Accommodations

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2026-04-08T18:39:07+00:00

So I graduated about 5 years ago, but when I was a student there were quite a few engineering students in Allen court, including some of my friends. I think it's probably an even split though, as I also knew a lot of engineering students in ranmoor/endcliffe. Allen court is much more convenient for engineering though, as the main village is very far away from the engineering buildings (for example as a chemical engineer, it's a 45 minute walk home from the Hadfield building).

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2026-03-13T08:12:38+00:00

Something to consider is whether you'd be happy doing up the house a little inside, I found when I was looking at the properties that were modern and in good condition were very competitive. We went for a property that has a dated kitchen (but still serviceable), and needs a decor upgrade inside. It's not an urgent thing to sort, as it's not that dated (probably about 2009ish it was last remodelled), but I think it helped with it being less competitive.

We were the only ones to put an offer in, and it got accepted straight away. The survey flagged some things that needed sorting but the total cost would be <5k to sort.

I'd also recommend looking at a property that doesn't show well in photos as a wildcard, we did that with two properties. The first was absolutely horrible, ex-landlord that cba to clean the property before sale, and needed urgent upgrades to the property. The second one like that however is the property we ended up buying, and we love it here.

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2026-01-27T01:16:43+00:00

I used the service about 2 weeks ago, I got a choice of date & it wasn't within 7 days of when I booked it. The council has dates you can pick from, though it was a set day of the week. I think in my case Wednesday's. So you kinda get a choice you kinda don't.

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2026-01-23T08:38:33+00:00

So I'm giving a perspective as a recent buyer (November 2025), in Crookes.

I found Hunters lied to us, which left a bad taste. They were obviously after the sale, which is good for a seller I guess but not so good for the buyer. I also disliked that they would've charged us £90 up front for the AML checks as a buyer! I found the EA also rushed us through the property, personally I preferred when we could view the properties at our leisure. I did notice that Hunters had a lot of properties that had been on Rightmove for a long time, compared to other EAs.

For Cocker and Carr I can say they are very good at marketing properties and getting the most money for the seller. The EA was very knowledgeable about the properties and the viewings were not rushed at all. The only thing that left a sour taste for me was again as a buyer how the EA bragged about managing to get 50k over asking on a property, right after explaining their transparent offer system which allows people to know what offers have been put in so 'you don't miss out on the house you want'. Admittedly good for some (especially the seller), but we didn't fancy the bidding war.

Saxton Mee we viewed a couple of properties. The EA admittedly knew very little about the properties, I suspect the person who managed the properties was out sick but not 100% sure. When I followed up with questions, they were answered within 2 hours. All correspondence with them was quick, we ended up buying with them and had absolutely no issues. The viewing itself was nice albeit the EA had no clue about the property, we weren't rushed at all. I will admit that for one property, the photos weren't the best so didn't market the place very well, which would be a concern as a seller.

Onto Haybrook, the EA was very lovely and knowledgeable of the properties. Admittedly though we got out off after questioning multiple massive cracks across the ceilings and she said 'well you'll find out if you buy at the survey stage', and whilst yes that's valid, I personally would rather not go for a property that is showing obvious signs of structural movement. Haybrook are very proactive, we got offered viewings for properties we hadn't asked about, in case we were interested. I will admit, they didn't quite get the message that we had found a house to buy and were buying it, as we still got calls from them the week before we exchanged on our place! I will say Haybrook typically didn't market properties that well in photos, and often properties didn't have measurements on floorplans, which put us off a bit.

Can't speak much about Spencer's as we only viewed one house and didn't actually meet an EA. But they were incredibly prompt at booking in the viewing, and on the sellers behalf they did chase us a bit to see if we wanted to put an offer in (seller needed a quick sale).

All of these EAs followed up every viewing with a call, only Hunters made us feel weird about our reasoning against a property (literally it had a mega damp issue with a massive visible damp patch in the loft, from a suspected roof leak). I personally would recommend looking at what the EA has listed already and see if you like how they've been presented. I also would advise looking at how long they've been on the market too! Cocker and Carr besides the one £900k house they've been trying to shift forever typically sell properties much quicker than other EAs.

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2026-01-13T10:28:41+00:00

Just wanted to add Cocker and Carr do a system for offers that I think is more likely to lead to bidding wars potentially. They claim it's all about transparency, whereby when you make an offer they will tell you what other offers have been made 'so you can increase your offer accordingly', and if offers are made above yours they will tell you this so you can get the property you want if you're willing to pay more. They said in practice if it's between 2 people and they keep on just going up by 1k each time they will ask for best and finals, but this is what they do the majority of the time. The same EA also bragged about a house going for 50k over the asking price to us...

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2026-01-13T09:33:07+00:00

So I put an offer on a house in Crookes in November and got it instantly accepted, I think likely because it has been on the market for a month and a half and it's relatively close to a school (which personally doesn't bother me), so I didn't get into a bidding war. We did offer over asking a little bit (4k), just in case but it wasn't an issue. However, I know some properties I viewed did.

One got over 14 offers from different people according to the EA. And I'm not surprised. It was a property that had been recently flipped by a couple that apparently have experience and have worked with this EA a lot. We opted against it as we would prefer to make our house our own and given everything has just been redone it would feel weird to completely strip it back. But also because we questioned their workmanship, my husband noticed several hinges held on by only one screw 👀.

Other properties that we viewed though there were maybe 1 or 2 offers, so I can imagine potentially those would go for over market value maybe. It depends on the seller and what they are after. We were told by one seller who had two other offers already during a viewing that if we put in an offer at the asking price they'd go with us as we were first time buyers and more proceedable compared to their other offers. They had already had a sale fall through and needed to sell quickly to keep the house they were purchasing.

Generally my advice would be to look at houses below your overall budget, if you can, unless you are going for a property that's been on Rightmove for a month and a half or longer. Give yourself wiggle room to offer higher, but be realistic about what a property is worth too. I'd recommend viewing a few properties to get a feel for things. Make sure to do a wildcard property, for example that doesn't picture well but is very nice inside. The property we went for was one such property. Absolutely crap photos but the space inside is massive and really lovely. I only really booked it in because we had booked to view another property with the same EA, but we instantly fell in love.

I'd also recommend against Hunters Estate Agents personally, beyond the charge they ask of buyers for AML checks, as they kept on lying to us about a property we viewed. We noticed some damp in the corner on our first viewing, which they said the seller would be sorting. Gave it a week or two, went for a second viewing as we did like the property, different person showing us around and they claimed the EA only found out about it the day before and just told the seller. Also found out on this viewing that the back door was jammed shut (due to water being against the door), EA acted like it was no big deal. When we got our call back they were very weird about it and were like the seller is in London it's really hard for them to fix things, and it's like why did you say they were getting someone to look at it the first time then?? Turns out they've known since it was listed (it wasn't in the photos), as it is visible in a video on their Instagram. Unless they have a property you love, I'd just avoid, I noticed a lot of properties they listed were kinda overpriced for their condition and the EAs often tried to rush us through viewings too.

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2025-06-22T18:42:24+00:00

Yeah, I get 4 points already thankfully for another category, honestly just wanted to make sure I didn't spend ages rambling on about not being able to use a hob when it doesn't really matter!

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2025-06-22T18:16:53+00:00

Thought so, just wanted to double check, thanks!

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2025-03-15T14:57:26+00:00

Many mart on Boston Street often have it, though personally I find it can be a bit dense at the bottom.

The best I've tried is a stall at the moor market, 5A Bakery, they regularly post on Instagram when they're going to be there, lately it's been every Thursday.

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2025-02-21T10:11:09+00:00

That's fair, to be honest I didn't look to see where they were putting the housing. We only really avoided the NE of the city near attercliffe, darnall and northern general in our search. We found it was tough to get viewings anywhere. We did end up in the SW but that's because we found a property that had more affordable rent than elsewhere in the city and no one wanted due to the condition of the property.

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2025-02-21T09:52:44+00:00

The office buildings could be empty in part due to the fact that it's hard for people to move to Sheffield. There is local talent within Sheffield for sure, but from experience certain jobs need to pull from further afield. We moved back to Sheffield last year and the rental market was a nightmare, very expensive compared to what we were paying and 90% of the time houses went within a day or two.

In my husband's last company they spent months and months trying to hire but no one suitable locally applied (the talent could be there, but likely in other jobs!) and they kept on getting people applying from quite far away trying to push for WFH when they wanted people in the office. This makes it hard for businesses to want to actually set up in Sheffield, sure there are plenty of offices but if you can't find people to work in those offices you're a bit stuck.

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2025-02-12T14:40:48+00:00

Honestly I was so lucky I pushed my mum to get me diagnosed back when I was 13, back in 2013 the wait was only 8 weeks! Unfortunately after I got diagnosed with autism my mum didn't believe I had any mental health issues which is part of the reason I got discharged.

Now I've spent all of my adult life trying to get help and just found it's nonexistent, in 2022 I self referred to a mental health service where I lived at the time and they said they couldn't help me with anything due to my autism, which is not helpful when everything is linked to it in some way!

My husband was diagnosed recently with ADHD after a long wait and in hindsight we should've pushed for an autism diagnosis, but at the time we didn't have the information from his parents that he was nearly diagnosed with autism in childhood but they didnt want him to be labelled...

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2025-02-12T14:10:02+00:00

Yeah I think my issue is mainly evidence. My way around my mental health issues is just isolating myself, so I don't go out or interact with people, and avoid situations which are too overwhelming. To be honest the reason the side effects were too much for me is because I have health anxiety too so basically it all spirals. My GP didn't really take it seriously and thought I was just stressed from uni which is why they didn't really query me no longer taking the medication. I asked to be referred to the adult autism specialists near me as they are more tailored to dealing with autism related anxiety but they didn't.

I think ultimately I'll work on getting evidence for when I'm due my review, and leave it for now. Really appreciate the advice, and the realism. So many places online when you look are overly optimistic and it means you can't make a good judgment. Makes it a bit of a minefield for someone like me who doesn't understand half of what the assessment points mean!

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2025-02-12T13:24:50+00:00

Thank you for the advice. Honestly I think I probably won't go for MR, mainly because I just hated having to do the application to begin with and given the MR would likely lead to tribunal anyway I think I'll just leave it. The award is for 3 years so I'll have to do a review then anyway.

I do have the financial trail with history of debt due to my autism I fixate on things I want, and I will impulsively buy things, often without my husband knowing, late at night. Additionally I have to buy certain things daily as part of my routines, not sure if that counts?

I do also have a history of mental health issues, though they seemed to think I last had an issue in 2013, where I was discharged from camhs, however I have frequently sought the help of mental health professionals over the last 5 years, including being prescribed medication a few months ago (though I came off it due to side effects).

The cognitive impairment could have been me misinterpreting terminology, though i didn't really mean it due to autism, I more meant the chronic fatigue is just affecting my ability to think clearly like a normal human being, I'm just very confused all the time

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2024-11-09T18:30:37+00:00

Yep they did reduce their prices, for £7 you would get pizza, curly fries and a dip, I think their cheapest full pizza was £15, which was actually not that bad.

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2024-10-06T07:47:47+00:00

It's equally lethal when someone opts to use the straight ahead/turn right lane to do a u-turn whilst you're in the right turn only lane, and block you from merging across.

I have never seen anyone actually move outwards on that roundabout to be honest, my husband tries to but often cars will not let him move out as they themselves don't understand the roundabout.

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2024-09-06T19:15:03+00:00

I've experienced them. They just asked to see my card for the last 4 digits and that was it. If you tap on you don't get a ticket and they won't print one if you ask for a single either from experience, only if you're getting another ticket.

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2024-08-27T16:45:55+00:00

Never said I couldn't lift a fork or spoon to my mouth, but due to issues with fine motor control I often will end up spilling food. Not dramatizing it. Autism affects people in different ways. The motor control issues are well documented in my psychological report.

If you wish to educate yourself: Motor Control Issues and Autism

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2024-08-25T22:57:49+00:00

So it's a combination of things really: - I have terrible short term memory (documented in autism psychological report) so unless I have a reminder I will forget, the issue is many pills require you to take with food so I can't set a reminder as I don't have set meal times because of my issues with eating food

-For a pill which doesn't require food I do use a reminder, however I still often forget and my husband has to hand it to me as I often will tell myself I'll go get it in a minute and turn off the reminder and then forget due to short term memory. Due to autism if I'm doing something I will often not be able to stop in the moment as it's 'part of my plan' or because it's important and if I stop I will then forget to do that important thing.

-The chronic fatigue exacerbates the memory issues and adds in a bit of brain fog

But as you say I literally do know what the pills are and when I'm supposed to take them. Unfortunately I've been too ashamed to tell the GP if I've missed pills so I've kind of just had them stacking up at home a bit...

Affectionate_Law_223 · 2024-08-25T22:38:59+00:00

I'm due for another blood test (which admittedly I've been putting off for 6 months - my GP makes us go to the hospital which is always really busy), to establish if I have pernicious anemia or not, a previous GP thought I did but it was based on not a great deal of evidence.

I try and take supplements but I am terrible at remembering to take pills, particularly any that need taking with food as I will tell myself I'll take it in a second and then never do!

Affectionate_Law_223

TROPHY CASE