Things you have recently learnt

surrey_commuter

Ben6899 said:

rjsterry said:

Ben6899 said:

It's a 2005 apartment that friends of ours are trying to buy. The lender did indeed cite "non-traditional" construction and "PRC" when refusing to offer them a mortgage.

I suspected - as you both point out - that's a slightly reactionary stance and I'd bet that a 2005 building has been constructed with all the lessons borne in mind.

Still, no dice.

I think there are specialist lenders for this kind of property.

https://www.gocompare.com/mortgages/unusual-construction/

https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/property-types/concrete-construction/

Brilliant, thanks!

not sure how old you are Ben but selling these sorts of properties in a boom is fine but in a downturn you could be stuck with it for a decade or taking a 20-25% hit. In an uncertain market there will be fewer if any lender so you will be limited to cash buyers.

I would run away

Ben6899

surrey_commuter said:

Ben6899 said:

rjsterry said:

Ben6899 said:

It's a 2005 apartment that friends of ours are trying to buy. The lender did indeed cite "non-traditional" construction and "PRC" when refusing to offer them a mortgage.

I suspected - as you both point out - that's a slightly reactionary stance and I'd bet that a 2005 building has been constructed with all the lessons borne in mind.

Still, no dice.

I think there are specialist lenders for this kind of property.

https://www.gocompare.com/mortgages/unusual-construction/

https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/property-types/concrete-construction/

Brilliant, thanks!

not sure how old you are Ben but selling these sorts of properties in a boom is fine but in a downturn you could be stuck with it for a decade or taking a 20-25% hit. In an uncertain market there will be fewer if any lender so you will be limited to cash buyers.

I would run away

Thanks SC. It's a place that friends (a couple of years younger than me, but in the ballpark) are looking at, and their long term plan is to not live there, but rent it out for infinity. It's in London.

I would indeed run away, for the exact reasons you cite. Buying and selling property is difficult enough without voluntarily taking on additional risk.

surrey_commuter

Ben6899 said:

surrey_commuter said:

Ben6899 said:

rjsterry said:

Ben6899 said:

It's a 2005 apartment that friends of ours are trying to buy. The lender did indeed cite "non-traditional" construction and "PRC" when refusing to offer them a mortgage.

I suspected - as you both point out - that's a slightly reactionary stance and I'd bet that a 2005 building has been constructed with all the lessons borne in mind.

Still, no dice.

I think there are specialist lenders for this kind of property.

https://www.gocompare.com/mortgages/unusual-construction/

https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/property-types/concrete-construction/

Brilliant, thanks!

not sure how old you are Ben but selling these sorts of properties in a boom is fine but in a downturn you could be stuck with it for a decade or taking a 20-25% hit. In an uncertain market there will be fewer if any lender so you will be limited to cash buyers.

I would run away

Thanks SC. It's a place that friends (a couple of years younger than me, but in the ballpark) are looking at, and their long term plan is to not live there, but rent it out for infinity. It's in London.

I would indeed run away, for the exact reasons you cite. Buying and selling property is difficult enough without voluntarily taking on additional risk.

the last good property crash was in the early 90s so a growing body of people have no exposure to it.

Get them to check sold prices as sometimes these can fluctuate wildly and give them an idea of future difficulties and obviously try and screw the sellers on the way in.

Pross

Ben6899 said:

It's a 2005 apartment that friends of ours are trying to buy. The lender did indeed cite "non-traditional" construction and "PRC" when refusing to offer them a mortgage.

I suspected - as you both point out - that's a slightly reactionary stance and I'd bet that a 2005 building has been constructed with all the lessons borne in mind.

Still, no dice.

Certainly seems over the top for a building of that age that would have been through full building regs approval. It makes you wonder how commercial properties get funded!

monkimark

Ben6899 said:

This Civil Engineer has just learnt that most mortgage lenders won't entertain properties in Precast Reinforced Concrete (PRC) buildings.

Maybe @rjsterry can tell us if this is the case for all PRC buildings or just those built with insufficient rebar cover that were popular in the 1970s?

That is particularly strange given that most of the large residential towers that I've worked on in London over the last 20 years have had at least some element of precast - generally the cores/shear walls, so pretty critical to keeping the building standing.

lesfirth

surrey_commuter said:

Ben6899 said:

surrey_commuter said:

Ben6899 said:

rjsterry said:

Ben6899 said:

It's a 2005 apartment that friends of ours are trying to buy. The lender did indeed cite "non-traditional" construction and "PRC" when refusing to offer them a mortgage.

I suspected - as you both point out - that's a slightly reactionary stance and I'd bet that a 2005 building has been constructed with all the lessons borne in mind.

Still, no dice.

I think there are specialist lenders for this kind of property.

https://www.gocompare.com/mortgages/unusual-construction/

https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/property-types/concrete-construction/

Brilliant, thanks!

not sure how old you are Ben but selling these sorts of properties in a boom is fine but in a downturn you could be stuck with it for a decade or taking a 20-25% hit. In an uncertain market there will be fewer if any lender so you will be limited to cash buyers.

I would run away

Thanks SC. It's a place that friends (a couple of years younger than me, but in the ballpark) are looking at, and their long term plan is to not live there, but rent it out for infinity. It's in London.

I would indeed run away, for the exact reasons you cite. Buying and selling property is difficult enough without voluntarily taking on additional risk.

the last good property crash was in the early 90s so a growing body of people have no exposure to it.

Get them to check sold prices as sometimes these can fluctuate wildly and give them an idea of future difficulties and obviously try and screw the sellers on the way in.

It is obvious you are not a Manchester commuter. Adjusting for inflation the average UK house price not yet reached its pre 2007 level. Early 90s was a slight pause compared to the disaster of 2007.

Pross

monkimark said:

Ben6899 said:

This Civil Engineer has just learnt that most mortgage lenders won't entertain properties in Precast Reinforced Concrete (PRC) buildings.

Maybe @rjsterry can tell us if this is the case for all PRC buildings or just those built with insufficient rebar cover that were popular in the 1970s?

That is particularly strange given that most of the large residential towers that I've worked on in London over the last 20 years have had at least some element of precast - generally the cores/shear walls, so pretty critical to keeping the building standing.

Surely the benefit of precast is also that it can be manufactured in more closely controlled environments to ensure better quality control as well? You would think it would be a safer option that insitu RC where there'll be voids in a few years once the dead bodies thrown in by gangsters start to decompose.

dennisn

I've learned that the Amish people here in the U.S. aren't affected or worried about coronavirus because they don't have TV's. Smart.

webboo

dennisn said:

I've learned that the Amish people here in the U.S. aren't affected or worried about coronavirus because they don't have TV's. Smart.

So no cases or deaths from C19 in their communities?

orraloon

Is it smart TVs that are causing the 'rona? Thought it was 5G mobile masts.

dennisn

webboo said:

dennisn said:

I've learned that the Amish people here in the U.S. aren't affected or worried about coronavirus because they don't have TV's. Smart.

So no cases or deaths from C19 in their communities?

Bad choice of words. When I said affected I meant they aren't paranoid about the whole thing like the rest of civilization. Don't know about actual cases from them. It's more of a slam or joke about journalists and news media.

Pross

I would have thought the risk of viruses entering a closed community are pretty small anyway.

pinno

orraloon said:

morstar said:

Ben6899 said:

Yesterday, I learnt that there's a beauty salon at the Archway end of the Junction Road, called... "Stasi".

I'm not letting those people anywhere near my fingernails.

Probably one of those scenarios where somebody just thought it sounded exotic.

I think it is the Aussie sitcom Cath and Kim where they try to come up with an exotic name for a child and one of them suggests Chlamydia.

Isn't that the name of Rees-Smug's sister?

If at anytime Rees Mogg is mentioned, all it does is remind me of this:
[Which is a good thing]

kingstongraham

That this is a name:

https://twitter.com/jacknicklaus/status/1338628170694750214

Ben6899

Wow. "Todger". And wow. "Strunk".

briantrumpet

Ben6899 said:

Wow. "Todger". And wow. "Strunk".

'Strunk' is a well-known name to music students. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strunks-Source-Readings-Music-History/dp/0393966992/

orraloon

Todger is also a well known name.

Pross

That feels like the sort of name Ben Stiller would call a character in one of his films.

rjsterry

Talking of odd names I stumbled across the writer Crescent Dragonwagon the other day.

briantrumpet

That it's physically impossible for me to play a B minor chord on a ukulele.

rjsterry

briantrumpet said:

That it's physically impossible for me to play a B minor chord on a ukulele.

Not sure whether Slayer are to your taste, but...

https://youtu.be/cRdlY_usbiA

briantrumpet

rjsterry said:

briantrumpet said:

That it's physically impossible for me to play a B minor chord on a ukulele.

Not sure whether Slayer are to your taste, but...

https://youtu.be/cRdlY_usbiA

Haha! Well, well, my attempt at Rocking Around The Christmas Tree would have probably ended up sounding more like that, given how far away from B minor I was.

rjsterry

briantrumpet said:

rjsterry said:

briantrumpet said:

That it's physically impossible for me to play a B minor chord on a ukulele.

Not sure whether Slayer are to your taste, but...

https://youtu.be/cRdlY_usbiA

Haha! Well, well, my attempt at Rocking Around The Christmas Tree would have probably ended up sounding more like that, given how far away from B minor I was.

The same chap - Rob Scallon - has done a series of quite in depth videos on unusual instruments including one of an enormous church organ and various forerunners of the guitar. And some more silly stuff - shovel guitar, etc.

Stevo_666

Ben6899 said:

Wow. "Todger". And wow. "Strunk".

Well at least his surname wasn't 'Shrunk'.

brundonbianchi

veronese68 said:

Chris Bass wrote:

briantrumpet wrote:

That I've been mispronouncing the musical term 'adagio' all my musical life: an Italian speaker told me that the 'i' merely softens the 'g', so that the pronunciation is "adajjo", not "adajjeo".

is this always the case in Italian? so would the footballer Roberto Baggio be pronounced Roberto Bajjo - If so I have been saying his name wrong my whole life - not that I have said it that often in fairness!

Yes, also in Italian an h after a c hardens the c sound so it is like a ck in English.
[/quote]

Hence Bianchi is pronounced like ‘Bee-an-key’ not ‘Bee-an-she’ ( which it is by far too many people I’ve heard) and the Lamborghini Countach, should be pronounced ‘Coon-tack’ not ‘Coon-Tash’ ( although it hardly ever is by most people )

briantrumpet

...

Pross

Just rewatched Trading Places for the first time in many years. I discovered it's set in Philadelphia, I'd always assumed it was New York.

pblakeney

Pross said:

Just rewatched Trading Places for the first time in many years. I discovered it's set in Philadelphia, I'd always assumed it was New York.

You didn't know that the Fresh Prince was from Philly? 😉

Pross

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just rewatched Trading Places for the first time in many years. I discovered it's set in Philadelphia, I'd always assumed it was New York.

You didn't know that the Fresh Prince was from Philly? 😉

I'm now about to learn something else - what's the link between Fresh Prince and Trading Places or am I missing something?

pblakeney

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just rewatched Trading Places for the first time in many years. I discovered it's set in Philadelphia, I'd always assumed it was New York.

You didn't know that the Fresh Prince was from Philly? 😉

I'm now about to learn something else - what's the link between Fresh Prince and Trading Places or am I missing something?

Egg nog kicked in a bit early. My bad. 🤬