Green Mermaid Cottage

I made a lot of mistakes when I bought my house.  I think it was a combination of being a naive first-time house buyer, doing it on my own and the fact that I was so tired of dealing with estate agents and every weekend spending my time viewing one unsuitable property after another. So when I saw my current house after a year of searching I thought ‘that will do’ and with insight I could have been more careful and saved myself a lot of money and heartache.   This is what I had learned from the process of buying a home in England. Mortgage brokers are really useful  One thing I at least got right was using a mortgage broker. I had started a new job recently and I was still in my probation period (which some mortgage lenders do not like) and I also had some additional income from freelancing which made things a bit more complicated. Using a broker meant that they could approach the best lender for someone in my situation and use their contacts and knowledge to make the p...

In August 2023 I finally managed to move out of London and realise my dream of buying my first house on my own, by the sea. But within the first month in my new little house in a pretty Kent seaside town everything went wrong and I ended up facing the biggest health and financial crisis of my life.  THE HOUSE OF HORRORS... I had been so glad of my escape to the sea and so eager to start a new, healthier life. I craved change and peace of mind after some tough years marred by physical and mental health issues, increasing anxiety, stress and panic attacks.  I soon realised the survey on the house had missed many urgent issues. It needed a full rewire, a new boiler (found to be faulty on the day I got the keys), some new guttering, removal of a gas fire (described as a 'death trap' by the gas engineer) and a kitchen drain gulley replaced.  Then, just as the work was starting on the above, there was a bathroom leak that sent water cascading on the ceiling and wall below. The ...