Owning your own home

This right here. There's another more modest house in Hawick I've been looking at - house itself is perfect but Hawick is just closing down sign / shuttered shops and a few surviving charity shops and bookies. Coming from Brighton we're expecting a hit but...

Weird, it's not on the first 5 pages of results when I Google that.

It really could be: quite a well-preserved market town centre with lots of proper flint-built cottages; next to Thetford Forest; river running through it; 40 mins from Cambridge or Norwich; about 2 hours from London. On paper - and in my head - it was an undiscovered gem; but staying there quickly made us realise there are reasons why property is unbelievably cheap in some places.

I got married very near there last summer and in the build up to it, our interactions with locals was about 40/60 friendly/fuck off.
Best thing was the lighting guy who told me he'd moved his family up there from London 15 years ago. On the day he moved in his next-door neighbour had a massive rant at him about 'londoners thinking they own the place' and has refused to speak to him since!

The Wirral?

Close to Chester, Scoucerville and The Mancs. Easy road links, trains and airports.

Close to the Lakes and Welsh mountain ranges. Ireland is only over the water.

Some nice big houses but I'd get a good alarm / CCTV system to be on the safe side. A lot cheaper than Cheshire countryside though.

@Timmy2wheels

there are reasons why property is unbelievably cheap in some places

Always.

There are no undiscovered gems, just shitholes or lovely places miles away from any jobs.

Jet noise too....

https://youtu.be/mCobXpr2g9s

Hackney used to be a shithole.

All you need to do is work out the next place to be gentrified, buy a house there, wait 15 years, profit.

I don't think it'll be Brandon tho.

And now it's not (except it mostly is) but Thetford still is.

The Wirral is still definitely a shithole. "A bit less scummy than Liverpool" is not enough to make a place nice.

I don't think it'll be Brandon tho.

Not while they carry on building new houses on the A10 corridor. People are going to have to be pretty desperate before Brandon starts looking like an attractive option.

or Woolwich

It is expected that the town, identified in the London Plan as "opportunity area", will evolve from "major centre" to "metropolitan centre" within Greater London in the next few decades.

Finally getting around to putting an offer in on a house tomorrow... Prices have gone up, about 10% on what we were looking at 18mths ago... Bit of a weird setup, we looked at this house last year but passed, then our friend's parents bought it and put them in it with their new baby... Turns out they've overstretched themselves and need to get rid super quick... They've spent a lot of money on the property that they won't get back, could work out great for us... Fingers crossed...

The west side of the Wirral is beautiful, and a great place to live.

or could be horribly awkward! But crossed fingers.

If you get it, don't expect your friends to ever come round to visit. Hawks.

This!

Wirral has its nice bits and bad bits. Very close to some gorgeous countryside and coast but it is also quite neglected. Work would be my main concern though. If I could earn what I make in London up there doing something similar, I would probably do it.

My mate (who I work with and my gf's best mate since they were kids) has been pestering me all day to get onto the estate agent... It's totally cool, his in-laws went a bit dewey-eyed when their granddaughter was born and over extended themselves... They bought the house for her really... They've shacked up on the ground floor of the other grandad's house now, rent-free and very willing live-in babysitter upstairs so no complaints!

Let's see what the next couple of days bring up, we're in a good position to do a very quick deal... Lease is up in two weeks at our current rental and we haven't signed the new one yet so this could be perfect... I know something'll probably go terribly wrong and scupper the deal but I live in hope... I won't be truly happy here 'til we have our own place...

Good luck!

I know nothing about the process but can't you do a private deal without the EA?

They've signed a three month contract with the agent and need to sell before the end of this month so no can do...

Already time to remortgage. That came round fast.

Thetford was London slum clearance, I always thought. They just dumped a load of cockneys in the forest and let them get on with it.