A good place to start

Well the new blog for Propertyforbeginners.co.uk is online now and just in time too - I am just about to exchange on my first property.

The first house is in Rushden in Northants - a three bed Victorian terrace in deperate need of a bit ot TLC. I didn't think that I would be able to stetch my budget to a three bed - a one or two bed house was as good as I thought I would get - I even viewed a couple of flats in Peterborough. So when an estate agent in Rushden told me about this place I had to take a look. And it was definately special! I think the word would be mingin! I didnt think people lived in such squalor! The place is in such a mess and the smell is something else! There is no proper inside bathroom (there is a bath upstairs but it is not fixed in properly) and the toilet is in the outside shed which someone has thoughtfully smashed a hole through into the kitchen to allow access to the loo! That's gonna be a job and a half!

The people who live there have pet rats, a dog and a 4 year old boy still in nappies - the smell was so bad that I could still smell it on my clothes an hour after I had left. But it the fact is that if the place was clean and tidy I wouldn't have got it for the price I did. So mid Jan I put in an offer £4K below the asking price and it was accepted.

I have invested in a full building survey - which avoided me making a costly mistake on another possible investment - and that came back without any real surprises.

So fingers crossed we should be there soon.