On Dealing with the Water board...

[GuestD]

It's fairly common nowadays for folks to down size, and there's a lot of advice out there.

I did recently. The advice I got coincided with my own thoughts to sell as is. My old house was always kept in good repair, but it was not modern,because that's the way I liked it. The buyer bought it for the site, so any upgrades before selling would have been wasted money. Always a good idea to move before you have to, and not end up with a millstone round your neck, and forget about counting your chickens and crying over spilled milk. I can now shut the door and disappear into the wilderness without having to worry about the toil of having to straighten out a very large garden, and spend hours cutting and hacking logs to get hot water for a bath, and the nearest fish and chip shop is now a ten minute walk, instead of a 45 minute drive.

If you want "remote" cold, rain, and wind, check out the prices in Caithness. Good fish and chip shops up there.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/propert...=&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

 

[Tengu]

Harrumph.

The only possibility I see in such places is the potential to own my own Archaelogical site....

 

[Toddy]

Seriously though. Think rationally about what you need, what you would like, and think long term and what-ifs. Talk things over with your Dad too, he comes across as sound when you speak of him.

The old adage about cutting one's coat to suit the cloth holds very true......but the cloth doesn't need to be silk when good wool will do very well, iimmc ?
Personally an empty house is an anathema to me. I know people evolved making stuff, gathering stuff, using stuff, and once we learned to read and write....well I'm of the opinion that every house ought to have books, and not just 'twenty' books. Stuff doesn't spark joy, it sparks inspiration It sparks interest, contentment, enjoyment, and there's a hell of a lot more to life than folding everything one owns to fit a bento box! or spending two hours a day making sure all the curtains hang just so and the cushions are artfully arranged.
But, if the stuff gets overwhelming, and that includes house and garden and their upkeep, then it's time to redd out, even if it does feel like you're throwing money away. Instead of throwing money away maybe think of it as gaining life time.

Anyway, up to yourself, but poverty is often relievable by juggling priorities a bit.

M

 

[sunndog]

Houses are hard to come by these days. Even more so owned outright.

Can you rent it out?

 

[Alan De Enfield]

Houses are hard to come by these days. Even more so owned outright.

Can you rent it out?

The costs of getting it to an acceptable standard, electricity test certificates, gas test certificates, landlords insurance etc etc etc may be prohibitive.

The pain of the 'renters' phoning you in the middle of the night because a fuse has tripped, or the water tank is leaking, or doing 'a runner' owing months & months of rent, or destroying your house, combined with the recent legislation of renting makes it more hassle than it is worth. I know of quite a few 'landlords' who have got out of the business. It is worse for the small 'renting out their own house' than it is for the big 'businesses'.

 

[sunndog]

The costs of getting it an acceptable standard, electricity test certificates, gas test certificates, landlords insurance etc etc etc may be prohibitive.

Obviously.

 

[Tengu]

Um, yes. Catch 22.

I will think of selling it, once I get a job, and can afford some detailed planning permissions for interesting projects.

My Builder friend said if it was his he would turn it into two flats; gardens, off street parkings and garages.

(Might be able to squeeze in some conservatories there...)

But not until then.

(Look, no one has explained to me this `job` thing, yet...)

 

[santaman2000]

The costs of getting it to an acceptable standard, electricity test certificates, gas test certificates, landlords insurance etc etc etc may be prohibitive.

The pain of the 'renters' phoning you in the middle of the night because a fuse has tripped, or the water tank is leaking, or doing 'a runner' owing months & months of rent, or destroying your house, combined with the recent legislation of renting makes it more hassle than it is worth. I know of quite a few 'landlords' who have got out of the business. It is worse for the small 'renting out their own house' than it is for the big 'businesses'.

Here in Florida it’s not unusual for absentee landlords to rent their property through a management agency. As I remember when I was stationed in the UK also two of the houses I rented were owned by absentee landlord and managed by a professional third party. Obviously that type arrangement absorbs some of the profit but it makes life much, much easier.

 

[C_Claycomb]

....

(Look, no one has explained to me this `job` thing, yet...)

Job: A regular position or activity of work for others, for which you are paid less than you think you should get, for more hours than you want to do, by people who would like you to work longer for even less.

There, now someone has explained it.

They tend to be the most reliable means of acquiring income for those who have not inherited wealth, or who lack the wits, skill or luck to be successful investors or entrepreneurs.

What have you been looking at, job wise?

 

[Tengu]

Oh, maybe we should start a new thread.?

 

[C_Claycomb]

That would be a good idea.

 

[Fadcode]

Are you still a student Tengu?, can you not let out a room to a fellow student to give you some income, offering a small rent until the place is ship shape, you can let a room out for a certain amount without it affecting your income tax, etc, but it would mean you have to pay full rates.
Regarding your water problem, part of your bill includes taking the waste water away, this includes the rain and the drainage from your land, gutters etc, so it would be very unusual to obtain a nil bill, and even if you got a water meter in there would still be a fixed charge.
Depending on your age, you could sell it and remain living in it, but the description of your house may mean the price attained would be low.
Houses can become mill stones, and a burden which can prevent you from getting on with your life, as someone once said "It is better to have lived and left, than not to have lived at all".

 

[Janne]

Not wishing anything political here, but it might not be a bad udea to see hiw much the house can sell for now, as it is.
There are indications/ suspicions that the house market in UK might drop lots and lots, freefall even, in the near future. Because of the B word...

I speak to a couple of ‘big’ estateagents locally, and they have those ideas.

 

[Tengu]

Maybe so, but there is still a housing shortage here, and though there may be blips the market should stay high.

Bear in mind that though this is a 3 bed semi...it was built in 1928 and so has big rooms and a big garden.

They dont build houses like that anymore.

(without use of a square...)

 

[Janne]

I do not understand this thread now. What is the point of owning an old ( high maintainance ), large place that is getting derelict, you do not live in, if you do not plan to do anything decent with it? ( fix up and move in, or sell for somebody else to do this).

All it takes in one storm, a couple of broken roof tiles, and you have a veritable nightmare on your hands!


Prices on everything follow the old 'supply and demand' formula, but one more ingredient in that is that there has to be buyers that has the access to the money to buy
No money - market collapses. Less money - prices drop. Remember the mid 1990's? I do.
https://monevator-monevator.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/house-prices.jpg

 

[santaman2000]

......Prices on everything follow the old 'supply and demand' formula, but one more ingredient in that is that there has to be buyers that has the access to the money to buy
No money - market collapses. Less money - prices drop. Remember the mid 1990's? I do.
https://monevator-monevator.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/house-prices.jpg

The collapse in the 90s had nothing to do with ordinary supply and demand, but rather the artificial bubble that had been building for over a decade. People weren’t buying house to live in but rather on the assumption of a huge profit within less than 2 years. Banks weren’t lending money based on the borrower’s ability to repay but on the assumption that the collateral (the mortgaged property) would double in value in a short time. Eventually the bad credit practices caused that bubble to pop. However property values (the REAL values) continued to rise in the long term.
Fact: The UK has a finite land area with a burgeoning population.
Fact: Land values will have blips up and down short term but on the long term they will continue to increase.

 

[Janne]

No, the theoretical demand was still high, but the market, or in other words, buyers, ' felt prices were over inflated as they could not really afford.
Look on the graph. Prices are now dropping, and that is before 'B'.


All countries have a finite land area designed for building. All countries have an increased population.
The difference between the European money lending system and the US one is staggering.
Last time yours failed you dragged the rest of the World with you. Prices dropped on properties, unemployment went up.
Economies are interconnected, which is both bad and good.
In case of a bad 'B', that will be the saving grace for UK.

Let us not go into politics though, soooooo boring!

 

[santaman2000]

So far our discussion has been economics rather than politics. That said, sometimes political decisions affect economics (often actually)

 

[Janne]

That was my impression too, economic so far.

Owning a house/property is fantastic usually, but a nightmare sometimes!

 

[Fadcode]

Just for interest the land in the UK is used as follows
5.9% Built on
2.5% Green Urban (parks, etc)
34.9% Natural
56.7% Farmland
In reality plenty of land for population growth, depending on maintaining the farmland for growing food , and land for forestry.

It is probably only due to the Industrial Revolution that the population are based in large cities and urban sprawl, as this is where the work is, even many "New Towns" are built close to the metropolitan areas, rather than in new areas. As most people understandably want to live close to work and within metropolitan areas the housing situation becomes worse and at high demand, therefore putting the prices up.
Even those who have the financial backing to live outside these areas find the prices going up for country property..