How did you choose the area you live? (Paranoid about moving to a bad area)

lil_me

How many people have such negative opinions of specific types of people? This has shocked me quite a lot. Lots of theories of what makes a nice area.

We have a large amount of unmarked vans in the area I live, most small business owners, several who own many properties which they manage/renovate etc themselves.

That 'tenants' are bad attitude, not in all cases, the houses in a poorer condition near us are those who are privately owned and not rented out. Rentals seem to be repaired much sooner if there is a problem. Rentals in general are kept much better. Not all tenants are chavs, we aren't for a start. We have several families full of 'rich chavs' as I call them living around here also, those with disgusting mouthy snobby children, teenagers etc who think they can do as they wish, many who as soon as the parents go out for an evening have 20+ drunk kids/teens in the house causing problems. Tenants in general are much more careful I believe when it comes to behaviour, respect for others etc as their 'home' is on the line if they don't, home owners on the other hand don't have that threat hanging over them.

Right, that said we are also fussy tenants. It took us a long time to find a property we really liked which suited us and our family. We visited every property we considered at every time of day and night. We did look at parking including on a weekend but then it's visitors to homes we seem to have issues with, one house we looked at was basically no parking so with 2 cars that was a definate no. We took short walks around the area to look at how the area was kept, what the general feel of the place was like, checked things like local parks (especially on a Saturday and Sunday morning) asked the neighbours what their opinions were, checked paths for dog mess (some of the nicest areas have ignorant dog owners) asked local delivery drivers what the areas were like (amazing what takeaway drivers see) checked ofstead reports, asked police officers about the areas. That's to name a few, we were desperate to move quickly, but didn't want to end up in a living hell we were stuck in for at least 6 months.

Well we moved in October, some things I definately miss from the 'council estate' we used to live on, mainly the sense of community, people who actually spoke to each other. When there were events in school everyone pulled together and supported. If your child was missing or anything like that people would help you look for them. When you got stuck in a snow drift people would come to help dig you out (here they definately wouldn't) Some of the neighbours (2) do make the effort to speak, one in particular is lovely (a one with a white van!!) We've had a few 'issues' mainly with drunk 'posh chavs' they prefer to call themselves 'trendies' than chavs because they wear designer chav clothing, because they drink wine rather than 'Lambrini' but they are still young teenagers who get drunk, throw up and cause trouble. Parking issues was a bit of a nightmare which is hopefully sorted.

lynzpower

david89999 wrote: »

My wife's solution is remarkably accurate - check for matching nets. If the area is full of places where the net curtains are dirty or don't match, you will find the people living behind them are on the lower rung of the ladder, or missed it completely.
That doesn't make them bad people, and in fact they could all be far nicer than the miserable and ignorant gits who live in my brand new estate, all with matching nets.
However as a rule of thumb it does work well. I can say this, as my job involves going to a lot of houses, and the ones where I go most often because of prolems they are having or causing tend to have dirty / non matching nets!

Or maybe those neighbours are moneysavers who dont want to waste money on replacing something thats perfectly functional so as a total stranger should judge! I would never buy new *anything* if what I already had does the job OK :rotfl:

olly300

Soprano wrote: »

Simple question really. Why did you choose the location you live at?

Because it was near a primary school, had a train station within walking distance, had lots of bus stops withing walking distance, near a large park, had plenty of small shops and most importantly I can park my car and so can my visitors without difficulty.

Strangely no-one has unmatching net curtains, and I know from meeting the people they are from all classes and all backgrounds.

Soprano wrote: »

Does moving to a place advertised 'non estate location' really the best chance you have of keeping away chav-scum?

It doesn't mean anything.

Due to house prices and the fact there are lots of ex- and council properties that don't look like what people expect council properties to look like you need to investigate the area yourself like lil_me says.

As it's near the school Easter Holidays you will find out what the local teenagers and children are like by visiting the area a different times of the day and night on dry days.

Personally where I live it's the adults in their early twenties who cause all the problems and they are from a mixture of backgrounds. The teenagers are polite, friendly and helpful, and the younger children are just sweet and don't behave with malice.

webbie

TBeckett100 wrote: »

Damn right.

Hope that trade person tells you where to take a running jump when your roof tiles have blown off, fence blown down, water pipes broken etc then!!

We have an older white, unmarked van - actually for a money saving point of view is much cheaper than a branbd spanking new Merc van with signage. We earn a very decent wage and don't need to advertise on the van because there is so much work coming in - and not "on the side". Sounds like sour grapes and snobbery to me!!

halia

when I've been looking things I watch out for are
Nice pubs that welcome kids... or... brick sh*thouses with red nosed drinkers
live local folk/blues groups in the pubs...or... the latest underage pop blasting out of 'clubs' or 'bars'
Waymarked footpaths ... or ... rusting chicken wire cutting off access
new, clean, well used playgrounds with families of young children playing there... or ... deserted grafitti and litter strewn teenage hangout
Well kept front gardens ... or ... rusting cars

etc etc,

visit several times, we visit villages in our price range/area and spend at least an hour there. We go into a pub, a local shop and take a walk around. Anywhere we like the look off we give ourselves another hour before or after any hosue viewing, we walk to the school, check out the village hall and chat to whoever we can find.

I also check online for any local websites, farmers markets, Ofsted reports etc.

SmellyOldSock

We're moving in June to a lovely 3 bedroom house.

It did belong to my friend several years ago, and when I told her she said 'you can't move there, the neighbours are awful'!

The current tenant has said she has no problems with them, infact they were very helpful, as long as you don't park in front of their drive (fair enough).

Turns out my friends husband use to wind the neighbours up (found this out thru a seperate source) while she was working!

At the end of the day, you get a feeling for a place/area and should go with your gut feeling.

We're going to introduce ourselves to them, in the next few weeks and hope it all goes well.

best wishes
Charlotte

Amanda_Midlands

robwend wrote: »

i brought a house yesterday, but the day before knocked on the ajoining neighbours, i got invited in for a cuppa and chat and they where lovley! they told me all about the area, after that i snapped it up straight away, i feel your neighbours are more important than your house. coz you gotta put up with them!be brave, get door knockin after you have viewed

Totally agree with this. I moved 4 years ago to the outskirts of a 'not so good' area to a semi, as it was what I could afford at that time. I liked the house and the cul de sac, so went ahead with the purchase. All was OK for a while, but then the man next door took exception to my bin being on my drive and he started bad mouthing me to neighbours. I was so relieved when they moved and a new couple moved in....but oh dear god....they were so noisy and horrible. I almost had a nervous breakdown, so I sold my house and have moved to a 'better area', still a semi detached but in a different position all together. I checked out the area and spoke to the neighbours and I can't tell you how glad I am to be away from there. If in doubt about an area, don't do it!