Owning your own home

Where are all the good houses?!?

Unfort they were there pre-election. Now there's a lull.
I'm still looking at my alerts as a friend is buying but haven't been "keen" on any recently.

Looked into it further and it does, as you all say, look like a piece of piss. Will get it out tomorrow and measure it when I've got the dude round to look at laying the shed base. £25 for one from B&Q with a thumb turny thing for the inside. Will save mrs_com locking herself indoors again.

Just seen this and your renders, its going to be incredible, very impressed. Can't deny I'm a bit jealous, I need to crack on with my new bathroom I think...

If you're anywhere near Holloway Road, you can get one for under a tenner from Franchis.

£1 from screwfix!

Out of stock except in Tipperary. But nice find.

Me right now

above the river

Thanks, and thanks @Hefty and @Timmy2wheels for the positive comments too.

If it makes you feel better, it is currently a massively stressful situation. Frustrated by the speed of our contractor, and not always happy with the work done so far either, we got someone else in today to quote for finishing it. He's said it would be another 2.5-3 months work (reminder, we're already 4 months in!), implied it would be costly, and had some other stipulations which I'm not sure about.

I still have faith that we'll get there in the end and it will be amazing, but if I'd known how long it would take and how much it's likely to cost us I'm not sure I would have embarked on something so ambitious. On the plus side, whatever happens, if we can focus on making it better to live in (i.e. installing a working toilet, then eventually shower etc.) our living experience should get much better, even if it won't be finished.

So here's one to those who've been there and done it.

I had planned to buy a 2/3 bed house in Leyton/Leytonstone area - I thought I would have 500k to spend, turns out this will be 475k tops. Which looking at current prices just doesn't look enough for a house in these areas (and having enough left to fix it up). The reason I'd been keen on a house was to add a bedroom in the loft and then look to sell it when the Crossrail came in as a nice family home.

In 3-4 years I should have an equity event that might help us with a place to be buy to let. The idea being that if we needed to have maternity leave etc there would be extra revenue streams.

I'm now thinking a flat where we can add an extension/conversion might be a better option right now, as the standard seems to be a little higher and they fall well within our budget in the areas we would like to live in. We can well afford the mortgage at 475k so I'm tempted to go for it but I wanted to ask the collective wisdom on 'ere.

tl;dr any help please wiv houses

Whats this Equity Event you talk about, where do I get one?

I'll sign up for one, too. List?

In 3-4 years I should have an equity event

Wut? Get to the Crap Buzzwords thread and hang your head in shame.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/37312537?search_identifier=6602fa85f16ee58599f5752cac52ff22#EDPiwDeWdkBIxtkP.97

Giant hogweed in the back garden I think.

don't count on the equity event. I was there when Betfair finally floated. All the old boys were rubbing their hands. nope...

Houses may be advertised for £520k or whatever, but doesn't stop you from offering £470k.
My friends just (March) bought in Stoke Newington with a kind of a joke offer and it got accepted, where they didn't think the sellers would go that low, so you never know.

Yeah, this. You may think your tech start-up's the next Facebook, but chances are it's pets.com - if you can't remember that then chances just doubled.

Thanks!

I was really looking for help with house vs flat discussion and just trying to set the scene. I didn't mean for that to come off as anything else.

K. What would you prefer:

1. A nice flat
   
2. A less nice house
   
   

If 1. then get a nice flat
If 2. then get a less nice house

I'm not really sure what else can be said...

I'm surprised you've struggled to find a 2/3 bed in E10/E11 for £475k. We were looking in that area with a much lower budget and had a look round a few, some 3 beds even.

From what we experienced I think houses are generally more popular which in turn would help with the resale. Having the freehold, no downstairs neighbours and the all important 'own front door' are all big selling points.

I bought a doer-upper 3-bed in Leytonstone for 420 less than a year ago, during the peak. Prices haven't increased from there really.

For me, reducing the risk of neighbours cunting you off is important, so I went for an end-of-terrace house. My friend has the lower house in a Walthamstow Warner building, and the upstairs neighbour has bare floorboards, so you can literally hear everything between the rooms.

@Tenderloin

http://m.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/37344962

Here you go. Big, large garden, potential to get creative with the downstairs living area, and close enough to Maryland to get the full Crossrail effect.

Doing all the house move change of address gubbins. BT want a £30 broadband disconnection fee. Bastards. Just ordered Virgin bb only at the new gaff. £5 a month cheaper than the basic BT bb + line rental and a hell of a lot faster.

Been told I'm 3 weeks away!