Owning your own home

Agree with this. The report pointed out some useful but not too urgent stuff that I wouldn't have picked up about air bricks, damp proof courses, type of plaster used, etc but the chat afterwards was really useful and I spoke to him afterwards a couple of times to get his unofficial opinion on a couple of things that came up during conveyancing.

Yes, all flat packed. Drop me a PM

This could be an interesting project

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-97013288.html

Lol. We're not going to take many photos because you're going to knock it down.

thought that was extremely well priced for the area until i read the description..

Received an asking price offer and accepted it. Just sent our offer over the fixer upper. Went 5% below asking as, well, it's a fixer upper. So we'll see.

3/4 million quid for a large shed!

has current projects (non-bike) thread written all over it

So, odd one. The house is on at 500, but needs a lot of work so we offered 475. They came back saying they couldn't really accept less than 490, but would consider splitting the difference at 487.5

That's them showing their hand, right?

We've gone back with 487.5 anyway

It’s a sign that they are very, very keen to sell. For whatever reason.

They're separating and moving to opposite ends of the country to each other. They've lived there for 30 years and raised 4 kids there (it shows).

Well, there we go. Something really sad/odd when marriages/ relationships break down later on.

Congrats for you, anyhow.

Holds the congrats for the offer acceptance. The funny thing (for a given value of "funny"), for our second viewing, we took my mother in law, who is a teacher (ms_com's idea, she's not giving us any money or anything). The place is in quite a state and when MIL heard they were retired teachers she said "Ah, that explains it". Something about teachers being blind to mess and destruction. Not sure if that is a real thing or not.

when i worked as a teaching assistant (pre-marriage), every other teacher there was divorced

Artex/asbestos experience anyone?
Just bought new place, homebuyer survey did not highlight anything concerning regarding asbestos.
Once we bought it, a friend flagged some ceilings were Artex, therefore could contain asbestos.
Shitty sleep for 2 nights. Today the result of the specific survey said that everything is OK.
In the meanwhile I applied my hypochondria to Artex so I read everything I could find about that - not funny.

Looking back I did not investigate enough the topic and I feel a bit dumb. Has anyone had a similar experience?

I've got artex in my living room - you can test it for about £30. I'm not going to bother - just going to box it in and plasterboard over it.

as long as you don't agitate it (scraping, sanding etc) you're fine

We had the same, as well as on the walls (textured paint). Got it skimmed over, making sure the plasterer didn't sand or scrape it and not really worried since. Worth getting it tested, might not have asbestos in. If it does, avoid drilling any holes in it, or take precautions if you do.

Am I mad for getting closer and closer to fucking off London entirely and moving to Leeds? The places you can get for the money is insane.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-96947138.html

There's a thread for that

What's it called again? I can't find it.

London house pricing is absurd/unsustainable

I started writing a list and realised I was rehashing an argument that's been had again and again on here

Am I mad for getting closer and closer to fucking off London entirely

No. I'm glad I did, even if my Chambers/offices are still in London, not that I've been there more than once in the last six months. London is fundamentally broken. As, by implication, is the UK on a structural level.

The problem with London is the fear that if you punch out now then you'll be throwing away £x0,000 by staying for another y months (or £x00,000 by staying another y years).

I know friends that were smug about bailing out of London 6 or 7 years ago that really regret doing so because, although they bought a really nice place with loads of garden/etc, if they'd hung on for a few more years they'd be able to do exactly the same but with a nicer/better/bigger place (or £200k more in their pocket).

If that kind of shit doesn't annoy you then go now. There's rarely a bad time to get the fuck out.

I should say that the number of people who think they fucked up by leaving London early is easily counterbalanced by the number of people who did leave London and absolutely fucking love having left London and don't look back at all with any regret.

The really smug fuckers are the ones able to rent out their place in London and buy somewhere outside London. But Covid has put a huge dent in London-ish rental markets, which was a huge unforeseen (and unforeseeable) risk.

If that kind of shit doesn't annoy you then go now. There's rarely a bad time to get the fuck out.

I'm sure I'd be financially better off if I'd spent 10/15 years in a pokey flat in London rather than buying a house in the sticks and spending vast amounts of cash on train fares.

However, I'm pretty sure I'd be a whole lot more miserable.

But Covid has put a huge dent in London-ish rental markets, which was a huge unforeseen (and unforeseeable) risk.

Short term stuff and holiday, yeah for sure. Didn’t know the real rental market has been affected that badly other than the weird changes around not being able to make tenants leave (and in most cases I suspect they do just leave).

What happens in the next six months is anyone’s guess though.