Owning your own home

Yeah I'd tell them to go and find another similar property that doesn't have "damp".

We've just gone through the same situation and in the end settled for 50/50 share of the costs.

I guess if we had paid for a full survey it would come with a damp report

They normally just say "it's damp, get a proper damp survey".

If I were you I'd want to Quantify how much remedial works will cost

Tough to do that without the invasive investigation part (short of obvious problems ljke cracked render, holes in the roof or broken guttering).

If you just want to sell, are utterly immoral and have no qualms abiut dicking people over, get a rising damp chemical injection monkey to quote for a couple of grand, split the difference on the asking price, and take a backhander from the damp "expert"...

We had some done for us by Dovetail Joint in Forest Hill - really good work and good price. He also did our kitchen. We were sorry to leave his handiwork behind when we moved away.

@Crispin_Glover Seems like a plan, took 2 years to sell our house and dropped the price multiple thousands from when we bought it 8 years ago. Total loss buying and selling here in Cumbria over the last 19 years 97 grand and counting. I guess it's different in London..

Tough to do that without the invasive investigation part.

Its harder to do it, yes, but someone who knows their shit and uses appropriate tools such as inspection camera to get a peek under floorboards would be able to give a pretty good approximation of price to within about 10%. Certainly better than negotiating blind.

get a rising damp chemical injection monkey

Don't even need to deal with these guys any more. There are some supposedly pretty good systems or there suitable for DIY damp proofing, can't be any worse than the guys who charge a fortune for chemical injections:

http://www.dryrods.com/

https://youtu.be/irytqcJZSps

Available from Amazon so it must be a "quality" product. If I'm honest it sounds like snake oil and I've not actually used it but the company does claim to have independent verification for it's products.

If you do end up getting a survey, David Caplin at http://www.guardian-dampproofing.co.uk/ did a good job for us.

£175 for a survey, although they offer treatments he basically just said open windows, put the heating on in winter and get an extractor. Exactly what we knew and needed our lender to hear. The EA’s damp surveyor was all injections and thousands on remedial work.

Would also make a recommendation for a damp specialise, Kevin Reid.
Did a couple of surveys for us last year, good bloke and knows his stuff too.
https://citydampsurveys.co.uk/kevin-reid-damp-surveyor

I bought a blower at the weekend, very excited I was about it too... I have reached peak suburban...

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Electric?

Didn't think i'd ever be in a position to enter this thread... semi question but also just a rant.

First time buyer, seen a place we like, now dealing with estate agents. I know they're lying to me about other offers already and can even accept thats part of it. Two offers flatly rejected with no chat coming from the seller. The flat is well within our budget, I don't want to stretch at all, I'll just be happy to no longer be renting.

When I asked them to put my first offer forward though, they said I had to speak to their financial advisor, who then called me and said he wouldn't pass any details of our conversation and would only make a judgement on whether we were financially sound. It was a 1 minute conversation - he only asked our salaries. I've been done right?? They've blantantly passed on our financial details to the estate agent who now know what we can afford? I wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't even forwarded the offer.

Going forwards if I look at a different place, I assume I can refuse to speak to their advisors first? Any advice?? Cheers in advance.

Don’t let them freak you out. I had two offers rejected in similarly blunt fashion- both agents came back a week or so later to ask if my offer is still standing. They have to forward any written offer to the seller but of course it’s difficult to verify and enforce.

About the financial Information, I gave mine straight to the agent to show the seller that I could afford the place, or any other place in that price range for that matter. I stuck to my offer and it was eventually accepted.

Don’t let them get under your skin, it’s buyer’s market. That said don’t blame blame me if you don’t get the place ;)

I wouldn't worry that much. Agents can get in the shit if they're shown not to have put an offer forward and the commission for them on another £10k or so is minimal so turnover is more profitable than eking out every quid. Add to that the market is pretty slow at the moment, it's unlikely they'll ignore offers.

It may well be that the vendor just isn't entertaining anything under asking or the agent is well aware that they wouldn't entertain your offer from previous discussions.

If you haven't already I'd email the offer to make sure it's clear it's a formal offer.

Just because your salary means that you can afford more doesn't mean that people will assume your budget is that high. You may have other outgoings, be risk averse, have an eye on a new car, kitchen etc.

They'll need some kind of evidence that you're in a position to buy the property. The last few offers I made I was asked for a copy of a mortgage offer in principle. It takes 5 minutes to do this online so you can get one that matches up to your offer if you want to go down that route.

Don’t speak to the financial advisor, just send them your mortgage AIP or offer to put them in touch with your broker.

The estate agent financial advisor thing is just ad additional revenue opportunity for them to sell you a mortgage.

Yup, blows up to 230km/h... Very impressive...

ah no worries.

@plantasia @aggi @NickCJ thanks all, all very helpful and reassuring to know I am probably overthinking it. Have got an AIP and will put them in touch with our broker if we end up going through another agent. Hopefully though we'll sort this one out, gonna sit tight for a bit I guess and hope it stays on the market.

Blimey

How easily will it cable tie to a rear luggage rack?

Which Shark vacuum for a 4 person house, no pets (apart from the kids LOL!!1111!!!), easy to lug up the stairs, and the cleaner cannot break within a week?

What are the issues with buying from a relative or friend etc? Is it possible or desirable to do it ‘off market’ and has anyone done this? Can you point me in the direction of the thread if the convo already exists here? (I did do a quick search). One factor is I have one of these help to buy isa things and I want to know what happens to my 25% ‘bonus’ if I go done this path. Thanks

We bought a house from my father in law, no estate agents involved, apart from getting a fair market valuation.

One thing we found was that a lot of lenders were really odd about it, and wouldn't lend to us at all, as they didn't lend on family purchases, we found a broker was invaluable in getting past this (we ended up with Coventry, but Halifax were also willing).

Would you be buying at market value or below? If it is below market value, then inheritance tax becomes a potential thing, and if the seller is due to pay capital gains they would pay at the value of the house not at the purchase price.

I'm thinking about two zip-tied to my Brompton...

@Sam_w very many thanks for this. Was going to do a fair market value price, the family member is giving us an open offer and even joked about us waiting til the market collapses to get a better deal. We love the flat, but if it was just any other flat I wouldn’t be sure if there many advantages- at lest you/they know you/they won’t be gazzumped