Buying a new house

[trackerjack]

We are attempting to move nearer Reading and have been looking at loads of homes.
Several are sad because they show clearly the lives in pictures of loved ones past and present.
Some are dirty people and you wonder why.
One house showed all the signs of male only and I noticed some huge high heel shoes and thought "ah his ex wife had big feet".
Rebecca and Diane being women had noticed that he was in fact a female impersonator which explained a lot.
What is noticeable is that estate agents disregard a garage when valuating and my double garage and workshop attached with off road parking for several cars cut no ice. So its hard sorting houses to look at as the garage is rarely pictured and the access to somewhere where a garage can be built is also not shown.
However we have managed to find a house that ticks all the boxes and it just remains to knock the price down a bit.

[Carledo]

Good luck with your move Jon! People like us buy a garage with a house attached, if the house has the appropriate number of rooms, that's good enough. So long as the garage is what we want!
Unfortunately, the general house buying public do not think like us and, to most, a garage is just a place to keep junk until it can be converted into another habitable room. the vast majority of folk these days do not use their garages to keep cars in and whilst off street parking is desireable, a garage no longer is! So estate agents, tuned to the pulse of modern society ignore or disregard the garage. Philistines, the lot of them!
It's probably no coincidence that most modern cars will no longer fit in a standard 16' x 8' garage anyway - but the standard is still the same.

Steve

[cliftyhanger]

Indeed, estate agents seem to have very narrow views. When we moved, I would explain that the MOST important thing was a large garage, or space to build one. Queue the flats, terraced houses etc. And me calling to take us off their mailing lists as they hadn't listened to our requests (they couldn't understand that at all)
As for dirty, a year ago I had to move a dozen tenants out of a large property. Some lived very cleanly, but most were horrific. Mouldy fridges, filthy smelly places. And these were pretty normal people once out of their flats. Makes you wonder.......and some of the stuff they just left behind

Anyway, hope it all goes nice and smoothly.

[Carledo]

Don't get me started on dirty houses! Back in the mid 70s, I took a break from spannering for a couple of months and got a job with a firm who were contracted to clean empty council houses for Hillingdon Borough Council before new tenants moved in. (the same council who told me I must be homeless or have children to even get on the list for a house!) Occaisionally we would open the door to a completely empty house that sparkled like a new pin. Far more often it would take 2 days and several trips to the tip before we could see the floor to start cleaning. The worst thing? WE didn't get the REALLY bad ones! These went to specialist people and builders who had to repair structural damage caused by previous tenants! And this was 40 years ago, God alone knows what the "Jeremy Kyle" generation do these days!

I have been in my current house for 30 years last December, but I plan to downsize and move to the seaside when I retire in 2020. So I have all these joys to come!
So if anyone is looking to move to the West Midlands, I have a great Garage/house for you, double garage, off street parking for up to 12 cars in a lovely rural village on the Severn Valley Steam railway, but only 30 mins from Telford/Birmingham/Wolverhampton. Oh and a detached house with CH&DG and up to 6 bedrooms goes with it! Currently worth about £280k.

Steve

[tinweevil]

People like us buy a garage with a house attached, if the house has the appropriate number of rooms, that's good enough. So long as the garage is what we want!

Hell yes!

So if anyone is looking to move to the West Midlands, I have a great Garage/house for you, double garage, off street parking for up to 12 cars in a lovely rural village on the Severn Valley Steam railway, but only 30 mins from Telford/Birmingham/Wolverhampton. Oh and a detached house with CH&DG and up to 6 bedrooms goes with it! Currently worth about £280k.

Oooh lovely, does it have a tame live-in mechanic in one of those spare rooms?

Good luck Jon. I still owe you a pint from something I think (no idea what after this time). Let me know where you end up and I'd be delighted to meet you after all these years and make good on that debt.

[Mad Mart]

People like us buy a garage with a house attached, if the house has the appropriate number of rooms, that's good enough. So long as the garage is what we want!

That is exactly what Mary & I looked for. I wanted a double garage or a single with room to extend. We got one with a single but extended it within the first year of moving in.

[xvivalve]

My criteria were off road parking and garage, open fire and dry cellar in that order. All the agents immediately then said how many bedrooms? what area? traditional or modern? to which I responded 'I don't care'. It threw them a bit as they then had to search all their properties. It was my father who eventually spotted Clark Street 20 years ago now, but with hindsight, both he and I were optimistic that two garages and a double drive would be 'more than enough' for me! At the time, I only had two cars; CAB was my daily drive with a TR6 for fun...though the Elise was on order and the first company car imminent!!

[harvey]

So if anyone is looking to move to the West Midlands,

I wasn't, but......

I have a great Garage/house for you, double garage, off street parking for up to 12 cars in a lovely rural village on the Severn Valley Steam railway, but only 30 mins from Telford/Birmingham/Wolverhampton. Oh and a detached house with CH&DG and up to 6 bedrooms goes with it! Currently worth about £280k.

.....That's very tempting....

Just out of interest, how big is the double garage?

[Carledo]

So if anyone is looking to move to the West Midlands,

I wasn't, but......

I have a great Garage/house for you, double garage, off street parking for up to 12 cars in a lovely rural village on the Severn Valley Steam railway, but only 30 mins from Telford/Birmingham/Wolverhampton. Oh and a detached house with CH&DG and up to 6 bedrooms goes with it! Currently worth about £280k.

.....That's very tempting....

Just out of interest, how big is the double garage?

The garage is 20'8" x 18'10" and there is also a 10' x 8' shed

Sorry, there will not be a tame mechanic in residence once I leave (i'm not that tame anyway!)

Steve

[soe8m]

Hope to finish my project finally this year but maybe the plans are of any use for someone.

Jeroen

[trackerjack]

People like us buy a garage with a house attached, if the house has the appropriate number of rooms, that's good enough. So long as the garage is what we want!

Hell yes!

So if anyone is looking to move to the West Midlands, I have a great Garage/house for you, double garage, off street parking for up to 12 cars in a lovely rural village on the Severn Valley Steam railway, but only 30 mins from Telford/Birmingham/Wolverhampton. Oh and a detached house with CH&DG and up to 6 bedrooms goes with it! Currently worth about £280k.

Oooh lovely, does it have a tame live-in mechanic in one of those spare rooms?

Good luck Jon. I still owe you a pint from something I think (no idea what after this time). Let me know where you end up and I'd be delighted to meet you after all these years and make good on that debt.

Someone owes me a pint!!!! I would travel half the country for that I look forward to it.
Carledo your pad would be half a million in Reading!
Estate agents price according to how many bedrooms rather than size of those bedrooms.

[harvey]

Envy is an awful sin, but sometimes it's justified, and this is one of those times.....