This is a stunning 16 bedroom house at Menai Bridge, Gwynedd.
The view of it from across the strait is amazing and it’s in a great location if you’d like to live on Anglesea. It is close to the main road though – if you google map it you’ll see the roof tops quite clearly from the road.
Plas Rhianfa was built in 1849 and has tons of amazing gothic charm! It’s not just the roofline that’s amazing, but inside are some amazing stairs, fireplaces and ceilings!
Author: Diane
Relocation Relocation Review
Last night’s episode – a couple looking to buy a Scottish hotel.
They looked at several nice hotels, one was too small and another was mostly pub with the ratio of income being 50% of income from bar drinks, 35% from food and only 15% from rooms ! Luckily Phil pointed out they’d wanted to be hoteliers not landlords!
They should have bought the one that made 60k a year profit a year and was closed 5 months of it too! That sounded like a cushy deal!
Whilst I watched it last night I thought the finance aspect wasn’t touched on very much – where repayment of the loan came into it who knows… if you have to pay your mortgage out of the profit then you have no money to fritter on nice stuff.
I thought buying a “bust” property and keeping on the staff was a stupid idea. Surely it can’t provide for 5 full time wages? I’d have thought the only way of doing it would be to have both working like loonies and trying to get some cheap help. Having a “hotel manager” who’d managed it into the ground sounded like a really awful idea.
He didn’t want to do front of house – so is he a trained chef – one would hope he had some experience! Who knows though – but it certainly made interesting TV for an hour and I learnt a few things too! That Scotland has 2000 hotels! That there’s a less touristy side of Loch Ness and that there’s some pretty nice looking hotels up there!
If you’d like to watch it yourself you can by clicking here and guess what? If you’d like to see their hotel then visit The Royal on Lochan run by Keith and Christine Bettis.
Crime rate maps
What crime rates are in your area?
This Met Police site shows crime rates.
Crime mapper shows England and Wales counties crime rates.
Energy Performance Certificates
Energy Performance Certificates can be useful for working out how energy efficient a house is and how hard it is to heat them in winter. There are several opinions as to whether they accurately reflect the true nature of a house’s energy use and warmth.
You need one before you can sell your house.
The main part of the certificate that people usually look at is the rating. This is from A-G and shows the current rating and what it could be if improvement work was done.
There are many flaws within the scheme – such as low energy lightbulbs are included in the rating – but obviously someone might take them with them when they move. However low energy bulbs are frequently on offer and even available free from energy companies.
Landlords need them for rental properties too and this can be helpful if you’re looking to move to an easy to heat property and cut your energy bills. Always make sure you ask to see the EPC. Letting agents and landlords should show it you without being prompted but if they don’t, then ask.
Some propertys can not be vastly improved. Buildings without a cavity can not have cavity wall insulation. In some areas window restrictions due to the area being a conservation zone might mean the cost of appropriate double glazed windows is too expensive.
Easy things like loft insulation and draft proofing can often make a difference though. The list of recommendations can be interesting. Some EPC are often based on guesswork which can be frustrating if they have assumed no cavity wall insulation but there actually is.
You should also have within this an estimate of bills and energy use.
There’s a summary of the home’s energy performance related features such as:
walls – whether they are cavity filled.
What type of roof it is and what insulation is had.
What type of floor is it.
What the windows are
What the main heating and it’s controls are.
Whether there is secondary heating.
What the hot water system is.
What the lighting is.
It should also state if there are any low or zero carbon energy sources. That’s things like solar hotwater or photovoltaic cells, or ground heat pumps, or wood burning stoves.
An energy performance certificate is worth looking at and checking the information on it yourself or asking a surveyor to check certain aspects.
London property tool
Commute from is a really odd looking site that helps you wrk out how long your commute across London will be. Probably quite useful but I’ve not tested it against real times to tell for sure!
It’s main feature is that it shows you which stations are within your preferred commute time of the central London tube station you use for work!
The Rightmove App
The Rightmove App on the iPad is an easy way of browsing Rightmove’s houses for sale.
Whilst you can view individual houses on the iPad from a link you can’t use the actual Rightmove website in Safari to locate houses – you have to get the app. The app is free though and is easy to use.
You can type in a postcode, town or county name just as you can on rightmove. The search filters are available to help you define price, range, number of bedrooms and whether you want to see the SSTC properties too.
You view the properties on a map which can be zoomed in or out so you can further define your area. You see the houses shown a few at a time and can scroll through this list to see them all. By zooming in you narrow your area of search and this reduces the numbers of properties shown making it easier to work out which ones you are interested in.
Clicking on a property takes you to the property detail page that has the extra photos and information as well as contact details for the agent. Some pages are better than others and links to other material don’t always work on the iPad. You can add properties to favourites though or email lnks to them to yourself or friends to share the ones you like.
Using Rightmove on the iPad is easy and you’ll find yourself browsing houses on it all the time!
Rightmove’s filters are easy to apply on this and it remembers locations you’ve browsed already in a drop down list so you can revist them easily.
Overall it’s a fun and easy app to use and will help you browse for houses!
Globrix
Alternative website for browsing houses for sale or rent. Different style layout than rightmove.
Visit Globrix to see how it works for you.
There are drag bars once you’ve put in your search area that control the prices of the properties shown. To start off they’re at the ends of the scale for the given area.
You can adjust the number of bedrooms you’re looking for by clicking on the bedrooms option. This is a clever bit of stuff that shows you how many have each number of bedrooms! Helps you decide whether you need to widen your search area.
They also show freshness – how long it’s been on the market. Not as indepth as using other property tools available (such as property bee or property snake) but handy all the same.
The features bit is possible the best bit though as it lets you pick things like swimming pool and bowling alleys, as well as solar panels. Whilst these things might not be on most people’s searches just having the option to use this sort of detailed search makes it head and shoulders above other property search sites. It’s useful if you want an annex, a 3 storey property or some other quirk!
You can also adjust Tenure, Outside space, Condition, Features, Parking, Period, Bathrooms, Estate agents, Nearby stations, Nearby schools, Distance to stations, Distance to schools, Purchase status. It’s quite an interesting array of things you can look out for.
What should be the first photo on your rightmove ad?
What do you expect to see as the first photo on your rightmove ad?
I think it should be the outside of your house. If it’s not, then I’m always suspicious why.
When you see the kitchen first do you think automatically ‘What’s wrong with the outside?’.
This is especially true if it’s not a really amazing kitchen. If the front of the property isn’t a stunner packed with kerb appeal, then what can be done about that? Sometimes nothing – especially when it’s a flat or shared access. However it rings warning bells straight away and of course you’ll see the outside when you either click the streetview option on rightmove, or visit the place, or just have a drive past to see what it’s like.
I suppose if you can get someone interested – if they pass the 11 second rule just on the inside, then they might like it enough to ignore how ugly it is on the outside.
You should also remember perhaps that as long as the house opposite is pretty, it doesn’t matter what yours looks like as you will be inside and unable to see it!
Nick Clegg’s house for sale
Apparently Nick Clegg’s house is for sale – this is a Daily Mail article
We’ve not found it on rightmove or house sale sites yet – but if you do then get in touch!
Robbie Williams House still for sale
This article from the times last Ferbruary says that Robbie’s house Compton Bassett House is up for sale.
Compton Bassett house is a 18th century mansion that now has a swimming pool, gym, tennis court! It’s a really lovely alsmot french style house that’s been beautifully done.
View it on rightmove now.
It’s even got a helicopter hanger! It’s got 7 bedrooms over three floors and it is very stylishly done out. The main lounge room with it’s pool table looks a great room for hanging about in!
The pool area is fantastic with male and female changing rooms plus sauna and steam.
It is right next to the church though which is perhaps not something everyone would want in terms of privacy.
If you want to be nosey on google maps then click here – you can see the house just below the large square of formal garden.
This house has everything on my wish list! (Pool, gym, tennis court … nothing to do with it being Mr RW’s house!)