Owning your own home

Fair enough. No point scrapping something that’s still good…

Those are interesting photos ^^^

I had the Verisure alarm guy around (to compare vs my ADT monthly cost).

Very nice chap. The monthly cost was only £5 less than the ADT (c.£29 vs £34) which surprised me. The install / kit costs, which I had thought would be essentially free, are also very significant, even with a very hefty 'get customers from ADT' discount.

They do have an excellant device that fills your house with dense white smoke in the case of a break-in though...

@soul ..it was a bit of a huh? moment for me too, but then it's a fugly rendered out of sync chimney anyway; the goal of the work was to make sure it didn't come down this winter or next, or the next. It was properly fucked.

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They do have an excellant device that fills your house with dense white smoke in the case of a break-in though...

Which sets the smoke alarms off, someone calls the fire brigade because they see smoke through the windows, by the time you get home the emergency services have smashed your front door in and drenched all your stuff and house?

Also added frisson when you accidentally set off the alarm when coming in...

Yes, there are lots of comedy scenarios I can imagine with it... it does seem a little excessive.

Also added frisson when you accidentally set off the alarm when coming in...

There's quite a lot of external monitoring involved - it only gets set off remotely if they've been able to confirm (via the internal cameras) that someones there... I don't really like the idea of giving internal camera access to an unauditable company to be honest.

Our team had some fun when using this device to create ads!

Bristol folk.. Had an epiphany at the weekend and it is not worth 370 to live in a 2 bed house in Easton for example this one where 370 is what you'd need to get it. Was also next door to a not very well maintained house (bay falling down) with about 7 people living there.

Have a bit of my deposit in a lifetime ISA so artificially capped at 450, though could go above that for the right place. I think 450 is a sweetspot for me. Buying on a Joint Mortgage Sole Proprietor basis for a number of reasons and due to my dad's age, has to be interest only (vs 10 year term on a repayment) until I can take it on myself in 3-4 years. 70% LTV at 1.7% interest quoted gives a monthly of £475 + maybe £300 bills = £775, vs the £600 I pay to rent a room in a sketchy HMO currently. If I rent the room to a mate for £500 (could do more for a non-mate), will be at £225 net cost + hopefully capital appreciation. Any flaws in doing this for say 4 years, as long as I am diligent in saving (which I will be) in an ISA on what I would be repaying + what I save anyway?

Looking at more des res areas like Redland, Cotham, Montpelier. Quite likely to be a flat (23 now and happy in a flat for next 5 years). Any thoughts on these?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109468721#/
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85832491#/
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109425851#/
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109106798#/

Don't wanna be in golf club thread by saying 70% LTV but due to primarily tragic circumstances, some good luck and working really hard at school/uni/grad job it is possible.

Would have thought it would be harder to get someone to let out a room in a flat vs a house.
Have you considered south of the river?

At our end, we looked at a place in the Chew Valley, which had been rented out and neglected - photos didn't look too bad, but could see it just being a bit grim and a lot of work needed, but not cheap enough to consider a proper doer upper.

So have widened the net a bit and now looking at a nice place with the best part of an acre of gardens.

Soo, talk to me about ride on mowers.....

@danb don't think it'd make much difference. Rental market is mad (100 messages in one morning of a spare room in our house being online). I work out in filton, like being close to st w, Easton, Montpelier, redland, Clifton and like being close to the motorway
Maybe I should thought before pulling the trigger. Southville and bedminster are you thinking?

@danb where is covered by widening the net? Worth a cheeky offer on it anyway?

Yeah, possibly. Wouldn't necessarily discount any of BS3. Might add 10mins to your commute to Filton (assuming via bike?) But there is plenty of smaller housing stock (unlike Redland/Clifton etc)
Closer to Ashton Court/Leigh Woods and the mendips too for riding.

The place we are looking at is in the Cheddar valley, so the other side of the mendips.

It's within budget, just don't know that much about that area, so need to get down there and explore a bit more.

Also tempted to go look at this https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/107992856
But think it's too close to the a38

If you were having some difficulty valuing a property you were interested in buying, are there any professionals that would have a go doing it on your behalf, paid for directly?

A surveyor.

https://www.ricsfirms.com/residential/moving-home/buying/

A builder if you want to identify remedial works and costs and an order in which things should happen. A surveyor will give you the former but will lack visibility and detail of the later.

As above, a surveyor. But there's no guarantee that what a surveyor says it's worth matches to what it will sell for in the current market.

It's a bit obvious but they are worth what people buy them for.

patiently waiting for funds to hit solicitors account...

shitting bricks

Just completed this morning after starting beginning of April, what a relief!

We just accepted an offer on our flat. £300k - we bought it for £190k four years ago - how can anyone keep up with that? It's insane.

I'm planning to use the same firm of solicitors to sell our place as buy the new one - that seem sensible to everyone?

I'm planning to use the same firm of solicitors to sell our place as buy the new one - that seem sensible to everyone?

Yes - assuming the solicitor is one you've chosen independently (ie not recommended by a new build company etc).

Yep, just keep an eye on communication as it can become a bit befuddling looking out for "sale of" / "purchase of" if you've never bought and sold at the same time before.

I'm planning to use the same firm of solicitors to sell our place as buy the new one - that seem sensible to everyone?

I think that's pretty standard. I wouldn't want to try and co-ordinate two solicitors for the same completion date.

exchanged, completed and picked up keys same day, much drama, just in time!

Yes - assuming the solicitor is one you've chosen independently (ie not recommended by a new build company etc).

Definitely - I've had experience with them before - they suck but at least they have a web portal so I can do things remotely. And excellent shout @stevo_com - I literally earlier on this afternoon noticed 9 outstanding tasks on my sale which I'd not noticed because I'd been looking at the buy page. Thanks @aggi.

I did end up picking up a Warner Flat for £360k, only £10k over budget. Funny how things work out. Needs a lot of work but the structural survey says it's OK so I better put my back into it!