Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

Davesnave

silvercar wrote: »

Bargain of the day, Tesco selling off their already cheap plants. I managed to get some little acer bushes for £1.50.

Why is last year's parsley now flowering? I didn't even know parsley could flower. Are the flowers edible?

The acers will be seedlings I'd guess, not grafted plants, but they could still be OK. Parsley is biennial, and if it is flowering, it will taste bitter. You could collect the seeds, but meanwhile, you might want to get another plant to use.

PasturesNew wrote: »

It was a poor choice of words. He doesn't import them - he hot links to them on somebody else's server... not giving a tinker's cuss if the owner of the other website is incurring a big bandwidth bill.

There are lots of places out there offering free smilies. You just have another window open with one of those sites running in it, choose a smilie there, they give you the code for it and you copy & paste that here.

(PN knows this! )

Davesnave

We are going to be selling our old garden shortly, the part with some extra value that we kept, rather than bundle it in with the house. The question is, what's it worth?

In old measurements, the site is about 75'x20', has 6' fencing all around, and it has pedestrian access down a lane which runs behind a terrace of Victorian houses. It also lies within a conservation area (World Heritage city) so it will never be anything other than someone's garden. However, the lane does not reach two of the houses, so they have no rear entrance at all, despite being worth around £300k each. Further, all four houses which back onto this land have puny gardens, well under 20' long, so their ground floor extension possibilities, or the chance of having a home office in the garden are about zero.

Obviously, owning all or part of our garden land would give someone in the terrace advantages they don't have ATM, but there are also people whose gardens meet it from the sides and another person on the lane, a very keen gardener, who's registered an interest. The only people who aren't interested are the people we sold to, because they are not gardeners and happy that, whatever happens, it will stay as garden land.

We'll be putting the sale in the hands of a local agent, rather than dealing with it ourselves. Last time a sale was mooted, the four owners in the terrace tried to join together as a kind of syndicate, but we didn't like that and shelved the idea. Since then, two of the four have moved. We are also friends with some of those involved (but maybe not for much longer, eh? :rotfl:)

Just interested in your thoughts, particularly Doozer's.

neverdespairgirl

Sounds like an auction situation to me.

lostinrates

Good luck davesnave! Keeping at an arms distance from the dealings potentially involving ''friends'' seems a good idea.

I put my back out yesterday morning...nothing to do with my condition, just a good old fashioned back ouch. really high up too, (I'm used to lower back pain but this is sort of around where a bra goes....at the back). I've been doing strange contortions trying to clunk it back in, but so far no luck. Weirdly loads of other bits that don't hurt are clicking and cracking though. I get money today so maybe I'll try and keep some back for an osteo appt for me. After all, the horse got a chiro appt.

silvercar

We'll be putting the sale in the hands of a local agent, rather than dealing with it ourselves. Last time a sale was mooted, the four owners in the terrace tried to join together as a kind of syndicate, but we didn't like that and shelved the idea. Since then, two of the four have moved. We are also friends with some of those involved (but maybe not for much longer, eh? )

If you want to maintain the friendship, it may be worth telling your friends that you are selling so that they hear it from you rather than the rumour mill. Making it very clear that you are not directing involving yourself in the process.

I hope you've set a minimum price.

Personally I don't see what is wrong with the syndicate, if they all divide the plot between them and have even extended gardens it looks more natural.

JonnyBravo

silvercar wrote: »

If you want to maintain the friendship, it may be worth telling your friends that you are selling so that they hear it from you rather than the rumour mill. Making it very clear that you are not directing involving yourself in the process.

I hope you've set a minimum price.

Personally I don't see what is wrong with the syndicate, if they all divide the plot between them and have even extended gardens it looks more natural.

Agree on all fronts.

You may get a better price from a syndicate.
An auction may end up with you being stitched if some agree not to bid to sell it into pieces after.

Davesnave

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Sounds like an auction situation to me.

I was wondering if anyone would say that. The agent thinks it would only be worth leafleting the immediate area and putting it up on Rightmove etc as most benefit would likely accrue to those nearby.

He is envisaging a sealed bids situation, where those who want it could put in bids for part or all of it. Me, I'm not so sure. An auction would perhaps prevent two of the parties working together to buy it (making the plot more affordable) but an auction is possibly the best way to reach the correct value.

There again, I'm not sure that an investor would think it a decent proposition. It's secure and has very little maintenance requirements, but what would be the point?

Davesnave

Good points silvercar & Jonny, thanks.

We have already informed them that a sale is likely soon, and yes there will be a minimum price, because we don't need to sell, though if it rolls on too long there will be CGT implications.

I was going to say, lir, don't put yourself behind the horse in the treatment stakes!

PasturesNew

There's a lovely bit of land here that's advertised as access road, full sea views, it's been used for occasional camping.... just £10k. Gorgeous views, but I wouldn't want it in case it was used for tipping, or if new age travellers moved on there. Just under 1 acre, right on the cliff.

tomterm8

Davesnave wrote: »

Just interested in your thoughts, particularly Doozer's.

Put it up for auction. Put a reserve on it.

PasturesNew wrote: »

There's a lovely bit of land here that's advertised as access road, full sea views, it's been used for occasional camping.... just £10k. Gorgeous views, but I wouldn't want it in case it was used for tipping, or if new age travellers moved on there. Just under 1 acre, right on the cliff.

If you decide to go for it, as a caravan location, make sure that the land isn't eroding away, otherwise it might fall into the sea.