u/HomeBuyingResearch

As the title says: I'm looking for redditors who live in the area of these streets, where there are a lot of terraces with copper standing seam roofs, and wood shake siding on the front elevation between ground and first.

There are loads of this typology in the area. 60s (council?) I believe.

I'd love to speak directly with you if you understand the build of these houses - particularly the front elevation.

(This question raised a parallel thought: Has anyone ever heard of groups of people with a similar house type, banding together to share insights to how they are built, and best ways to modify/adapt them? It would seem like a no-brainer massive opportunity!)

I'll be as succinct as possible:

We know these buyers - past professional relationship, now local acquaintances, in a small enough city. There's an interest in not burning bridges.

They did say after an initial conversation, they would prefer not to speak directly but to go through agents and solicitors -- even when the communication was in their interest, they told us off by a text.

Before this, they told us a story of needing an offer, so they can be proceedable. They love their current place and could make due with it, but found a place they much preferred in a particular area they wanted for their growing family.

So we make a successful offer after some negotiation.

But the day after the offer, their agent says they were gazumped (possibly some time ago...), and now we're in a chain, with the seller's having particular needs and wants for a new place, and (from what they previously said) not hating their current place.

8 weeks pass. No word at all from anyone.

Market is falling locally, interest rates up. We're at a loss because we put EVERYTHING on hold when we realised they would be in an undefined chain... No mortgage offer at a lower rate.

We send an email politely pulling out, saying we're not keen to give them an offer at Q3-2026 rates, for them to be proceedable in a completely different market in 2027...

Within 24 hours their agent CALLS US to say they've made an offer on another place in the last day, and maybe we don't want to pull out? Not by email, notably...

If we didn't know them, this would be too sketchy to believe and you'd pull out, I think...

We do know them, and still would like to avoid being the ones to burn the bridge. My inclination is to contact them (despite their wishes) with cards on the table about our skepticism, and get their story, rather than hearing sketchy things through agents.

Others?

England.

Looking at a property with a small manhole cover in the back garden, within 1m of an extension that was added 7 or 8 years ago, in Cambridge.

Looked at planning documents - there isn't much there at all.

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the extension. The owner has said the water company has needed access once in 7 years.

It's not something big and deep - I think it runs across the back of the row of terraces.

This doesn't seem like something to get too upset about.

How would you manage this matter in the buying process?

It is some degree of risk - but how much risk? Can it be mitigated? Managed? Insured? Could we proactively manage it? Water company call outs on a 3-5 year basis? I'm just tossing out thoughts. Please share yours!

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping to get some varied perspectives on a situation I'm currently weighing up.

I'm looking at a property with a rear extension, but a recent structural survey revealed the extension's foundations are sitting on a very loose and weak clayey chalk subsoil. Because of this lack of strength, there are settlement issues, already apparently with cracks in the building by the extension.

The structural engineer has basically given two potential paths forward for repairs:

Resin injection or screw piles:

The cheaper and less disruptive option. However, the engineer explicitly noted this leaves a "small risk of further movement" and the certificate of adequacy wouldn't be a strict guarantee.

Deep mass-concrete underpinning:

The expensive, highly disruptive route. This would involve deep excavations to get past the weak chalk, but it's the only way to completely eliminate the risk and get a permanent, guaranteed fix.

I'm trying to gauge how much of a headache this will be, especially regarding high-street mortgage lenders and future resale value.

Has anyone faced a similar choice or dealt with either of these repair methods (especially on loose clayey chalk)? Would this situation make you walk away, or is it manageable if the price is negotiated down?

I’d welcome any thoughts, experiences, or general advice you might have.

Costs - for context, this is in a costly city the south of England.

Thanks in advance!

If you were considering buying from someone selling on their own (I Am The Agent is the company facilitating in this case), what would you look to do?

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Having met the person, they're incredibly competent and capable with more than enough free time to manage it on their own. They're also motivated to sell and leave the region for family reasons.

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What would you ideally look to line up to make it a smooth, secure process?

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I appreciate there are lots of people with bad experience, e.g. with purple bricks or similar. I suppose I want the lessons learned, rather than top much of the stories of what went wrong 😋

I'm interested to crowd source approximate prices on full strip-out of a semi-detached or terraced houses in Cambridge, including asbestos removal. Who are the people doing this well, in Cambridge? I can imagine there is a Cambridge premium.

Orders of magnitude are fine, and happy for it to be on a per square foot, square metres basis (e.g. £50/sq. metre or £500/sq.m

For context, I'd be looking at complete strip back of a place that looks not to have been touched since the 60s or 70s, to modernise. But mainly, I need to understand the cost to fully strip it back. Also, I appreciate you don't have to touch asbestos - it can be fine f left undisturbed. However, given the wider context of works to be done, my preference would be to get it out.

TO CLARIFY for the AI vetting of this post against the rules: This is not about buying or renting a flat.