FTB: How much should we offer for a flat with (potential) flaws?

TripleH

What size bed can you get in the second bedroom?

Is that size bed big enough for you and your partner?

My wife and I always opt for the smallest bedroom for our bed because we only use the room for sleeping.

(We haven't now because we couldn't get our bed in the room but it makes a great office and has a built in wardrobe).

Where space is at a premium, you have to use what you've got in a more intelligent manner. A larger guestroom can double as a home office for example. Having the smallest room just as a guest room means it's sat unused except when you have someone stay.

Sometimes intelligent use helps when you resell by showing others a better use of space as well.

Rachelredwood16

Are you able to post links to both flats so we can see floor plans and photos to compare? Cost isn't just based on floor space. I posted the other day about an issue I was having between two properties and the guys that posted were very helpful  

MobileSaver

TripleH said:

My wife and I always opt for the smallest bedroom for our bed because we only use the room for sleeping.

Most people do the opposite primarily because the biggest bedroom typically has the most storage for clothes. (And as anyone whose partner is female will testify, it's simply impossible to have too much storage space for a woman's clothes, shoes and handbags. )

TripleH

We had wardrobes built into our home offices for clothes. In our last flat our big bedroom served as a TV room, guest bedroom and held our wardrobes.

My wife has worked from home for 5 years so can't pull the 'they've seen me in this outfit this week' trick on me.

That's money saving 😉

NaeClue

Thanks so much everyone for your input. 

Quickly answering the question re. Lease extension ( @eddddy) :
The current owners would kick off the statutory lease extension process for us so that we wouldn't have to wait for 2 years to do so ourselves. They have spoken to the landlord about the cost we'd be looking at and came back with round about 11k. As far as I understand, this is reasonably common practice but please do correct me if I'm wrong. I appreciate there's the potential for us to just wait for 2 years and do it ourselves, we'll certainly think about this more. What I'm not clear and slightly worried about is any increase in service fees that we might be looking at, can the service fee be increased any time or only when a lease is extended? 

@TripleH The seond bedroom is really quite small, 1.9m x 2.4m or something along those lines (I'll add the link to both flats in a second). So you're absolutely right, we could use it as our own bedroom and turn the other one into am office, it would just be really quite small but something to think about.

I can't seem to be posting links just yet but on Rightmove. Co. UK the flat we're interested in is this:  /properties/120526118

And the comparable one around the corner is this one here:  /properties/125814185

arthurdick

I can see why you like that flat, it's lovely. Okay, less than 50sqm is slightly small  for a 2 bed flat and no window in the bathroom would be the only slight drawback for me, but if the price is right for that area, I wouldnt class that as a deal breaker. 

MovingForwards

The 2 bed is nice as the sleeping area is at the back and a good night's rest makes a difference.

Although the second bedroom is cosy, it's perfectly fine for working at home, having as a dressing room or even having a small double bed for guests.

NameUnavailable

Have you got the spare funds for the lease extension and is the current asking price allowing for the fact that the lease is getting to the danger point of 80 years?

The service charge can and does change yearly - it can be anything, next year it could be £50K if that's the cost of the works required. One of the standard questions is 'is there any planned major works in the next 3 years'.

What is the ground rent currently and when and how does it increase? A statutory lease extension will reduce any GR to peppercorn but the cost of the extension is linked to the loss of GR for the freeholder.

When you refer to the freehold property you have seen is that a completely freehold house or a shared freehold flat? If shared freehold you still need to consider the lease length and ground rent (don't let the agent tell you it's just a case of getting the solicitors to extend it because it's not, the other parties to the freehold might want their share of the full market value).

Rachelredwood16

NaeClue said:

Thanks so much everyone for your input. 

Quickly answering the question re. Lease extension ( @eddddy) :
The current owners would kick off the statutory lease extension process for us so that we wouldn't have to wait for 2 years to do so ourselves. They have spoken to the landlord about the cost we'd be looking at and came back with round about 11k. As far as I understand, this is reasonably common practice but please do correct me if I'm wrong. I appreciate there's the potential for us to just wait for 2 years and do it ourselves, we'll certainly think about this more. What I'm not clear and slightly worried about is any increase in service fees that we might be looking at, can the service fee be increased any time or only when a lease is extended? 

@TripleH The seond bedroom is really quite small, 1.9m x 2.4m or something along those lines (I'll add the link to both flats in a second). So you're absolutely right, we could use it as our own bedroom and turn the other one into am office, it would just be really quite small but something to think about.

I can't seem to be posting links just yet but on Rightmove. Co. UK the flat we're interested in is this:  /properties/120526118

And the comparable one around the corner is this one here:  /properties/125814185

The one you're interested in is quite nice & I love the bathroom and also the lounge / kitchen set up! The fact it does have a 2nd bedroom is helpful but like you said it's small so it really does depend on what you would ultimately use the space for. 

Are you adamant that you live in this area? Is there anywhere close by where you may be able to put your funds into a house to have more space within a decent driving distance? I wont pretend I know London and the surrounding areas well so I don't know what you could get and where you work and how much hassle living further away would be etc. 

Helplesssheep

Are you really tied to the area? You could get far far more for your money a bit further south, for e.g. south Norwood. It’s not big for how much you are suggesting to offer