The homeowners who cannot move home

C_Mababejive

vivatifosi wrote: »

I have one of those. It hasn't been attached to a mortgage for years though. I suspect there are quite a few others in the same situation as me. We started getting the red letters years ago - can't remember how many but possibly more than 10 - and started planning accordingly then. I can't imagine that many people have shortfalls uncovered and if they have, then in many respects it serves them right - they've stuck their fingers in their ears and sung La La La La La through good times as well as bad.

Can someone explain why a vehicle that once worked and was highly marketed,no longer works? Could it be that the asset class to which it was shackled i.e house prices,had become a runaway train and therefore the two were now wildly mis matched?

PasturesNew

When I sold a house recently the agent said to put it on at the highest price to see if there were any takers ... and if none then reduce it. We put it on and had loads of interest, 6 offers of which 2 were proceedable ... and we sold. He also gave us a bottom figure of what it would sell at if we 'gave it away', the two differed by only £20k. We weren't in a hurry to sell, but had to sell it with as much speed as was reasonably possible - so motivated sellers, but not desperate. It was more an issue of having the issue over and done with, than the cash amount.

ukcarper

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Can someone explain why a vehicle that once worked and was highly marketed,no longer works? Could it be that the asset class to which it was shackled i.e house prices,had become a runaway train and therefore the two were now wildly mis matched?

I can't see that had anything to do with it after all the amount owed would not increase with HPI more to do with poor performance of investments in general and over optimstic growth forcasts.

Thrugelmir

ILW wrote: »

BoE have decided to let inflation destroy any savings whilst setting interest rates at a level where it is a mugs game.

There's been fixed term ISA's offering over 4%+ for the past 3 years. So no excuse for not finding good saving rates.

Thrugelmir

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Can someone explain why a vehicle that once worked and was highly marketed,no longer works?

Stock market returns have been indifferent. Dotcom boom, demise of banking stocks, Deepwater Horizon disaster etc.

olly300

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I meant a terraced house or a two-bed flat. I didn't mean a mansion.

Some two bedroom properties whether they are flats or houses are very small. Some don't even have a proper second bedroom i.e. it's a room you can fit in a single bed and wardrobe and that's it.

I saw the report on the breakfast news and it looked like the flat had a combined kitchen and living room making it difficult but not impossible to keep a toddle away from the kitchen area.

A lot of the newish 2 bedroom properties I've stayed in that have been build in the last 12 years, whether the kitchen is separate or not, have very small kitchens. This is a problem if the living room is also small.

Some also don't have additional storage spaces.

Point is some people buy a two bedroom place but don't actually consider the size of all the rooms in the property and where they will store stuff.

Graham_Devon

olly300 wrote: »

Some two bedroom properties whether they are flats or houses are very small. Some don't even have a proper second bedroom i.e. it's a room you can fit in a single bed and wardrobe and that's it.

I saw the report on the breakfast news and it looked like the flat had a combined kitchen and living room making it difficult but not impossible to keep a toddle away from the kitchen area.

A lot of the newish 2 bedroom properties I've stayed in that have been build in the last 12 years, whether the kitchen is separate or not, have very small kitchens. This is a problem if the living room is also small.

Some also don't have additional storage spaces.

Point is some people buy a two bedroom place but don't actually consider the size of all the rooms in the property and where they will store stuff.

Storage is real bad in mine. I have one understairs cupboard, but due to the tiny proportions of the rooms, the cupboard is only about 4.5 feet tall at it's tallest point. Tapers down to about half a foot.

That's the entire storage of the house, bar the loft. Loft always amuses me though. It's got a loft ladder, but if you bring it down, the foot of the ladder ends up 3 foot into the bathroom. So you can't actually climb the ladder.

Basically if you do start climbing it, you have to start from the bathroom and climb the ladder into the hall...... you'll soon hit the wall above the bathroom door, and you can't get any further. Theres a foot gap between the ladder and the top of the bathroom door surround

The sheer brilliance in having a loft ladder that isn't actually of any use always tickles me! You have to use a normal A type stepladder and haul yourself up through the hole (the existing loft ladder protuding over the gap doesn't make this easy!!), which is fine, but a nightmare if you are trying to put something up there on your own!

Mine certainly isn't the smallest I have been in though. I do have a kitchen / diner, which is no good as a diner as you can't get a full table in without blocking the back door....but it's allowed me to get extra tall cupboards fitted and forgo any type of diner usage. Doesn't look great, but without them, theres literally no where for an ironing board, mop and bucket etc to be stored. Seems weird that a 2 bed home has no where to store a simple ironing board. The high chair was fun to store!

vivatifosi

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Storage is real bad in mine. I have one understairs cupboard, but due to the tiny proportions of the rooms, the cupboard is only about 4.5 feet tall at it's tallest point. Tapers down to about half a foot.

That's the entire storage of the house, bar the loft. Loft always amuses me though. It's got a loft ladder, but if you bring it down, the foot of the ladder ends up 3 foot into the bathroom. So you can't actually climb the ladder.

Basically if you do start climbing it, you have to start from the bathroom and climb the ladder into the hall...... you'll soon hit the wall above the bathroom door, and you can't get any further. Theres a foot gap between the ladder and the top of the bathroom door surround

The sheer brilliance in having a loft ladder that isn't actually of any use always tickles me! You have to use a normal A type stepladder and haul yourself up through the hole (the existing loft ladder protuding over the gap doesn't make this easy!!), which is fine, but a nightmare if you are trying to put something up there on your own!

Mine certainly isn't the smallest I have been in though. I do have a kitchen / diner, which is no good as a diner as you can't get a full table in without blocking the back door....but it's allowed me to get extra cupboards fitted and forgo any type of diner usage.

I used to live in a small house (384 sq ft) and this is one of the things that really annoyed me. Why is it that boats and caravans are designed with really good storage, but that is beyond the designers of small houses? Surely with well built-in storage and possibly even furniture the space would be more useable. For example, our kitchen had one - yes one - upper wall unit, yet there was room for at least two more, plus an additional one if they'd gone to the trouble of putting in a built in fridge, which would then have room for a cupboard above.

Graham_Devon

vivatifosi wrote: »

I used to live in a small house (384 sq ft) and this is one of the things that really annoyed me. Why is it that boats and caravans are designed with really good storage, but that is beyond the designers of small houses? Surely with well built-in storage and possibly even furniture the space would be more useable. For example, our kitchen had one - yes one - upper wall unit, yet there was room for at least two more, plus an additional one if they'd gone to the trouble of putting in a built in fridge, which would then have room for a cupboard above.

Mines liveable for a couple ideally, with not much stuff and no interest in anything which means you need storage (DIY, Sports etc). You physically cannot get a buggy into the hall its so small, so you end up leaving the buggy outside and getting the child out before coming in the house. The buggy is stored in the car at all times, theres no room for it anywhere in the house.

It's a squeeze, but do-able, just. Just feel a huge sense of guilt as as my son has no room to play. He can run a couple of steps and then has to stop. Seeing him run around in either of his grandparents houses I just feel so guilty I can't give him just a bit more space. He loves his train set, but it has to live at his grandparents as theres no room for it here without treading on it every second.

Having kids in a house this size is do-able, but not at all easy. No room for a dining table for instance makes it difficult... he's got his own set of infant table and chairs, but just means you can't eat "with him" at the table.

Hopefully won't be here much longer. Would be fine for a single person or couple with no hobbies requiring any type of storage. God knows where you would keep a bike or two. All my car bits and tools, and my sons bike are all stored in my parents house 10 miles away. Was fine when it was just me!

Still, this place was 6x my wages, and I'm earning approximately 70% more than the local average.

olly300

vivatifosi wrote: »

I used to live in a small house (384 sq ft) and this is one of the things that really annoyed me. Why is it that boats and caravans are designed with really good storage, but that is beyond the designers of small houses? Surely with well built-in storage and possibly even furniture the space would be more useable. For example, our kitchen had one - yes one - upper wall unit, yet there was room for at least two more, plus an additional one if they'd gone to the trouble of putting in a built in fridge, which would then have room for a cupboard above.

Some developers don't think it's worthwhile hiring a designer to design kitchens and/or bathrooms for their properties. They think they, their builders and their plumbers can do it themselves. Yes some builders, kitchen fitters and plumbers are good at design but others are not.

Another thing is that even if they design the kitchen well they often don't put in deep enough upper cupboards. A few of the kitchens I've used where the property was built in the last 12 years where the developer has put in upper cupboards, have cupboards that are too shallow. This means you cannot store dinner plates in the upper cupboards as you cannot close the doors.

Yet when I've stayed in studio flats abroad this has never been a problem. The kitchens have been designed to have tall upper cupboards where the large plates fit.