Buying
What a chain actually is, and why it breaks
A chain is a set of simultaneous transactions that must all complete on one day. Any link can stop it.
Anouk Wijnands
Contributing writer, The Property Decision
Anouk writes about buying, offers and how a chain actually holds together.
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18 articles
Buying
Buying versus renting is arithmetic, not a proverb
Dead money is a slogan. The comparison is a sum with transaction costs, forgone returns and a time horizon in it.
Buying
Working out the year a purchase breaks even
Break-even is a calculation you can do on one sheet of paper, and it decides whether a short stay makes sense.
Buying
What best and final offers actually tests
A sealed bid is not an auction. You are bidding against an unknown field with no chance to respond.
Buying
Gazumping, gazundering and the price of a non-binding agreement
In some systems an accepted offer commits nobody until a later formal step. Everything spent before it is at risk.
Buying
How to view a house when you are not a surveyor
A viewing cannot replace a survey, but it can tell you whether a survey is worth paying for.
Buying
The second viewing is a different job from the first
The first viewing decides whether you like it. The second should be spent testing the things liking it made you ignore.
Buying
New build or older house: two different cost curves
One front-loads certainty and pays for it in price; the other front-loads risk and pays for it in maintenance.
Running a Home
Service charges, reserve funds and where the money goes
A service charge is a budget you contribute to and rarely control. Reading the accounts tells you which kind of building you are…
Running a Home
A year of home maintenance in the order it should happen
Most household repairs are seasonal in origin, and doing the right tasks in the right months prevents most of them.
Running a Home
Trees, drains and the liabilities you share with neighbours
Some of the most expensive things attached to a home are jointly owned, jointly caused or entirely on someone else land.
Running a Home
Replacing a heating system before it replaces itself
A heating system that fails in winter is replaced at the worst price, on the worst timescale, with the least choice.
Running a Home
What a home costs while nobody is living in it
An empty property still incurs taxes, insurance, maintenance and deterioration, and several of those change once it is unoccupied.
Buying
What the lender does after your offer is accepted
An accepted offer starts a second process you cannot see. The lender begins assessing the property as carefully as it assessed you.
Buying
Buying a property that already has tenants in it
A tenanted purchase transfers an agreement as well as a building. What you inherit is decided before you exchange, not after.
Buying
The questions to ask before you make an offer
Almost everything that decides whether a purchase runs smoothly is knowable before you offer. Very little of it appears on the…
Buying
Moving day, and the week either side of it
Completion is a banking event with a removals lorry attached. Almost everything that goes wrong on the day was scheduled wrong…
Running a Home
Service contracts, warranties and what they really cover
Cover for boilers and appliances is insurance sold as convenience. Whether it is worth buying depends on the exclusions rather than…