Media pimped homes for sale - monitor thread

fc123

All done ....you will never guess what just fell into my inbox?

Absolutely true....a wholesale enquiry from Reykjavik, Iceland. Saw it in London, wants it in her store.

Do I get payment in Iceland money? If I didn't hang out here, I wouldn't have thought anything of it but guess it goes to show life goes on despite the bankruptcy of their country and the volcano.

dopester

Cleaver wrote: »

C'mon Dopester, do you really think that? I can't see prospective buyers walking in to any property, seeing a lovely load of glass and natural light pouring in to a nice, bright room and thinking, "hmmm, we'd better get this all bricked up so our security is tighter"

Hehe Cleaver.

I'm just projecting some of my own frustrations. Last month I paid for our house-insurance. The online process had a section emphasising the importance of locks, and especially about patio-door locks fitted top and bottom.

Theft cover element dependent upon them being in place within 14 days of policy. I've bought patio-door locks now but haven't fitted them... turns out our patio door frame is hollow with just a covering strip clipped into it, so can't fit the locks onto a flimsy cover with just a big cavity of space behind it. I'm going to have to get two wood-blocks cut to the appropriate size and secure it in to provide a proper anchor point for both lock screws.

There were quite a few house burglaries around here during the last recession. I personally answered the door to two big guys (drive was empty of cars that day) and immediately I knew they were just checking if anyone was home, before they would have broken in. One asked if I knew where a Mrs (well I'm not going to say, but it was the name of a pub in a rough area not too far away) lived. I didn't call the police afterwards (young and stupid, and didn't want to overreact in case I was wrong) and house just a few doors down got robbed... the owners returning home with the guys in the house. Those owners moved soon afterwards citing how stressful they found the incident. I am a bit paranoid, but some designs of houses built with lots of glass do seem a bit safe-world nice to me. Less concern for those who may be looking in, seeing what you've got, seeing if anyone is home, in troubled times. Fit some blinds.

fc123

I have A Sold Price (:j) for the pimp my house thread.

OK, it is next door (to where we rent) so not an official pimp (as not from a mag/paper) but the sold price interested me.

Went to auction (as an executors sale) and I think it was left to a spritual charity of some sort.....so guide was £450 and it sold for..................






da da........£532k

I guess it could benefit from improvements and 100k would get it up to super swishy spec or it could be pulled down and rebuilt (as someone opposite and up a bit is doing) but it went for 200k less than I thought it would.

dopester

fc123 wrote: »

Went to auction (as an executors sale) and I think it was left to a spritual charity of some sort.....so guide was £450 and it sold for..................

da da........£532k

I guess it could benefit from improvements and 100k would get it up to super swishy spec or it could be pulled down and rebuilt (as someone opposite and up a bit is doing) but it went for 200k less than I thought it would.

Very very interesting fc. There was a post you made on a different thread, suggesting this house which went to auction had received many viewers... here is the post... "and each one think they are the only ones to spot it's potential."

I'm getting the impression the auction house is a really nice example on the street. The house itself, it's location/plot. We can't know just what it requires structurally/repairs, but the £100K you say could be spent to really do it up... £532K + £100K = £632K.

If this house did get so many eager viewers and still went for £200K less than you thought it would at auction.. with money getting tighter imo, it might suggests the neighbours trying to sell £1m+ houses are going to soon have to enter the real world about what their homes are worth. Especially as this all happened just before the next stage of the crash is about to begin.

fc123 wrote: »

I am now really fighting with my inner self and the deadly sin ''Thou Shalt Not Covet''....and I mean really fighting cos I WANT THIS HOUSE. I WANT I WANT I WANT ...and cannot afford it in a million years.

The dead (lovely, spiritual, actually a real white witch) neighbour's house is going to auction next month.

There are 3 houses for sale in the street at the moment all 1 million +..and all unsold.

Next door is a dream .....total dream (well fits into my dream) and, yes, it needs work but the plot is to die for. In fact, derelict rental needs far more work than next door and I manage to exist in it.

Now, I did do my nosy neighbour impression today as I have resisted going outside whenever I see a couple of bad suits wandering around...as has happened the past week......and lovely same sex couple are thinking of buying it....and I confess...I AM SOOOOO JEALOUS. But, as I am nice I let them come into mine to see the view from the back..as that is what you are paying for.

The reserve is £430k.

I now wanna make some £££ so badly and this forum is a blackboard sometimes for my inner self and I am not ashamed with being in touch with my materialistic, shallow, coveting side...oh no.

sjaypink

I have a new one which, although I am possibly rather biased , think is a bit of a bargain:

http://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/details/property/478858/for-sale/Portland-Dorset-DT.html

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/8173175.Buyers_line_up_to_view___4m_Portland_castle/

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25784338.html

Local rumour has it Mick Jagger is viewing this week.... wonder if he'll haggle on the £4m?

dopester

sjaypink wrote: »

I have a new one which, although I am possibly rather biased , think is a bit of a bargain:

The £4million price tag is being used as a guide and the agents expect the castle, currently owned by Sarah Curtis, to be sold in excess of the guide price.

Quite a lot of intrigue and background story associated with that house/castle. I presume Sarah Curtis is the wife of the late Stephen Curtis, who died in a helicopter crash in 2004. He was the lawyer to the oligarchs - seeing a lot of excess - and was tangled up in the moves by Russian authorities against some of them. Death threats and some shady goings on, allegedly. Apparently at one stage, due to the arrests of other Yukos players, he was at one point left in operational control of Yukos (oil) from his office in Gibraltar where he was a tax-exile. (Portland’s Pennsylvania Castle was run as a hotel for some time until the late 80s.)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1200525/If-dead-wont-accident-How-Russian-oligarchs-favourite-English-lawyer-met-horrifying-death.html

James Wyatt designed Pennsylvania Castle and the building was completed in 1800 during the reign of George III. It was built for John Penn the grandson of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania in the USA. The flag of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which was presented by the US senate, hangs in the hall. It is alleged that Churchill and Eisenhower planned part of the D-Day invasion here.

dopester

Daily Mail

The thriller writer and his £2m plot: How Kevin Lewis went from the mean streets of London to owner of a grand Surrey home

By Ruth Bloomfield
Last updated at 11:13 AM on 17th May 2010
Edgehill, Park View Road, Woldingham, Caterham, Surrey, CR3 7DN

The family - the couple have an 11-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter - bought Edge Hill in 2007. They were fleeing nearby Oxted, driven out by incessant aircraft noise, and were amateurs at major building projects.

They paid a peak-market price of about £900,000 for what was, at the time, a four-bedroom property covering 2,000 sq ft. They have since added a wing to each side of the house, excavated a basement which now houses a pool and gym, and built a triple garage. The house now has 6,000 sq ft of floor space - 7,000 including the garage.

Edge Hill is on sale for £2.25million with agents Park & Bailey, www.parkandbailey.co.uk.

Rightmove link 1 (Knight Frank): Guide Price £2,250,000

PB Main Info: (from Knight Frank listing)
Found by PB: 06 May 2010. Price found: Guide Price £2,250,000
Update 05th September 2010: New Rightmove link (Park & Bailey): £2,150,000
+ Houseprices.co.uk link for tracking purposes
Update 15th Oct 2010: (PB Change = 12 October 2010 Price changed: from '£2,150,000' to '£2,000,000')
Update 16th Nov 2010: New Rightmove link: Guide Price £2,000,000

dopester

Daily Mail

From divorce to developer: How a mother tuned her Fifties bungalow into a modernist masterpiece

By Rachel Reilly
Last updated at 11:56 AM on 24th May 2010

Complicated HPI glory stuff; your standard indervidjual boom-fashion big windows house, and a fancy free-standing bath on chunky base to fall over in the bedroom.

KEY FACTS

* Price: £795,000
* Bedrooms: Four
* Receptions: Two
* Bathrooms: Three

Rightmove link (Savills): Guide Price £795,000

PB Main Info: (from Rightmove Savills listing):
Found by PB: 15 May 2010. Guide Price £795,000

dopester

Daily Mail
PA33
Loch and leave: How a London couple lived out their Scottish fairy tale in a Highlands castle

By Maggie Mallon
Last updated at 3:49 PM on 24th May 2010

Living the dream: Sally and Aandi Inston swapped their modest terrace home in London for the striking Carraig Thura in the Scottish Highlands

Inside, more horrors awaited. Carraig Thura had been a hotel after the war and then a nursing home for 15 years.

'The sitting room had hideous floral-print wallpaper inside the gorgeous plaster panels, there were fitted carpets everywhere and 17 horrible bathrooms in shades of avocado and chocolate,' says Sally.

Yet back in 1999, Carraig Thura was priced at a modest £300,000, which the couple could afford once they had sold their London house for £150,000 - a £65,000 profit on what they paid for it in 1987.

'We wanted much more space and to live somewhere architecturally interesting and remote,' says Sally. 'But for that price we would only have been able to afford a house in the same area of London with one extra bedroom.'

They are not the first English househunters to head for the Scottish Highlands in search of grand living.

Undaunted, the couple packed up and moved to Argyll in 2000 to begin their dream of living in a Scottish castle. For Aandi, who runs his own software business, the remote location was no handicap.

It took them eight years of hard work and £350,000, but 18 months ago they put the finishing touches to restoring Carraig Thura, a corruption of Carric-Thura, a king's palace in an epic poem about the Celtic hero Fingal.

But now they have put the house on the market for £695,000 and plan to move to a £675,000 restored mill in Shropshire, near Shrewsbury, with seven bedrooms and six acres.

Aandi has taken up horse-riding and the couple, who have no children-want to rear pigs and chickens as well.

'We want to grow our own food and keep livestock, like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall,' says Aandi.

'I have loved playing the Scottish laird and we have had fun living that fantasy. When we married in 2002 I dressed in a kilt like something out of Braveheart,' says Aandi.

'I'll miss the views of the loch and the mountains, but we've lived our fairytale Scottish castle dream. Now we are ready for a new adventure.'

Savills (direct link): Excess of £695,000

Rightmove link (Savills): Offers in Excess of £695,000

PB Main Info:
02 April 2010: Price found: Offers in Excess of £695,000

PasturesNew

dopester wrote: »

Daily Mail

From divorce to developer: How a mother tuned her Fifties bungalow into a modernist masterpiece

By Rachel Reilly
Last updated at 11:56 AM on 24th May 2010

KEY FACTS

* Price: £795,000
* Bedrooms: Four
* Receptions: Two
* Bathrooms: Three

Rightmove link (Savills): Guide Price £795,000

PB Main Info: (from Rightmove Savills listing):
Found by PB: 15 May 2010. Guide Price £795,000

Bought Feb 2004 for £360k http://www.houseprices.co.uk/e.php?q=panorama%2C+Tickenham+Hill%2C+North+Somerset

The Chapel sale for £250k: http://www.houseprices.co.uk/e.php?q=BS21+6SH+chapel&n=10

The article says they recently bought a bungalow at £410k. I wonder if this is it:
Photo: http://media.rightmove.co.uk/22k/21323/21323_2720_IMG_17_0000_t.jpg
LR: http://www.houseprices.co.uk/e.php?f=pd&q=BS41+8LS&n=100