One of my colleagues has just moved into a new build home on a development. The homes are all wooden framed with roughcasting.
She casually mentioned to the sales woman if the loft had been floored to be told that not only has it not been floored, but the loft has not been designed to take any weight whatsoever and if you use it for storage you will invalidate all warranties.
My flabber was gasted by this - is this normal in modern homes, or just pertinent to timber framed?
I would need an extension on my extension to accommodate everything in my loft!
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Seems madness to me. These days people have so much clutter ( frippery as I call it) that loft space is essential for many. Isn’t it where people store their Christmas decorations?
Apologies for using the C word in September
Until 15 yo I was brought up in a small 2 bed terrace house in Bradford. We had a substantial loft area where I had a great train set, then Scalextric, then my Dad built a full size table tennis table up there where we played en famille most winter evenings.
My previous family home, built in 1913, had joists and timbers the size of tree trunks and space to store several small cars. Even my current 1999 build house has been boarded out by myself and although I’ve decluttered it is still a large usable space.
And don’t get me started on builders who still fit 7’ wide garage doors, totally useless for today’s mid sized vehicle. Cost me a few thousand pounds a few years ago to convert to a sectional 15’ door, but worth every penny.
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>> is this normal in modern homes, or just pertinent to timber framed?
About 50 years ago some friends bought one of the new houses on a big new development in Bracknell.
When they moved in I got a call from them. " Could you store something of ours in your loft ?"
It was a not very big case/trunk.
It was impossible to get it into the loft as there were so many small ( cheaper) timbers throughout the loft.
Builder are often trying to cut corners / save money.
My 1930s house has some 4" external brick walls upstairs and I found lots of putty filling gaps in bad carpentry etc. etc.
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>> My flabber was gasted by this - is this normal in modern homes, or just
>> pertinent to timber framed?
Unless specifically designed for it, lofts have never been "storage space" hence most having small awkward loft hatches.
The upper ceiling joists now only have to support plasterboard, not heavy lathes and plaster or heavy water cisterns, so they are thinner, plus they have to accommodate 27cms of insulation with much reduced roof pitch hence headroom.
>>I would need an extension on my extension to accommodate everything in my loft!
Use the garage or hire a storage space, which is why so many have sprung up.
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Just de-clutter. ebay is your friend.
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What Zero says. Our old home was timber framed - the loft space was very, very limited and difficult to access.
The house was reasonably conventional with an unconventional edge to it - best seen in the drone video we had taken for the sale. Note nice clean 320 - didn't often look that clean !
vimeo.com/187305988/7b121c8dca
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Nice house, some big gardens on that street.
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Fabulous!
You wouldn't find that much land where I live for new builds - there would be 4 or 5 houses on it.
When we got our current rabbit hutch there were 9 houses an acre. They are now planning with 18 to 30 homes per acre now.
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There was a planning issue. The developer intended up to 11 houses on the plot - The council dug their heels in.
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>> There was a planning issue. The developer intended up to 11 houses on the plot
>> - The council dug their heels in.
I liked the look of that place when you sold but it wasn't right for us then (or now) location wise.
However it looks as though our family centre of gravity is moving north westwards. The Lad and his girl are settled in Liverpool and Bromptonette's husband, a marine architect, is looking at jobs on the Mersey.
Northampton was somewhere we chose for it's commuter links to London and convenience for the M1/M6 when we had ageing parents in Stoke and Leeds. While I'd be OK with villages Banbury way that's not SWMBO's plan; she wants to be near prospective grandkids. We're tied to being in reach of Oxford Brookes until she's got her PhD but after that world is our oyster...
As a proud Yorkshireman I'm reluctant to settle in the County Palatine of Lancaster. Cheshire seems inordinately pricey. North Wales though has many attractions, not least fact houses with LL postcodes seem considerably cheaper, location and bedcount for location and bedcount, than those with CH in the address.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 10 Sep 18 at 21:48
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>> Nice house.
>>
Very nice. And as a chartered surveyor of 30+ years I've seen a few houses in my time!
Last edited by: Boxsterboy on Tue 11 Sep 18 at 11:02
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What a great idea using a drone! Two friends of mine have drones, and when I downsize ( hopefully) next Spring I’ll ask them to prepare a similar presentation.
Plan A is to release sufficient equity to buy a ‘doer up’ on the Costa Blanca with rental potential, whilst remaining in Giggleswick/Settle, an area I’ve come to know and love. Once the direct rail line to Manchester opens up that should help matters, but in the meantime a major declutter beckons.
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This was professionally done as an add on by the Estate Agent (and on his suggestion). It was a good house, we've downsized considerably both in house and garden terms but there are benefits - but it still takes as long to cut the grass (with a conventional mower). We spoke to our buyers a few weeks ago, they love the place.
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>>We spoke to our buyers a few weeks ago, they love the place.
Common! If you spend a lot of money, you don't admit you made a mistake. Not that I'm denigrating RP's place.
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I think it's rather nice that they are conversing.
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Transparent transactions the way forward.
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>>Transparent transactions the way forward.
God yes. I'm trying to sell a house at the moment and have no communication with the purchaser. Agent threw up their hands in astonishment at the suggestion that we should be allowed to talk to each other. I did send them a letter to the address on the heads of terms including my email and telephone but have received no contact.
As a result the transaction is a nightmare. Other side's solicitors are a pile of rubbish too and have slowed things down so much; unfortunately buyer is taking a Halal mortgage so there is a very limited panel of acceptable solicitors for them. We are twelve weeks into the deal and god knows where we've got to.
If ONLY the other side would pick up the phone to me.
Any other deal I've had I've cut the agent out completely the moment the offer is accepted. Now I understand why agents bang on about 'how proactive' they are in chasing a sale up. The reality is that they aren't.
Purchaser asks their solicitor a question. They sit on it a week. Question goes to my solicitors who send it to me. I find out the answer and respond to my solicitor who sends it to their solicitor and they sit on it for a week. Whole process could have taken less than 24 hours and instead takes two weeks.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Thu 13 Sep 18 at 10:41
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Any other deal I've had I've cut the agent out completely the moment the offer
>> is accepted.
How did that work out, any issues? What were the estate agents like when you did that, did you cut out the solicitors as well?
Last edited by: sooty123 on Thu 13 Sep 18 at 10:46
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>>How did that work out, any issues?
>>What were the estate agents like when you did that,
Like what? What role do you think estate agents have in the process? They are there to find the buyer (for a princely sum for two viewings, but I'm at the other end of the country from this particular house.) They are *delighted* not to have nagging telephone calls.
>>did you cut out the solicitors as well?
You don't *need* solicitors to conveyance property, but it would be a brave man who tried to do it himself. However the solicitors can all be copied in on messages. Buyer emails me, cc'd his solicitor. I respond and also add in my solicitor. Buyer gets information instantly, my solicitor can pass it to the buyer's solicitor who can do what he wants with it - but everybody else in the email chain knows that everybody else has had it so no excuses that they haven't had it.
Whereas here, my solicitors (she is very good) and I are left guessing. The agent claims to be talking to the buyers but I don't know if she really is.
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>> >>How did that work out, any issues?
>> >>What were the estate agents like when you did that,
>>
>> Like what? What role do you think estate agents have in the process? They are there to find the buyer
I assumed so, but tbh having never bought or sold a house I wasn't absolutely sure if there was anything else.
>> You don't *need* solicitors to conveyance property, but it would be a brave man who
>> tried to do it himself.
I've heard that's it's possible on one of those house shows, never known anyone actually do it.
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>>>Purchaser asks their solicitor a question. They sit on it a week. Question goes to my solicitors who send it to me. I find out the answer and respond to my solicitor who sends it to their solicitor and they sit on it for a week. Whole process could have taken less than 24 hours and instead takes two weeks. <<<
You have missed out one important detail --
ADD £ 50 to the final Invoice for each letter generated - applicable to both buyer and seller!
keeps the solicitor well provided for.
Last edited by: sherlock47 on Thu 13 Sep 18 at 11:04
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When we sold my late Aunts flat in 2017, I contacted 3 local estate agents. I went with the local independent who assured me that they had a client looking for a similar flat, who was downsizing and ready to proceed with a purchase. On that proviso I offered to pay a fee of 0.5% + vat which was agreed. The agent, myself and the buyer met at an initial viewing. Myself and the buyer exchanged details, we agreed a price between us in subsequent phone calls, keeping the estate agent in the loop, and I made myself available for several subsequent visits by the purchaser so she could ‘measure up’ etc. Well worth the 80 mile round trip for me.
All parties were happy. Everything went 100% smoothly and the estate agent basically received their 0.5% fee just for introducing the purchaser. We sold it for £130k I think, so £650 for a bit of paperwork.
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We had a superb agent our end (not the Lucas one in the clip). Very pro-active and managed some major issues with the chain as it unravelled once. Our seller was first class. We sat down around his kitchen table to thrash out some questions that arose. Phoned him a couple of times to sort ot one or two things. See him or his wife around occasionally. He's a biker, makes all the difference.
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>> Purchaser asks their solicitor a question. They sit on it a week. Question goes to
>> my solicitors who send it to me. I find out the answer and respond to
>> my solicitor who sends it to their solicitor and they sit on it for a
>> week.
>>
Only a week? They'll happily sit on it a month if you let them.
What is it about these people? They all seem to have institutionalised lethargy.
Someone told me once that solicitors universally work on the "top of the pile" system.
Anything new that comes in goes on the top of the pile, and they look at it occasionally but do nothing. When someone lower down the pile contacts them, they pull out the file, look at it, and put it back on top of the pile.
Anyone who doesn't chase them weekly or even daily gradually sinks to the bottom of the pile.
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The knack with service providers is to ensure that they want your work completed as quickly as you do.
There's various ways of achieving that. I find causing them to fear that it might be me on the phone works pretty well.
What doesn't work is leaving them to it and relying on their own priority setting and work rate.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 13 Sep 18 at 13:08
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Is the Chancel repair liability insurance scam still running. Blooming cheek expecting the seller to pay for insurance to protect the buyer!
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>>What doesn't work is leaving them to it and relying on their own priority setting and work rate.
Absolutely. Problem is here I have no relationship with the useless bucket-shop firm. And I have no relationship with the buyer to tell him to sit on them - go round to see them if need be. He's probably never bought a house before as he's currently in rented accommodation.
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Do you have the ability to contact the buyer? Perhaps suggesting that the price goes up £x in 4 weeks might have an effect?
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I’ve sold 5 properties, three my own, the others my deceased Aunt and my mums ( she was 75yo and I dealt with the sale). I was present at all viewings...I told the agent their presence wasn’t required. Details were exchanged with all interested parties ( if you’ve not sold or are near completion, confirmed with their solicitor) then no you can’t look round ! Price negotiations were conducted without involving estate agents.
Friends who were selling a deceased relatives house at Portsmouth, a long way from W Yorkshire, arranged viewings over a weekend. Drove down, met all interested parties, exchanged details, negotiated a price directly, then paid the estate agents commission fee without involving them in sales discussions.
In each case every party was happy with the arrangement
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>>Perhaps suggesting that the price goes up £x in 4 weeks might have an effect?
Um. All very well, but a buyer in the hand is worth two in the street. Remarketing is the obvious threat, and I gave them a week's notice of intended remarketing ten days ago. It did at least prompt some responses from the various parties on the other side to the extent I agreed to defer the remarketing.
(Though nobody asked me to defer it, least of all the agent, whom you'd have thought would have been after their fee - after all, it would be a perfect moment for changing agent.)
Good point, though, if they do try to come in with a price chip at this point it's a good reason to tell them to go away.
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New build home - loft space - zippy
