Owning your own home

I do have a lot of customers in the south now...

Have you thought of moving into selling 40k kitchens and get a nice place in Islington?

I think some of my customers end up with 40k kitchens, most of it doesn’t go my way though.

@swedeee do you think that'll carry on or worth waiting 6-12 months? The couple who owned that had a little dog so trip hazard probs for that. The will have made 60k+ in 4 years on that one if Zoopla is right

I'm not sure it's as big an issue as your relative makes out. When I was an estate agent (hackney) we sold lots of properties that were directly next to council/HA properties. Of course, this put some people off but was much less of an issue if the property was a flat over say a house. The buyers looking at the flats would generally be younger, first-time buyers etc. and this was less of a concern.

If the property is decent and in a good spot I wouldn't rule it out and I don't think it would make it significantly more difficult to sell in the future.

It's actually a great space - my wife had an artist's studio there until the freeholder decided to sell.

West Norwood is deffo where it's at

Only 10 mins to Crystal Palace so perfect for getting out to Kent

ahhh i see. no idea tbh. wouldn't want to have a go at timing the market. just remarkable how so many people seem to be buying in that area. definitely seems like 1st time buyers have been mostly priced out of the gloucester road area now - our stomping ground through undergrad and postgrad :(

Still!? I would have thought the Easton bubble would burst now people can't be seen at the Green-wank or no.12 or whatever it was called. My old road was amongst the highest value rises in the country in 2018 apparently #golfclub. Not sure why as it was basically a dog turd lined drag strip.

In other news I think I found the source of the rising damp in my house. An old water main that appears not to have been decommissioned. Current supply comes in by the front door, this is at the bottom of an arm's- length pipe in a concrete floor in my hall. The water there pooled up in 5 mins before I took the photo so I basically have a small spring under my floor. Utter fuckers. I'm going to have to dig up my front garden aren't I; or is there some way I can make the water board fix this? Is there any responsibility on the waterboard for decommissioning the old supply when they installed the new one? The current main is right outside my gate, so at least I have a good idea where it's running ( in theory).

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@Silly_Savage is the greenbank not a good pub? Also which road was that? need 350k to buy a 2 bed in Easton now really which is fucking shit

Nah it's fine. Just got the sense it was a bit of a coke den and the manager once banned my mate for daring to complain about waiting 90 mins for what turned out to be a lukewarm and slightly soggy roast. Lovely beers though and I had plenty of good night's there.

Whitehall Road, barely Easton really. I bought a 1 bed but would have been priced out 2 years later.

I think if it’s on your property it’s your indaba. We had a bunfight about a similar issue with the water board.

indaba

Not come across that one before. That's my understanding but you would have thought they'd cap the old supply when installing the new one? Is there a scenario in which you could have two mains feeds into one property?

I had planned to rip up the front anyway at some point to take it the old concrete ramp and possibly tidy up the water and gas feeds in to the house but was hoping to put it off for another year. Now have to tackle it in the next 3 months before my baby arrives

How'd your one work out? I'm guessing the water board won?

It's actually quite a relief to have a reason behind the damp issues even if it will be a massive hassle to sort out.

I misread ‘drain’ for ‘main’. I would think that is surely a water board problem if that’s what it is. But I’m surprised it’s not significantly worse!

Our issue was with a drain, as you can surmise. We lost the argument.

@dbr @Bainbridge - the mortgage requirements for "commercial" properties are much stricter than the residential ones so although some prices are attractive and change of use will be relatively straightforward to obtain, you will be asked for a larger personal input.

Case in point - I was looking to buy a 2 bed house for circa £450k in SE Zone2 .
I found a three storey office in Canada Water, facing the water. "Fixed" price £450k.
It was Ground Floor + 2 levels with a roof terrace which was being used as 3 "artist" studios but really people lived in there and did pay council tax. So a great space at 3x35sqm with 2 parking spaces.
The two offices on each side had successfully gained change of use to residential so you'd be pretty much guaranteed to get it as well.

And the way the cookie crumbled... I was asked to get 75% cash deposit for it and could only get a 25% mortgage. So I could not go for it, which is a shame.

Similar-ish situation happened for a commercial property on Dragonfly Place in Brockley SE4 - but that one was slightly different as the deeds prevented the change of use for 15 years from built IIRC.

Anyway, after this I ended up looking for a normal house...

Boooo. We could actually, almost, just about afford* that Angel place but it’d be right at the max of our borrowing.

Good to have a real world experience to think on.

*my wife has a real job with real salary

Pls stop trying to steal @dbr southies thank you - it's hard enough for me dealing with the separation anxiety from moving 2km away to Woer Clapton.

I mean south east is where its at.

where is the location of the leak - is it AFTER your external stop tax/meter (in the pavement/road) ? if so it is your responsibility

hard to tell from the picture alone

Found this beaut, but why so cheap you ask?

The owner of the mews disconnected the services mid way through the renovation / conversion and is now demanding >120k to reconnect them. Current developer has had enough. One for the bastard neighbours thread.

thats opp @cake !

Dent removal: we bought a second hand french door fridge freezer. Underestimated that they're heavy, super heavy. Queue slow motion slipping whilst loading it into a van and resulting dent in the side of the door. Any tips on removing/improving?

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You'll need to get at it from the inside and slowly tap it out while using a straight edge against the outside to make it flat again.

It's really hard getting dents out of corners. It'll b=never look perfect agin but you could probably make it look a lot better.

Dismantling the fridge doors might be trickier than it seems.

You could also consider buying a replacement door?

You could try a dent puller

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Dent-Removal-Paintless-Dent-Puller-Lifter-Repair-Kit-Hail-Removal-18-Tab-Set-/254551810925?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286

Probably easiest just to buy a replacement door though if you want it perfect