We are buying a house at the moment through house network and they (touch wood) seem very good to me. They seem to view the whole thing as a process, so whenever something significant happens, they progress to the next stage, with none of the BS that you get from a traditional agent. A couple of examples – when we made an offer, I had an email within half an hour confirming our offer (and detailing the value of the offer) – so we knew that it had been passed on to the seller. When the offer was accepted, Rightmove was updated within a few hours showing the house as SSTC. Also, the seller showed us around the house himself – but this was also the case for other houses that we looked at which used a traditional agent, which makes you wonder what a traditional agent does except tell you lies and put an advert on Rightmove.

We are in the process of buying our first, and the people we are buying off are using an online agent, house network I think. They pay a fixed fee so there is no interest in ramping the price for their commission, and all of the dealings I have had with them have been excellent. All of the other agents we dealt with were complete spivs.

This could be internet rubbish but if you believe this then it could cost The Sun an awful amount of money

4 billion fine?

I aspire to being able to spout some aspirational nonsense with utmost confidence on a thread like this at some point in the future.

Was on 5live yesterday. Horrific.

But what will this do to house prices?

Instead of changing your car, why not change your bike and get a brompton?

I used a broker recently and didn’t pay for it; I could have got the same deal online myself, but the broker did all the paperwork for me.

I’d certainly not want to pay a broker, especially if you also end up paying arrangements fees to the mortgage company

If you can afford the extra payments, go for the 5 year fix for sure. Try not to view it as losing out if rates don’t drop. Alongside the stability, you also don’t have to mess about sorting a new mortgage after only 2 years!

Presta Valve Converter on eBay

It’ll be the especially cheap suited execs on a Saturday, travelling on a Saturday to go the extra mile to seal a deal, and climb the corporate ladder!

I wouldn’t bother, it’ll be full of ‘business executives’ in cheap suits talking loudly on their blackberrys, and preparing PowerPoint presentations on their laptops.

Good luck… You shouldn’t have to put up with that, life is too short!

Singapore flyer is good; London eye type big wheel

Night zoo is also great

You can usually get a few percent cash back with Merlin via quidco

Sorry Binners I have to disagree. The cofresh jalapeno are much hotter than the lemon and chilli, therefore they get my vote. For 70p a bag, I can’t understand why anybody buys expensive kettle chips etc at over 2 quid a bag. I’ve actually considered taking my own crisps to the pub as I like them so much.

I know this thread is about crisps that disappoint, but it is my duty to inform the masses of the finest value for money crisp that you can buy. 70p for a large pack, or often 2 packs for £1 in tesco, this is the perfect snack during these hard economic times

I use them regularly to get tickets to see aston villa, and they have always been very good. They are a ‘partner’ of the club though so I don’t know if the process is slightly different.

If you do go ahead, don’t forget you can get cash back via quidco with viagogo

Can you get a decent level of resistance from rollers?

44 years? Time for a good old bonfire I’d say!

I’m trying to slowly convert to doing everything electronically, to the point of scanning any important paperwork and storing it on my computer. We are moving house next month and one of my jobs is to get all paperwork under control and organised by the time we move.

You can use do not disturb but that has wider implications than just email.

Maybe there is an app on the App Store

6’4 and a large boardman fs

4 pints is my max

Definitely do it yourself. Pretty certain that there is a load of info on moneysavingexpert website

Seems to be a fair bit of work recently, and for the £3 car park fee, what you get at Cannock is brilliant. Yes it’s a trail centre which may not suit everybody, but it makes off road riding very accessible to loads of people which can only be a good thing.

Have you watched pacific? Only just watched band of brothers myself, can’t wait to watch pacific now!

Sorry for being so blatant but I have a spare entrance available in the classifieds

Cheers

Footflaps – I agree. Why pay money to an old boys club to keep them propped up in their Central London property? Central London is hardly a hub for engineering.

Edit: I’m referring to imeche

How about your work canteen?

Told you that the gearbox would sort itself out when the engine issues were fixed. Good on you for keeping at it though.

Haseley Knob

There is a really nice Italian cafe / coffee shop on regent street called corleone.

I got the basic level of AA cover for £2 for a year, so they have plenty of room to give you a discount! 🙂

Pfft. Audi a4 s line 2014 with 5k on clock. Paid 32k 6 months ago. Still going strong.

Penny off a pint? I’d rather that they halved tax on pork scratchings – that’d save me more, and put money into real pubs, not poncy wine bars. 🙂

Has anybody here tried it with Sky Go? I can output via HDMI from my laptop when viewing Sky Go through Chrome, I’d be interested if I could plug one of these into the AV amp and not have to mess with cables. Win7 can sometimes be a pain when trying to connect an external device.

These things are usually cheap for a reason….

I’d also look at Land Registry, Halifax, and Nationwide house price index websites. You can put in a sold price and date, and it then suggests a value on how much the market has moved since that point.

I’m not sure how Zoopla calculate their values, but Land Registry in particular should be quite accurate as it tracks all sales for the entire country (except auction sales)

If you aren’t bothered by the badge, then why not look at the skoda fabia? It uses the same platform as the polo and Audi, and are great cars. Skoda are doing some good deals on them at the moment.

I’ve not used it for months since I changed to an iPhone – iMessage does what I need it to do, without the need for a separate app.