Spoke to the mortgage broker today, gave him some more solid figures on what my deposit is and what the places I am looking at are going for. He responded with some favourable figures that aligned near perfectly with what I was thinking of in terms of a monthly budget.

Just need to get my credit check done (910/1000 on Experia, not great but not the worst and part of that is that my electoral register address is wrong). Then obviously, actually apply and start looking at places.

Anyone with London knowledge know of places worth a look that are cheap (for London)?

So far I have looked at...
Tottenham. Will make a lot of money there but the properties pretty much all need work, the type thats tricky with flats.
Bexley, Dagenham, Redbridge are too far out.
Croydon, winning so far, I know the train lines and they are pretty easy into central when working. It is sleepy cheap over crappy cheap, Ive watched a steady crawl of house price increases that started in Clapham and are heading down that way.

SW, SE or perhaps North (like Tottenham way) appeal geographically.

The cred check is weird. It marks out of a thousand but anything in the 900s is improvable it seems.

That figure doesn't actually mean anything though, each company makes their own system up. You're better looking at the actual content in the report than the 'score'.

poprock wrote:

To add an extra level of ‘huh?’ to the council’s performance … I registered with them for council tax. I filled in their form, saying that I live at Flat 2. They sent me a bill, in my name, addressed to Flat Ground. And a second one, addressed to ‘occupier’ at Flat 2. They have ‘Ground’ and ‘2’ listed at different tax bands. At this rate, I’m just gonna pay the cheapest one.

English & Welsh Councils use a data standard for properties -  BS 7666 - which is a complete fuck up of a standard that allows for ambiguity. I have had to use it in the past as part of Local Council CRM projects and it is a royal pain in the arse to work with when it comes to data processing software development, so I can believe there are plenty of screw ups in accuracy , particularly in apartments and the like.

As is always the case in life with things that initially seem straightforward, the issue of addressable properties is more complicated than you would think, so the standard is more complex than you would think - but there is room for interpretation within it (at least it did when I worked with it) which makes writing software for it a pain at times.


The one we use in NI is even worse. BS 7666 allows for historic records so you can record if a plot of land (or a BLPU) has been used for commercial or industrial purposes in the past which is useful for ensuring contaminated land isn't used for residential development for example. Ours doesn't of course.

I feel your pain Davy, when I read BS7666 I felt a shiver, then I remembered why. Horrible standard, horrible schema, hate building address dimensions for this very reason

Well done Live, happy searching

Cheers Outlaw and cocko.

I didn't Outlaw.
As I am a contractor I just contacted a specialist broker and went from there. If I am honest I didn't think I would be able to afford to get a mortgage at all, I was mainly inquiring to see how far off I was, then things just sort of came together.

One thing to watch out for when house buying (or selling) is the amount of surprise fees. Banks, estate agents, surveyors etc. Then there is stamp duty too.

Also - probably the biggest piece of advice is don't rush in. Go back a few times to view after seeing something you "really want". Things will look different on 2nd and 3rd viewing. And don't skimp on a surveyor's report either. You really do want to know if something is wrong because then you can negotiate the price down. And if something does need done, get it done before moving in if you possibly can.

Watch out for people who don't let you in without prior notice. Look for windows left open to mask the smell of damp. (One I fell for - though the surveyor did state a damp course had to be installed so it was caught).

Look out for surface mounted power points and switches - means the wiring has been done on the cheap.

Go past the house at different times of the day and at weekends etc. You never know what you will see in terms of traffic, neighbour behaviour etc.

Look out for hedges and boundaries - make sure there is no ambiguity. Shared driveways, walls etc? Make sure you know what the setup is.

Patience is your biggest asset. This is a long haul investment. Remember that.

If you have mates in trades - electricians, plumbers etc, pull in a few favours and get them to check out consumer units, boilers etc.

So, 8 weeks after agreeing to sell our house we're still waiting for a moving date with 3 attempts having come and gone. Lionel Hutz, our solicitor (the pizza box is definitely empty), has achieved fuck all except pissing me off and contributing to the massive amount of stress I'm currently experiencing.

Due to delays and cancellations of completion dates we're now paying our current mortgage as well as rent on a house that we had to secure to move into.

To top it off, Sky have now fucked up the house move plan that we had - then cancelled - and will be cutting off our services tomorrow despite the fact that we aren't actually moving out tomorrow. So no phone or broadband until possibly Friday next week.

Sigh. Fuck a house move.

Aye. Unless you are very lucky it's a long haul thing; especially if you are selling as well. Have done that once - never again if I can help it.

I think it's also the feeling of consistent lies being told to you. If they were up front and honest about everything, you'd have a better understanding.

"Yeah we should be able to get you all complete within 10 weeks*"

*actually it'll be 20 weeks because I have to Google everything and I take Fridays off, Monday's I'm late in and Wednesday is football, but I don't want to tell you that.

A lot of people still haven't got over the fact that 2007/8 prices weren't real.

Do it. Don't get caught in the trap.

Don't get caught in the UK housing trap.

Or the Southern England trap anyway.

Just made an offer on a flat. Fully expect to have to raise it as I am the only person to make an offer so far (open house viewing was only an hour ago).

Feels weird.