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Is downsizing a good idea ?
I am looking into the idea of selling our current house and moving to a slightly smaller one that would leave us with no mortgage or a £10-£20k one. In the current climate, is this a good idea or a bad one ?
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Dummies guide to school catchment areas
We've a young daughter (1 years) and are looking to buy a house in Surrey. Along with everything else the house has to be located in the catchment area of a good school, but what does this mean ? Does the cacthment area apply to nurseries/primary/secondary schools? Does it only apply to state schools ? What are the…
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Slow..steady decline in house prices
house prices are just sooo over inflated, that no matter what spin the Halifax or Abbey (i dont believe anything they say now!) put on things they simpley have to come down !! PERIOD !!!!!!! befor the last "crash" i recall prudential spending a fortune on buying estate agents as prices then went sky high,only to have their…
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How much does it actually cost to buy a house?
Hello, I am 24 next month and my boyfriend and I have finally deceided to buy a house. We have found a house for 95,000 and we can get a mortgage for that but what else will we have to pay out? Solicitors fees/ estate agents fees etc? I have no idea. We have no savings at all as we only finished uni 2 yrs ago and are still…
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Checking your Buyers Progress
I wanted to know if anyone has experienced our current situation and how they got on: We have sold our house to someone who has a first time buyer purchasing their house. We have found a property where our offer has been accepted and there is no onward chain. We had our offer accepted 5 weeks ago, and we accepted the offer…
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Apartment on Tenerife.
Hi,i'm thinking of buying a 1 bed apartment in Los Christianos to rent out and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this.I am hoping to spend around £80k.
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Interest accrued from money used as a deposit for our house
Can anybody clarify this for me. My partner and I sold his house then mine to buy our house. As his was sold first, his profits/ deposit were left in the solicitors client account for approx 14 weeks. I know this was used as a deposit but was technically our money when it was in the client account and now forms the part of…
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tax help please
I have owned a house for 16 years and the last 4 years i have rented it out while i live with my girlfriend. I have made some income from the rent (not much) which i have paid tax on in full todate. I want to sell my house and have spent quite a sum of money on renovating it. I am not sure where I stand with regards to…
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What's a 'reasonable offer'??
I'm a FTB and am looking to make an offer on a one bed flat, the only thing is I don't really know how to pitch the offer, that is what is a reasonable offer in terms of % of the asking price i.e. one that will get you taken seriously? The flat has been on the market for a couple of months and I (obviously) consider it is…
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Scottish House Prices
10 free searches courtesy of Scotland on Sunday. Covers SCOTLAND, WALES and ENGLAND https://www.myhouseprice.com/athome Register your details and you'll be emailed with account name and password. Use the account for the searches. If your already a myhouseprice.com user you can apply and have your account credited. There…
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Stamp duty in deprived areas
I thought I would post this in case anybody else didnt know about it. But then, you all probably do, Ima lways the last to know <sob> http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/so/pcode_search.htm In certain 'deprived' areas the threshold is £150,000. My area is covered, its not the best but I certainly wouldnt call it deprived. And…
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The Great House Price Crash 2005?
In case you missed the BBC2 TV programme "The Great House Price Crash 2005?", broadcast at 7:00pm on Friday 4th March, 2005, you can now view it here: Link deleted - this linked to a BBC programme being streamed not from a BBC site. It is likely to be inviolation of copyright laws - so unfortunately we've deleted the link
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Estate Agents and money laundering regs
Estate Agents are increasingly concerning themselves with the money laundering regulations when there is no need. They now see it as their responsibility when they agree to market your property to go through the whole gamut of demanding to see proof of your identity (passport, driving licence etc) and recent utility bills.…
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Making the leap from renting to buying
Really would value some input on this..... My husband and I have been renting for the past 3 years and would desperatly love to buy a house. We've got some debt that we're managing quite well and only have his income at present. I'm going to be working part time, self employed, and we'd really like to know what to do for…
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Estate agents!
We are havig 6 different estate agents coming around to price our current property in the next week and i want to have to hand a list of questions i should ask them, any advice on the questions i should be asking apart from there commision, percentage or fixed rate? I want to be prepared so we can decide :) Thanks again
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tax rebate
My boyfriend wants to sell his house. He lives with me and has been renting his old house out for sometime. He has had to do a lot of renovating since the tennant moved out, new bathroom, windows etc. someone has mentioned to him about a tax rebate on work done. I this true. i phoned inland revenue and they were not very…
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Ground rent. £450 a MONTH? what do you pay?
I am in the process of buying a house. £120k 2 bed semi. I have got my valuation back from Bristol and West. The property is Leasehold it has 954 years left. Under that it says ground rent £450 !! Surely this cant be yearly? Or is it likely to be divided by the 1000 year lease making it 0.45p a year? What do you pay ground…
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home owning or letting??
Hi Could anyone give me their opinion on my situation. I bought a 3 bed semi in Nov 2003. The place needs a complete face lift. Although I live by myself and do not really think I need all this space at the minute. So my idea is to cut my monthly outgoings by renting a room at my parents place and letting my house out. I…
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Buying your freehold
This is my first post so I hope its in the right place. Apologies if its not. My wife and I have just borrowed some extra money on our mortgage to pay for an extension. The builders are due in at the end of the month and as yet I have not informed the people we pay ground rent to (currently less than £4 a year) that we are…
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Second Charges On Property
A freinds of mines step father helped her buy a home some 15 years ago but was put on the legal documents as a second charge on the property. He recently passed away, what happens to the second charge on the mortgage, is it now defunct ?