Owning your own home

Fucks sake. That garden.

Looks like it was split in two to provide the 1st floor flat with access to it's own plot via an outdoor staircase and a small corridor - which is presumably why a traditional side return wasn't an option.

It's meant to be a miniature wildflower meadow, it looks great roughly May-August but at this time of year it is a bit sad. It's never been as meadowy as I hoped for and the grasses have died back in some patches. Our tomatoes were a bit out of control then too.

Is that what you meant?

Was always going to be them for us, for various reasons. Have been genuinely impressed so far.

The photoshoot took over six hours(!) and there's an editorial feature coming too with a mildly embarrassing level of insight into my life.

Yup. We had a shared garden before so the small corridor was new but the outdoor staircase wasn't and the building project had to fit around that. We could technically have done a side return extension but it wouldn't have been a good one...

If you don’t mind sharing, what fee are they charging?

out of interest, do you have to pay extra for the advertorial? always wondered if that was part of a premium package

Thanks! Owe you a DM on our latest thinking but it's not changed much...

I can't really get into fees in public because I'm sure some of them are on here (the photographer was a keen cyclist and RCC member) but I think that exactly what deal they offer for editorial stuff varies because some properties are of more interest to their readers than others.

As you might have spotted in the listing we won Don't Move Improve, which generated quite a lot of media interest at the time (had You and Yours from BBC R4 dangling a microphone into the bath, lol) and we did Open House London too. So we knew we'd be of interest to them which we felt gave us some leverage.

(the photographer was a keen cyclist and RCC member)

OF COURSE he was

no worries, understood. and, no, I never read the blurb on TMH or any property listings. just gawk at the pretty pics

in case it helps others, was just looking back at what our EA (rettie) charged us for our last sale - 0.75% + VAT (with free photos worth £300 and free home report worth £300).

Did you cram all your stuff in the cellar, or move it around so it was always behind the camera at any given moment?

Also, the bedside table shot kinda says "this bedroom is so small you can only just get the door open" but overall lovely looks (obviously)

no photos of your bike cave area @Fox ?

You only get the garden flat so the upstairs tenants will be looking down and mentally undressing you.

I always find it weird that estate agents never include pictures of cellars. I saw a fair few properties where the cellar was a real plus point but there was never any pictures of it.

@fox funny in a way that you've nailed the "don't move, improve" vibe so well that you can now move ;) I jest, I know you enjoyed it thoroughly for some time.

It looks fantastic of course. Very well done.

Hard to get the super wide lens which makes it looks 2.5 times as big

You've spent loads/time on making the inside look nice on the photos. The garden looks sad. Very sad.
It's hard when the weather isn't great though and the sky is grey?

Do the modern house not have modern garden crew?

Can your neighbours see you in the bath?

That bath thing is so awesome 👏 I love it

Thank you for your advice.

Same goes to @Cupcakes and @Howard - thanks guys

0.75% is a great deal, can’t be many bricks and mortar agents that will go lower than that!

That was same as I paid + VAT

Congrats, it's such a great but weird feeling isn't it. It's a nice problem to have thinking about when/how to renovate, the important thing is you are in and it's all yours :)

The garden looks sad. Very sad.
It's hard when the weather isn't great though and the sky is grey?

Stop holding back and tell me what you really think :P

It's a good point. It was actually a beautiful sunny day. The photographer did a great job with the interior but we do feel now that the main garden picture really undersells it. Other half is going to talk to the agent about it today.

The attached pic shows it in summer and I do think there used to be fewer weeds...

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Did you cram all your stuff in the cellar, or move it around so it was always behind the camera at any given moment?

No we actually live like that :)

The cellar has a lot of functional, non-beautiful stuff in which means we can keep the upstairs nice. But we have had multiple clear outs in the run up to listing it. We want to be able to move into a two or three bed house with not too much stuff for a one bed flat so we have all the space.

Bedroom isn't that small btw, just standard really.