Went to buy a house

[sasguru]

Seriously though, Atw, why does a single bloke like you want a house?
You want to be in the centre of the action with a huge flat with a nice view for entertaining the ladeez.
If you must get a house, get a detached old one, with a large garden, that needs doing up and modernise it.
Then you will add value and make money. New builds have a price premium built in.

You should never underestimate how much neighbours can annoy you nowadays - better to get a detached.

[hyperD]

You should never underestimate how much neighbours can annoy you nowadays - better to get a detached.

WHS+1

We've got lovely neighbours thank goodness.

It's only when you've lived in a nice house and have neighbours that you daily think about going round to their house and crushing their annoying, noisy skulls in with a large piece of 2x4 that you truly appreciate the intangible asset that is "good neighbours".

[d000hg]

Neighbours can definitely make or break the experience, and it's not like living in a "nice" area means you'll get pleasant neighbours. In a rough area you might get vandalism or heckling or noise or kids in your garden, but then middle-class educated professionals can be incredible PITAs and make your life hell in other ways. The plus side of poor streets is neighbours actually tend to know and speak to each other like in the old days, rather than try to treat their house as a bubble from the world.

[fullyautomatix]

Seriously though, Atw, why does a single bloke like you want a house?
You want to be in the centre of the action with a huge flat with a nice view for entertaining the ladeez.
If you must get a house, get a detached old one, with a large garden, that needs doing up and modernise it.
Then you will add value and make money. New builds have a price premium built in.

You should never underestimate how much neighbours can annoy you nowadays - better to get a detached.

What on earth are you bumbling on about ? He is a search engine guru not a builder, why would he want to waste time and money modernising a pile of poo ?

[Sysman]

What on earth are you bumbling on about ? He is a search engine guru not a builder, why would he want to waste time and money modernising a pile of poo ?

WFAS +++

When I was shopping for my first house my parents were pressuring me to buy all sorts of old wrecks.

If I'd wanted to be a builder I would have done an apprenticeship to learn how to do it properly.

Major renovations aren't compatible with working long hours or away from home in your £££ job either.

[d000hg]

It's the English way. Is "doing it up" specific to English culture then?

[AtW]

Says garage is 2.97 metres. Definitely wouldn't want to be parking when you're pissed.

I don't care what it says - I drove right to it and no fking way my car would fit in with mirrors unfolded, and even with folded mirrors margin for error is way too small.

[AtW]

Seriously though, Atw, why does a single bloke like you want a house?

House prices only go up, everybody knows that, might as well buy-buy-buy

You should never underestimate how much neighbours can annoy you nowadays - better to get a detached.

Aye...

[AtW]

What on earth are you bumbling on about ? He is a search engine guru not a builder, why would he want to waste time and money modernising a pile of poo ?

WHS with bells on!

DIY me? Just as likely as DUI

[Sysman]

It's the English way. Is "doing it up" specific to English culture then?

"Anglo Saxon" meaning Yanks, Canadians, Aussies etc I think seems closer to it, but yes.

I've always thought it better to concentrate on earning the moolah to pay someone experienced to do stuff like that, but I must admit that managing building workers is more of a pain than I thought, and that observation seems to apply worldwide.