Valuation Weekend

As part of my plan for selling my flat and moving to some thing bigger (2 bedrooms) I needed to get the flat valued.So on Saturday I had a day sitting around waiting for estate agents to call and value the flat.

I picked three agents partly because they were local and partly because the were on the bigger property websites (primelocation.com, propertyfinder.com) and in the case of the last one because they have just sold a flat in my block and the sold board is nailed to the front.

First up at 10am (and me with a hangover from a pretty good works night out) was a lady from Rubicon. They are the nearest agent, at about 10 doors down the road. She had a good look around, made notes and quoted a price of 215K.

Next Up at 1pm was a chap from Alex Neil, the company I used as a managing agent while I was letting the flat out, they quoted 220-225K partly based on a load on flats nearby on for 230K which were a bit smaller but had water views (a big thing in docklands where I live if you can see the river Thames or a bit of one of the dock the price goes up) and partly on other units they had sold in my block.

Finally at 2:30pm just as a huge rain storm started was the posh lady from Franklin James. She completely turned me around by say I shouldn't try and market the property above 250K (I hadn't planned on it after the first two estimates) but the flat was a good size and she quoted 245K.

They all said the market is still quite good and that a flat like mine would sell in 4-6 weeks. They also all explained about getting a HIPS pack and about sole agent agreements.

It was all very interested and quite fun once the hangover had gone. I'll now have to sit down and think my options through.

Clocks go forward

It's so nice to go home from work while the sun is still out.

It makes you all positive and thinking all is right with the world even when you have to travel home using London public transport.

Back from Skiing and still walking

I did take it easy. In the end I did 5ish days of skiing and only fell over the once.

I found it quite tricky to turn right as my left leg would drag slightly behind me. However I do think some of the technique I learnt last year help so I didn't just try and turn using my knee joint.

I stuck to Green and Blue runs and was going fine not staying out until I got tired until, on Wednesday I fell over while almost stationary. Just one of those over balances that happen on skis some times. I fell on my right side and just ever so slightly twisted my left knee (basically just the weight of the ski and the boot). At first it felt quite sore and I couldn't get enough
power through it (tried to push but nothing happened until I push down with my hand) to clip back into the binding. So I quit for the day.

Oddly enough walking around on it didn't hurt so I guess it's a slight pull on a muscle that you don't normally use for walking! I figure the general weakness of the knee made the twist worse than normal.

So I took it easy for the rest of the week, just a three hours on the Thursday on some green runs (actually bloody scared due to all the out of control beginners rocketing around) and took the Friday off to be a tourist and do some site seeing.

It was a good holiday and I glad to say that being able to ski properly again looks good.

Just have to wait until next year to give it another try...