Moving House – Part 2 – Viewing

Time for part 2 in the moving house series (you can find part 1 here), again I'm not an expert or a letting agent, I'm just someone who has rented a lot of different places and has some experiences to share. If you have any questions or tips of your own leave them in the comments!

You’ve found a place you can afford, accepts whatever you need accepting (pets, smokers, children etc) and you like the look of, time to go and see it! What should you bear in mind when looking around?

• It’s a good idea to take someone with you even if you’ll be living there alone, as it’s good to get a second opinion, Tom often asks questions I wouldn’t think of and vice versa. Definitely don’t go alone if you’re meeting someone from the paper etc (i.e. not a reputable letting agent) as you do not know that this person is genuine so meeting them alone in a strange house is not a sensible idea.
• Don't be afraid to take your camera or to ask to take photos on your phone, if you are viewing a lot of places it helps to compare them if you have some pictures (real ones not the agent ones that sometimes make rooms appear larger or miss out not so nice parts).

  

  Pictures from our viewing, trying to capture the size and shape of the rooms

  
  
  

• Ask for measurements or take a tape measure with you, also measure your larger furniture (if you’ll be taking it with you) before you go on any viewings and take those measurements with you. If you are really set on taking a certain piece of big furniture (for example our sofa is quite huge so if we moved now we’d need a good size living room) see if there is a place it would fit.

  

  Me measuring the bedroom at our second viewing

• If you find somewhere you like, ask when the next viewing is before making any snap decisions. For example we often view places quite late in the evening so are likely to be the last viewing they have that day – giving us the opportunity to go away and think it over and call first thing if we want to take it.
• If they have another viewing straight after you or have someone else interested you might have to think a little quicker, if you really love the place and are sure you want it then it’s your decision to go for it if you want to. I’d recommend at least going away and thinking about it for a little while though, even if it’s just an hour!
• Walk around the local area after or before the viewing, to see what’s near to the property like shops, bus stops etc. It also helps to get a feel for the area and how safe it is and what the neighbourhood is like. You could use this as your time to think it over, just an hour wandering around to make up your mind.
• Don’t feel rushed on the viewing, I have experienced this in some places where you get a 2 minute walk through of the property then you feel like the agent or landlord is waiting for you to get out! It might be that they have another viewing booked or just don’t allow enough time, but make sure you have a good look around and ask any questions. Book a second viewing if needs be.
• Some agents might ask for an ‘administration fee’ or some other name for a non refundable deposit which stops them showing anyone else the property and pretty much just holds it until you sign the contract. I paid this on my first rental and have never done it again. It’s better to have the deposit ready and be able to confidently say ‘I’ll take it, cancel your other viewings’. I have been asked for this fee again and said no, I’d rather just get the deposit paid and the contract signed rather than pay them £200 to not show it to anyone else when I’ve already said I’ll have it! You do hear stories as well about unscrupulous agents taking this payment then still showing the property. Really if you have said you want the property, you have the deposit ready and are ready to sign the contract then there is no reason to pay this
• Ask questions, it seems like loads of questions to ask when you’re there but it’s better to know everything before deciding on taking a place rather than moving in and finding something you really need isn't there, think about things like:

1. Look at the heating and cooling systems and energy efficiency, where is the boiler? Is it pretty new? Are the radiators new or do they look old? When were they last replaced and serviced? Does it have night storage heating (I hate night storage heating)? Is there air con? Are the windows double glazed or single? Are there any draughts around the doors or windows? You don’t want to move into a nice affordable place just to find it costs a fortune to heat or cool!
2. Think about amenities and services - can you change utility provider (this should be a yes by law in the UK)? Who is the current provider? Is there a phone line and internet? If so where are the plugs for them? Is there cable/satellite/freeview? If not could you get it installed if you wanted to.
3. Think about questions other than the physical aspects of the property, like when would they want the rent (monthly usually) and how do they want you to pay (usually direct debit)? How often do they do inspections? What is their policy on repairs (timeframe, amount etc)?

Next in the series will be signing on the dotted line, some tips on signing the contract. I also am working on finishing the bedroom up so I can show you some after photos, and we might be finally getting our damp solution fitted next week!

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Moving House Part one – Finding a new place

I decided to start a new regular series on moving house, another 4 parter. To be honest it was mainly because of lack of anything else to post at the moment, as home projects have taken a back seat. However a lot of my other projects are wrapping up and I hope to get at least some garden work done this weekend so I should have a courtyard update soon!

I'm not an expert on moving home but I think with the amount of times we've done it in only 5 years of living together we are getting close enough! We've lived in 4 properties over 5 years, our average is 1.5 years per place (some longer some shorter)...I hope we won't move again until we buy somewhere now! I thought it would be good to share the experiences we've had. 

So you've decided you want to move or been given notice by your landlord to leave, what’s the next step? If you've been given your notice, first take a deep breath and don’t panic! The first time we were given 2 months notice I was so upset that we had to move (even though I didn't love the place we were in) as I thought we’d never find a place in time, but we were actually out with time to spare!

A few hints and tips we've found along the way when house hunting:

• Sit down and think about where you want to move, and what you need from your new place. We make a list of absolutely essential requirements (cost, location, size and area are often the main ones) then a second list of things that would be nice but you could live without or work around (near shops, off road parking etc).
• Stick to your essential requirements (for us compromising on them has only lead to being dissatisfied after moving in), but don’t be too fussy on the rest especially if you have a deadline to move. For example somewhere must meet all of our essential requirements for us to book a viewing. We decided this time we wanted at least a one bedroom so discounted any studios, it must have central heating, so we didn't bother looking at anything with night storage heating and so on.  The ‘would be nice’ list comes second, it’s fantastic to find somewhere that meets the requirements of both lists but it is just not always possible. We managed to meet nearly all of our 'would be nice' points and our essential list and we are the happiest we've ever been with a property.
• Call or email all your local letting agents and let them know your requirements, and start getting the local newspapers (or steal the classifieds/property section from someone who does) and look in there every day. Obviously you may be in more of a hurry if you've been given your notice, so look at every available place to find advertisements – Local papers, property websites, do a search engine search for your area, classifieds websites as well as lettings agents.
• Also tell everyone you know that you’re looking for a new place, I knew 2 people at work who live near where we wanted to move to so they were looking out for ‘to let’ signs in their area for us.
• If you both work set aside a day per week for viewings so you can just book in a viewing without having to keep checking with each other and calling agents back.
• Being clear on what you want will save time when viewing, we found that there were a lot of places out there to let and we had to narrow it down a bit otherwise we would have spent hours looking round flats that weren't suitable. 
• Try not to get caught in the trap of thinking ‘I’ll just move there for now then look for somewhere else’, if you've been given a deadline to move it can be scary but persevere looking for somewhere. We had real trouble finding somewhere to take us with pets and I considered moving into somewhere like a studio temporarily then moving once the 6 month or year contract was up – but that would just mean more upheaval and a year of living somewhere we didn't like. 2 of us plus 2 cats and 2 turtles in a studio is not something I would like to try but I got near to considering it.
• However, if it gets really close you might need to think about temporary accommodation, like staying with family or friends and storing your stuff while you carry on looking. 
• Or take a good harsh, honest look at your list of essentials, is it too long? Is something always an issue? Do your expectations match your budget? If not one of them needs to change. Do you really need hardwood floors and fireplaces and is that holding you back being on your absolutely essential list when your budget isn't getting you those period feature properties? Get to the reality of what you really need, budget, bedrooms and pets would be all I really need if I was struggling to find better, the rest (new fittings, nice decor, near shops etc) is 'would be nice'.
• Make sure you ask all the relevant questions to you before going to look at somewhere, like price, area, pets allowed, size etc. Don’t assume just because the agent is calling you that it’s suitable, as sadly I often found this not to be the case. We moved for the first time with pets last time and although when I registered with all the agencies I told them we had cats we often got calls back about places that didn’t accept pets! One agent was very keen and sent me weekly emails of properties they had ‘selected’ for us, but when I called back to make enquiries about them most of the time nearly all of them were not suitable being either too expensive, not allowing pets or not in the area we’d asked for!
• Ask for the full address and look it up before you go, we asked for areas in the suburbs between Gloucester and Cheltenham or in Cheltenham, but there are areas within this that are not so desirable. For example, we got a call for a house, 2 bedroom with a garden and a driveway etc, within our price range and available now. I booked the viewing and looked up the address on Google maps only to find it was in an area that I did not want to live in (locals might know where I mean!) so I cancelled it.

Feel free to add any more tips in the comments, I hope that’s helpful it’s really just some common sense guidelines for looking for rental properties. Next up will be viewings. 

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Renting with pets - Part 1

I promised this post ages ago back in one of my first posts, as we rent with pets I get a few questions on how that works from friends and family wanting to know how we get on or looking to maybe get a pet themselves. I've broken this up a bit otherwise it would have been a long wordy post, so this is the first part on how to find a pet friendly rental.

I love our pets, and once we get our own house we will have a dog (the cats will not be impressed), but I would be the first to admit being a tenant and having pets can be a bit of a tricky situation. So how do you go about finding somewhere pet friendly or convincing your current landlord to let you have pets? We got our cats when we lived at our last property which we rented from family. This was therefore a lot more lenient, and we had no trouble getting the cats, but when we moved it proved to be difficult so here are some hints and tips on what I found when trying to find a pet friendly rental.

• Just ask. If the advert says no pets then it’s probably no pets, but if it doesn’t mention pets at all then it’s worth asking. If you really like the look of a place but it says no pets then it’s actually probably still worth phoning and asking, if the property has been on the market a while and the landlord wants to get a tenant they might consider it, and the worst they can do is say no. The same goes for your current landlord, if you moved in with no pets you probably didn't ask if pets are allowed, so just ask.



'Don't look at that look at MEEEE'

• The split I found was about 80% no pets, and 20% yes to small pets. Although this will differ on area and type of property (e.g. large family homes in the countryside might allow pets more often than small flats in the city). Obviously that 20% was then reduced further by location, price, our requirements and taste etc, so about 10% of places I rang to enquire about were actually viable for us and our pets. That sounds like a terrible ratio and it was a little soul destroying being told no time after time, but we got there in the end to our lovely flat. It just takes more effort to find a rental when you have pets.

• Having pets will limit you while house hunting in more ways than one, as you also need to find somewhere suitable for your animals as well as somewhere where they’re allowed. For example we saw some lovely 3^rd or 4^th floor flats but we wouldn't have been able to let the cats in and out so they were not a possibility for us, we wanted ground floor or a very low 1^st floor.
• The turtles have never been an issue, once people find out that they never leave the tank they’re pretty OK with them. So I’d say things like fish, lizards, snakes, frogs etc that live in tanks and rarely come out and mess up the place are likely to be pretty acceptable, although definitely check first that they are allowed.

If only they stayed this small!

• We found that private landlords are more likely to allow pets rather than going through an agency. Often agencies will have a blanket rule for all their properties with regards to things like pets, smokers, benefits etc, and as it is not their property are not going to bend the rules.
• Be upfront and honest, I ask about pets on the first phone call to enquire about a property. Some people said to me to go and view a place first and show our interest then once we have said we would like to take the property say we have pets as the landlord is more likely to allow it if you are already there. I personally don’t think this is the best way to do things, it seems like a waste of time for everyone involved. In this rental market places go so quickly that I don’t think it makes any difference to the landlord that you are keen on the place if they do not allow pets, as they will find a tenant with no pets just as quickly.
• Although it doesn't hurt to play up your positives, for example Tom and I could move in right away and had a deposit ready, we have both been in our jobs for years and have great references from work and our previous landlords, we have great credit and are looking for a long term let…but oh yes we have 2 little cats and 2 even littler turtles.

• You might be asked to sign a pet clause in the contract, or pay an additional deposit. Think about what you would be prepared to do, we just had an addition to our contract that we have 2 cats so would need to rectify any damage they caused but obviously we would expect to do this any way. We weren't asked for any extra money on the deposit but I have heard of people being asked to do this, the amount that would be reasonable to ask for would depend on the rent of the property.
• If the place you are renting now allows pets, or you ask your current landlord and they say yes, think about what would happen if you had to move. The nature of renting often means you move more often than if you owned a place and it is not always your choice, so just bear in mind that you might struggle to find another pet friendly place. Maybe research the market in your area first and see how many more pet friendly places there are. I wish we had done this before getting our cats, we might have waited otherwise or would at least have been prepared for how hard it was to find somewhere else.
• There are definitely places around that allow small pets like cats, turtles, fish, hamsters etc even if they are hard to find. Dogs and multiple pets appear to be more of an issue though. Think about what animal you want to have and if they are going to be a problem for future landlords.



Who could say no to that face?

• Attitude. One lady said to me on the phone that 2 cats was a problem but 1 would be OK ‘I suppose’ (like she was doing me a massive favour), would I still like to view the property? I said no, what was I supposed to pick my favourite and leave the other one behind? A lot of landlords and agents I spoke with had very negative attitudes to pets, and some were even downright rude when I asked about pets, even though their ad didn't actually state ‘no pets’. Which I did point out to a few rather rude agents and landlords. My pets are my family, I am not prepared to leave them behind or choose between them so I never even considered these very insensitive offers or comments. Unfortunately as a tenant sometimes you have to deal with rude landlords or agents, for some reason a few of them seem to view tenants as an inconvenience and if you ring with anything other than a grovelling attitude asking them to please please please let you view their property then they get rather annoyed. I take the opinion that I wouldn't want to rent from this type of person anyway if they are rude or unhelpful, I’ll take my money elsewhere.

That’s about it really, if you have anything to add please add it in the comments! Next month - preparing a rental property for pets and how to minimise damage in those key first weeks.

6 months in - what do we love?

Another kind of recap post, on what we love in our new home.

If you look back to our first few posts, you can see we were given our notice at our last place. Although it was not the ideal home for us and I was starting to get ideas about moving (we move on average every 2 years and had been there nearly that long...), but even so moving was not our decision. Looking back though I am so much happier here than I was last year, I will share a history of each place we've rented and it might get ugly but I think it's important to lay out why I think I'm informed on most problems you could encounter being a tenant!

Any way back to the point, firstly what do I love about our flat?

1. The location. I don't have my own car because I don't need one. I can walk to work and get the bus to my other work (I'm split between 2 hospitals). We're near enough to the town that we can walk to the town centre and other areas with shops, bars, restaurants etc. However we aren't actually in town so it's quiet and there is parking etc.
2. The size, we have the 2 hallway/extra rooms which are extra to what you usually get in a one bedroom. The rest of the rooms are also really well proportioned, we seem to have the perfect amount of space and I can clean over the whole place in a couple of hours. Plus it doesn't cost a fortune as it is still really a one bedroom.
3. The garden, love having some outdoor space, it's a manageable size and no lawn to mow!
4. The landlords, we were concerned that as they live above they might be overly 'involved' but we have only seen them a handful of times, although they have responded to any queries or requests really quickly and reasonably. 
5. It's painted white, not magnolia. I hate magnolia, why does every landlord want to paint everything magnolia?! I love the white walls as we really can go with any colour scheme for accessories and furniture in any room.
6. The quality, the place was freshly decorated and carpeted before we moved in and is really well done.  The light fixtures are all nice and the blinds and curtains are all nice quality. 
7. Money saving, while the flat is £50 per month more than our last place in rent, we have a freeview aerial here so don't pay for cable, the heating is all new and efficient and the place is smaller and generally more modern than our last house (despite being over 100 years older than it) so over the long term should be cheaper to run.
8. The area, Cheltenham in general is a nice place to live in our experience. There is plenty to do and loads of festivals on through the year. There are plenty of nice restaurants and we feel like we have more of a lifestyle here, we sometimes feel a bit common for the area haha (seriously it's a bit posh).
9. It's old, I prefer old buildings to new and I like the wonky walls, sash windows and period details.
10. Maintenance, while the place is pretty low maintenance we also have space and scope to make it our own (obviously in a limited kind of way), but this doesn't over extend into fixing the place up and spending our own time and money on someone else's property. It's in that sweet spot you want as a tenant that you can hang pictures etc but the place doesn't need too much work.

That's the 10 things I love about our new home (at some point I'll also have to stop calling it 'new'), I'll do a post on what we miss or wish we had and what we can do to solve these (very small) issues.

Friday Inspiration

Happy Easter everyone, I'm looking forward to a long weekend and Tom is actually off on Sunday and Monday as well which is nice to spend some time together. I'm going to the home and garden fair at Gloucester Quays tomorrow with my mum and will share details of anything that catches my eye there. It's on Saturday to Monday at the Gloucester Quays shopping centre and looks quite interesting.

This is what I've found inspiring this week, as usual more on my pinterest.

I would love to have a spot like this in the garden, I can imagine swinging away reading a book here all day!

I have a thing for jars and am constantly hoarding them, so I'm always looking for pretty things to do with them

This desk isn't really what we're looking for in a new desk (I'm actually leaning toward something that can be used to eat at as well as for working) but it's just beautiful

You could just soak away your troubles in that bath

This bedroom looks so serene and calm

Hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend, I'm planning to get some quality R&R today and then spend tomorrow at the home and garden fair, then over to Tom's Mum's house for lunch on Sunday and we're thinking of having a day out Monday. So I've got a nice weekend planned, as usual it will probably fly by and we'll be back at work before we know it!

Why we chose our flat

When we were given our notice at our last place we sat down and set our what we were looking for in a new place. I recommend doing this when you're house hunting, we both agreed what was absolutely essential for us in our new home, and we stuck to these rules when browsing advertisements and contacting agents or landlords. Our requirements were:

• Budget - around £600 per month
• Location - town centre or in an area between Gloucester and Cheltenham
• Accepted pets
• Parking (although on street was fine as long as it was readily available)
• Central heating and double glazing - I hate to be cold and we've had terrible experiences before with night storage heaters
• A larger one bedroom or a two bedroom, no studios (We have a lot of stuff as well as two cats, and two turtles in a 4ft tank, so a small one bedroom or a studio would be a bit cramped for us)

We found plenty that fit the bill on most points, but the pets were a problem. There were loads of places that were also taken by the time we called to inquire about them. We had to be out of our place by around the end of December, and by mid November we hadn't found anywhere, hadn't even been on a viewing in fact, I was getting pretty anxious. I then spoke to our now landlady, she was very polite (Not always something I experienced this time while making inquiries, and said cats would be OK,  so we booked in a viewing. The ad said 'lower ground floor' which I was wary of as I had never lived in a basement flat before and it didn't really appeal to me, but she assured me it really is lower ground floor as it has full size windows and its own front and back doors. At this point I was just happy to get a viewing booked for a nice sounding place that accepted cats! The flat met all of our major requirements before we even went to see it, one bedroom, under budget, the cats were welcome (In fact a previous tenant had one), there was on street parking, the location was perfect and the heating was all brand new.

I was pretty excited about this place, and once we went for the viewing it did not disappoint. Although it is lower ground floor, and we were viewing in the evening in November so it was dark, I could see what they meant about it not really being a basement flat, it does have full size windows and in the daytime is pretty light (Except the bathroom which gets no natural light at all, but I don't hang out in the loo too much so I don't mind). When we came in the front door into the hallway and other small room for a minute I thought these were the only living areas and was disappointed, but once we walked through and realised that there was the entrance hall, another small room (now our office) and the living room I was pretty impressed with the space on offer for the budget. The kitchen and bathroom were both modern and in good condition, the bedroom was a large double, and it had a courtyard garden. The flat also met all of our 'would be nice' points, which we set out secondary to the essentials as we could live without them, these were:

• Outside space
• Modern and recently refurbished
• A few ameneties within walking distance - With the town centre about a 10 minute walk away there is pretty much everything we could need within walking distance, but also just over the road there are 2 pubs, a local shop, a takeaway and a vintage guitar shop (which Tom was happy to discover). There are also within about a 5 minute walk parks, a swimming pool and a gym.
• Money saving features and more efficient to run - The flat had a freeview ariel so we wouldn't have to pay for TV and brand new heating.

The main plus points that really made this place stand out for us were:

• The 2 hallways/rooms, which would make up for losing our spare room and attic. Most one bedrooms I had seen comprised of a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen/living area which the front door opened into, with a spare room and attic full of stuff we liked the idea of extra rooms!
• The flat was finished to a high standard, the decorating, plastering, carpets and flooring were all new, and the kitchen and bathroom were modern - I don't think brand new but pretty recent.
• 5 minute walk from my work, meaning we could still only have one car. Tom used to walk to work and I drove, we could just swap and not have to get a second car.
• It had a nice amount of outdoor space and was self contained, so we'd still have our own front door and back door. 
• The landlords seemed nice, and when we said we wanted to think about it they didn't pressurise us by saying they had other viewings (something I've experienced before), they said they didn't have anyone else booked until the end of the week so to think it over.
• It was painted in white, not magnolia, I hate magnolia with a vengence (I didn't mind it so much 5 years ago, but renting does this to you) and white is so much easier to work with.

Even though this was the first place we actually viewed on our house hunt this time, we just fell in love with it and it met all of our requirements, and most importantly we could see ourselves living there. The only downsides we could find were:

• On a busy road, an A road in fact. Once inside you can't hear it, but we were worried about the cats. The solution to this was that the flat is in a long terrace of houses, so we figured if we let them out of the back only, never out of the front, they would actually have to go pretty far to get to the main road, and they never go much further than the garden or next doors garden usually. At our last house they also showed a healthy fear of cars, we lived on a quieter road but there were still plenty of cars going past, and they always seemed to go over the back garden not into the street. We now shut the door between the office and the entrance hallway before opening the front door to make sure they don't get out the front but to be honest they don't even try now, as they're used to going out the back I don't think they even realise there is a front door!
• It was the first place we viewed, so we thought we might just be taking it because we were in a rush to find somewhere and had found it difficult to find a place that accepted the cats and that we liked.

We thought about it and slept on it then when we talked about it the next day we both still really liked the place, and thought even if we viewed 20 others we'd still like this one and would be disappointed if someone else had taken it by then. So we decided to bite the bullet, stop doubting our guts and just take it. I haven't seen another property yet that makes me wish we'd hung on.

So that's what we liked about the flat, why we took it, and how we went about looking for it. 

I'll do another post later on house hunting in general, my experiences, funny stories and how we found each of our properties.