Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

silvercar

The house - it is currently two bed and has no parking and can't have parking and is in an ok but never going to be desirable area. I.e. it says rental all over to me. It is end of terrace on a largish plot so could be extended into a nice 4/5 bed family home - but it still has no parking and is in an area with a top value that doesn't reflect the investment required.

But my cunning plan was to squeeze another house onto the end of the terrace, and add a single storey rear extension and loft conversion onto both to give two three bed rentable terraces worth 450 each having purchased for 350 plus purchase / finance costs plus 250 build costs.

CGT tax avoidance (the legal one). Live in the property and then split off a new property next door.

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

I need to look into it, but it's tricky as it's not an estate they can wander through/watch etc.

I've started googling those, also thinking about some dashcam with pir ... wireless would be good too, so I could even watch from in here.
Scr0tes.

Can you put up a sign that says CCTV in operation? Even a fake camera may be enough of a deterrent.

LydiaJ

michaels wrote: »

Glad your car issue sorted so easily.

Thank you.

michaels wrote: »

The house - it is currently two bed and has no parking and can't have parking and is in an ok but never going to be desirable area. I.e. it says rental all over to me. It is end of terrace on a largish plot so could be extended into a nice 4/5 bed family home - but it still has no parking and is in an area with a top value that doesn't reflect the investment required.

But my cunning plan was to squeeze another house onto the end of the terrace, and add a single storey rear extension and loft conversion onto both to give two three bed rentable terraces worth 450 each having purchased for 350 plus purchase / finance costs plus 250 build costs.

So it is disappointing to lose it and doesn't make sense to me that an OO would outbid everyone else (agent suggested there were offers as low as 295, 2 at asking price of 350 and then this cash buyer who was enough more that they didn't bother with best and final offers).

I see. Now you explain it I agree it's rather odd. A pity too - not only would it have been a nice little investment opportunity for you, but your plan would have added to the overall housing stock without getting in anybody's way, which would be a good thing of itself. Maybe they have some personal reason - desperate to be just round the corner from ailing aging parents, or something?

Down the road from me there are several pairs of 1930s (I think) semis with huge gaps between them, and somebody recently bought one, did a loft conversion and added another whole house of a similar size on the side to turn the pair of semis into a little terrace of three. They were for sale rather than rent, though. I looked round them when they were nearly finished - I had a friend who was house hunting at the time. They're quite nice properties - if you want a small downstairs, 3.5 bedrooms, parking but minuscule garden, in a nice area (you've been here so you know what it's like) and the catchment for the school everyone in the borough most wants to get into. All very tastefully done so you can't tell unless you think about it that they weren't always meant to be like that. As a development, it's much more in keeping with the rest of the area from what they did up the other end of the road - pulled down a 1930s detached house with colossal garden and put 10 overpriced rabbit hutches on the plot.

Building seems to be picking up all over the place around here. Is it doing that in everybody else's area too? Are we going to get (or have we already got without my having noticed it) another rash of "Property Ladder" type shows on TV??

Pyxis

This afternoon, we drove up the coast, which is stunningly beautiful, Bugslet, you are right!, to a town called Perest, well, a village really. From there we hopped over to a little man-made island just big enough for a tiny church full of the most wonderful silver workmanship......lots of little plaques made as offerings to the Madonna.,the island and church were built in response to a 'miracle' that occurred when an an icon of the Madonna and Child were found. The icon hangs above the altar.
Upstairs was a little museum filled with various objects, one of which was a small embroidery done in silver and gold thread containing 190-odd stitches to the square centimetre! I think I can manage half a dozen under sufferance!

Anyway, then we had a lovely fish lunch at a riverside restaurant, sitting right next to the water, looking out over the bay/'lake' at the little island and its even smaller companion., surrounded on all sides by the rearing mountains.

I'll try to post some pics tomorrow, if you like. I don't take many, as these days I prefer to just use my eyes, but if I see something quirky, I will!

I must say, all the food so far has been superb. Just had a lovely dinner of bruschetta, followed by the most succulent sea-bream fillet I've ever had, with beautifully roasted vegetables, and finished with a local apple cake.
I'm eating tons of fish, because I love it, but never cook it at home, so I always plump for a fish option when I eat out or go on holiday. Everything here appears to be very local and fresh.

Am slowly picking up a few basic words of Montenegrin, which appears to be only slightly different from Serbian, with some different pronunciations and spellings.

It's also a bit like Russian!

Funnily enough, I had a conversation with a local woman in Italian! I think I mentioned that Italian is widely known, so when I wanted to explain something to this person, and she didn't speak any English, I asked her if she understood Italian, and she did, so I was able to explain it to her in Italian! Rather gratifying!

Anyway, Land of Nod calleth.....................

SingleSue

Pyxis wrote: »

Funnily enough, I had a conversation with a local woman in Italian! I think I mentioned that Italian is widely known, so when I wanted to explain something to this person, and she didn't speak any English, I asked her if she understood Italian, and she did, so I was able to explain it to her in Italian! Rather gratifying!

Anyway, Land of Nod calleth.....................

When we went to Italy there was this little shop next door to the hotel, the lady owner didn't speak a word of English and I only had basic Italian. Anyway, I had forgotten to pack a particular pair of shoes and the guide book certainly didn't cover how to ask for a particular type of footwear, so after a few expressive hand signals trying to explain, I by accident spoke some French...she responded in fluent French!

We then conducted our whole conversation in French and I left the shop with exactly what was needed.

GDB2222

PN, is there anywhere else close by that these kids can play football? As long as they are going doof-doof with the football, they are not causing trouble, so surely that's a good thing?

michaels

LydiaJ wrote: »

Thank you.



I see. Now you explain it I agree it's rather odd. A pity too - not only would it have been a nice little investment opportunity for you, but your plan would have added to the overall housing stock without getting in anybody's way, which would be a good thing of itself. Maybe they have some personal reason - desperate to be just round the corner from ailing aging parents, or something?

Down the road from me there are several pairs of 1930s (I think) semis with huge gaps between them, and somebody recently bought one, did a loft conversion and added another whole house of a similar size on the side to turn the pair of semis into a little terrace of three. They were for sale rather than rent, though. I looked round them when they were nearly finished - I had a friend who was house hunting at the time. They're quite nice properties - if you want a small downstairs, 3.5 bedrooms, parking but minuscule garden, in a nice area (you've been here so you know what it's like) and the catchment for the school everyone in the borough most wants to get into. All very tastefully done so you can't tell unless you think about it that they weren't always meant to be like that. As a development, it's much more in keeping with the rest of the area from what they did up the other end of the road - pulled down a 1930s detached house with colossal garden and put 10 overpriced rabbit hutches on the plot.

Building seems to be picking up all over the place around here. Is it doing that in everybody else's area too? Are we going to get (or have we already got without my having noticed it) another rash of "Property Ladder" type shows on TV??

Now you mention it, it is also not a top school catchment area which is another reason it suggest rental not OO to me.

Locally seems to just be a continuous building boom for extentions, loft conversions etc. Recently there was a house for sale, modest terrace near the station but it had had the ful London treatment of massive loft extension and full size basement, a bargain at 1.5mil right on the main road with just about parking for 1 car. Agents make a big point of the rareity value if they are selling anything unextended with potential.

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

They're at an age where it'd go over their head.....

Four today, probably aged 7-9... but I'm a poor judge of age.

A better route, imho, is to capture what's going on .. perchance to "show n tell" with adults should anything untoward end up happening.

I had similar where I live. I politely pointed to the cctv and said to be careful as if they did damage anything I'd know. Curiously they play elsewhere now.

I still don't understand why their parents let them play in the road though. While we aren't on a main road, there are still over 100 houses here, all with their own cars coming and going. It's not a logical place for kids to play.

chris_m

vivatifosi wrote: »

I still don't understand why their parents let them play in the road though. While we aren't on a main road, there are still over 100 houses here, all with their own cars coming and going. It's not a logical place for kids to play.

Are kids logical, though?

silvercar

Someone needs to speak to the parents, to warn them off before something gets broken.