Owning your own home

Thank you @stevo_com @rogan @Howard, makes sense looking at it from that perspective

If they do accept, can anyone recommend a good surveyor in Forest Hill area?

can anyone recommend a good surveyor in Forest Hill

Buying a flat or house?

I think a small town or bigger village would be more appealing then you can live on the outskirts but still be able to get a pint of milk or whatever easily enough. Living in small villages without anything in them was always less fun for me as a kid and probably my parents.

Life being entirely dependent on what other kids live in the same village or how often your parents are willing to drive you anywhere is my overreaching memory.

It gets extra difficult at secondary school where your school mates might live 10 or 20 miles away. Good luck seeing them in the holidays.

I remember a breakfast conversation at my mate's house between his little brother and mum after she had to at 4am the night before from the nearest town/city:

Mum: do you think you could not stay out as late so you can make the last train home then I can pick you up from the station? Or what about staying at a friends house?
Little bro: if you didn't want to have to pick me up, you shouldn't have made us live in the middle of fucking nowhere

That was the same with friends who grew up in the sticks.

Mum: why you little shit

Honestly, I was so shocked.

Unless he got laid he did it pretty much every Friday and Saturday into his twenties too.

In fairness they had previously lived in a really nice little village with a decent amount going on.

any referrals for home insurance?

Not a referral, but we've found AXA decent.

Based on recent experience I would thoroughly recommend getting some sort of emergency call out / homecare package where you get 3-5 emergency call outs <£1k for free with no XS.

So things seem to be progressing with the sale/purchase. However the mortgage provider for the place I'm selling can't get around to do a survey until the middle of Sept.
How likely is that to slow things up or can everything else be done around that?

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/332970

Most stuff can be done around it but there is an element of uncertainty that the mortgage may not happen.

House

Appreciate a very difficult question as all circumstances are different - but does anyone have any views on to deadlines that will need to be hit to ensure you don’t miss stamp duty holiday deadline of 31 March?

Have had offer accepted, mortgage approved but our solicitor hasn’t heard from the sellers side yet. Seller is currently looking for a place (which the agent wasn’t strictly truthful about pre-offer) and I want to make sure I know when to apply pressure and chase the other side. We don’t need to rush, but want to make it clear that if deadline is missed that comes out of their pocket not ours.

Also don’t want to push too early as there were a number of offers on the property and I don’t want them to consider going back to one of the others if we seem too pushy too early...

Anyone else in the same position? FTB so not hugely experienced at this...

Based purely on what I've read on here and on housepricecrash I get the feeling the March 31st deadline will be extended. Fair play if you can get the other party to pay if you miss out though, get that in writing.

Does a village shop count? Either way, I'm in a little village without kids and am happy to answer questions.

...perfect, more bike riding. thats what I did

I want to get the place we are trying to buy surveyed by someone who is not me but don’t want to feel like I’ve pissed £600+ down the drain.

How to proceed

House

We have the same problem, then, in different locations.

ah crap. We'll have to see how it goes I guess!

Don't get a home buyer's report.

Yeah, absolutely.

There must be someone selling some useful service in this area that doesn't just consist of some impenetrable 60 page report of maybes and caveats

A full building survey by a chartered surveyor should cover that. Obviously there will be always be some caveats as you can't undertake intrusive work. A homebuyers report is an exercise in arse covering tailored to suit the form of construction/property period. (I'm a chartered BS)

@BTR88 - Welcome to the area, where in FH are you buying? There are a few us on the forum around the area...