Vendor's agents are *dreadful* - what can we do?

sooz

You are having a laugh.

THAT much for Shepherd's Bush?????

I thought at that price it would be towards the Brook Green end, but no, right up next to Uxbridge rd and the market. Classy :rolleyes:

You must really like the smell of fried chicken to want to pay that much for there...or you work at the Beeb and haven't yet lost your job.

I agree with Lynz, look in Chiswick.

happinessfactory

I have to be totally honest here and say that I completely agree with you about Shepherd's Bush. It *is* a dump.;)

But OH and I work silly hours in the centre of London and I need to be able to commute to Oxford and OH to Reading at least once a week.

Da Bush and the Central Line in particular work like a dream in terms of sheer convenience - I can get into work in 20 minutes door to door, and the Oxford Tube stops at the roundabout.

Otherwise we'd be in Wandsworth with all the broody thirtysomethings like a shot

Chiswick is out because we hated the District Line when we lived in Kensington - imagine how temperamental it could be with a few more stops thrown in the mix.

We'd love to be in Brook Green but similar houses there are £1.6m:mad:

happinessfactory

lynzpower wrote: »

I dont think - im certainly not getting the feeling from you- that the original house is special at all, just that theres not a lot on in W12, and thats what you are plumping for?

Spot on. We've been looking since February and nothing seems to fulfil our criteria of 4 bedrooms+garden+needing work+10 mins of tube.

I've actually already seen most of the houses you linked to:rotfl: Thank you for doing that by the way - v. time consuming for you but much appreciated by me.:D

macaque_2

happinessfactory wrote: »

I didn't realise you were my bank manager. How do you know how much I can, or can't afford?

Just because we can afford it doesn't mean we should pay that much for it, does it? My financial situation is just like anyone else's - I work hard and I don't want to be ripped off, whether I'm spending a tenner or a million quid.

Or have you entirely missed the point of MSE?

You think you know the value and you won't (or can't) pay the asking price. So who's ripping you off? Some days I think I understand why estate agents are the way they are.

clairehi

Its up to me to be the boring square person here Im afraid.

You mention that you want to fill the house with babies - great, but do you really want to raise a family in Shepherds Bush? I know so many people moving out of London because they see it through completely different eyes once they have kids.

If you are planning to send your kids to state school then you need to be living in the right catchment area by the time the first one is 3-4 years old to ensure you get a place in a good primary school.

Also, if you are currently on 2 salaries but one of you stops work to look after the baby/ies in the future, the mortgage may not look so affordable then. If you carry on working childcare in inner London is eyewateringly expensive.

You may be semi-joking at the moment about it but why would you want a 4 bedroom house for just the two of you. I would either buy somewhere smaller in a nicer area, in the expectation of moving again if/when small people come along, or think again about the priorities for choosing an area.

happinessfactory

clairehi, your comments are neither boring OR square

Our plan is to move out of London in five years and go back up North where the equity in our house will hopefully enable us to live mortgage-free. Our kids, if we're lucky enough to have them, will grow up where we did. Da Bush is okay for schools though - two of Britain's best schools are down the road (although they are private).

We're not too worried about overstretching because we were very lucky with the sale of our flat. The kind of house we're interested in in Shepherd's Bush is effectively a straight swap, price-wise because our old neighbourhood skyrocketed whilst we were living there. In a perfect world, we'd like to be living there still of course, but the sort of house we want would be £4m!

Although the Bush is skanky, I really like its diversity and cultural mix. The people are friendlier too. Rich neighbours have their downsides as much as poor ones:rolleyes:

My issue is just that vendors and agents here are having a laugh. The most expensive house to have sold in the local area recently was £895k, and that was for a professionally developed house with a landscaped garden in the very best road. The agent's pricing is utterly bonkers if they're now asking £200k or £300k more for a less well-presented house in a less nice street,

vet8

I agree with your comments about some estate agents.

Several years ago my brother and myself were trying to sell my father's house in Twickenham after his death. As the house was empty we wanted to shift it a.s.a.p. We asked the EA to price it realistically for a quick sale and he priced it at what we both thought was a ludicrous price. However, as neither of us lived in the area we really had no idea of what it was really worth. We asked the EA several times if that was a reasonable price for a quick sale and he assured us it was.

We were mugs of course. It was vastly overpriced and took over a year to sell even though we lowered the price several times. In the end I contacted another local EA and he said that the price was about 20k too much to start with. He took over the sale and sold it in a few weeks. We wasted a year all because the first EA overpriced it, presumably so he could earn more commission.

clairehi

Cool well Im glad you thought about it....

Friend of mine moved back up North from the big smoke last year when babies arrived, apparently bought a big Victorian terrace for £120K in Lancaster, which *allegedly* is a nice place to live - if you like rain...

good luck with the 5 year plan!

reformedEffortMaker_2

happinessfactory, IMHO, I dont think you should buy the first house you mentioned. If you are that wound up by initial dealings with the EA, and the buyer doesnt respond well to your offer through the door, then forget it. Imagine how much of a nightmare you are going to have with the whole conveyancing process if this is the effect it has on you at this early stage?..If they are amateur enough to be putting in downstairs bathrooms, I doubt very much they would have sorted out all the paperwork relating to it no longer being 2 flats and now a house again. Let it go I say....

A couple of the house that lynzpower posted looked great, in fact one was £150k cheaper. I would gladly (and currently am) sacrificing a long, boring journey on the district line, in return for a nicer house, smaller mortgage, nicer location..(just get a good book!)....OR you could go down the Kirstie and Phil route and place a flyer through the letter box of every house in Coverdale Road saying something like "I really like this street and want to move here, if you are thinking of selling soon please call me"?.

sooz

I agree. How long was the central line closed for a year or two ago for urgent works?? The district line seems good in comparison, particularly if it means you can live in a nicer area.

I wouldn't like in "da bush" if you paid me!