which house would you buy given the choice of those 2

Cakeguts

eldaniel wrote: »

There is garage at the back with 1 space also in front of it.
In regards to the price I do not know how well we can rely on Zoopla valuations but it is showing that second is worth approx. 200k which is too low and impossible in the current market, but I understand they could be a bit greedy and added more than it is worth.

Will you be happy getting your shopping out of your car and entering the house through the back garden? You can't really leave the car at the front of the house so you will always be entering from the back or walking round the block to get to the front door.

eldaniel

As someone already noticed the second property was extended a while back but funny enough I can not find any planning permission for that on Braintree Council website.
There is one for the added garage for the first property but can't find anything for the second house.
Is that normal?
Thanks

StumpyPumpy

eldaniel wrote: »

I was actually thinking about heating of that room so thanks for your advice. The car park is only for a handful of flats so I do not think I would get a lot of traffic there but I understand the concern.

What could be possible consequences of the fact that it was added later? Probably thats why the garden is so small.
Wow, I like your approach! I did not think about most of those things. The Angel pub owner died few years back and nothing has been done with it since then, but looking at current trends pubs are not very profitable so doubt someone will open another one.
Why do you think I might need special insurance?

Before I answer, I just want to make sure you know, I know nothing about this sort of stuff, it is just things that set my spidey senses tingling

I was just showing working, saying that planning documents are available for the garage and they include a letter from Redrow giving permission for them to build it if they get planning approval. It isn't usual to have to request this, so I wonder why they had to. They are available at https://publicaccess.braintree.gov.uk but the exact links aren't working for me at the moment so you'll need to search for the address to find them. .

I'd worry about the pub because it is a listed building so it might not get approval for redevelopment, or could become home to squatters or other undesirables or could become the latest hot spot night club or late opening Tesco Express or... or... or...

I wonder about insurance because they often get twitchy if something is a bit unusual. For instance, what would be the insurance position if a car burst into flames underneath your bedroom? It may be a remote possibility but it could happen, and I'm sure the insurance company would want it covered. They may well say it is fine, but I'd check it out before assuming that.

I believe in hoping for the best and planning for the worst. It still amazes me how many people seem to enter into the biggest financial commitment of their lives without (at least) working out the things that could go wrong before signing on the bottom line.

By the way, as far as I can tell from Google maps the car park appears to have at least 10 car bays and 6 garages. Are you sure it is only for 4 flats?

SP

eldaniel

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

By the way, as far as I can tell from Google maps the car park appears to have at least 10 car bays and 6 garages. Are you sure it is only for 4 flats?

SP

You are right. There is 10 bays, so perhaps some of the houses have got allocated bays there unless there is 10 flats but that's unlikely. Will double check tomorrow. There is no garages though. It is flats on both sides of the parking bays.
Funny enough I think posting it here did put me off buying any of them really

StumpyPumpy

eldaniel wrote: »

You are right. There is 10 bays, so perhaps some of the houses have got allocated bays there unless there is 10 flats but that's unlikely. Will double check tomorrow. There is no garages though. It is flats on both sides of the parking bays.
Funny enough I think posting it here did put me off buying any of them really

Yes there are - there are two blocks of "coach houses" with flats above (at least) three garages each. If on Google streetview you position yourself on Rose Hill (by the car eating plant) you can just see some of them over the wall. If you use the history option and go to 2009 you can see the ones on the other side too as the bush hasn't grown as much.

(You probably can't find the planning permission for the other one because it would appear that Braintree online records only go back to 2006)

SP

Hedgehog99

Kitchen of the £250k house doesn't seem to have room for a fridge without blocking the back door/window? Admittedly they have a large fridge, but even so...

I would hate the underpass bedroom of the £275k house - there's someone round here with a really noisy motorbike that makes an awful noise when idling & manoeuvring slowly - imagine that under your bedroom (& it'd have to belong to the person who leaves earliest/returns latest).

note3

Yeah check out any special permissions for the new build as already said. We lived in a new build and it had things written in like no sat dishes could go up on the front of the houses, no caravans or work vans could be parked in the bays (though people completely disregarded this), a selection of houses were responsible for maintenance costs on areas of shared driveways and then whole road had to share cost of any whole road maintenance (until road was adopted by council)

Also, for both houses strongly consider their space and what they offer for you now and in ten years time. My logic here is that my hubby and I bought a 2 bed new build which was fine when just us then when child 1 arrived it was very cramped so we started to look for somewhere else however the recession hit and we ended up stuck there for eight yrs and just managed to sell and move a mth before child 3 arrived. Had we been stuck there still I think the cramped factor would have put hideous stress on us as it was already at critical after child 2! With hindsight we should never have bought it as we always planned to have children so it was a silly FTB decision

Cakeguts

What's that thing in the floor of the long thin bedroom in house no 2? It looks like some sort of vent.

LittleMax

eldaniel wrote: »

You are right. There is 10 bays, so perhaps some of the houses have got allocated bays there unless there is 10 flats but that's unlikely. Will double check tomorrow. There is no garages though. It is flats on both sides of the parking bays.
Funny enough I think posting it here did put me off buying any of them really

Are you sure? Isn't this coach house in there?

The house you are looking at is no 20 and joined across the arch to no 10. Where are 12, 14. 16 and 18? Plus the 3 Gresley Drive flats listed on the plaque at the entrance - and looking at previous sales on Rightmove they seem to be built over garages too.

eldaniel

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

(You probably can't find the planning permission for the other one because it would appear that Braintree online records only go back to 2006)

SP

So how can i check if it had PP? Can i just ring the council? Would they tell me? Thanks