Any other current flat/house hunters on here?

drewfromrisca

God its bloody stressful aint it!?!?!

We have to relocate out of london (yippee) as my wife got laid off and is only on a temp contract til end of feb. Its hard work trying to find somewhere in our pretty lowish budget and that'll take a dog. They'll take a DSS but not a dog!!!

Problem is trying to find a good location as well as I start work at 7am so need a good transport link. I also have no car so needs to be in good distance of train.

Pulling my hair out here!

SCR Pedro

I've just moved in to a place. I reckon you will always have to compromise on something, and I have compromised on good cycling roads, despite the place being almost an hour's bus ride from town! I regret it already.

Pedro

drewfromrisca

Pedro, I feel for you. I've wanted to move out of London for almost 2 years now. It has ruined my cycling life (and almost my sanity, fed up of house being broken into, scared of walking streets at night etc etc)

I agree with the compromise thing. By seems of it we are going to have to compromise commute times for the convenience and thats just for starters!

guinea

I'm looking at a place tonight. Lived in the same London flat for 4.5 years but it's getting old and since it's rented I'll move to a plusher place.

The problem for me is I need at least 2 beds - prefer 3, a seperate kitchen, no open plan, off street parking and the killer - a garage.

I want all this near a tube station within 1/2 hour of the city and I want it for under £2k a month.

TornadoTom

I only hear bad stuff about London.

I'm glad that I should never need to live there.

Cities are definitely overrated.

disgruntledgoat

My landlord informed us last week that he has to put the rent up becuase of "demand". That was his explanation "demand. Cos of the floods."

The floods were 2 months ago and there isn't a shanty town outside cockermouth, where is all this demand? That i regard him as the best landlord I've ever had only tells you how awful others have been.

drewfromrisca

Landlords are evil evil people!!!

guinea - you'll be lucky lol. what part of london? my flatmate just found another place in Richmond, 1 bed, no garden open plan living room/kitchen (i've seen it, it's tiny) for £1500 a month. plus its miles from the tube.

Tornado tom - I agree

teagar

TornadoTom wrote:

I only hear bad stuff about London.

I'm glad that I should never need to live there.

Cities are definitely overrated.

Depends on your career surely?

Must be tough being a drug dealer in a small country village...

TornadoTom

Any career that requires you to live in a city is overrated

teagar wrote:

Must be tough being a drug dealer in a small country village...

Being a drug dealer is overrated.

Clever Pun

drewfromrisca wrote:

Landlords are evil evil people!!!

guinea - you'll be lucky lol. what part of london? my flatmate just found another place in Richmond, 1 bed, no garden open plan living room/kitchen (i've seen it, it's tiny) for £1500 a month. plus its miles from the tube.

Tornado tom - I agree

Have you tried around Croydon (the nicer bit not west croydon) big houses not that expensive, great transport and still cycleable to the centre

I rented there for a year 1300pcm 4bed semi with garage and massive garden

teagar

TornadoTom wrote:

Any career that requires you to live in a city is overrated

teagar wrote:

Must be tough being a drug dealer in a small country village...

Being a drug dealer is overrated.

Haha, touche.

I like cities.

TornadoTom

teagar wrote:

I like cities.

I like cities too. They keep the countryside clean

Heckler1974

Our landlord has gone bust.

Well strictly speaking they haven't gone bust, they've wound up the company that owns a number of properties whilst remaining personally extremely wealthy and will then buy back the properties from the bank at a knock down rate.

All very disappointing as this is the first place we found down here (Brighton) that has a solid brick bike shed with solid wooden doors and a newly fitted ground anchor (fitted at my own expense).

APIII

Did you decide against Leightin Buzzard? Can't say I blame you!
My old neighbour seems to be the local property tycoon. He always seems to have lots of property for rent.

drewfromrisca

Croydon is no good, transport links are going to the wrong areas and it would take me too long to get to work (2 hours).

It's a shame as we have a good landlord (albeit a bit slow when things need doing) good area but we have been broken into 3 times within 7 months. 1st time it was our wedding day!

Cities have their good points but the bad far outweigh them in my opinion.

teagar

How old are you all?

I wonder whether it has a bearing on the likelihood of you liking living in cities....

drewfromrisca

30. Enjoyed it for a bit when I was there at 26 but now can't stand it. Although its not all cities I hate. I love going to San Francisco and it's probably where we'll end up living within the year and I enjoy Copenhagen, Brussels, Sydney but most others I've been to I can take it or leave it.

Porgy

drewfromrisca wrote:

Landlords are evil evil people!!!

I'm not - I'm a very good one.

drewfromrisca

Well there's a 1st!

Just kidding. Like I said, my current one is a star so I shouldn't generalise.

bigmat

I was a great landlord. I have a flat for sale in Balham if anyone is interested - 20 minutes by bike from Richmond Park, under an hour to Box Hill, yet still well and truly in London. What's wrong with cities anyway?!

Porgy

drewfromrisca wrote:

Well there's a 1st!

Just kidding. Like I said, my current one is a star so I shouldn't generalise.

my tenants have gone bankrupt and are currently nearly a month behind with their rent - and also haven't paid me a deposit. They rarely pay on time and I have been extremely patient throughout. I haven't put their rent up in 3 years either.

But on the other hand they look after my property - and always pay up eventually. 8)