Anyone else living in a parallel universe?

thriftybabe

We have also been told by builders that they have seen an increase in sales. However as they have had no sales then selling one is an increase! A few of our friends have been out of work (one or two since September last year and others more recently) and they cannot get anything. These vary from Contract Managers, Joiners to Directors. Any jobs that they do apply for either have hundreds of applicants or they do not have the relevant experience. Personally there is not much happening with work either but we live in hope.

Looking at BBC on Friday night really brings it home as to how lucky we all are.

Pennywise

I've a few dozen clients who run their own businesses. I've been surprised that so few of them have mentioned the recession and have spent quite some time over the last few weeks contacting them and asking them how things are doing. Out of 67 clients, only 3 say that things are very bad and that their sales are badly down from last year. The rest have said that things are broadly the same, slightly better or slightly worse. In fact 6 have said that their sales are up on last year. I have one kitchen fitter who has basically had no work at all for weeks, yet have a joiner who's as busy as ever, both from the same town. Same story with a couple of IT consultants working in The City - one has been out of contract for six months and counting, the other had his contract terminated and got a new contract elsewhere within the month. In terms only of small business, it seems that it is survival of the fittest - those with good, diverse customer base & abilities and an open mind to flexibility are managing very well to keep getting the work.

lostinrates

Pennywise wrote: »

I've a few dozen clients who run their own businesses. ....... .

Pennywise, what do you do-what's your job?

Pennywise

lostinrates wrote: »

Pennywise, what do you do-what's your job?

I run my own accountancy practice in Lancashire.

lostinrates

Pennywise wrote: »

I run my own accountancy practice in Lancashire.

Thank you

I think your anecdotal is sort of simlar to what friends and acquaintances are saying to me. But the interesting case for me is where people both notice and don't. Some friends of the family who have an adult son with a family bought him his first home and have a younger adult son at uni, and bought him a house too. They still service the mortgage of second son and were telling me how the fix was a killer. They are retired, and live off investments, very comfortably, but have cut back on their gardener's ours etc etc, to make up for increased expenditure and decreased income. And yet....'you really need to get on the property ladder now lostinrates'

fc123

Pennywise wrote: »

I've a few dozen clients who run their own businesses. I've been surprised that so few of them have mentioned the recession and have spent quite some time over the last few weeks contacting them and asking them how things are doing. Out of 67 clients, only 3 say that things are very bad and that their sales are badly down from last year. The rest have said that things are broadly the same, slightly better or slightly worse. In fact 6 have said that their sales are up on last year. I have one kitchen fitter who has basically had no work at all for weeks, yet have a joiner who's as busy as ever, both from the same town. Same story with a couple of IT consultants working in The City - one has been out of contract for six months and counting, the other had his contract terminated and got a new contract elsewhere within the month. In terms only of small business, it seems that it is survival of the fittest - those with good, diverse customer base & abilities and an open mind to flexibility are managing very well to keep getting the work.

That would sum it up for people I know in my sector too. Those affected are diversifying or moving onto other ways to trade...the ones just sitting it out and waiting for things to get back to normal are having a bad time.


LIR...NO rush for the farm....Davesnave is waiting too....patiently. The right place will come up at the right price one day...for sure.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

In fact, I've been trawling through my saved properties to check saved details to confirm this.

Are you openly admitting, in THIS forum, that you don't use Property Bee???

Or did I read that wrongly?

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Are you openly admitting, in THIS forum, that you don't use Property Bee???

Or did I read that wrongly?

I have only very recently..like last couple of weeks recently, downloaded property bee. TBH I'm not sure I'm using it correctly anyway:o although its fun. :rotfl:By far the majority of the properties I'm looking at don't appear on rightmove. More appear on primelocation sadly. And agents' own websites.so I have a regular system of trawling through loads of sites and saving the details. I hate it. It was fun at first, imgining how we'd live at each place, what the local shops would be et ctec, but now I'm bored.

matbe

I will openly admit that I dont use property bee or rightmove or any other price search engine.

I dont care what my house is worth now.

I bought for a fair price at the time (1998)

In that time it has probably gone up and down in value

I bought it to live in not for its resale value,The same reason i bought my van for its use in getting me and tools to jobs.

If your not happy buying then rent.

If your not happy renting then buy.

Davesnave

fc123 wrote: »

LIR...NO rush for the farm....Davesnave is waiting too....patiently. The right place will come up at the right price one day...for sure.

TBH, I think I sounded a bit grumpy yesterday! I'm frustrated by the inactivity, when I should be grateful for having the ability to sit this one out. It's just an age thing. I think: 'I've only got another 20 years or so.....and it takes 40 to grow a decent tree!'

PN, I don't use Property Bee. Sad person that I am, I can actually remember pretty well what price a property came to market, any subsequent price drops etc. Being an ex-teacher, I find it's just like the mental shorthand I once used for remembering useful details about children.

Anyway, LIR and I probably flag-up fewer proprties as being of interest. As soon as I hit the aerial picture, I'm looking at stuff the average house seeker probably doesn't consider: 'Oh dear, near the bottom of a north east-facing slope, with a wood directly to the west....' etc. It's all about sunshine & frost pockets with me!