Owning your own home

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you need side access for bikes so not even worth considering one without

I hate to say it, but you are right again.

that was literally my top criteria when we were looking for a house

Alternative is to relocate to the sticks.

Yeah the 900k one. Think it looks pretty good as is...

Do this, get a detached palace and a nice pair of wellies.

@revenant. Out of interest, everything being equal , the 1.1m selling for 1.1m, what would you value the oieo 900k house at?

Will all the chat I clicked on the link and ... it wasn't what I was expecting. It looks nice and clean and in good nick.

Ditto, it look way better than my place!

Yes I'm sure it clean and you could live in it as it is.

But someone dropping that sort of cash almost certainly isn't going to keep it as it is. A 1980s bathroom, a kitchen that's been shoe horned into a very small lean to. Wiring from decades ago. It simply isn't realistic that they aren't going to rejig, extend, and drop a load of cash on it.

Sure if you want to live in it as it is fair enough. But the people buying it will want to turn it into a similar house to the 1.1m house 5 mins away.

The question is , could you do it for 200k or less and would you want to live on a building site for 2 years, probably with small kids and a missus going fucking mental at the mess and hassle?

@Howard looks like user-specific pagination strikes again! I was looking at the one on Herongate road.

I'm with you on the issue of pulling on one thread and unraveling a whole jumper. For sure there's a lot that one could do to both. Surveys would shed some light on how much of that is actually necessary.

But I'll stand by the intent of my original post; both houses could be much worse. Or at least, from the photos I've seen worse. I once viewed a flat that was a true wreck. It hadn't been modernised since probably the second world war, or thenabouts... No heating, no bathroom. I think it had been squatted at some point. Massive and in a great location though.

Personally I think paying £1M for a house is unbelievable whatever the condition. But that's London I suppose.

would you want to live on a building site for 2 years

Yeah this is the thing! I would not.

But then the main reason you don't need a side gate is cause you need to drive to take a shit. So quick access to a bike is no longer required.

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Pedalcover were taken over by Yellow Jersey, but they didn't think it might be an idea to let their existing customers know that. This resulted in quite a few changes, including presumably switching away from AXA.

Before being too upset about having to leave Pedalcover, you should talk to @amac090 about their experience with Pedalcover, which was one of a few things which made me leave them too.

I'm now with Laka - half-assed obligatory referral code below because I've never actually referred anyone :)
https://my.laka.co/1K8M9

On home insurance, we're in a medium risk flood area which means our choice of insurers is a bit limited. Our insurance was £140 a year through the Post Office, then at renewal they said it was going to be £237..! lol, no.

I did a lot of shopping around and this German company called Getsafe came up - ended up costing us less than £40 for a year. It's suspiciously cheap, but the cover is definitely right, so all I can think is that they haven't got access to the UK 'likely to flood' map or something.

Anyway, might be worth a go @hippy and of course they do referrals too. £15 credit each I think this gets you.
https://www.hellogetsafe.com/en-gb/referral?n=Peter&r=V3VX-7VRW&s=1

@chrisbmx116 might be helpful for you too

Surely you don't have to do everything at one go, right? like do the very essential and start from there.

That area and agent makes me think the house will go for easily £900K+

Outside of savings, then loan or can you borrow more on a mortgage?

Missed this. Not sure what you’re asking?

Just an insane amount for renovating a house is all.

the lfgss owning your own home thread says:

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Yeah home ownership in London is quite a unique vibe!

Yeah I'm finding out the hard way, insofar we managed to stay under £5,000 for stuff we can't get on finance.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a structural engineer in (east) London? Looking to knock through between living and dining room in our Victorian terrace and need calcs/plans for builder and bc.

Had a quote of £850 which struck me as a bit high. But maybe it’s not unreasonable?

Had a quote of £850 which struck me as a bit high. But maybe it’s not unreasonable?

A couple of days work (I assume a site visit, travel time, doing some calculations writing the thing up) of the time of a qualified professional with all the associated overheads (like insurance if it goes wrong and your house falls down) and that sounds okay to me.