Owning your own home

Interesting! I'll drop you a message thank you

Had an offer 1.2% below asking price - however they’re very keen, having seen the place 3 times this week. Is it worth haggling over that or just and take the ~18% increase since purchase (2016) before they change their minds!? No chain our end :/

Convert 1.2% into £ and compare that to your desire to move.

Accept the offer, shirley

Just found what may be my dream home. Tiny bit on the small side but big garden. Top of budget too which is a tiny concern but my current mortgage is daft low. Anyone know the rules on side returns?

Buyer has had a surveyor on my flat (raised ground floor, period conversion). Has flagged high levels of damp on walls. Concerned it could affect the timber.

So he wants a quote. Not sure what for yet. But obviously any fucker he sends round is gonna quote for the full whack.

Meh. Internally walls are perfect. Zero signs of damp. No condensation. No roof for problems to come from. And pretty much every period property is gonna show signs of damp in walls at ground level.

So... I don't agree to pay for anything right? Especially a damp proof course. Given that it's in really really good condition.

I looked into the side return briefly when I did our kitchen 3 years ago. Got a couple of indicative quotes and decided that for an extra 1.2m of width it wasn't worth the 27-30k it would cost.

What area you looking at anyway ?

Has flagged high levels of damp on walls

If they used a damp meter thingy aren't these prone to being wildly wrong on walls rather than timber it's designed for?

So perfectly normal walls will show whopping moisture measurements?

I'm no expert but I'd want to see more evidence than that

Let's see it then!

If they used a damp meter thingy aren't these prone to being wildly wrong on walls rather than timber it's designed for?

Yeah I'm pretty sure you're right. I remember reading that.

Cheers for the info... it would prob need extending at some point as its only a 2 bed and I dont think we can go up or down...

Looking at Viccy Park (actually*) vs Walthamstow West, you get so much more for your money in zone 3, but thats not brand new information.

@Vesalius I'll PM ya it BRO top of budget is a scary world (for me at least).

This is the pic that has pretty much sold it to me, the garden is killer...

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Argos are paying you too much. Ask for 50k less.

I used to live basically in viky park. You would have had trouble getting a flat much closer than mine was. It is a great area, but, noisy in the summer and if you are near a main road and you are paying a crippling premium to be there.

If I'm guessing you have a healthy budget, I'd personally look at the houses in the Medway conservation area - some old and tired houses coming on at the moment for 50k or so less than they would have been at the peak.

Walthamstow is cool but again, don't believe all the hype. Beneath the veneer there is still a lot of poverty, fly tipping, antisocial behaviour etc. And you are paying a massive premium compared to similar houses in Leyton and Leytonstone which are more central and also have their own fair share of green spaces (wanstead flats/Olympic park/ hollow ponds)

I moved from E3 to E11 and now have a house much bigger than my flat, I banked 60k profit in doing so even after the stamp duty and fees, all of which I've spent on loft conversions, new kitchens and wood burning stoves.

If you take into account the money I spent on improvements it was basically a straight swap, financially wise. My old flat I'd say they would be lucky to get 475 for it now (I sold it for 435 in 2014) and the house I paid 388 for and spent 55k on (give or take ) is now worth about 600.

I did E3 to E11. The choice was a one bed flat near Gore Road or a 2 bed house with garden in Leytonstone. The was actually a used condom in the flat garden when we viewed. Put me right off.

From what I've seen on rightmove, price wise there's not much difference between E17 and E11.

Walthamstow "village" obviously commands a premium but prices in the surrounding bits have dropped off a bit and seem comparable to similar bits of E11.

I need some advice please...
Viewed a maisonette in in Romford last weekend and my GF went for a second viewing today (I'm out of London). Two things have stuck out to us initially and will impact our offer.

1. The lounge, two bedrooms and kitchen all have plumbing where the walls meet the ceiling. Can anyone give any indication of if/how these pipes can be moved into the ceiling cavity and any idea of cost? (I appreciate that this is very much the sort of thing that would need to be seen ideal)
   
2. The lounge, two bedrooms and kitchen each have trunking (similar to the picture) which houses the cable from the light fitting in the centre of each room. In the future we would also like to move these into the ceiling/wall so they cannot be seen. Any idea of cost of this work too?
   
   

Thanks in advance.

Joe

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Run a dehumidifier for a week then tell them to check again.

Given it’s a flat, what are they going to get a quote for?

Are the walls brick and ceiling concrete? If so it’s spendy to get that stuff hidden because there might not be a cavity -it requires digging out the walls then replastering.

And nobody wants to do it for you because it’s horrible work.

You can get nicer looking conduits for electrical socket additions. And you could box in the plumbing.

Yes that's what I figured. The walls are solid. Is there no way of running the pipes in the gap between our ceiling and upstairs' floor? What do you reckon boxing in the plumbing might cost? £100/room plus materials?

Is there any way of hiding the electrical cabling in the ceiling cavity? The trunking doesn't run down the walls.

Thanks for the advice!

Run a dehumidifier for a week then tell them to check again. Given it’s a flat, what are they going to get a quote for?

It's ground floor of a period house. With a cellar under the house. So I presume they're gonna look at joists and the external facing wall, with a view to DPC.

Depends if there is a ceiling cavity :)

Ex local? Might be brick / concrete

Yep ex-local authority.
OK so that complicates things somewhat. It's not really putting us off but our thinking is that it might aesthetically put others off in the future. Would the trunking option be relatively inexpensive?

I'd go for boxing in the pipes and leaving the trunking. After a couple of weeks you won't notice it's there anymore.

tbh that artex stuff on the ceiling would annoy me more than the pipes; hopefully that's just textured wallpaper...

Freeholder / management co would pay for that though? Obviously the leaseholder would pay their share but it means a quote is pretty meaningless

it might aesthetically put others off in the future

People who consider ex LA stuff aren’t put off by this kind of thing or they don’t even realise it’s difficult to hide away in the future.

Fancy conduits aren’t that spendy but finding someone to do the work will be annoying assuming this is london. If it’s not london it will be inexpensive compared to getting them set in to the wall.