Owning your own home

haha - is kent no good?

Trying to work out whether that belonged to a footballer or an IT tech bro.

Mega church pastor whose been done for abuse?

Just goes to show, money can't buy you taste.

My guess is Cambridge life sciences money

hive mind - views on this:

selling this place.

it's a "larger than average" 5 bed victorian semi off Hoe St. 5 bed, 3 stories, that's without a loft conversion. we put in a side extension about 12 years ago, so it has a nice big kitchen. it has a 60ft south facing garden.

we've done a lot of the difficult jobs. we had it re-wired 20 years ago, and had the plumbing sorted out. moved the upstairs bathroom, took out a chimney breast to create a hall upstairs, had most of the rooms back to brick and re-plastered. had a few ceilings down. put in a new front door and door frame as there was a good inch gap in the old one (London Door Co £££). Put in a downstairs loo. Last year had a complete new roof front and back (back to timber, timber repaired where necessary, redundant chimney stack at the back taken down), including insulation in hard to get to places and also had most of the brickwork re-pointed.

However a lot of what we did is 15 - 20 years old now. We had a bit of movement in the dry summer during lockdown (2019?), so there is quite a bit of superficial cracking around the place. Some (most) carpets are shabby. Our bedroom has never been touched. The outside needs painting.

Partner is kind of obsessed about the cracks and thinks we should get everything made good. That would necessitate having the whole inside redecorated which is not a small job.

my view is whoever buys this place will budget to make it how they want it and a few cracks in the plaster will be here nor there. so the money we would spend on making good and decorating would be sunk cost which we wouldn't get any return on. I say just de-clutter, clean and go.

We don't have agreement on this point and i'm not spending every evening / weekend for the next 6 months polyfilling and painting.

tl/dr - is it worth paying someone to make good and redecorate the whole place just to make it look good in EA photos and potentially avoid some whining about cracks?

If you're filling cracks do it now so it doesn't look fresh when you eventually have a surveyor round

my plan is to leave them. they are well below insurance claim level.

Are there Victorian properties out there that don't have cracks in the plaster?

Yeah this is my view - they all do that.

Are you asking top dollar or have you reflected the work that needs doing in the price? If you sell to a ftb they'll likely moan about everything. Everything. The cunt that purchased my victorian house did and then he tried to get 10 Large off 2/3 of the way through the deal.

Contrarily the people that I purchased my current house off really don't know how lucky they were.

4 unsupported chimney breasts in the loft??no problem leave it to me I'll sort it when we move in

No permissions available for the driveway? Dont worry about it

A load of documents missing when the house was registered? Na it'll be OK no need to pay 200 quid for a pointless indemnity policy.

House full of cracks and hasn't been touched for 30 years? It'll be my pleasure to sort all that shit out.

I'd get it done personally.

You probably won't get extra. But you're cutting down the risks, variables, and being chipped down the line. Eg somethings like prince's story below, you get a solid ftb, who doesn't notice the cracks, then gets shook on their 2nd viewing/survey.

Obviously someone else might say, wtf is everything freshly painted - what are they hiding?

Interesting story @princeperch

Yes, I am a bit concerned about getting a twat buyer who wants to moan about every last thing.

In terms of price, the EA we spoke to suggested "offers over" a number. My take would be if we get the number, that's good enough. From what has come onto the market recently, I'd say that number is maybe £150-£200k less than it would go on for if it was fully renovated.

So to my mind, I'm not looking for top dollar but not looking to get low balled either.

There are a fairly small number of house of this size in E17 so I'm hoping that will be a factor. It's not like you can just buy another house the same in better condition.

Also it's 5 bed so I don't think it's first time buyer market. Unless they are FTB with a trust fund.

Unless they are FTB with a trust fund.

Mate had one of these. Cash buyer. Absolute nightmare start to finish. If you did get one of these I'd want to see cleared funds in a cash account.

Also I think there's an argument to say you're not putting your best foot forward if, as you say, you've done a lot of the difficult jobs.

Anyone on here an architect? Specifically someone who can help me decipher some plans which I received for our house.

Pretty sure I understand them but, if I do, then I'm almost certain our house is missing a brick built wall on the ground floor. Keen to understand if it's about to collapse or not :-D

I'm not an architect, but as a structural engineer I'm used to deciphering architects plans. Feel free to send me a DM.

Great advice, thanks - got a decent rate locked in to start in August so plenty of time to see what happens. Zero paperwork or effort as it was online with current provider!

Are there any recommendations for architects or architectural technicians in Kent.

Would like to get plans for a 1st floor extension (over an existing ground floor room) drawn up so I can enquire about costs and planning.

Nice! Keep an eye on intermediary rates for other suppliers in case there are lower rates that are worth jumping ship for.

Bear in mind that you’ll need to go through legals again if you switch bank.

Going through this at the moment. Painful from start to (almost) finish

Need a simple blind, vertical style, anyone any recs beyond the usual Google options?

I found a local one person business to do our blinds and curtains. Slightly cheaper than Dunlem and most internet options, waaay better quality materials and choice. I cant be helpful in suggesting anyone as I'm not in London, but I'm very glad we went down that route

Ah yes, that was a fun surprise last time. You’d think once your name is on the property that’s it…

We may try to borrow more for an extension but it’s given a good fallback position at least. An extra £90 a month is nothing compared to what some friends are now paying.

I had pebbledash removed, bricks cleaned and re-pointed for that much. Front of terraced house, Leytonstone 2018. Can share the blokes details

Massive post resurrection, but would you mind sharing your pebbledash guy's details? We're getting quotes which scream 'can't be arsed to do the job right now'...

I know there's a few people with leasehold experiences around.... 10:30 pm sorting out another leak from flat above me...
The lease for the 5 flats in my block says you can't rent the flat out. The guy above is a serial landlord, and takes less care than I imagine a private owner would (not guaranteed). Is there a mechanism to enforce he doesn't rent it out? I'd rather someone not rented live there, who would actually take this stuff more seriously.
Old pic but it's the same problem now, as discussed a few weeks ago on here (going to do insurance route now).

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