texan katie

Is it reasonable for us to offer below the advertised rent and in return offer to redecorate. We would try for a 12 month tenancy to give ourselves security. Letting agent says landlord is planning to get quotes to redecorate when current tenant leaves the property. Asking 725pcm, thinking of offering 550pcm over twelve months, lose of 2100 to landlord but redecoration would probably come in near there anyway...... What would you do ?

I know this isn't related to house prices...... ! BUT we're coming back to the UK and we have US$ to change back to the UK pound, 8 weeks ago the crap was falling out of the pound, now its a different story.....B*****ks. I know a whole load of you guys follow the market and I really would like your opinion as to what the future holds for this currency.....up or down ? Should we change over now (could it go to $1.90 + arrrgggg!) or wait it out for a couple of months. The exchange rate in just the past 8 weeks has cost us 8-10k pounds less....poo poo poo. :angry: Give me your feedback

Explain ....

Am I wrong to consider IOM on my return to UK, we always had one in the past purley because we moved every year and we had ISAs (gone now !). We will pay our capital off via my inheritance, when I have it, its in cash and property (!). Is this sensible ?

Oh you made me chuckle.....

Certainly applies to some of his family but not mum

Shorter answer is where not ! Dorset (poole), Hampshire (andover/amesbury), Wiltshire (devizes/warminster), Somerset (bridgwater) or any other towns within these counties. We have the luxury of no work ties so can go more or less anywhere, but hubbies mum is in Shaftesbury so most we want is hour'n'half away from her. Are you sure THIS is the dark side...after my experience I think I found the light ! Anyway as a kid I always hung around with the ''troublemakers''......far more fun

Well I've been busy today trying to delete my account on the expats site. After being called names in a playground childish manner, I decided I had better things to do with my time than to continue posting on their site....I had been a member all of two weeks ! It truly felt like you weren't allowed to be a member if you post on HPC and a choice had to be made. Don't be surprised if I'm terrifird to voice an opinion from now on, I'm hiding behind a tumbleweed in a desert in Texas ! I was going to start a post on HPC anyway just congratulating ALL you folks for being sooo civil compared to your counterparts. I'm aware there is always ''bullying'' on forums but compared to expats you lot just tease ! I will say now that there are genuine people on expats site that I've been given helpful information from concerning my return back to UK, I just picked the wrong one to give advice to and plus my honesty to their situation caught a nerve ! I hope she never sells her house and does let it to the local authority and it gets trashed. :angry: Thank you for the replies of support xxxxxxxx I hope the expats preparing to leave the UK find the grass is greener, for me it wasn't and I can't wait to return to the UK with its overpriced housing ! Love Katie

Love it !

Well wheres the photos ???? We could have a before and after shot.......... Anticipating you new style avatar, focus on your washboard tummy.......

Hi Newbie, Looking at Bournemouth myself as well as Wiltshire/Somerset/Devon/Hampshire, from what I've noticed (via Rightmove) there is a huge spectrum of property within the 160-200k bracket, big discrepancies, which may boil down to location but there are certainly more realistically priced properties coming on the market since last summer. There are also some huge fat red herrings still for sale and no movement in asking price, consquently they will end up chasing the market down. Might I just say you where very lucky to only reduce your home 10k in the two years it took to sell !

This is Rooksie's home:- http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-100...pa_n=2&tr_t=buy The house is beautiful, far nicer than some of the crap I look at. Okay so until you get into a home you can't tell exactly what its like......maybe noisy neighbours/dogs barking ? On nethouseprice one sold for a massive 225k last year, otherwise huge differences:- 2005 182-117k 2004 190-128k 2003 128-98k Lets not be too harsh on these people selling their homes, when all's said and done most of them have had enough of the UK (like most of YOU) and are trying for a better life elsewhere and need the house sale. I've been there and done it and I'm returning to the UK this year, the grass isn't greener just a different colour. Maybe someone on HPC who is around Torquay could maybe give a better judgment on Rooksie's home, lets try and be constructive not gloating on this awful situation of 70 viewings, the price can not be that wrong if 70 people have walked through the door. Imagine if this was you....trying to 'escape' England....

You guys moan about 2.5 - 1% comission on estate agency fees..... Here in the US of A its 6%, take it or leave it !! Now thats a big chunk of change. Plus these guys don't even have ''offices'' that you're used to in UK ie walk by the window and see your property advertised and look at others. To see a house you normally have to have your ''agent'' with you, which gets 3% of the house sale if you buy it !!! Easy money or what ? I won't moan at the normal 1.25% we've paid on the sale of our homes in UK when we return !

I've told my stubborn sister-in-law about hpc (in the realms of selling her house at an unrealistic price), but every time I ask if she's been on here, she says ''what site was that ??!''. Well maybe she has been here and doesn't like what shes seen and is actually reading this....oopps....no xmas card for me....and consquently doesn't want to talk about her asking price and realism. The best way to spread the word is via ancedotals and true-life/individual house crashes, as I previously mentioned today about my old house being up for sale less than they paid for it etc. Personal stories strike a cord with people because it could be them, unless they're rich so-and-so's in paid-for homes and not a care in the world. We could always start up a 'flyer' system, post one about this site through every letterbox of every home for sale at a dumb price.......okay fair enough there wouldn't be enough paper to go round !

Sold my last house in UK June 04, 220k. Buyers put up for sale spring 05, forget how much but was around 230k. Couldn't sell it so rented it out until now. Just up for sale again 214,950. They should expect offers in 184-190 region (thats a conservative 10%ish off). Ouch that means surely negative equity on their 'safe' mortgage or theyv'e just lost a huge chunk of their deposit. This is in Gillingham, Dorset, not exactly the centre of the universe...... but its reached little towns like these. Goes to show what a loada 'cods-wallop' (my mum use to say that !) the spin on house-prices-going-up is. Just thought I'd divulge this to keep your ''peckers'' up.

I've been told to keep quiet whenever I speak to my sister-in-law about her house-sale (what house sale !), my husband quakes waiting for me to start an argument when his sister says the lowest she'll drop is 3k from an asking price of 160k, on an ex-council house house she paid 75k for 3 years ago. The first time I mentioned that buyers are putting in offers 15-20% below asking and she should prepare herself, her reply was ''it's my future and I'll wait until I get the money I'm ENTITLED to!'', my reply was ''aren't you being greedy ?''. At this point my husband stopped the conversation before a war worse than Iraq started. So it's been for sale since April 05, one offer but fell through after the survey when the sister-in-law wouldn't drop 1k.......yes 1k. Since then hardly any viewers, two changes in agents and no money in sight !! I don't mean to sound gleeful but the above story is being repeated thousand of times over across the whole UK, these sellers really need to wake up and smell the pile of crap fermenting from spin and when we are told ''DON'T MENTION HOUSE PRICES'' in the same tone of ''don't mention the war'' it will just take longer for the envitable to happen.

We are thinking of returning because we actually had a superior lifestyle in the UK compared to here, also way too many restraints on the work visa ie. I can't work (oh dear, life's soo hard !) When in UK could afford to go on abroad twice a year, now couldn't even afford a flight to Dallas. When we return we are going to pursue the green card avenue, in our opinion theres no point doing all that uprooting if you can not stay permanently. Oh hindsight is a wonderful thing ! We thought we could sort it all out whilst in the USA.....nope, not when your employer screws you over on your wages and you realise it takes up to 7 years to get the green card via him ! Cold you have no idea. Right now in Texas it is -2C, last night it was -22c. Last week it was 27c.....completeley bizarre weather. Too hot? Thats what air-con, swimming pools and margaritas are for !

This is my first post since joining this site.....so don't attack me like wolves with what I'm going to write ! My husband and I were both in high up jobs within the manufacturing industry from 1995 ( longer for him), after many fall-outs with the other partners in the business we decided to go it alone and start our own business in 2001. Its never as easy as it appears....always prioritising your staff's wages and the electric bill and of course the VAT bill over your own wage. We did okay for 2 years and then it just went 'belly-up', I had a retail store too, so we witnessed trade and high street decline. Always loved USA, got married there, so after much toing and froing (trust me not just ANYBODY gets into America with a visa, I only wish our immigration was as harsh, perhaps we could say the UK is more charitable than USA) ,we left the crappy isle of UK for the rose coloured glasses of Florida in July 2004. Since then we have moved to Texas, better wages and cheaper houses. My husband and I are not sentimental types, we are not homesick but being very money-orientated America is not what it is cracked up to be. The gap between rich and poor is enormous, I personally don't know how minimum wage people live, we struggle on my husbands wages. EVERYTHING here is dearer (exception of clothing/electronics). YES IT IS ! When put into context of the wages my husband earns and what he could earn in the UK. Our household bills are astronomical compared to UK, yes my home is enormous (larger than any I owned in UK)and only cost $92,000 but the insurance is $1900 a year because they have so many disasters ! The long and short of it is that we are counting down the months until we return to the UK, Sept 2007. We are waiting it out for the pound to drop and the legendary house price crash ! In five years in the UK we moved four times and made 250k, we were one of those greedy b******d's ! Then we ditched England with our money and a jolly good rate of $1.90 exchange and sold our last home in june 04. Looking at this we timed it right without trying to. We are very disillusioned with the USA, probably because we slagged the UK off as much as the next person and unrealistically thought USA was the land of gold, it has its pitfalls as big as the UK's, possibly bigger. In hindsight England has been good to us, we pray we never have an accident - no insurance because we can't afford that luxury- yes healthcare is a luxury and Brits in residence don't realise that. I could drivel on for hours with comparisons but my point is we've been burnt coming here and when we return to England we will not be moaning about 'the country' down at the local pub, we will be counting our blessings that we are entitled to live as a British Citizen and come and go as we please without predudice. So hurry up with that price-crash, so I can get back and have a good chicken madras !