Category: General

Zoopla Heatmaps.
Zoopla have introduced a new way of looking at house values. They’ve invetned a heatmap of UK property values.
You can zoom right in and see all the different roads at different colours.

It’ll show you road by road when you’re zoomed in. Use this maybe in conjuction with Police maps side by side and you’ll get an idea which areas are nice! Of course there’s no substitute for actually going and having a look and sometimes the houses being dearer just means they’re bigger!
When you’ve about 4 clicks out from maximum you see the house prices on the map too.

See this news item on the Daily Mail –
Wintershall, home for 40 years to Gary Brooker, writer of A Whiter Shade Of Pale, is on the market for £2million

Chiddingfold Road, Dunsfold, Surrey GU8 4PB

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-2023668/Our-2m-Procol-Haven-Whiter-Shade-Of-Pale-writer-sells-house-bought-27k-1971.html#ixzz1UWvSQLn6

Listed building

Can’t see it on rightmove at the moment but will keep my eyes open on the other house sellers sites too.

Oh my! I’ve never seen a bathroom with an outside door before. I’ve seen outhouses but not one like this!

Flat for sale in Gilbey Rd, Tooting, London SW17 – 2 bedrooms

It has an ssking price of £279,999

This house is very small at the front and gets bigger at the back. Great if you like strange shaped rooms.

As well as three bedrooms it also has a decent size garden and a row of five garages.

Barratt depends on shared equity for around 25% of its sales.
This is interesting to know when you realise that they’re looking at selling off that part of their loan book.

Shared equity is a horrible idea! It’s propped up house prices for many years now and will continue to do so whilst it’s supported by these idiotic schemes.

It makes a mockery of trying to help someone by offering to let them buy a share of a property they can’t afford. Whilst some people might be able to staircase the whole thing is going to start hurting sooner or later.
On various forums there are horror stories about low valuations meaning people are struggling to sell their SE home.

Why would you buy 25% of something and volunteer to pay for repairs on the whole 100%? Even to the most simply person that should strike them as unfair. But swathes of people have been convinced that this is their only chance to get on the property ladder.

The worrying idea of bundling up of mortgage debts and playing financial pass the parcel with them is strongly reminiscant of the sub-prime bundle selling that happened in the recent past. Has no one learnt anything from the financial disaster still unfurling?

Debt is bad. Encouraging poor people to get into debt is bad. Selling that debt on to someone else is bad.

Let’s just be honest and say that house prices are overinflated and until they come down to sensible levels, some people shouldn’t buy a house.

The telegraph has a story about how first time buyers are at an all time low – one can only hope it’s because they have realised house prices are unafforable and that the shared equity schemes are a bad financial decision.

I don’t like this style of advert. It doesn’t list the property – just telling you there’s an expensive house somewhere that you might like to buy if you have more than £3.5M to spend.
This mystery house is in DT6. That’s your only clue. OK you are told it’s got 8 bedroms.

Tenure: Freehold
• A Period 8 bedroom Country House offering in excess of 10,000 sqft of accommodation.
• A range of 1 to 4 bedroom secondary accommodation suitable for staff or to generate secondary income.
• A large barn suitable for storage.
• The property sits within 5 acres of gardens and woodland.
• Located edge of village and within walking distance of the local beach and coastline.

Whilst I respect that some people might not want the nosey world looking at their house – I really don’t like this bit: PLEASE NOTE: To purchase a property through this company an agency fee will be incurred by the buyer.

I’ve just had a thought as to which house it might be. You could describe it on the edge of the village and within walking distance of the sea. Although it’s not in woodland…

Perfect House?

I worry when I see people say they’ve found their dream house. They describe it as perfect and say they love it!

Don’t buy a house with emotions! I know you need hard cash and a level head.

You need to establish whether it is indeed your perfect house or whether you’ve just fallen for the style of the house, the furniture or even the smell!

Step back. View some others. Write a list of what you like about the house. Do a score card.

Do not make an offer on a house in the first moments of falling in love with it. It’s a guaranteed way of paying too much and maybe even missing some of the glaringly obvious faults.

Do a second viewing with a sensible friend. Get their opinion on it. Let them look at it objectively. They’ll spot the leaky gutters, the problem with the kitchen and the small third bedroom size!

Get a good survey done and take notice of any issues on it. Don’t gloss over them just because you like the house a lot.

Buying a house is a serious business and whilst it’s nice to find a house that seems to tick all your boxes you have to make sure it really does!

If you don’t like tidying up when you have viewings then you’ll perhaps appreciate this untidy house.
The cobwebs have taken some time to grow!
View the whole house here.

It’s not going to be often I stray off the houses on here, but this is still sort of related. Google maps is great. It shows you all sorts of things. What the area looked like a couple of years ago, the shocked look on people’s faces as they see the google car go by, and this. A wall. Yes a wall right across the road.

It’ll take a moment to load the image properly, but what’s that all about?
One side of the wall is M21 and other other is M16. I know there has to be an imaginary boundary somewhere but putting a wall up is a bit strange.

Would it put you off buying a house next to it? I’d imagine anyone who really wanted to would just leap over it!

Is this the only one in the country or are there others that I need to know about?

You might not get a mortgage on a property if a surveyor spots knotweed in the garden.
Japanese Knotweed is an invasive plant that needs specialist treatment to get rid of it. You can treat it yourself but it takes care, time and patience. And a lot of hard work. You can’t take the plant material off site either, so you’ll have to burn the stems and roots you dig up.

If the property you are looking at is next to open ground then consider spending some time looking at that land for this tricky problem. Whilst it might not be in your garden when you buy, it travels fast and might be in your garden eating at your foundations within a few years. Check the council’s website to see what plans they have for eradiacating it on open space.
Whilst some people consider it a minor nuisance it can actually grow through concrete and has been found growing through the floor in someone’s lounge!