Owning your own home

Real negotiation (ie not issuing hard/soft ultimatums and finding a solution that suits everyone) would be a large part of said socialist utopia, no?
Currently a lot of people who are ‘negotiators’ think that involves acting like they’re the wolf of wall st or something.

Oh. OK. I mean the internet can teach you that with one good forum post, I guess the trick is finding it, and trusting it.

the only negotiating skill you need in the current climate is the stones to go in low and stick to your upper limit, whatever that might be.

Real negotiation (ie not issuing hard/soft ultimatums and finding a solution that suits everyone) would be a large part of said socialist utopia, no?

Dunno, depends which form of socialist utopia we are talking about :)

FYI ... I haven't sold through them, but when I was looking for a place to buy recently, I viewed & offered on one place that was on the market with https://www.housenetwork.co.uk/

Just to say, as a buyer, I found their 'agents' (only spoke to them via phone/email) to be surprisingly good. Nice to speak to and actually communicated really well. Which is I think the main thing an EA should do. Got back to me when they said they woud, kept me informed of other offers, rang with updates and questions, etc.

Not sure how they are when you are the vendor, but might be worth a look if you go for an online agent.

In London I'd say a good estate agent is worth their commission. Certainly ours earned their fees many times over, chasing buyers, setting up sealed bids, and getting us top money for both our flats when we sold them.

In contrast our seller's agent was crap, and didn't do anything. Which worked to our advantage too, as it meant the house sat on the market for many months at too high a price and we were able to knock a huge amount off the price.

I think you’re confusing failure of negotiation/taking hard positions with negotiation itself.

They’re more likely just to think you’re an incompetent arsehole and complain about it on the internet.

Who's interested in a shared ownership flat in Shoreditch? 1 bedroom, 30% share.
PM's please...

I suppose the main thing I was driving at was, I never felt like I was dealing with some goofball kid in his Dad's suit; they had good systems in place and seemed very professional. (And I've experienced the exact opposite from some high-street agents.)

In your case ‘find a way to reach agreement’ is ‘best tactics to get what the client wants’ - they’re the same thing (assuming you won’t agree until you get what they want).
I don’t know what area you’re in but considering what the other party really wants will assist you (although if you’re getting results, you’re probably already doing it non-consciously). If you want a lot of words on the subject, an interesting read is Getting to Yes.

Can I hire you to negotiate my next sell or purchase please? I'll give you 1.2% (not negotiable)

Anyone have any experience of underpinned houses? Going to see a place this weekend that was underpinned 10 years ago and has been sold on at least once since then. Other than insurance any major implications? Do banks even lend on these kinds of places?

As far as I’m aware, if you can get buildings insurance the bank doesn’t care. Our house was underpinned in the late 80s and getting insurance wasn’t a problem (or expensive) at all. Probably depends a bit on why and it might reduce the pool of insurers available though.
Also if it was insured when the underpinning took place, the original insurer has an obligation to continue coverage.

Great thanks, good to know. It's mentioned in the listing on rightmove so I think the fact they're being open about it bodes well. Will find out more at the weekend.

Yeah that's good - we didn't find out till late in the day. Also it scares people off so potentially less competition and more likelyhood of getting a good price.

Yeah, my feeling is that it's pricey but there's not a great deal to choose from at the moment so any leverage will be useful on that front.

Flatbuyers survey for an ex council house in Forest Hill, do I go with the Halifax offering or can someone make me a better recommendation?

Is it freehold?

Whereabouts is it? I've been in Forest Hill since 2010, so can tell you a little about the area if that's helpful.

Any subsidence etc the insurance co may well jack up the excess to any related claim to £1k or whatever but the insurance itselfnshouldn't be significantly more expensive than if the house had a clean history

Nope.

Yeah, I have been watching the thread where you talk about leasing somewhere for bike storage with bated breath.

So the council or a TMO are still responsible for the maintenance?

Be interesting to see how that affects things.

Do you know when the last major work on the building was and have you got a feel for the overall level of investment in the estate?

That’s true, I forgot about the excess (more than that and the bank apparently might have a problem).
There’s a lot of fear-mongering on places like mumsnet/moneysavingexpert but if the subsidence was due to clay/drains/trees and the problem is now solved/removes with foundations shored up, it’s quite different to being over an old mineshaft or similar.