy who showed us a flat in Brixton was really sweating and
panicking. Eventually he blurted out: “Look, are you going to take
it?” When we said no, he just turned and legged it out of the flat.
Then we watched him through the window, furiously thumping the bonnet
of his car. He’d spotted that he’d been given a parking ticket but was
so desperate for the sale, he obviously thought “If I get this
commission, that fine will pay for itself”.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/aug/10/jamie-demetriou-interview-fleabag-stath-lets-flats

Is there Pampas Grass?

Show us you sex shed thread>>>>>>

How effective are plantation style shutters at heat insulation?

I'm thinking of the coming Winter here, we have single glaze sash windows that don't seal great and let the draught through.

Realistic options are:

• Heavy curtains
  
• Plantation-style shutters
  
  

Semi-realistic options:

• Create more heat with a wood burning stove
  
• Temporary secondary glazing over the Winter
  
  

Unrealistic options:

• Replace all the windows with a double-glaze
  
  

Of those... shutters seems to be the best for semi-affordable, potentially good in Winter to minimise draughts and heat loss whilst good in the Summer to keep spaces cool.

Imo: curtains much better than slatted shutters for keeping heat in.
DIY "secondary glazing" film is very very cheap and easy to apply and effective. The stuff that's heat shrink clingfilm plus double sided sticky tape. Main problem is the easiest thing to do to block draughts is to go over the whole window to the outer frame and that means you can't open the sash. You can just do each part of the window in combination with stuffing draught excluding strips where you can between the frames, that's also quite effective. You can buy this stuff in any diy shop for a few quid. You need a hair dryer and a pair of scissors.

Shutters are good for shade in the summer. But they're not going to stop draughts, they're full of gaps.

Unrealistic options:
Replace all the windows with a double-glaze

why is this unrealistic?

a wood burning stove

might as well drive a diesel car and fly everywhere!

While eating Big Macs.

why is this unrealistic?

I don't have the funds for that.

a wood burning stove

might as well drive a diesel car and fly everywhere!

Hardly, you can get by-product from various industries that can be used to produce an eco fuel which you burn instead of pieces of wood. i.e. furniture production waste and saw dust is compressed to produce a brick which slow burns and releases a fair amount of heat, and then the stove itself radiates for ages which increases overall efficiency.

Certainly for an open wood burning fire I'd agree with you.

I don't have the funds for that.

fair .. we just replaced ALL windows at our place .. victorian end of terrace with double bays .. £6k, double glazed sash .. wasnt as expensive as I thought it would be

We had a modern wood burner installed at our last place that was £2.5k

Also Laminate flooring with decent underlay makes a diff and fairly cheap and hassle-free to get it installed.

also: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/environment/pollution-and-air-quality/guidance-wood-burning-stoves-london

Particulates tho

Particulates tho

Electrostatic filters and a modern stove with a biomass and eco fuel really do answer this problem.

I would not be considering anything less than a clean, eco, sustainable solution, and those do exist.

Thats very cheap - guessing that's uPVC rather than wood sash?

Where did you get them from?

An option I'd be looking at is having your existing sash windows overhauled. It's not that pricey if they're in ok condition and it will hugely cut down on draughts.