Prosperous soul, mortgage neutrality & creativity Year 2

jwil

Your garden sounds lovely.  Have a good weekend.

beanielou

Can you recommend something for a wee pot at the front door?
Thanks 

I havent had a home phone in ages.  Don't miss it at all.

Honeysucklelou2

The gardens sound lovely in terms of what you have growing in them. Hope you have chance to rest at some point over the weekend.

Re buying land that is separate to a house…I am blessed to have a small allotment separate to the house. The only difficulty I have is that I don’t have the time I would like to be able to spend there growing things. I love the peace there and the sense of space and freedom. The first lockdown was good at giving me the chance to catch up but it is a time battle. 

If you want somewhere rural, perhaps as a bolt hole, have you considered investing in a holiday mobile  home?  Some sites can be very rural, can be a way to generate a passive income for the time that you don’t want to muse it but would give you a bolt hole if you do.

savingholmes

Thanks Jwil, Beanie and HSL

Beanie - I recently bought a beautiful white hydrangea for by the front door. Will pm you a photo. £12.50 at BnM or over twice the price at a posh garden centre.

HSL - I have considered a caravan - but I'd need a static one. There is a caravan site near where I went to view - which was relatively cheap at £2.5K a year - but then the price of the caravan is on top.

I loooooooooooooooooooooooved the property I went to today so lots of decisions to make and stuff to do. To buy it at asking price I'd probably need to borrow at least £10K extra but not horrific in the grand scheme of things. I literally cried when I got within 5 miles of the place as it so beautiful. It doesn't come with land and the garden isn't huge but was stocked with gorgeous plants. It is a 4 bed and I reckon you could convert the garage if desired to say an Air place with its own door - which would then double as suitable (pre-converted) accommodation if I ever had to live on all one level due to mobility. It's in a stunning wooded valley in a small community but there's a corner shop, a cafe, a pub and a hotel. There's a community centre where they do fitness classes, there's a garden society etc. Longer term it might even be possible to split the property and rent out the bottom half at least in the holidays. There is separate land available to buy in the valley - but it feels like the wrong timing to try and find money for that too... I think I'd have to trust that if I moved there and still wanted land - that I could ask around and something could become available.

I ate at the hotel and the food was tasty. I went in the corner shop. I tested how long it took to get to the nearest dentist/doctors etc (c15 mins). Apparently there's lots of retired and semi-retired people who would potentially be willing to clean / be a handyman etc so there should be options. It's not so isolated that there's not. You can get groceries delivered....

The majority of the route - including to go in the direction of work - is one I am familiar with as we've often used it when going in that direction for holidays. 

So the question then becomes - what do I need to do to get this place on the market and how quickly can I achieve that? Plus - what price to go in at.

jwil

Property sounds fantastic.  Good luck with whatever you decide.  First thing I would do is make sure I had the approval to port the mortgage and get that extra borrowing. 

beanielou

Property sounds good 

DancingInTheRain

Sounds exciting 😃

savingholmes

Thanks Jwil and Beanie.

I've done a bit of research - and a place sold on the same very short street for over £25K less than they have it on the market for Autumn of last year. First stop therefore would be to question the price justification. There are properties in the same valley up for sale for £30-40K more - but on a different street. I read an article recently that suggested the sold versus asking price could be 22% out so I need to be cautious.

Just invited a 4th EA to do a valuation as they sell for free - booked for this coming Friday. Will see what they say - and try and do a bit more house tarting between now and then. I'll then choose between them and the first EA I saw - but there's roughly £3.6K at stake in upfront/completion funds for me. I know someone locally who is a professional house developer who uses the free one and speaks highly of them so here's hoping that works out for me.

I may have to go back to a broker about the mortgage port I'm not sure. Will try ringing the mortgage co on Monday and ask what the process is - particularly if I want to borrow more. I may need to temporarily suspend/reduce my AVCs to keep them happy. Will see if they have an issue with them or not. While in theory it could then mean I need to borrow less - in practice the increased tax burden means that I'd probably adjust my AVCs back asap thereafter to I'm not missing out on more important benefits.

Just the thought of everything that needs doing is scary...

Starlight_at_Sea

Daunting but exciting Saving Holmes! And we are all here as sounding boards for you. It sounds to me like all your research and considerations are paying off. You established such a lot of useful information in that first viewing! 

Merlin's_Beard

Sounds like you've found the one - even better if you could get it for less than asking. All you can do is work through the list of things that need doing one by one.