pieshop

Here is the details of one of my attempts at 'low' offers back in 2011. The property owners had bought in 2007 for £670,000. They had moved abroad in early 2011 and had started marketing for sale in 2010 starting at £650,000. Property came to our attention in April 2011 - asking price of £629,000. I sniffed a motivated sale and the house met our requirements, so we put an offer in (will attach the email below). The offer was treated seriously, but refused. We did not increase our offer and moved on. The house eventually sold in November 2011 for £577,000 - perhaps our offer helped the purchaser get his discount six months later. Zoopla currently 'values' the property at £855,000! Dear {{agent}}, Further to our recent viewings of {{property}} we are pleased to submit a formal offer of £540,000, subject to contract and surveys. It is a lovely property which meets most of our requirements and at the right price we could make it work very well for our family. In this situation we would be able to put aside our remaining reservations, namely the aspect and relatively small size of the garden compared to other properties in the area, the fourth bedroom being a little smaller than ideal, and the general decorative condition of the house which will need some money and attention. We feel this is a fair offer that reflects the true value of the house, taking into consideration both parties’ position and recognising that the property has been marketed as ‘open to offers’ and ‘keen to sell’. We understand that your client may be disappointed that our offer is not closer to their asking price, and so feel it only fair to take the time to outline how we arrived at this figure. We also want to ensure that this is recognised as a serious and considered offer. We are very happy for you to pass this email on directly to the vendors. Unfortunately we strongly believe the current poor state of the UK economy and its housing market certainly points to a sustained decline in house prices over the medium to long term. Additionally, there is currently much discussion in the media of a return to recession, and most importantly, imminent interest rate rises. If interest rates do rise, we expect to see a rapid drop soon after - something more akin to what happened in 2008 through 2009 and followed by a sustained decline. We are aware that your clients purchased the property at a time when the market had peaked and therefore the property is no longer worth what they paid for it. As much as we understand and sympathise with your clients’ position, I am sure they can understand that we need to protect ourselves from a similar situation as much as possible. Obviously no one can accurately predict the level of price decreases and the timeframe they may occur over. We have done considerable research on current and historical sold (not asking) house prices in the area and we have come to the conclusion that a house such as {{property}} would have sold for approximately £540,000 in 2006, and for approximately £500,000 in early 2009. We feel the 2006 price is a fair price in the current market. Alongside the research on sold house prices, we have also spent some time looking at historic data on comparative properties. Obviously this can only give us a general idea of price comparisons as every house is different, but it has helped us to reach our offer level. One particular example is 24, {{street}}, sold March 2010 for £558,000. This is terraced not semi-detached, but otherwise appears to be a similar property being slightly smaller house internally, but with a larger (preferable for us) garden and a superb ground floor layout. It also appeared to generally be in better decorative condition throughout. Recent sold prices are roughly 4% down on 2010 prices which would put our offer roughly level with this sale price. We would ask that you advise your clients that we are cash buyers with no chain and can proceed immediately with the purchase as soon as we have instructed solicitors. We would be in a position to exchange contracts and complete as soon as our survey is submitted and all the paperwork has been exchanged and satisfactorily assessed. We are also fully committed and serious purchasers and would conduct the transaction quickly and decisively. Obviously we don't know the vendors situation, other than that they have relocated abroad, but we imagine a quick, hassle free sale would be appealing to them. Naturally, they may decide to hold out for a better offer, but in our monitoring of the market over the last couple of years we have noticed that houses frequently go under offer, only to re-appear for sale several months later. In the current market, bearing in mind only three of the many marketed houses have sold on {{street}} in the last three years, we believe that taking an offer from someone with a mortgage or in a chain is an inherently risky thing to do if you are after a quick and sure sale. Finally, this offer is made subject to the property being offered to us on an exclusive basis with no further viewings to be carried out and all marketing to cease. Should you wish to discuss this further please feel free to contact us at your convenience. We look forward to receiving a response from your client. Kind regards,

Just seen this via a link provided elsewhere - deserves a click to check it out.

Hi Anukis I can recommend a surveyor that I happened to use recently for a potential house purchase in Kingston. His name is Mark Hurst, Chartered Surveyor with GEM associates Limited. I found him via 1stassociated. PM me for his mobile if you like. We used him to do a full structural survey plus valuation on a place in North Kingston. Admittedly it was expensive - £1000, but it the best survey I've commissioned. They encourage you to meet at the property whilst the survey is taken so that you can ask any questions. The report I received was excellent with lots of detail and pictures. The valuation matched my own internal estimate - I'd say he is bearish and will value to the low end. For me that was exactly what I wanted. we didn't proceed with the purchase in the end, but if we had, the low valuation would have made an excellent negotiation tool. For the solicitor we used Owen-Kenny Partnership. They are based in Chichester so not local, but in my experience proximity is not necessary for the solicitor. I've used them a couple of times before and would recommend them. Best of luck with the offer.

hpwatcher, you need to calm down and actually go back and re-read the op before you embarrass yourself anymore

They've now closed the door on these. Here is an email I received last night: NS&I – Changes to our Savings Certificates, Direct Saver and Income Bonds Dear Mr XXXXXXXX As you've registered to receive updates from NS&I, I am writing to let you know that the current 2-year and 5-year Issues of our Fixed Interest Savings Certificates and the current 3-year and 5-year Issues of our Index-linked Savings Certificates were withdrawn from general sale at close of business on 18 July 2010. We also announced new interest rates on 19 July 2010 for the following variable rate accounts and investments: Direct Saver and Income Bonds You can see the current rates for all NS&I accounts and investments on our interest rates page.

I was a bin man for 10 weeks over a summer holiday whilst doing my degree - 22 years ago. Admittedly, some aspects of the job may have changed since then. However, I can't believe it has transformed into easy non-back breaking work. Those who say all it involves is wheeling a bin to a lorry are only seeing a snapshot of what the job the job entails. You can't know what these people are doing over the whole day unless you stay with them. I suspect the people who believe this work is easy have never had to do hard sustained endurance based labour before. Yes, the job was simple and unskilled, but it was also the hardest physical work I have ever done (baggage handling at Gatwick Airport came a close second). I was employed for a private waste firm working government contracts via a recruitment agency as casual labour. The career workers had a crap deal with bad pay, and certainly didn't get a state pension. I remember being assigned to a team of five: team leader was the driver, second in command would have been the lever man (operating the machinery), and three runners. Career progression would have been casual labour - full time runner - full time runner with experience - lever man - team leader - manager job at depot. We were assigned routes on a daily basis. I can't remember the exact distances, but there would have been several routes of between three to six miles. Obviously, the shorter the route, the denser the housing - less running but more hefting of those old-skool round bins. And when I say running, I mean running non-stop. You were expected to keep up with the truck. There may have been a couple of twenty minute breaks during the day, and I can vaguely remember being shocked to see how many spent this time sifting through the rubbish looking for vouchers. Dealing with the smells was horrendous. Masks weren't provided back then (are they now?). I don't think nappy bags existed either. And people didn't recycle. So bins were extremely unpleasant, full of waste food and soiled nappies. I worked in the summer. It was a hot summer. Heat and waste are a nasty combination. Some benefits of the job for me: • It was a short day. We started early (between 5 to 6) and I don't remember finishing later than noon. • I was probably the most fit I have ever been - its been a gradual downhill descent from there • A taste of hard crap work does wonders for motivation. Determined to have choices in life, I worked extremely hard back at college. Could I do that job now? Well, I no longer have the health of a twenty year old. I don't think my back could cope with it anymore, though my waistline could probably do with the workout. Could anyone do this job - within reason, probably yes, but if you are not young and fit you will have a hellish couple of months, and maybe end up getting fired before adjusting to the work. However, I believe most people just wouldn't do this job. Anyone who had other options would choose something else as an alternative. In my experience the people who do this work generally don't have any other choices. This means that they will always get paid badly and be the first to get shafted when councils decide to cut their contract costs. I sincerely hope I never end up in this position.

Good start

Here's a lovely little 'do-upper'. No interior shots I'm afraid. But nothing to worry about, we've put up two of the exterior. As you can see it needs a little modernising, but really it's a blank canvas ready for your creative inspiration. Think of the potential. And all yours for under half a million. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sa...y-25303610.html Oh yeah, the garden needs a little 'touch up'. But it does have a bench in it - acquired from nearby Barnard park.

I agree - this seems the most likely scenario. She is so fuucked

Currently GBP-EUR 1.07 Turdling is going to have to crash in the next 36 hours for your 'mates' prophecy to be correct

Another £10 paypal donation from me - I didnt realise it was 8 months since my last donation. property-bee is an invaluable tool that I would hate to see disappear.

If/When the SHTF how is using goldmoney any different to having your cash in a foreign currency account? Of course diversification is important - I would never suggest having everything in goldmoney. Anyway, good luck.

FYI - You can switch from turdling to other currencies [uSD,GBP,EUR,CAD,CHF,JPY] with a goldmoney account. Used to be tricky to get CAP authorised, but now you can do it all online. Also, I spoke to First Direct this weekend about their foreign accounts. They are essentially HSBC foreign accounts, can be opened over the phone, and have no transfer fees, just usage fees. Only good if you have a First Direct account I guess.

Maybe I should knock a few 'noose' ribbons up and dump them through the letterbox the morning they close. I mean - I got enough offensive shiit dumped through my letterbox from them over the years!!