OH MY, The Most Stunning Beautiful Property

Lakey

I do appreciate what you are saying is very valid and you seem to be very worldly wise, I also think that you are actually very kindhearted, as you could have left this thread long ago.
forgive me captain but are you actually a big softy with a hearty bark?

matt99b

patchwork_cat wrote: »

I am not disputing that, however some of his comments and posts are offensive and should not be tolerated.

We do not all have to agree to have a discussion, I agree that some EA assistants are useless, but I also think that the OP should have and still could find the answers to his very BASIC questions by sitting down and talking to them. Personally I would have found out the answers to the questions he is asking before even logging on to Rightmove and to sit down anonymously in an estate agents and say Hi I am a FTB how does it work? If I make an offer am I then legal obligated to complete etc. would have been useful.

I am surprised that people have the patience to answer some of the questions .

Patchwork cat, I never ask a question only once to one source about something important. I always ask and re-ask other sources to try to make sure I'm getting the most reliable information. This is a habbit I've learnt as it helps to get to the truth. And I have done what you suggested, with a multitude of estate agents over the past year, many of which gave me conflicting information, which lead me to believe they were unreliable. I'm sorry if you don't have the patience to answer the questions of a FTB. Isn't this one of the reasons for this forum? We aren't using this forum as a sole source for information or advice. If people don't have the patience to answer, they don't have to!

I'm very grateful for everyone giving so much advice and expressing their opinions, it's very useful for us, and has brings up a lot of things we need to consider.

If anyone else out there has bought above commercial premises in London, we would be very interested to hear from them also!

Jimuth

matt99b wrote: »

Do you live in London? You make it sound like £169k is a lot. It's actually cheap for a 3 bed property in London zone 4.

Used to live in London - so aware of the prices. My point wasn't the price; it was about the immediate location. If you don't think £170K is a lot to pay for a place described as you have then either you're too young to remember historical house prices or you haven't worked out the compound cost of your mortgage.

That "cheaper than" place will be the single most expensive thing you'll have "bought" so all I'm trying to do is urge caution.

Go on, post up a rightmove link. It might change my mind :T

To be honest Matt it sounds like you've already made your mind up to get it (so MSE can't save you the money in holding off as you're intent on buying at the top of the market ) and if that's the case, then as I said, your best bet is go get some impartial independent advice... and as trudiha says, listen very carefully to what your solicitor says.

Best of luck anyway!

Captain_Mainwaring_2

Lakey wrote: »

I do appreciate what you are saying is very valid and you seem to be very worldly wise, I also think that you are actually very kindhearted, as you could have left this thread long ago.
forgive me captain but are you actually a big softy with a hearty bark?

Hehehe - well I don't know about that, but I really don't want to see the OP end up with a theoretically bald pu55y because of notional embalming fluid.

Woof Woof Woof.

matt99b

Jimuth wrote: »

Used to live in London - so aware of the prices. My point wasn't the price; it was about the immediate location. If you don't think £170K is a lot to pay for a place described as you have then either you're too young to remember historical house prices or you haven't worked out the compound cost of your mortgage.

To be honest Matt it sounds like you've already made your mind up to get it (so MSE can't save you the money in holding off as you're intent on buying at the top of the market ) and if that's the case, then as I said, your best bet is go get some impartial independent advice... and as trudiha says, listen very carefully to what your solicitor says.

Best of luck anyway!

I do remember historical prices, and agree its a lot considering that- but as someone posted earlier, now is now, and prices have changed. We have also worked out the compound cost of our mortgage. We are making sure we can afford it even if interest rates go up to 15%, want to be careful.

We haven't decided yet at all, I'm just providing the opposite side of the coin for argument's sake, to help give a balanced discussion. If everyone was pro the flat, I would be giving the cons...

Thanks, I'll post some pics of the flat up...

matt99b

Here are some pics of the flat:

https://www.truprint.co.uk/shareeloginsubmit/p=24331212499467267/l=388763054/g=129028406/cobrandOid=1006/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB/pns/share/p=24331212499467267/l=388763054/g=129028406/cobrandOid=1006/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
(it requires email address to login but if anyone knows any better photosharing sites I'll post them up on that)

• Spacious Split Level Maisonette
• 14'7 X 11'3 Living Room
• 9'1 Fitted Modern Kitchen
• 18'0 X 15'0 Roof Terrace
• Three Double Bedrooms
• 8'6 Study
• 14'6 X 11'6 Garage
• Overlooking a Green

Captain_Mainwaring_2

It looks vaguely familiar, is it Wembley area?

I can see the attraction and the plus points.

The plus points to me are the garage, and although you almost certainly couldn't split it away from the lease of the flat , it is worth 10K on it's own, and could bring in a good income for storage from a neighbouring shop.

Roof terrace looks good, but you need to check about the rights of use, are you sure that your lease covers this area not just an easement to walk over it.

Fire precautions would be a concern - as would noise. The area does however look clean by London standards.

I can see the attraction, but the issues with resale etc would turn me off a bit, unless of course I owned the lot and wanted to run a newspaper shop.

I'd lift all the lease and freehold docs before doing anything else.

LandyAndy

Captain_Mainwaring wrote: »

It looks vaguely familiar, is it Wembley area?

I can see the attraction and the plus points.

The plus points to me are the garage, and although you almost certainly couldn't split it away from the lease of the flat , it is worth 10K on it's own, and could bring in a good income for storage from a neighbouring shop.

Roof terrace looks good, but you need to check about the rights of use, are you sure that your lease covers this area not just an easement to walk over it.

Fire precautions would be a concern - as would noise. The area does however look clean by London standards.

I can see the attraction, but the issues with resale etc would turn me off a bit, unless of course I owned the lot and wanted to run a newspaper shop.

I'd lift all the lease and freehold docs before doing anything else.

What have you done with the real Captain_Mainwaring?;)

katieowl_2

I can see why you like the inside...but one or two things...the roof doesn't look too brilliant, and also there's a lot of flat roof area. I'd want to know who's going to be responsible for that??? Flat roofing is notorious for needing repairs, and if you are effectively walking over it to get to the front door, it will wear through a lot more quickly. That sort of roofing is not designed to walk over. If you are going to have the downstairs jumping up and down to have a leak fixed, are you going to be able to react to it??

I'm in the downstairs of a flat with flat roof section on top - we have a 50/50 split of all expenses with upstairs, and I lie awake at night in storms worrying about the roof....It's leaked quite a few times over the years (and BTW I am the Freeholder of my flat - but the flat upstairs is leasehold - all sorts of arrangement happen in London!)

As a FTB who is worried about money and the investment, I'd be a darn sight more worried about repairs and stuff. If you are pushing it price wise - make sure you can afford repairs - old places are notorious for costing three times what you thought a repair would be!

I've vowed I'D never be part of a shared property again because of all the ups and downs over the years. Unfortunately we don't seem to be able to sell at the moment (hmmmm wonder why????) (Oh yeah and we are on at £375K in zone 3! But not over a shop)

Regards

Kate

matt99b

Well we earn about £48,000 combined income before tax, and have no credit card commitments or anything like that, but even so I think money will be tight paying off a mortgage according to my calculations. Lenders will lend us about £212k maximum. Part of the reason we're looking at cheaper properties is to be safe. We'll probably borrow about £153k and the remaining £17k will be deposit.

The monthly repayments for halifax capital repayment 5 year fixed 25 year term, come to £1168 for protected mortgage, and £1018 for non-protected. Similar for all other mortgage companies we've tried. From looking into mortgages in the past, these seem to sound a bit high in my opinion, what does anyone else think?

Does this sort of figure sound right to everyone else? (and sensible for a 48k income)?