aileking

Can anyone recommend a bricklayer for a small extension using reclaimed yellow London stock bricks?

I know someone who flew to New York with them and they were very pleased with them. But food and luggage extra I think.

DovertheRoad Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Buying in 2013-14...that was a mad time and > terrible to buy. Buy in a market when everyone > else is shitting themselves and prices have > dipped. Like 2010-11 for example. Always easy in hindsight. But we didn't have a decent deposit before 2013-2014, as LondonMix says some things you don't have control over. In my case I don't regret buying in 2013-2014. It was costing us ?16,000 a year in rent and where we've bought, house prices have continued to increase (identical houses now selling for ?75,000 more than we paid). So although buying in the mad times is frustrating, I personally would have lost money by waiting (which is the only option as you can't go back in time).

We looked for 18 months, but as I said it was crazy times and I think we were pretty unlucky (or not as willing as others to over-pay). But it all worked out in the end. And the house that we ended up with and now love didn't have the "wow" factor. It doesn't need to be love at first sight.....

When we were looking in 2013/2014(a mad period to say the least)we had 13 offers outbid (despite offering more than asking on about 6 occasions and the rest of the time offering asking price). But by house number 14 we got lucky and our offer was accepted. Now I'm really glad that we got the house that we did and don't think of the others. A bit like getting married and looking back at your ex-partners. At one time you liked them, when you lose them it hurts but you end up alright in the end......

I moved to South Norwood. The people are lovely, the transport is brilliant (11 min London Bridge to Norwood Junction) and I've never felt unsafe. I'm happy with the local pub and a nice caf? opened in Stanley Halls. And best of all the property I bought is way better than what I could afford in other some of the other areas I looked (which in the end is where you spend most of your time). I also looked at Catford which I'm sure I would have been happy with too, but South Norwood was better for the budget (could get 2 bed houses for about ?300K about two years ago but now they are closer to the ?350K mark).

fazer71 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Deptford > Honour Oak > Brockley / Brockley Cross > All closer to central London. > Why move further out? Price. If you have a 500-600K budget (probably more for Honor Oak) then those areas may be preferable. If your budget is 300-350K and you would prefer a house rather than a flat then you have to move further out. I also had aspirations of a shorter cycle to work but it came down to affordability. I decided to buy a house in South Norwood with a longer cycle to London Bridge rather than a flat in Honor Oak. I guess it's personal preference of what you prioritise. I'm really happy living in South Norwood, but I don't deny that if I had had a half million/ three quarter million pound budget I would have probably chosen to live closer to the city. But at least I'm getting fitter this way....(and the trains are great if you can't be bothered cycling). I agree with vito, people around here are really nice.

I moved from East Dulwich to South Norwood (close to country park) and love it. I feel safe, the commute is easy and I love the house and garden which I couldn't afford elsewhere. The interesting thing reading these posts is that everyone has loved where they moved to (Penge, Sydenham, Catford, South Norwood, Croydon). So I'm guessing the most useful thing to know would be whether anyone regrets where they moved to. But if I were to be optimistic, I would say that wherever you move to, you fall in love with the place and start seeing all the positives (which is what we see in the posts above). I never planned or particularly wanted to move to South Norwood but now I am really glad I did. I do notice its shortcomings but in my mind the positives outweigh them.

Zebedee Tring Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > > Have you got a source for this information please, > EDmummy? You can just put ?1,000,000 as minimum price in Zoopla and search SE22. When I just searched, there were 40 houses over ?1 million (out of 73 houses in total, so 55% of houses on the market in SE22 today are over ?1 million). There's a total of 165 properties (houses + flats) in SE22 on the market just now, making nearly a quarter of them on for ?1 million or more.

Now some estate agents are charging finders fees to the buyers. Adds ?1000s on to the price (which obviously has to come out of the deposit). Seems so wrong as they are actually working for the seller, but the more they sell you the house for the more they charge you. I wouldn't mind if it was Kirsty and Phil actually finding you a house, but this is for properties that you find on zoopla (so how they can justify a finders fee when you contacted them is just weird). http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/feb/10/house-buyers-beware-estate-agents-double-charge

AbDabs Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Two relatively normal houses are shown as having > been sold in Melbourne Grove for exactly ?1M each. > That must be the reason why someone in > Chesterfield grove thinks they can get ?1.2M. I'm > tempted to start a book on that one. But at least the Chesterfield Grove is 5 bed, how about the three bed in Crawthew Grove for ?1.2 million?

I'm just frustrated that being sensible is getting me nowhere. I'm trying not to get pulled into mad prices. I saved for years to get a 20% deposit. My maximum budget is ?100,000 less than the mortgage company is willing to give me as I personally don't think I can afford that amount when interest rates go up. All I'm achieving is watching properties become more and more unaffordable as I continue to line my landlords pockets. Being sensible may prevent you losing your house if the interest rates increase and having a reasonable deposit could prevent negative equity, but it's a bit of a waste of time if you can't get on to the market to start with....

Nothing would surprise me anymore. Check out Malyons Road in Ladywell. Between May and Sep 2013, 4 houses were sold for between ?330-382K. By Dec 2013 one had sold for ?445,000. One month later another sold for ?500,000. So in 6 months sold prices increased by ?100-?150,000. Now one is on for ?565,000 (which was bought for ?250K 7 years ago). It will be interesting to see what that ends up selling for. I think it's a vicious circle, people need to pay about ?30-50K more than asking price to get a property, so the estate agents value the next property at ?50K more and people still add ?50K on to secure it and prices just continually increase. I also had a friend who was looking at a new build. She got there within 2 hours of the sales launch and 75% had already been sold. She asked how that was possible and was told "we launched these flats in the far east last month and we're selling what is left".

In my experience the estate agents valuations are still under what people are willing to pay. I've now offered on eight properties (unsuccessfully) and all of them have sold for well over asking price (ranging from ?8000 to more than ?50,000 over the asking price). One property I looked at was taken back off the market and then three months later sold for ?100,000 more than the original asking price (from ?339K to ?445K in 3 months!). Most have gone for around ?25-50K more than asking price. This is properties in the surrounding areas (Forest Hill, Honor Oak, Nunhead, Ladywell, Catford) in the ?300-350K range. I've been basically looking for a year so this is all based on actual sold prices as reported by Rightmove. It's been said before but it's easy to accept what you can and can't afford but the trouble is that for the last year that has changed on a monthly basis (and when you think you can afford something as it is ?10-15K under your max budget you find out you can't as people are putting bids at ?30-?50K over asking). I also wonder if the mortgage evaluations at some point will start stalling the process.

My experience: you look at Zoopla every day. As soon as something of interest comes up you phone and get an appointment. They do a block viewing a few days later on the Saturday where at least 30 other people are looking at the property (apparently at the latest one 60.....). Offers in on Monday where there is often 10-14 offers on the table (you are out of the game if you would want to think about it or have a second viewing). I've done this at least six times without success. I've got no chain, 20% deposit and usually have ended up bidding over the asking price, but still haven't succeeded. And this isn't even East Dulwich, it's the surrounding areas. Sometimes I could have afforded to bid higher, but you start feeling uneasy about paying such ridiculous prices. On Zoopla it often says what the property last sold for and in some cases the seller bought that property for half the price about 5 years ago. Most have gone up at least ?100,000 in the last 3 years. But what do you do? Pay ?15,000 a year in rent towards your landlords mortgage or pay your own mortgage at an over inflated price?

Does anyone know if there is any disabled parking for the Blackheath display?

The market has gone mental in all the surrounding areas too, I've just seen one area after the next slip out of reach. Expectations are lowered on a monthly basis on what is affordable, which is pretty demoralizing. I spent years getting together what I thought was a decent deposit (well it could buy a flat outright in the North of the country) but when prices jump up ?50,000 within a month or two you realise how measly it really is. In retrospect should have bought earlier with a smaller deposit and done all the sacrifices of no holidays etc after I bought rather than before.

The worst thing about London > is not how high prices are but how volatile they > are. They shouldn't shoot up and down at the rate > they have done since 2007 - it isn't a normal > market. I agree. I could accept where I can or can't afford to buy, but the moving goal posts are difficult to deal with. Latest experience was getting an offer accepted for the vendor to ask for 10% more one week later (original offer was already 5% above asking price). I walked away but the price advertised increased again so the house increased in price by ?50,000 in two weeks. All very well if you can sell the place you're in at a higher price, but as a first time buyer who has spent years saving for a deposit this market is a complete nightmare because every time you think you can afford something you find out you can't......

Hej, I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in being a Swedish conversation buddy? I'm a 39 year old female originally from Scotland (no children, thus can't really get involved in the mum's meetings). I lived in Sweden for a total of 8 years on and off, but I left 7 years ago and my Swedish is really getting rusty and I don't want to lose it. I was thinking of the possibility of meeting up with a Swede(s) regularly for Swedish conversation. If we made it a regular thing I could pay a small fee or pay for the coffee/beer. When I lived in Sweden, I could get by with not using English at all and I understand everything written above but I'm starting to have difficulties fluently stringing sentences together. I should be able to write all this in Swedish but have lost all confidence :-( Aileen

I had cousins staying who went via London Bridge this morning for athletics. From London Bridge they were diverted out of the station to told to walk over to Monument and then use the West Ham gate entrance to the Olympic park. Anyway they got the 06.55 train from East Dulwich and were in the park by 08.20 and said nothing seemed too busy. So I guess if LB gets too busy they just divert to another route. Might have been faster going another route but this seemed hassle free as far as I can tell.

Now I feel a bit stupid, I hadn't thought of reporting it as they didn't actually steal it. But I've just phoned the British Transport Police so thanks for pointing that out ianr.

I've been reading all the posts recently about muggings etc. I have no idea whether it is getting more common, but I do know someone tried to steal my iPhone out of my hands when I was on the train from LB last night. Luckily I had a really good grip and they didn't get it. But certainly too close for comfort. I do think that reading these posts perhaps made me hold on tighter than I normally would have, although of course that's hard to tell. One thing is that I had downloaded mobile me as someone had suggested on this post, so if it had been stolen I could thank the EDF (and Jess ED's misfortunes) for perhaps making the situation better. So although in hindsight, I should have perhaps seen it coming, it's maybe worth pointing out what happened. Basically I was sitting in the bit where you can lock a bike/wheelchair with my back to the door. I was texting and when the doors opened at Peckham the guy came from behind and tried to grab it just as the doors were closing and he jumped out. I'd never felt uncomfortable to be texting on a full train carriage and I guess as long as the train is moving, it's reasonably safe as the thief can't escape. But just a heads up, be extra alert when the doors open, I was lucky. I think it's important to share these incidents as even if one person can learn from my experiences maybe there would be one less crime victim. So thanks for your post Jess ED and also thanks to the very nice guy who walked with me up Melbourne Grove afterwards as I was a bit shaken and I really appreciate his kindness.

I saw a bike advertised on Gumtree and googled the phone number, to find that the same phone number was being used to sell several different bikes, but the name given (and location) was different in each case. Will be informing the police today although doubt they will do much.