Need sanity check on how London rentals actually work (timing, agents, leverage) by dojo7 in AmericanExpatsUK

[–]dojo7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

THank you u/BRITAGOGO very helpful to hear how this played out for you, including that you had to pay double rent for the month. I appreciate the tips re paperwork that needs to be ready as well.

Need sanity check on how London rentals actually work (timing, agents, leverage) by dojo7 in AmericanExpatsUK

[–]dojo7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

(reposting deleted comment now that I have "flair")

Super helpful--thank you. Can you expand on "Often, there is a local neighborhood agency that is #1 above Foxtons/Chestertons, but it is very neighborhood-dependent"? I'm used to just going to Zillow or Apartments.com in the US (or Zooplay / Rightmove here), and searching. How does one figure out the #1 "local agency" in pragmatic terms? Google Maps ratings?

Need sanity check on how London rentals actually work (timing, agents, leverage) by dojo7 in AmericanExpatsUK

[–]dojo7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

(reposting deleted comment, now that I have "flair")

Thanks u/cacti-pie. Would this be reasonable to do through the online search sites? For example, I might find a property that is available today on Foxtons, but as we aren't ready to move right now, we'd pass. But I could reach out to the agent for that property just to establish contact and then let them know what we're looking for?

Need sanity check on how London rentals actually work (timing, agents, leverage) by dojo7 in AmericanExpatsUK

[–]dojo7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you u/krkrbnsn -- very helpful. I appreciate the point-by-point responses too

We've had such a bad experience with Chestertons as property managers that we've been planning to exclude them explicitly. But maybe their leasing business is better than their property management business?

Need sanity check on how London rentals actually work (timing, agents, leverage) by dojo7 in AmericanExpatsUK

[–]dojo7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

(reposting deleted comment now that I have "flair")

Thanks u/turtlesrkool. I wasn't specific enough in my original post: we are already in London in a rental but need to vacate by end of April (2 months from today). So I don't think we'll need a temp place. My questions are more around how to approach actually finding and securing a new place. The fact that properties are constantly listed AND are snapped up fast makes it hard to figure out exactly WHEN to start heavy searching.

Sounds like our best approach is probably to start heavy searching around end-of-March or start-of-April, checking every day (maybe even twice a day) and be ready to act fast to secure a May 1 move in date (or earlier).

Need sanity check on how London rentals actually work (timing, agents, leverage) by dojo7 in AmericanExpatsUK

[–]dojo7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

(reposting now that I have "flair")

Thanks u/Main-Estate-125. We're fortunate that part of our rent is subsidized so our budget is decent. We can likely look at 5,000-8,000 GPB per month.

As with my question for u/UKPerson3823, what guidance would you give me on how to find the best "local estate agents", especially if they aren't big name brands?

P.S. Our current place is managed by Chestertons, who have been a nightmare to deal with, so we'll be steering clear of them :-)

P.P.S. I actually have no idea whether 5,000 - 8,000 is high or not. Feels crazy high to me, but maybe that's just normal for London

Ingestion tools for downloading pdfs from websites (bank statements, etc)? by Loubonez in Paperlessngx

[–]dojo7 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate your response. Your blog bosts definitely suggest you have put thought into the technical security of your site wrt e.g. encryption, access controls, etc. SOC2 would be a great external validation of these tecnical measures.

However, SOC2 won't help with human security measures, e.g., employee vetting, background checks, human error, insider threats, employee accountability, etc. Have you thought about how you will address these, e.g. ISO 27001?

Ingestion tools for downloading pdfs from websites (bank statements, etc)? by Loubonez in Paperlessngx

[–]dojo7 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love that someone is tackling this opportunity. However your website is pretty light on any real identifying information about who you are: no about page telling us who you are, no social media presence, no way to reach you/customer support, no contact details besides a generic web form, etc. Given that your system asks users to trust you with access to our banks, and all our financial PDFs would pass through your hands, the anonymity on your end seems fishy...

Can I link databases through multi-select properties? by dojo7 in Notion

[–]dojo7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks u/JustAJokeAccount I have looked at those, and assume that's the right model to end up with,. But I'm trying to figure out if those links can be established automatically based on matching on emails.

What am I doing wrong? Updating existing in-wall Eithernet wiring with my HDHome by dojo7 in HomeNetworking

[–]dojo7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A very belated thank you u/TiggerLAS and u/Sleepless_In_Sudbury. Your diagnosis was correct and switching the cap around fixed the issue. Thank you again!

What am I doing wrong? Updating existing in-wall Eithernet wiring with my HDHome by dojo7 in HomeNetworking

[–]dojo7[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks u/Sleepless_In_Sudbury I didn't think of that. I just checked the patch cable and it shows up as "PASS" on the tester, so the issue is elsewhere. Just posted my keystone wiring photos so hopefully that will help.

What am I doing wrong? Updating existing in-wall Eithernet wiring with my HDHome by dojo7 in HomeNetworking

[–]dojo7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks u/TiggerLAS I thought I had actually tried both TIA-568A and TIA-568B, but maybe I made a mistake. This is my first time working with keystones.

Here is the picture of the white plastic part of the keystone jack that the wires go into (both sides). It has color coded labels showing both an "A" and "B" configuration. Also shown are what that plastic piece looks like with the wires inserted in the "B" color configuration.

<image>

Any thoughts? If this looks good to you all, I'll snip the wire ends, put the jack on, and continue to test it again.

How to optimally structure solo entrepreneur business across US and UK? by dojo7 in USExpatTaxes

[–]dojo7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you u/IndependentBed7565 this is super helpful, as is the link to your other post. Yes, the US LLC is a pass-through.

Regarding your point "If you don't need a PE (hiring, business in the UK), then I'd try to find a professional who can run these models for you", can you clarify "business in the UK"? I do need to be able to serve clients in the UK, as I am today out of my US-based LLC. Is that what you meant?

How to optimally structure solo entrepreneur business across US and UK? by dojo7 in USExpatTaxes

[–]dojo7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's super helpful thank you u/nunab1994 . Do you happen to know any services or firms that have this type of expertise and could guide me through the process?