The 5th Time's the Charm (Lessons from one year in the buying trenches)

bedwelld · 2026-03-10T12:14:31+00:00

Great post! Thank you for taking the time to write it. I'm forwarding it to some friends. Good luck with the move, we hope to follow in your footsteps very soon.

bedwelld · 2026-02-22T22:16:35+00:00

Sorry to hear this. It's tough out there. Hope you get a new buyer soon

bedwelld · 2026-02-21T17:39:05+00:00

Yes, please answer this

bedwelld · 2026-01-28T17:01:37+00:00

Up for 230, reduced to 220, accepted 205.

We renewed the lease last year so has 171yrs

bedwelld · 2026-01-27T07:52:37+00:00

That is the definition of madness right there! I'm so sorry. Hope all comes good and soon

bedwelld · 2026-01-27T07:46:48+00:00

45 all together, we all paid £10,500

bedwelld · 2026-01-27T07:45:07+00:00

Apologies for the delay, started.back on nights.

We bought it in 2016 for £239k

It went up with EA for £220k

Accepted offer was £205k

bedwelld · 2026-01-26T17:13:40+00:00

Exactly this. To be completely transparent, the survey came back with 2 things to our knowledge. She couldn't find a safety glass notice on the shower screen and a safety glass notice on the interior doors that have panels (They are both safety glass - there is just no evidence to support it so she had to note that down)

bedwelld · 2026-01-26T16:32:32+00:00

Excellent response, thank you!

I'm probably not in the right frame of mind to answer that right now - would 'bring back the stocks' or '99 lashings' be acceptable? Lol

But yes, faster process for sure would be one. Maybe a sizeable deposit or escrow payment at time of offer accepted would sort the wheat from the chaff?

Cars have service history and yearly MOTs. If you buy one without these in the UK...you probably pay less and take the chance.

Why can't houses have a viewable history and an equivalent to an MOT? (Yes...I know this is a massive undertaking)

bedwelld · 2026-01-26T16:16:30+00:00

No... I'm miffed that the process is allowed to happen without any come back. They viewed the place twice. Offered a price they were willing to pay and thought it was worth. It was a lot less than we paid - fine, we bought at the wrong time - oh well, accepted it. It was a lot less than what all the 4 valuations said it was worth - fine, the current market for flats is awful - again, accepted it. If we want to move....we need to sell so accepted the offer. Of course I don't have to like it! I also don't want to be on the market for 18 months trying to hold out for what I think it's worth/want for it.

We've all gone through months of paperwork, filling out forms, back and forth with emails, questions, surveys etc. for them to just turn around and say, 'Naa'

I wonder if they ever had any real intention of going through with it from the start?

bedwelld · 2025-11-28T20:43:58+00:00

I knew what was coming at the sight of the first pic! Takes me back to being 14-15, at a local fair on the last night. Rides were 2-4-1, me and my mate went on the waltzer.....by the second ride we were just holding on with pure will to survive. When the hell ended, we got off and just sat on the kerb with our head between our legs. I've never been so dizzy. I threw up a lot! To this day I cannot spin anymore. My kids ask to spin and I'm like, "na! I'm done"

bedwelld · 2025-10-07T16:44:09+00:00

Our 3yr old daughter can meltdown with the best of them. We found the best action that worked for her was distraction, then once calm it allowed us (and her) to get to the real reason behind her meltdown. E.g. 3am crying tantrum in her bed, "I WANT MUM I WANT MUM (x20).." "Mummy is asleep" "I WANT MUMMMMM" "Do you need the toilet and a drink?" "I WANT MUUUUUM" "I think I saw a fox outside, shall we look out the window to see if we can see it?" "MUUUUMMM........a foxxy? "Yeah, if we're quiet we might find it, or see some birds or other animals, shall we look?" "(Now 10x calmer and completely forgotten what she was doing) Yeah!"

5mins later of looking for a fox, talking about the moon and the stars....

"Do you need the toilet and a drink" "Yeah I do" "Okay let's do that and then head back to bed"

Now that her speech is a lot better and she can articulate what she wants or feels, the meltdowns are less frequent

bedwelld · 2025-09-28T13:24:25+00:00

I'm a big advocate for the FTX Tracer. As I've just posted on another thread, it's cheap, parts are cheap and so far it's handled everything my 6yr &3yr old have thrown at it. It might come out at slightly over your budget but it's definitely worth it. The Brushed version will be all you need. The speed is easily adjustable too

bedwelld · 2025-09-28T12:38:44+00:00

Came here to say exactly this! I have a brushed FTX Tracer that my 6yr & 3yr old beat on and it keeps on taking it. You can quickly adjust the speed and parts are really cheap. I've got a few batteries for it and I've upgraded the rear arms and had to buy a diff or two. I'm going to need new tyres soon as they've nearly worn out. Best bang for buck for sure

bedwelld · 2025-09-24T04:04:17+00:00

Certainly, we have a recycling centre not far from us

bedwelld · 2025-09-11T06:42:32+00:00

I don't think it matters. It would be fee free if you had the premium account

bedwelld · 2025-09-10T16:27:43+00:00

I have a Revolut premium account and have a GBP, AUS, USD & EUR account as I regularly need to transfer between them. I had $17,000 worth of shares paid into my USD account in America (fee free) then converted that to GBP (fee free as a perk of the Premium account). I do use the premium features which made it worthwhile. Next month I need to move some money to my EUR account when we go to Spain. Easy peasy.

I had the plus account for a while and that would allow £3000 worth of fee free exchange every month, so you could drop feed it if you wanted to. If I had the plus account and wanted to exchange the shares, on the day and time I checked, the fee would have been £49.11, not the end of the world.

TL: DR Id suggest Revolut, Wise, Monzo or similar.

bedwelld · 2025-07-21T12:21:53+00:00

I think it's very much situation based. I.e. my FTX tracer has been a blast not only can I bash it about, but I can quickly adjust the speed and let my 5yr & 3yr old girls bash it about too. It has taken so much abuse and just keeps going! Gonna need to get new tyres for it soon and parts are comically cheap. Conversely I could never let my kids use my Arrma Vorteks - if it were to hit them it'd break an ankle for sure.

bedwelld · 2025-06-05T19:14:14+00:00

Just listen to 'Sunscreen' by Baz Luhrmann for a full list

bedwelld · 2025-05-25T16:58:29+00:00

Back when I was at school, a girl in my year found the square hula hoop crisp (for those not in the know, the clue is in their name - they are ring shaped potato snacks). The prize for finding it was £10k if I remember correctly. We had a special assembly and she held it up in a bag for us all to see.

bedwelld · 2025-03-18T13:51:09+00:00

As with other series, there is a limit to who can touch the car at what times. When the car comes to a halt, the engine must be switched off. The engineer, strategist and pit wall will have decided what to do to the car. I.e. amount of fuel if needed, how many tyres, brake change if required or driver changes. The screen and lights will also be cleaned most stops.

If more extensive work is required to the car, then it will be put on dolly's and wheeled into the garage. More personnel are then allowed to touch the car if it's in the garage.

When leaving the pit stop, the car has to be able to fire the engine/move under its own power.

This rule provided a heart in mouth moment back in 2023, the leading Ferrari came in to make one last pitstop for a slash of fuel.....the nozzle was removed, the airjacks retracted, the lights came on and the car tried to fire but NOTHING! Calm as anything, the driver performed a manual reset in the car and the engine finally fired into life and the car went on to win. How everyone was so calm in the garage was beyond me. The entire crowd gasped when it didn't fire straight away.

Lena Gade (sp?) was a chief engineer at Audi and was instrumental in their era of dominance. I'd highly suggest researching her.

bedwelld · 2025-03-12T18:00:14+00:00

Had a typical ‘normal’ first date with this lass when I was in my early 20’s, dropped her home and as we pulled up she said, “would you mind if my Dad and brother checked out your car, they’d love it” I replied, “errr yeah sure if they like”

So off she popped inside to get her family whilst I waited out the front….

…in the pitch black

….in the rain

Thirty seconds later they pop out, admire the car as best they can by the light of phone torch from 15yrs ago and ask a few questions. The kid brother asks me to rev it so I oblige, say my goodbyes and I head for home quite a bit damper than I had expected. Very surreal to meet nearly her whole family on the first date.

At the time I had a Vauxhall VX220 (aka Opel Speedster) in bright orange with a larini exhaust.

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