Owning your own home

The sellers of my house included the washing machine and drier and then their removal people put them deep in the van before they noticed. When we got the keys and found them missing we complained, via our lawyer, and the seller, also a lawyer, offered us £428 which he though was sufficient to buy a basic new washing machine and drier. Seemed reasonable.

Expecting there to be a washing machine we had offered our about 5 year old machine to the people buying our old house but they weren't interested so we had brought it with us and it was going to end up in the garage until I had a better idea. Still using it 10 years later.

People's aren't coughing up £600k just like that though - It's amortised over 25 years, and paid monthly, which is what people budget to - You're really quibbling over £50 against £2,500, at a time that you've just spent all of your readies on solicitors & other nonsense.

When

Our sellers left the washing machine that we didn't want.

4 years on, we still have it. Free washing machine ftw.

one of the first (and last) times I used mybuilder to get someone for some work was to do some repointing at the front of my house.

turned out (after I'd googled him because I am a nosey bast) he had previously been convicted of hate crimes due to walking down the street with his shirt off, singing mad bigoted songs on old firm day. lovely stuff

The ancient fridge freezer we paid £5 for (in a bulk deal including washing machine, curtains, light fittings for £100 so sorry, no outrage required) in 2010 was still going yesterday, the day we vacated. Made sure to mark it as included; no way I was taking that with us.

But yeah, selling them or including them is a bit risky because they have to be there and work on the day and Sod’s law says they will fail the week before completion.

The guy that replaced the felt on my flat roof also drives around in his van using holding his phone while making telephone calls. Should I sent the helmet cam footage to the Met or get him back to fix my gutters?

We tried to. It was the next-door house - semi to ours - being sold by a housing association, so we knew all about it. Got all the finance in place and went along to the hotel for the auction. Sat through the other lots. Got very nervous.
Our lot came up - thought I'd be smart and let the early bidders duke it out before swooping in at the end.
It went past our top price in about 15 seconds.
Went home.

Yeah I think it's daft for sellers to expect top bucks for stuff.

My mate just paid £600 for 4 sets of curtains for the house he's buying, which he seemed to think was a bargain.

get on the blower to cressida, pronto

Not having to choose curtains is worth a lot to me.

Our house came with a full set of horrible and worn out curtains but they work and I mostly don't notice them.

http://www.essexbrickworkandrepointing.co.uk/

feel like maybe @princeperch recommended him to me but anyway he was good.

Ha! Yes I could very much see this happening too.

When you say get financing in place, was it just a mortgage in principle? There's not much else you can do until you've won the auction, right?

This place is a couple of streets over from us, so we know the type of house and the area really well. We are probably still going to get a surveyor round just to be certain all is ok, which could be ~£800 wasted in a few seconds if the bidding goes high, but that's the risk I guess.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86441617#/

We just missed out on this place to a cash buyer nearly two years ago, now it's back on at £65k more with no noticeable work done.

Is a 12% price increase in line with how house prices have gone lately, or are they taking the piss a bit?

If we'd got that place we'd have a smaller mortgage, more money that we hadn't spent on a kitchen and floor sander hire, and fewer windows that need replacing.

Can one of you please buy it? Otherwise the guy two doors down (who is a nice guy who has been really helpful) will buy it and rip out the period features and turn it into another HMO.

East Ham though...

It's up and coming.

its lit!

(as its Diwali)

@tbc what sweets did your neighbours give you?

Sellers of my house offered a Dyson washing machine and dryer which we were happy to have.
Moved in neither worked and both unfixable.

She also left her crappy furniture, and pictures on the walls.

Haha. Seasonal, topical - I like it.

Is a 12% price increase in line with how house prices have gone lately,

Yeah maybe. No guarantee they’ll get it though.

Funnily enough I know the guy who's selling that. I get the feeling he's selling not only cos he's relocating for work but also because he's had beef with the neighbors, he recently had his car keyed.

I know exactly what you mean, but it all adds up. Especially with the extra, often overlooked expenses of house buying. You have to draw a line at some point or you are just money gunning everything. Also, most people are agreeing to slowly buy the house from a bank, not drop £600k cash. Borrowing an extra 10K might be £40 a month on your mortgage.

I do find it funny that the form asks if you are including the light switches, roof insulation, radiators and electric sockets. Who takes the insulation with them?

They're all Muslim, so we got spoiled at Ramadan.

Is that Dion fucking Dublin?!? This is what happens when you haven't lived in the UK for five years...

rethinking my south london search area