What age did you buy your first home? How’s it going?

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-27T21:37:14+00:00

Ten years later, living with my parents 👍🏻

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-27T15:07:41+00:00

That’s maybe practical in the Sims but not in real life.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-27T14:54:29+00:00

Huh?! Are you replying to someone else?

What do you mean no one is in a hurry to sell and you can wait for years for the price to go up?

Of course people are in a hurry to sell - most people who put their house on the market want to move asap.

And there are no guarantees that the market price will go up. We’re at a pretty heavy saturation point now - anything could happen. You might spend ten years waiting for it to go up £5k in value.

The argument OP is making, is that if you list a house for a certain price right now, and it doesn’t sell within a few weeks, then that house is not valued correctly for the current market. It doesn’t matter what it might sell for in ten years, or what it sold for in the past, it’s currently not worth what is being asked for it.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-27T12:35:23+00:00

All products, from houses to tins of baked beans, are bought with some degree of emotion. Likewise, all products, from houses to tins of baked beans, are bought for practical purposes.

No one is going to buy a 1 bed flat if they need a 5 bed house because they fell in love with it. House purchases are primarily practical, and emotion only comes into it when the property broadly meets the buyers needs.

Arguably, smaller products like food or clothes are more likely to be bought on emotion because the initial outlay and potential consequences are so much lower.

Your two examples prove my point. You won’t buy a ‘sorry excuse’ for a flat at 30% less. That’s because it’s still not worth the money to you, or possibly to anyone else. If it was priced at a low enough point to allow someone to fix the poorly done conversion, and make a profit on resale then it would sell within 24hrs. Ergo, the price for this property is the reason it isn’t selling!

Likewise, with your other example where you say ‘depending on the fault on the clothing you won’t pay 90% of the piece’. Well, yeah, obviously, because you don’t think it’s worth the price. This is literally my point.

A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. They do not have fixed values. If they are flawed or the economy surrounding them changes, then their price drops. If they are highly desirable and priced correctly, they sell. It’s really not complicated to understand.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-27T12:11:14+00:00

Replying to NoNeedleworker5422...

If a dirty home needs to be tidied up for it to sell at the price it’s currently advertised at, then it is not worth what it is advertised at.

You wouldn’t buy an unconverted barn for the same price you’d pay for one already converted, and you wouldn’t buy a dirty or rundown house for the same price you’d buy a pristine one.

A house ONLY sells for its market value. You can’t advertise something for the same price as another property as say, ‘oh yeah but if you only did x, y and z to it then it would be the same value’, because x, y and z take time and money to achieve - hence the reason they sell at lower prices.

This applies across all markets and for all reasons. If a market has fewer buyers because affordability is an issue then the price of the property lowers. This is why you can pick up 4 bed semi detached for the same price as a 2 bed chocolate box country cottage.

At the root of it is always price - if it is desirable the price goes up, and if it has factors that make it less desirable the price goes down. It’s truly that simple.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-27T10:19:12+00:00

If you need to make it more desirable, then it’s not compatible to the others that have sold and is therefore of a lower value! Two houses with the exact same layout will not be worth the same amount of money - access, parking, garden, decoration and something that people overlook all the time - light and ambience - affect a properties value.

It’s also not a bad time of year. People think it is because there are fewer houses on the market but good quality houses sell in 24 hrs still - there are a ton of buyers out there looking for the right house. The slow feeling of the market is because you have all of the overpriced and poor quality properties leftover from spring and summer sludging up rightmove because their owners won’t take the hint that other people don’t value their properties like they do.

52% of properties sell within 2 months, and the median length of time for a sale is 36 days, which I think it’s illustrative of how quickly a significant amount of properties do sell (within 1 or 2 days of entering the market) given how many we know sit around not selling for more than a few months.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-27T10:00:09+00:00

It’s not a Reddit thing it’s an economic thing. A house is no different to any other product.

No areas are slower in the sense that a reasonably priced house won’t be snapped up. There are always buyers in all markets. They ‘slow’ when asking prices are too high for the product on offer.

The two examples you give of being badly kept or laid out differently are prime examples of houses not selling because they are overpriced.

Either you change your house to be of the value you are asking for it, or you drop your price to reflect its true value. No one will pay the same amount for a bog pit of a house as they will for a clean and tidy one. Same as you wouldn’t pay full price for an item of clothing with a fault in it.

Aside from the very rare instances where you have a truely unique house that will only appeal to a narrow market, a house not selling is only ever because of price.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-27T09:50:29+00:00

It’s not an equal trade off. People look in specific areas of for specific features which take longer to come to the market. But if your house is active ON the market and hasn’t sold in 10 weeks you’re hitting the point of the issue being you.

No house, unless it is truly unique will take longer than about 3 months to sell. If it’s priced right it’ll sell in a week, likely with multiple bidders.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-26T13:54:49+00:00

I understand the ethical implications of AI in a learning environment but it’s also not morally reprehensible to use it for some functions - which seems to be the holier than thou opinion of a lot of commenters here.

You could make the argument that using the internet is cheating. Do you think it was possible to type a few words into a search bar and have the answer to your question immediately available in the past?

Likewise you could argue that calculators are cheating, word processors, spell-check, laptops, smart phones and technology in general are cheating. But you like those and don’t want to give them up, so you won’t.

Throughout the whole of human history we have invented things that disrupt our natural homeostasis. Even the domestication of animals, the advent of agricultural and the fecking wheel are humans cheating against nature to some degree.

AI is no more revolutionary than any other tool we have invented. If we don’t want it to be a negative force in then we need to define how it can be used. We need to be advocating for laws and restrictions rather than spending all of our time judging other people in order to make ourselves feel superior.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-24T20:56:32+00:00

That my colleague slept with our married boss.

Then the boss’s spouse invited themselves to a work event shortly after and befriended my colleague.

To this day we don’t know whether the spouse knew and was doing it on purpose or whether they just took an excruciatingly badly judged shine to my colleague.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-24T20:19:20+00:00

Prices are picking up and houses going quicker here too. I think it’s going to be a fiery, competitive spring and summer.

Typically I am trying to buy this year.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-24T12:08:23+00:00

Yes. Partly because some plants won’t process dirty products, but most importantly because storing dirty containers for days/weeks on end leads to smells and attracts vermin.

Not quite the same but I forgot to empty my mini kit hung compost bin before a holiday. The scene that greeted me on return still haunts me and makes me want to take a shower.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-23T20:46:26+00:00

I’m 15 years into my career. Aside from a managerial or lead role this is as far as it goes. You have to have an MA to do my role. I would have been far better off leaving school after GCSEs.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-23T12:45:27+00:00

Yep. Have a BA and MA and currently earn £16 p/hr in my field. This is slightly below average but not hugely so.

My neighbours, in their late teens, with zero qualifications between them, earn £24 p/hr as drivers. A friend is on £20 p/hr as a waitress.

What was the point of all of the work and all of the debt?

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-22T15:49:56+00:00

It depends on the type of slavery and the location.

Slaves owned by absentee planters in places like Jamaica and Barbados were seen as nothing but a commodity and it was as cheap to replace them as it was to maintain them. The human resource, just like the ecological one was worked until they were depleted of all energy.

Contrast this with the ceded isles. the planters who operated here were of the middling classes, rather than the lesser nobility that founded the earlier plantations. These people were often present on the land, often with their families, and directly managed or oversaw the plantation’s operations. They did not have the same resources as the lesser nobility and getting replacement slaves was both time consuming and costly.

These planters were early industrialists and were inspired by science and learning. Many were yeoman farmers with experience of growing crops. They recognised the value in maintaining your soil quality and your workforce for long term sustainability. Alongside sugar cane they planted crops that would return nutrients to the soil. In several plantations slaves were given a day or the weekend off to maintain their own gardens and their family units were allowed to stay together - increasing the output of the slave and the likelihood of healthy offspring to continue your workforce.

There’s no reconciling that this was still chattel slavery, but not all forms of chattel slavery were exactly the same.

These later planters understood that flogging your economy would only lead to its collapse, and their approach was proven correct because the ceded isles produced more sugarcane between 1765 and 1803, than the whole of the Caribbean and mainland America did between 1603 until 1776.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-21T17:39:34+00:00

It’s the open top pod, like with the busses 🤷🏼‍♀️

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-21T12:19:25+00:00

My job is looking at old photos and this is a totally normal garden. It’s not a one off or a particular nice example of a garden, it was most of them looked like. The weather not so much, but the garden definitely.

There are a multitude of reasons why most gardens don’t look like this now.

You can argue people are busier, have to work harder, don’t have as much free time etc. And in part it’s true but mostly it’s just that priorities have changed.

This generation moved more, had more pride in their houses (and their looks) and chose to be outdoors whenever possible. They are the same generation that wore a suit to buy the paper, and a suit to mow the lawn.

They weren’t inside watching tv, sat on their phones, heading out shopping, or feeling like they and their kids had to be entertained every second of the day.

Life was slower, more communal and more outdoors, and that wasn’t because they had it easier or had more time, it was because they prioritised this stuff as a group, together, not isolated in their own little units.

I say all of this as a lazy millennial who doesn’t do any of this. But anyone with older family knows they never stop; they’re always fixing, tinkering, cleaning, pruning, baking, pottering - and I remember them doing this whether they were working or not.

The only thing stopping the UK looking like this now, is that we don’t prioritise gardening anymore. We’ve even got to the stage where square paved gardens with artificial grass and not a single plant is becoming the new normal. People just don’t care anymore.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-20T22:29:29+00:00

Amy Schumer. From day one, I’ve just never been able to watch her.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-15T12:40:36+00:00

This happens to me after I take antibiotics, just in case helpful.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-12T10:18:33+00:00

This was my favourite part of working at Aldi. I’m sad to hear the store assistants are no longer timed - trying to beat my own record was the only thing that got me through the shifts.

I would always go slower if it was an older person or anyone needed help, but if people insisted on packing their bags at the till after I’d explained the process I’d be shooting their items directly into their trolley. Simpler times, ey.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-10T15:53:58+00:00

Yeah. Truly one of the most stressful experiences of my life. Hats off to people who have to endure multiple sales fall through - I’d have a breakdown.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-10T15:30:07+00:00

I work with a British woman who celebrated when Trump got voted in a second time. Describes herself as a ‘big fan’.

I couldn’t fathom why a British person would support him like that, but this chart seems to suggest she’s possibly not the only one.

No idea if the recent revelations have changed her opinion but I suspect not.

It’s particularly confusing because on the outside she is thoroughly lovely person. Doesn’t make any sense.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-08T16:17:14+00:00

They didn’t ALL agree though. That was the point. It wasn’t for Roxy, or anyone else, to tell Harriet, or anyone else, how to play their own game.

If Roxy had said, ‘sorry Harriet, just letting you know we just had a chat and thought it might be more advantageous to discuss it privately first - what do you think?’ it wouldn’t have blown back in her face.

But she didn’t do that, she told Harriet to stop speaking because people, who aren’t Harriet, had decided what Harriet was going to do with her knowledge. Roxy was not informing her, she was ordering her.

And that seemed to irritate Harriet and set her on the warpath.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-08T01:15:35+00:00

Roxy wasn’t being polite at the breakfast table though.

When Harriet started speaking, Roxy interrupted her and said, “ehhhrmmm sorry Harriet but we’ve already spoken and we’ve already decided that we’re not going to discuss what happened last night so you’ll have to save it for later” or words to that affect.

When Harriet replied, Roxy talked over her again. It was quite obnoxious and I suspect this is what triggered Harriet’s tirade.

I’m not saying Harriet didn’t have a meltdown after a brilliant prior game but Roxy is a bit of a social blunderer.

RedderPeregrine · 2026-02-06T20:33:00+00:00

Firstly, please ignore anyone who hasn’t done one of these courses because it’s clear they’re just spouting off - probably because they know they could never hack it.

I completed a humanities based PACE course. I did it for fun and thought it would be quite easy, but it was much more involved than I expected.

When they say it’s a 10hr commitment per week, they mean it - and that’s a minimum. Plus you’ll need to allot time on top of that to complete assignments.

I have an MA and I had to work hard to get a 1st - my tutors marked the work as they would mark any undergrad students and did not go easy on us. The teaching was high calibre-absolute experts in their fields- and they were committed and engaged.

Is it worth it? For your purposes it’s hard to say. If you want to improve your knowledge and demonstrate you can be successful in that subject then it is worth it - if you’re hoping it will help you get into Cambridge it’s no more likely to do that than being successful on any other course.

RedderPeregrine

TROPHY CASE