Owning your own home

Who's the builder? I'd have a good look around it for the quality of the finishing. I lived in a new house cul-de-sac house for a while growing up and although it looked new stuff kept breaking and the walls were made of paper.

Best and final offers are in, almost exactly a week to the hour of listing and we got £5k over asking.

That's encouraging cos our flat in streatham is going up this week

Fucking hell i didnt know you were a BTL landlord! What next? You tell me you are privately educated and have Omega Seamaster?

there's a lot you don't know about me, but im not a btl landlord

comprehensive education and never been skiing, but experienced paella at a young age. but we did call it 'pie-ella' (and i still insist on that, for sound linguistic reasons)

Been really impressed with the selling service (to date) from Nested (sample size of one). They recommended we didn't go on at the top end of valuation based on what they had been seeing. Went for their middle valuation as it genuinely looked right compared to what else had sold recently and is on the market nearby (something their reports make really easy to get a handle on).

Their buying reports are giving us a great idea of what we can reasonable offer on the place we want to buy too (they basically pretend they are going to sell that place and do a similar report and suggest ranges withing which to offer - they can also negotiate on your behalf but seem to recommend doing that yourself).

If anyone is interested, I used @duncs referral code and am happy to share mine (you get £500 of their fee (1.5%inc vat)) and I think I get a £500 John Lewis voucher.

I think I get a £500 John Lewis voucher.

@amey this to me is of extreme interest.

cheers tho @stevo_com but my wife already has a firm on it (can't remember who but a friend recommended them). i think we got a few valuations from a few firms in the end. we also paid a decorator to come in and paint the (unoccupied) place white on the agent's recommendation

Most of ours is painted white, some definitely is not. We just had to tidy up (and put masses of crap in the sheds).

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-83696911.html

Sorry to hear that. You don't need to accept it. You have the right to comment on major works, and the freeholder has to have 'due regard' for your views. If you can gather people in your block to feedback as a group you could end up getting those costs halved. Check everything they're proposing to do against the lease - many leases do not allow for 'improvements' only 'maintenance' and you can often push back on a significant amount of stuff that way. You have options open to you to reduce the impact.

Bovis. Terrible reviews, but then seemingly all of the big homebuilder do.

I’m on Elmfield so round the corner from your pals, would recommend the area. @Fox keeps threatening to move here but appears adverse to actually selling his flat ;-)

Yeah they are crazy, but quite a walk from anything. One of them has some sort of spa out back that’s on air b n b.

Yeah there's a lot of shitty new builds happening. Another thing to be aware of but I'm not sure how to check it is the area where the houses are built. There's been instances of builders using reclaimed industrial waste ground and so the ground water is toxic or susceptible to subsistence or prone to flooding.

There's been instances of builders using reclaimed industrial waste ground

That should show up on a search but you could probably do it yourself by looking at old maps.

I’m on Elmfield so round the corner from your pals, would recommend the area.

I've got mates who rent on Elmfield, they love it so much they've moved three times on the same street!

Don’t think in this day and age it is owned by Thames. Sold off many moons ago if the case

This. There’s a site where the houses have collapsed and forced people out. They’re still no closer to a resolution. It’s a blame game at the mo with the stakeholder

Majority of what I’ve seen is greenfield

Who with?

Going to sell mine in streatham.

We've had an offer accepted! We've been looking for a move out of London due to a smallish flat, 2 kids and both adults now wfh.

We were looking around Liphook and Oxted but the house is back up North so much more bang for buck. It backs onto a cricket pitch which I hope would be like a park without the drunks and yoofs.

Now its surveys and valuation time.

Just need my partners plat in Streatham to sell, 3 weeks and no offers which is getting a little worrying

Thanks. Good to know that the fees aren’t miles off from doing things separately.

The main hassle I was imagining avoiding was identifying solicitors/surveyors etc and engaging them at the right time.

If we end up using them I’ll post my experience.

Ha, small world, I'd guess I've met them at one of the street parties?
Its pretty unique, the only issue is it'll be under water in 5-10 years if projections are right, but then so will The City.

inevitably the EWS1 chaos opens the door for scammers...

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/08/scammers-hijack-ews1-process-with-fake-cladding-inspection-forms/?utm_campaign=whichukt&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=EWS1scam&utm_term=twnews

That's encouraging cos our flat in streatham is going up this week

Going to sell mine in streatham.

Just need my partners plat in Streatham to sell

Is there something going on here I should know about?

There area has come up now, properties will flat line a bit. Plus lots of councils places and flats around stamp duty. So sell now, or sit on for another 5 years.

Fair enough - just funny seeing them all on the same page. We're here for a while yet.