Owning your own home

Maybe look at London bar and Birmingham bar to reinforce the frame rather than full on metal gate.

Had it, they broke it. If you saw the pics of the night, you'd know why I want solid metal gates, even if it means it will take me 10 mins to lock and unlock my own front doors everytime.

Sounds grim, can you not move?

I could but the rent I pay for a 1 bed with a garden all by myself is less than someone renting a bedroom in nearby areas... and I am still trying to buy, although I am just starting a new job so probation period means it will be hard.

I don't know, been living here for like 9 years now, which is why I would rather pay to get a gate put on...

Evening,
We are selling our first home as moving to Scotland.
We converted it from a commercial warehouse unit to start a family and do freelance work in. Have a look:

http://www.machinlane.com/index.php/properties/listings/property/371-Machin_CHA0001607_IMG_12.JPG

Approx 45 mins to London via A2 or HS1
Lots of space and potential. Wish we could move the building north!
Sensible offers negotiable. Long term let also possible.

Looks brilliant. Shame it's not nearer.

Do such things exist as 'standard' LTV bands, or is every lender going to have their own different ones? I was under the impression that 10% and 25% deposits make the biggest differences, but not really sure where I got that from.

My house is in a small mews courtyard, owned by the previous owner of my house. I want to buy this courtyard (and she wants to sell) but I don't know how to get it valued. It cannot be built on, and it's only value is to us and our neighbours. To anyone else (including the seller) it's pure liability.

Would a normal estate agent be the right person to value this or are there some kind of specialist valuers?

If you do price comparisons on moneysupermarket (others are available) you can see that lots of lenders increase the interest rate with every 10% of LtV, but some do it on the 0s and some on the 5s. So no, I don't think there's any standard.

Home reports have a validity, should be on the document.

Buying and selling is different in Scotland than England /Wales. I'm happy to recommend my solicitor if you need one (just pm me), I think you do need to have one lined up before you can offer but not sure how it works at auction.

Have you asked the seller how much they want? Bits of land like this are usually best priced by a discussion between you. It doesn't matter what a valuer says it's worth if one of you won't agree to the figure.

If you must do it formally then the usual is to get a surveyor to provide a formal valuation which you and the seller split the cost of 50/50 and agree to abide by, but that could be a waste of time is one of you has unrealistic expectations.

Why is it of value to you? It's not entirely clear from your description - I've probably missed the obvious tho :)

Might the principles of ransom strip valuation be relevant?

http://www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/glossary/ransom-strips/

The land would be worth 1/3 of the uplift in value of your property. It's not an exact parallel though, I grant you.

She's put it on us to come up with a figure.

Our house is on a flying freehold. She currently owns random bits of it, such as the surface of our balcony, the stairs up to it, and a passageway to the communal front door. If I were to buy the courtyard I could transfer these parts to my title, making my freehold much simpler. I could also potentially replace the current informal maintenance contribution setup with a management company.

Ooh, that's useful. thanks!

We've had a tentative offer a fair bit lower than asking, justified by 'mortgage company says your house is in zone 3, not zone 2'.
This smells like bullshit to me - it's 5 mins walk from hackney wick station (zone 2) and west of the Lea navigation/QEOP. Added to that I can't even find a proper Zone map for geography, only unofficial estimated overlays. Is this likely to be a private map used by the mortgage provider? Worth trying to get the buyer to debate it with them?

This smells like bullshit to me

Hah, yeah. It kinda is. Little to none of the value is based purely on the zone of the place is it? It's about location, convenience, quality, opportunity etc. Just formally reject it. Or reply with we can't accept, but happy to hear sensible offers... Wouldn't even mention their reasoning.

We made a counter offer of 2.4% off, they came back with one 4.5% off. It's close enough that we can do what we want to do but it doesn't leave anywhere to go if they decide to get arsey about something or the survey throws up an issue. Also wondering whether we should take it and run before Brexit kicks in. Spoken to plenty of people offering well under and holding off on stuff to see what happens...

You can tell them they are free to get a survey done and put in a final offer - but you won't take it off the market until contract tiem.

Think that's what the agent advised too, thanks.

Definitely bollocks. Zones are just classifications of Tube stations, no more than that!

@Tenderloin, this house round the corner from me has great potential. Lots of original features and a better build than typical for Leytonstone:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42805416.html?utm_content=v2-ealertspropertyimage&utm_medium=email&utm_source=emailupdates&utm_campaign=emailupdatesinstant&utm_term=buying&sc_id=13589695&onetime_FromEmail=true

That's bang on the money - really like that area. Requested a viewing

Some nice period features that haven't been destroyed yet.

But £650K for a doer-upper!

This

Or this in the cheaper part of the country.

@Mr_Sworld Dat staircase!