£14310 off mortgage 2010 lets make 2011 better

sarahevie

New washing machine in and working.

Central heating (brand new boiler in March) and still not working, but none of the engineers can find anything wrong:mad: Been waiting months like this. Got a quote from a local heating engineer to repair, but it's £817.

Dad has fixed the mastic between the UPVC window and wall as it was letting water in, so money saved there.

Had a plumber out as we thought we had leaky taps, turns out a much bigger fault with a leaking bath so waiting for a quote.

sarahevie

Stresses with the rental house, as it is student letting season. Have had four potential viewings so far.

Viewing one: I left my keys at DD1s pre school as I was rushing, the tenants weren't in, so didn't get to show them. My fault oops.

Viewings two: Half the group came but had a phone call as we were outside to say that the other half of the group had put a deposit down on another house so it was cancelled.

Viewing three: Group of non talkers so was quite hard going. Had a long list of others to see so suspect mine got forgotten in the mix.

Viewing four: Called up to book viewing, two hours later cancelled as they had decided to go with another one.

In previous years I have preferred Feb anyway, people are ready to sign for houses then. In Jan they all come round with these huge lists of ones to view, and if they view yours in the middle they forget about it.

sarahevie

I'm so nervous, got a viewing of my rental house this afternoon. However quite a demanding bunch.

Phoned up to say, they have seen loads which quite frankly haven't been up to scratch. Fair enough, there are some hideous ones around. It must have a modern kitchen and bathroom. Bathroom re fitted 2010. White with pale wood laminate. Separate toilet wasn't re done. Kitchen re decorated in white with new appliances 2010. We are a group of three possibly four but it is essential that it either has a spare room or basement which is usable. Well there are four bedrooms so will be billed as such, as you pay per person (bedroom) per week. The basement is a utility with sink, washing machine and tumble dryer but certainly not suitable for sleeping in depends what you want it for. It must be clean. Can't do a lot about the current tenants cleaning habits it will be professionally cleaned before new tenants move in.

Don't know what they are expecting, the uni have given me a 5 star rating for my property, so it is one of the better ones, but they seem very demanding already and I have a really bad feeling about it. Anyway we shall see how the viewing goes. Dreading it already.

sarahevie

Slightly embarrassing phone call from local EA. She spotted me having another nosey at my 'forever family' house.

It's not spectacular or anything but is in the *next* price bracket and would work for us for the foreseeable etc.

It is builder owned, so empty, as it was part ex for one on the new development next door to it. As I know its empty, and I walk past it four times a day when I'm dropping and picking DD1 up from pre school I can't help but have a look through the windows, walk into the garden etc. :o

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-19818615.html?premiumA=true

CathT

Love the house!! Maybe that's the kind of thing your enquiring students are after???

sarahevie

CathT wrote: »

Love the house!! Maybe that's the kind of thing your enquiring students are after???

I do too, a couple of years ago, I said to OH I wonder how much those houses are worth, but they never come up for sale. Last one in 2001.

It used to have kids jigsaws in the window, it's just a 'family' home. The previous owners have young children, but had another so moved to a detached on a new estate with 5 beds.

The students have to be realistic though. It is Leeds so typical Victorian terraces with basement bedrooms.

Brodiebobs

wow lovely house, good job you posted after courgette has found one as she may have pinched that

I cant believe the students were so demanding, all my friends and family who lived in student lets werent that fussy.... and some of the places were truely awful.

sarahevie

Mum came over yesterday to tell me that she respects that we want to pay off the mortgage but she feels that we need to 'keep' the value of our house. As currently we would never sell it.

I'm starting to agree. We have a very sloped garden (house on a hill) that we need help to clear. Needs re painting throughout desperately. Bathroom needs repair. Have had a plumber out about this. Could do with the outside re painting as the white render is looking tired.

So may follow others lead and keep a renovation fund.

CathT

We're trying to balance OP and renovation savings too. The problem is we would only realistically get about 10k less for this than we paid for it 7 years ago so would be reluctant to sell. I'm 90% sure we'll stay put as we love the location and are detached so will slowly do work and make it more appealing (to us and potential buyers).

sarahevie

Well yesterday mum announced following our conversations about our house (her and dad have always hated our house as it is soooo difficult to maintain being on a hill, 1930s rendered, 9 steps from kitchen to back garden etc.) Anyway she has also been 'stalking' the local area for places we could buy.

And found this one. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-21345237.html

Well the day before I went walking past this estate after I'd dropped DD1 at pre school as I'd noticed it on RM and it is very cheap for the type of house and area. It's no bigger than our current house, but has a flat garden, drive way, no render etc. I'd discounted moving somewhere the same size as where I am now, but it's a very small cul de sac, very close to local amenities, not much more price wise than we paid for ours. Would do our current family size, although I still want another baby and OH isn't coming round to the idea.

Mum and Dad would like to give us the difference. Or even pay cash for the house but we would have to sell our house to pay them back, minus the difference. We paid £159,000 for ours in 2007, but they just aren't selling on my street. She has said that there would have to be an exit strategy for us to pay them back which is why the sudden urgency to try and spruce ours up to sell.

Anyway I'm viewing the house tomorrow at 3.15 so we shall see