bumblebeeandboy

We went to see this one a few weeks ago. It's a nice house in terms of space, lots of rooms and would have suited us BUT it's right on the corner of a busy road. They have put double glazing in at the back of the property so once inside you can't hear the road as EA pointed out to me however the minute you open a window the noisy is right inside your house as the road is about 2m from the window. The house has beautiful sash windows at the front of the property BUT every single one of them is going rotten and need renovating or replacing. The house has bathrooms which are large (one ensuite) both need completely gutting. Boiler is ancient and the utility section the boiler is housed in is really cold as more single glazing, old doors etc. We went to the third floor and the bannister came off in our hands. Kitchen is new but it's only a cheap kitchen and shows warping from kettle heat. Garden is small and really uneven so no good for a family. Also you can see Sandy Hill Estate from the house and it's not the best area. They phoned us up to say it'd been reduced and i just laughed. Told them it needs to be below £400k due to level of work, location etc and even then i wouldn't want it. EA didn't disagree. If the house was in the middle of this road it might get away with the price as the road is lovely but it's got the worst plot. Spoke to a friend who it turns out knows the owners are they are (old) teachers at the local school. They've been trying to sell for over 18months but no takers i wonder why?

We've been renting for 3 years and I love the maintenance free aspect however what i don't like is the snooty LA coming round every 12 weeks to check we haven't trashed the place. We've never done anything wrong but they insist on coming round and checking every corner. Maybe i'm being precious but if there is ever a problem I tell them straight away. With 3 young kids it's a nuisance to tidy up and I don't want them thinking it's "normal" for someone to come looking round your house. We've always said we would buy again when we find the right property at the right place. We've seen a few recently and the next one is a house we've been looking at for a while that's just come back on. I work from home which is in breach of our tenancy agreement (but they haven't found out so far) but it's one stress i could do without.. The house won't be decorated unless we do it and i've no intention of decorating a house that isn't mine. It's not in a bad state but needs freshening up.

Prices still continuing to fall and the market has really slowed down in North Farnham. I'm regularly seeing 15-20% drops on decent houses and they are still not selling. One house has dropped from £500k to £400K and someone who knows them has said they still haven't had any offers. The house was bought a few years back for £250k but they put on a massive extension which must have cost well over £100k, let alone doing up the rest of the house. I really don't think they are going to break even. Spoke to a someone i know today who has been on the market for a few months. They bought at the peak for around £260k and have been trying to sell for £250k. No offers at all. Agent now advising them to drop to £230k but they don't want to as it'll "eat into their equity." Erm sorry you're equitys gone regardless if you sell or not but i suppose if they don't sell they can keep believing they have £xxx equity. We were planning on buying next year but seeing what's going on round here we're now quite happy to keep sitting it out in our adequate rental and keep saving. Better to pay rent and keep saving even with stupid interest rates, than lose tens of £000's a year "owning" a pile of bricks. Keep the faith i think more sensible houseprices are coming.

Friend got her house on in North Farnham only had 3 viewings in about a month and of those 2 not even interested in her type of property but it's in their price bracket. Basically the feedback from the EA is there just aren't many buyers out there. However the first viewing they got ended up with an offer of 250k (asking 275k) however the EA told her not to accept as it's worth more and they'll get it for her hhhmmmmmmmm good luck. Seeing lovely price drops of 10% now on houses in the 500k and below market. I want a 400k house for around 300k so i'll think i'll keep waiting thanks BBB

Hi Buzzardo, I'm looking at North farnham only around William Cobbett School site. Prices beginning to fall in places but it's very hit and miss. Where we're renting now the 1960's 3 bed detached are now selling at £250k but at the start of the year they were £300k. A few desperate sellers brought the prices down which was very kind of them. When we first looked at our current road to buy the big 4 bed detached started at £415k in 2008 and sold at £299k mid 2009. Since then each house that has come on has tried to achieve the £300k price and ended up taken off or selling at £250k We're looking more to move into "the avenues" in Lower Hale which are more 1930's age bracket, but these roads are still really bubbly in places again. Thankfully some new ones have come on at "sensible" prices for this point which makes the others look rediculously expensive. There is one 3 bed semi in the avenues for £340k which started at 350k. Now on with about 5 agents. It is all done up but the other 3 bed semis needing work are going on for £265k to £290k. We nearly bought one of these semis in 2008 for £295k. It's all about time and letting it play out. We can't move until summer 2012 as we want to get the boys into the local schools and we're right on the doorstep now so will get them in. From 2012 we'll be in a position to always have sibling preference so it's taken the pressure off and no intentions to buy until then. Stops the Grandparents keep asking when we're going to buy "as prices only ever go up!" "Born" seem to be getting most of the new houses coming on and pricing high. I haven't seen any from Mann in ages and thought they'd gone bust but all of a sudden they are back.

It's definitely Farnham but North Farnham.

Reason to buy this property "suited seller." what is that all about? Mann have suddently started getting more properties near us in Farnham and lots of unusual first lines including "biggest sale ever" in 2 weekends time. Sounds incredibly desperate to me. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-28216603.html?utm_content=ealertspropertylink&utm_medium=email&utm_source=emailupdates&utm_campaign=emailupdates_sep09&utm_term=buying&sc_id=3481158

A very good friend of mine (used to work with me before i left the Company) is a manager for a well known high street store. She said their sales are absolutely dire and the company is beginning to panic as it did a couple of years ago. She's getting pages and pages of price reductions every day and then a few days later they put them up but on a 3 for 2 offer etc. This store doesn't sell high ticket items but your usual books, paper, music etc. She's told me to hold off any purchases until the very last minute (not that i'm buying anything on the high street) internet all the way or home made gifts.

Just a little anecdotal nothing to do with houses but more about the state of peoples' finances. Our Son's school does this appeal every year whereby the children (really the parents) buy toys, books, sweets and put them in a decorated shoe box along with £2.50 and these are distributed to needy children worldwide. There are 120 children at the school and every year approx 100+ boxes are brought in. This year with only 2 days to go unti the deadline only a total of 47 have been brought in. Many parents were commenting on it and all saying well it's the recession etc etc. Several of the parents i know who did make it up confessed they didn't really buy anything this year but raided old toys the kids didn't play with.

It is a decent salary and our family income is about this however what house could we buy for 3.5times salary of £154K in Surrey, erm nothing suitable for a family that's for sure. After our rent we've got less than £100 disposable income for clothes etc. We don't have a lavish lifestyle, no credit card debts to pay, i run a 10 year old car, food budget of £40pw to feed 2 adults and 3 kids (luckily i can grow things and make healthy meals stretch, no alcohol or unnecessary treats). £44k isn't much these days after tax.

Just this conversation with the husband we're under the 44k at the moment due to a pay cut however we hope to be back to this level by 2013 and at that point with 3 kids we'll be loosing £2500 a year. With his 40% tax band he then needs to earn 50k to keep us at the same level. I'm hoping by then my business will be in a place wherei can draw a proper salary and we'll be fine. We put the CB away in a separate account and whenever the kids need something such as shoes, clothes, swimming lessons (i know this sounds a luxury but they don't teach swimming at their schools anymore, no free child swimming at local pools and kids must learn even just for basic safety lesson) i take the money from this account so it's spent on what it was intended for. However i know LOTS of people who rely on this money just to pay normal bills, i've got one friend who based her decision to split from her husband as she knew CB, Tax credits etc would enable her to pay the mortgage on her own, she's now planning on putting the house up for sale as she can't afford it anymore with the cuts coming. As a family who can't afford to buy a family home, i only hope these cuts will lower house prices so we can afford to buy a home at a reasonable rate so we have more spare money to cover the loss of CB. Another question regarding the new rules. So if you earn 40k as your basic salary but then get a bonus of £5k you're over the limit, when would they stop CB? Immediately and would we have to pay back what we'd had that financial year so far like it happens with tax credits?. What happens to CB the following financial year as that was a bonus and not "normal" salary and you can't guarantee what bonus if any you'd get. I can see this becoming the tax credits fiasco all over again with over payment hell.

yep big chain broke in farnham for friends i know (in fact 2 friends as another friend's brother was in same chain). Problem being the ftb couldn't get the finance and the chain had already taken a reduction and no one could "afford" to go lower so off looking for new buyer and all houses back on market. Funny thing is now our friend's mortgage company has said the survey has run out and is no longer valid on the property they are buying and they need another one. They're worried new survey will show price drop and their ltv won't work now. Friend commmented she was shocked at how much prices had already fallen this year and she said this about a month ago!

Not the best by any means and looked down on by many people in the area.

We live in north farnham and falls are now an average of 10% rather than the 2-3% we've seen so far. One house has dropped from 750k to 650k in one drop (and change of EA). This still makes it over priced but a lovely drop none the less. Still not tempted to buy but the tide is definitely turning around here.

boys and girls