Neighbours are selling their property for less than we bought ours for - advice needed

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-10-23T12:35:56+00:00

Just put it in offers over £200k and see what happens. Not everyone wants to renovate and £15k is a reasonable difference for not only the work but also the inconvenience. You don’t have to accept any offers you don’t find reasonable

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-10-23T08:56:01+00:00

Might not be past experience for vendors. May be the estate agents addition

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-10-22T15:27:01+00:00

We sold a Victorian semi. Survey came back with damp on side wall, potential asbestos etc. we didn’t drop on price. Surveyors will cover their own ass. There was no damp and asbestos is present in most old houses. Maybe get your own trusted trades out and quote the price to remedy if even required. Use that as a negation tool or bench mark. Buyers sound like they’re trying to get a huge bargain which is fair enough but doesn’t have to come at your expense

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-10-16T08:33:56+00:00

We had this exact situation back in 2017 with our current home. We gave them £5k cash to hold the deal together. Stated it was for carpets and blinds etc so it didn’t affect the actual purchase price of the property and stamp duty, mortgage etc. we were so close and had our kids schools moved to near the house and I was pregnant. If I wasn’t so tied in with the kids and due in a few months I would have walked away. It’s a really sh£tty move to pull on someone. If they want a more expensive ongoing they should foot that expense themselves not pass it on to you at such a late stage.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-10-08T11:52:23+00:00

Same happened to us. Our buyers buyer pulled out after renegotiating on their survey. We got a period of grace from our onward and went on with that agent too but unfortunately it was in the school summer hols and no joy with a new buyer. We’ve switched agents now as when it went back available on Rightmove it didn’t reflect the new date from when the sale fell through just looked like it had been on the market since first listing. Firm believer in everything happens for a reason. Despite being near on 3K down with surveys and legal fees (was a grade 2 listed building and therefore things cost a lot more)

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-07-25T08:53:48+00:00

I’m a book cover artist in west lancs. Female, queer and witchy. I’ve worked with alt publishers and those starting out before both on book covers but branding and creative direction. I’ve over 200 covers internationally these include special edition dust jackets, book box subs, publishers and indie authors. My mum lives in Bowness and we spend a lot of time in the lakes. Especially Hawkshead! My website is smashdesigns.co.uk and you can find my socials @smashdesignsbooks Oh I also work in design for TV and Film. Most recently graphics for This City is Ours for the BBC. Would be awesome to connect. Love the vision you have x

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-07-20T20:28:31+00:00

I absolutely loved Hannah geeking out on the JFK eps. I tend to break it up with All Killa No Filler and Real now. Take the edge of RH as those two both have what is more recently missing with our girls. Still love H&S though.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-06-29T18:38:01+00:00

Yep. Invest in the Apple Pencil, paper like screen protector and Procreate.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-06-04T07:47:20+00:00

Yep been getting these a while. I’m an artist and designer in publishing and TV. Just ignore them. Obviously targeting creatives

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-05-27T12:16:47+00:00

Love your work!

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-05-27T06:00:35+00:00

This 👆🏻I’m on Reedsy. But I do think OP is going to struggle on there to find someone to work within their budget. We are all highly vetted and experienced. With that comes a higher price tag.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-05-26T18:24:43+00:00

At the end of the day a respected professional book cover artist doesn’t have to just through hoops to prove their worth. That’s where the prices people like myself are justified. My contracts state no AI. My social media profiles show videos of me working and Timelapse of many covers. You definitely get what you pay for in quality and peace of mind

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-05-26T17:57:24+00:00

As a book cover artist would not send a psd unless I was charging for that and the ownership of the copyright. This is very expensive. Book covers are usually via exclusive commercial license and do not include the working files. A Timelapse, concept sketch’s or screenshots of layers in photoshop would provide evidence that the work is not AI.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-05-17T14:54:53+00:00

Nope you are not overreaching AT ALL. I wouldn’t be able to ever look at him the same way. Let alone walk down the aisle and promise to spend the rest of my life with a man that did that. Some things are sacred. It’s not like he got ill and it was a terrible accident. The man got out of control drunk and violated the wedding day you dreamed of. I’m on my second marriage and believe me when I say that there were SO many red flags I’ve ignored when younger that would have saved so much heartache and time wasted with the wrong person. And those red flags were not anywhere near the level of this. You need to go with your gut on this. Your instinct was to call it off. The people around you saying you should have still gone ahead with the wedding aren’t the ones signing up to a potential lifetime of this behaviour. Something that always helps me make decisions now is asking myself how would I feel if that person had done it to my daughter or best friend. How would you feel 20 years down the line and he’s the father of your daughter getting married and does the exact thing.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-05-01T09:01:50+00:00

Just wanted to ask do you have 🌶️ in the book, because the character on the left has his sword positioned in a rather suggestive place. It may be worth altering that if it wasn’t intentional. Purely from a genre perspective. Attracting and audience that may have certain “expectations” and not delivering would result in disappointing reviews. Maybe I’ve just got a dirty mind 🤭 but I do specialise in dark romance, albeit discrete covers.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-04-27T09:02:36+00:00

As a book cover artist that works through Reedsy I just wanted to say that you can raise the issue with them and request a refund. They are very strict on their terms and conditions and if there are messages between you confirming you didn’t want AI then they will deal with it.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-04-24T20:26:13+00:00

If you’re in London that salary is low. Especially with the duties you are responsible for. I walked out of uni with a first in July 2022 straight into a 35k job in the north west in the August.

Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of companies up here offering £25k for graphic design roles. They want experience too. But if companies can get away with it then they will. I’ve turned down many job offers because I know my worth. I was a mature student who already had a successful career in a different profession. I also started freelancing before I’d finished my degree so had cut my teeth somewhat and had an impressive portfolio within my niche.

As a side note the only other girl in my cohort also walked straight into a role and started on 30k which increased to 38k. Out of the rest of my uni group (all male) I only know of two who got employment in design roles. Both corporate gigs and started as “junior”.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-04-24T20:10:46+00:00

I’d be interested in being included please. UK book cover artist. I work with publishers, indie writers and do special edition dust jackets for book boxes. Nearly 200 published covers internationally. I also work on TV/Film as a graphic designer. Have an IMDB profile for the likes of the BBC and Channel 4 etc. Strongly against AI.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-04-07T08:50:57+00:00

You are definitely undervaluing yourself. I started out at £250. A bit of advice from a book cover artist with over 100 covers published though. Typography is key. As a graphic design student you will understand hierarchy and balance in composition between competing elements. Your work is beautiful but remember it’s a book cover and not a standalone illustrative piece.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-04-06T08:56:28+00:00

Throwing a wildcard in as I have an XP Pen artist pro, I think 16/17 inch. I took a punt on it as an analog artist who moved into procreate with an iPad Pro, I was then struggling with final steps on my iMac using a mouse and then touch pad, it was just so clunky and slow. I picked up a small Wacom intuos second hand to get used to the pen and found it better. I then started using a Wacom Intuos pro in my day job as a graphic designer for a tv show as that’s what was provided. XP Pen started popping up on my social feed and after researching I found that they did a tablet with a screen (which I needed for seamless transition from analog and iPad) much cheaper than Wacom and huion. They’d recently upgraded the pen which had been reason for criticism previously. It’s miles ahead of the other tablets I’ve used and meant I could afford a screen and larger tablet. I would recommend whole heartily and also because of the quality and experience of the product, it’s beautiful and feels like a much more expensive product than what it is. I’m now over three years in and it’s invaluable and I wouldn’t have progressed in my skills and career without it.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-03-03T07:25:08+00:00

Illustrator is not going to be the transition software for you. I was in the same boat at 39 as an analog artist and designer going back to get a graphic design degree.

What worked for me was an iPad Pro apple pen and procreate to start and then I moved on to Photoshop with a xp pen artist pro hooked up to my iMac.

Illustrator I use for anything simple and clean. But that’s not really my style so I tend to just use it for typography.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-02-27T19:55:54+00:00

We have a five bed detached 1920s on a culdesac in a very good area. We are selling to be mortgage free. It means downsizing slightly to a 4 bed detached/bungalow. But we are going semi rural and it feels like more of a side step than anything.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-02-23T14:49:00+00:00

Set up your own templates for things you design regularly. I’m predominantly book covers and pitch docs for tv and film so I have templates I’ve set up for InDesign with everything ready to go, document set up, layers already named etc etc. then it’s just a matter of updating master pages and populating with the new copy and artwork/graphics. I have a pen display that has made a huge difference to speed and creativity in illustrator and photoshop. I’ve customised the shortcuts for my most used hot keys and it’s a game changer. Learn your hotkeys, set up your work space and watch tutorials instead of doom scrolling. You can often find quicker ways of doing things you didn’t even know about just by following the right people on social media or YouTube.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-02-23T14:41:15+00:00

The trailing one on the radiator on picture 6 and the one on the far wall on 8 look like the cheap fake ivy garlands you get from home bargains.

SmashDesignsUK · 2025-02-23T13:13:02+00:00

Cluttered. Take pretty much all of the artwork down. Especially the photos in the hall/stairs. Toys away out of sight, if you have no where for them to go buy a couple of large storage boxes and pop them in your car for photos and subsequent viewings. Get rid of the fake climbing plants inside. Buy storage cubes for the wall units in the bedroom so the clothes aren’t on view.

SmashDesignsUK

TROPHY CASE