MadManMike

Damn, that's a good price, my 980 sold for more than that!

Boooom. "I am thrilled to confirm I have now exchanged contracts in your purchase and completion is now fixed for 19th April 2021. CONGRATULATIONS !! A perfect excuse to enjoy a celebration or two over the Bank holiday weekend !"

Third time lucky... "I have just received a call from the selling solicitors to say that they now understand the chain above is ready to exchange, with completion 19th April. For compliance on my file, please can you therefore each confirm I have your authority to exchange contracts (committing you to the purchase) with completion on this date."

Someone has, somewhere, at some point. They do say buying a house is one of the most stressful things you can do, so I guess in most cases it's a pain in the arse. It's worth it in the long run though

So yeah, that didn't happen. I thought it was all going too smoothly, based on other peoples experiences, seems like ours is following the natural path after all!

Expecting an email today to say we've exchanged, with a completion date of April 19th... excited is an understatement!

Have a look at Dartmoor, I have a Hornet which is non-boost. Running 160mm fork. Very reasonable price too.

Is there a way to swap the steerer? Just wondering if that tube can be swapped out to allow use of new forks...

My partners family are from WSM, it's not bad, but certainly not the best... I call it Hastings with a paint job

"just" an S4... Understatement of the year! That's awesome, love the wide look too, works really well with those wheels. Can't wait to get another toy to play with, posts like this definitely get the itch going again

What's the blue (purple?) one? All I see is a big old turbo, which is never a bad thing

Not only do the track cars not work, but the photo of them also doesn't... or is it just at this end?

Last week: "Get your deposit together, it's show time!" This week: "Oh, seems like they're right at the start of the process still, hold off on the deposit". OK, SUPER.

How do salaries compare?

Has anyone else been inundated with spam calls since starting the buying process? I get flooded with calls from fake mobile numbers and random towns around the UK, they're all real people trying to flog random shite / offer stuff without actually telling you what they're offering. I had a call from Nairn earlier, which I gather is a small town in Scotland. The chap was "Dan, regarding the funds"... He wouldn't actually explain what the funds were, nor did he know my name, other than "Mike", as that's what I answered the call with. I went from "Sorry, who is this?" to "f**k off" in about 5 seconds. Usually I'm polite on the phone, but I'm getting several of these calls a day... It's getting to the point where I just don't answer now and they'll leave a message if it's legit. Very annoying.

Obviously it doesn't apply to everyone, but house prices on the south coast are generally rising because London high earners are buying them, which drives the prices up. I know this for a fact, because Hastings is being flooded with them - quite a lot of my DJ mates there have moved down from London and still commute there for work (Well, they did, before the shit show of 2020 came into play). Hastings is the prime example, very few locals can buy in the nice areas now, they're all moving to the outskirts where houses cost less. If you look at house prices by area, you'll see that the closer to London or Brighton you are, the higher they get. The same with Reading area, because it's an easy commute to London. London is why the south east is expensive. Same as some of the crazy prices in Cornwall, rich Londoners are buying up places in the nice seaside towns. Don't just take my word for it, here's some actual stats on average salary...

Generally the house prices follow the wages. The people that are buying the super expensive southern stuff work in the city and earn a shit load. Same for me, my rent and general living costs in Bristol are twice what they were in Hastings, but now so is my salary... it all works out the same in the end, pretty much, unless you're in a minimum wage job, then it makes sense to move north and save some cash.

That is awesome news, happy to have been a tiny percentage of what he needed

https://www.twitch.tv/dropeightyfour Next set is 18:00 on Friday, my first set for the new crew, it's a 24 hour raid train

Yeah I meant half an hour from where I currently am, rather than half an hour into Wales. Still riding the MTB, though haven't since October due to poor health... when I did ride, Cwmcarn, FOD, BPW and others were the favourite spots, so it'll be nice to live a bit closer to those too

A little village near Caldicot, quite a change of pace compared to the centre of Brizzle - can't wait

It's more a case of having nothing else to do, to be honest. And yeah, I'm clearing out some old crap, so it makes sense to box up the rest while I'm there... Stuff I don't use often anyway.

Our searches came back today... now we're just playing the waiting game, hopefully for not too much longer. I've already packed a fair bit of stuff, quite keen to move now!

I got head hunted by a DJ crew today, they have some big numbers in terms of viewers. My Twitch channel has really taken off lately and I think it's about to get even better Hard work pays off!

He lives in Tunbridge Wells, pretty high prices around there. I saw houses up in Hull last year and was amazed at what you can get compared to prices in Bristol. Almost like 2 bed here gets a 4 bed up there... madness. That's why we've gone for Wales, a 30 minute drive over the bridge gets you another bedroom or saves you £30k.