Owning your own home

That's a beautiful house.

That's lovely.

Never been all that keen on Hatfield, though.
Reminds me of Potters Bar for some reason.

Rail disasters, obvs

Those places back on to the main line. Not sure if stuff really barrels through there but if it does it’s going to be loud.

Rail disasters, obvs

Ah yes, of course. Considering what I do for a living, I should have made that connection.

East Coast Main Line so I would imagine it will be noisy.

you've clearly never been to shatfield..

shatfield

last time I did that was on an audax in 2018, quite liberating tbh

also not technically a field but a portaloo at the bottom of Izoard in 2017

I had never had dried figs before that day

I live about 400m from that line (further down) and can occasionally hear trains going past so I imagine it could be fairly loud. There's a lot of non-stopping express trains and freight on that line.

This is the kind of thing I'm looking for in a London terrace.

A bespoke hand-carved stone staircase is available via separate negotiation.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-69455748.html

curious - where would it go?

Jeeeeeeeee Sus some people are fucking stupid. I may be wrong but read that as:

"We bought this terraced house to do up but blew our entire budget on a fucking staircase that will only fit in this house. We did such a bad job of speccing the renovations that we couldn't even afford to have the fucker installed. Now we are selling this house and would like the buyer to pay a premium for a staircase that in all likelihood will not work anywhere else."

Apologies if this house belongs to anyone on here but I'm just saying it how I see it.

Apologies if this house belongs to anyone on here

that would be pretty unlucky / funny.

Yes, I'm struggling to see where a bespoke stone staircase goes on the plans
https://bit.ly/3iq5tOb

"Photos available on request"

such a tease

I've requested. Will report back.

Yasssssssss

Thank you!

I'm hoping that the estate agent is actually a stonemason and hoping to go full-time. They're putting this on every advert hoping at some point someone will say "yes - that's exactly what this Victorian semi needs is something that went out of style after medieval castles."

That’s literally the only nice part of Hatfield, apart from maybe Old Hatfield and the people that rent within the grounds of Hatfield House. Loads of interesting houses in that Mt Pleasant area though.

The clue is in the agent’s name

Ha, we lived 5 doors down from that house. We did not have a bespoke hand -carved stone staircase, which is just as well since we were in the ground floor flat.

which is just as well since we were in the ground floor flat.

the first floor was empty, you just never knew you could use it because you didn't think to install a bespoke hand carved stone staircase

They've ignored my request and are hassling me for a phone number to arrange a viewing. Good luck with that.

going to be remortgaging in the next few months. what factors do people take into account when deciding on how to much to overpay/up their monthly payments by? I am in a much stronger financial position than I was when I took out the mortgage 2 years ago so could comfortably double the payments and cut down the loan period quite significantly (its currently 33 years - I'm only 28)....

at the same time, interest rates are so low that I am not really in a huge rush to get it paid off - with savings from salary going into my S&S ISA etc. On the other hand - we will probably move again in 3-4 years and as my partner doesn't earn a huge amount it would be great to build even greater equity in our place, in time for our next move

If you have spare cash move to a nicer place

Or buy a fixer, renovate and extend it then sell.

Overpaying mortgage is dead money atm especially if your overall prospects are good.

Cash for the next move does not have to be equity in the home, that’s only useful for remortgaging. It can come from any source.

I'd tend to prioritise keeping your options open.

If there's a particular LTV that gets you a better % then could be worth going for that figure.
If you have a mortgage that allows overpayments then there's always the option of keeping a long term but knowing you can reduce it if you choose.
You'll probably earn more putting the overpayments into a S&S ISA... probably.

I'm expecting to be moving in the next few weeks and decided to put a smaller deposit and to keep the rest for either improvements or investing elsewhere. Personally the flexibility is preferable over having a smaller outstanding mortgage, though I know plenty of others who prefer a smaller mortgage and smaller savings. I don't think one is necessarily better than the other.

Edit: What Howard said basically.