Other What currently makes your life awesome?

Went for usual annual blood tests last Thursday. Got the results on the NHS app today all, "normal, no action required."

MOT passed, will be here for another year...

 

It means we’ll be able to save a bigger deposit quickly, opening up a lot more options than the limited budget we’d have if we did it now. The plan with buying now was always to save as much as we can in the initial 5 year fixed-rate period and then sell up for a bigger & better property. But we could get there a lot sooner without having to compromise on what we'd actually want to buy.

Something we were starting to find is that for all the desirable flats we looked at, we were immediately outbid by buy-to-let "iNvEsToRs" who were prepared to pay well over the odds because they know they can charge a high rent. Or by the time we'd thought about whether to make an offer - or even book a viewing - a property would be gone already. We had a viewing on one last Thursday and by the time we'd made a decision an hour or two later it was already listed as "Sold STC".

 

Yeah, I remember this vividly from when we were buying our house, nearly 15 years ago - we missed out on so many houses by either not even getting to put in an offer, or being outbid if we did. I'm not actually sure which was worse, getting blown out of the water completely by 15% or getting pipped to the post by less than £250, but we had both situations and they both sucked!

"What's for you'll not go by you" as they say - we ended up with a nice house for a good price and we're still here and very happy. I'm sure you'll get there too, and as you say, the bigger deposit you can build up the broader your options will be.

 

Or the third FU... losing out to a much lower offer to someone with no chain. That stung at the time.

 

We lost similar when buying but also when renting, I did not get it at first when the estate agent asked me what I was prepared to pay, I'll pay what they are asking thinking that was it, oh, how naive

Still the place you end up with will be better.

 

Lol, a proper Scottish phrase. The whole house buying thing is a dirty game, you really need to go in with as little emotion as possible. Outbid? Meh. It happens.

 

Aye

 

They’ve started doing this in Cardiff, bidding on rentals.

A lot of rental agents won’t do individual viewings, it’s group viewings or nothing. Prospective tenants are out-bidding each other on rent, or offering to pay a full year’s rent up front, in the hopes of securing the property. And it’s not just for student rentals, this is happening across the market at almost all prices.

It’s ****ing depressing.

 

Same here (Netherlands) when buying, and has been like that since 2020 at least.

As soon as a house goes up on sale at 9 in the morning, you gotta call immediately to get a viewing.
Then you get a 15ish minute slot to view the house, and 3 to 5 days to decide on arguably the biggest purchase decision in your life.
Over the last 4 years, the usual is to overbid by about 40 to 70k. We overbid by 50k and it wasn't even the highest bid, but our conditions were more favourable.

As far as I know, renting isn't any different. Currently Lisbon has the highest renting prices in Europe (which is insane considering the Portuguese average income), followed by Amsterdam. Utrecht and Rotterdam also make the top 6, together with London and Paris.

Then businesses wonder why people don't want to commute 2 hours for an office job.

 

The whole housing situation is insane and nothing is being done to fix it. We're through the whole "saving for a deposit, buying a house" stage, and are now in the "interest rate hike means we have to find an extra £500 a month" stage

 

This is not sounding so much like the Awesome thread any more...!

 

Thread derailment. It's a Bit-Tech tradition
Just smile and wave, and the rails will come back into view shortly

 

Exactly.
Sometimes, someone just throws a chocolate bar into the sea, simply to watch the topic drift.

 

Damn the expense, there's sheer joy to be had in doing whatever you please to your own house.

 

Or inside it, even...

 

I quoted this on another forum I frequent, one where the mods get very uppity, over threads wandering off topic.

 

The Ponch was in Fallout.



Proper double take there.

 

Leans out of window, takes a shot at the points.....

Just had my renewal quote come in for the bike insurance, £108 fully comp on a 1900cc bike with expensive parts

.....thread back on track

 

I do hence promote thee to Official Keeper of the Points for the Avoidance of Long Derailment. Wages shall be thought about once in a while and promptly forgotten about thereafter.

Nice job on the insurance!