Question London baby!

[Killswitch]

Hi all,

There's a strong possibility that I will soon be doing my best slack-jawed yokel in the big city and will have eschewed my love of all things Northern for the altogether more hectic London experience.

Firstly, I'll be moving down on my own first and my missus will be left 'oop north' to sell the house. She can transfer her job down to London with no issues, but it'll take some time to arrange. I'm thinking about looking at a house/flat-share for maybe 6 months while we get our affairs in order and then looking to rent/buy out in West London, around Ruislip/Northolt or maybe as far out as Wycombe. I'd be working in the Chancery Lane area and I'd probably be looking for digs near there (maybe Shoreditch) to save on travel costs.

I find the idea of a furnished house/flat-share appealing because I won't have to buy furniture right away and it'll cut down bills and other costs while we get rid of the house. If I can save £200 a month (or more) on travel costs for the first few months, that would be good too.

The opportunity (should I get it) is a big one, very exciting and definitely worth some minor upheaval for. Plus I've always like the idea of city-living and had a fun 18 months living in Dublin a few years ago.

So...questions;

1. Has anyone here done the whole 'house-share' thing as a professional as opposed to a student? What do I need to look out for? Pros and Cons?
2. I don't know London that well, but I'd be working in EC4A somewhere between Chancery Lane and Farringdon stations. Are there good areas to look for accommodation near there (within a couple of miles)? Anywhere I should avoid like the plague?
3. How have people gone about meeting people and making friends when moving to a new city? I have a few friends and some family down there, but I feel like it could get lonely.
4. If I get the job and decide to move down, any Freddies want to meet up for a few celebratory (overpriced) beverages?

So last month it looked like I was going to moving to New Jersey, now it looks like it could be London. Next month it'll probably be Bognor!

 

[DaGaffer]

So...questions;

1. Has anyone here done the whole 'house-share' thing as a professional as opposed to a student? What do I need to look out for? Pros and Cons?

Yes. Personally I preferred houses with 2-3 other people rather than just one, because if you turn out to have nothing in common with them... You need to do a rota (or pay for a cleaner) and you need to have a bills kitty; it gets really fucking tedious if you give one person say the phone bill, and they keep forgetting to pay it (as happened to me once).

2. I don't know London that well, but I'd be working in EC4A somewhere between Chancery Lane and Farringdon stations. Are there good areas to look for accommodation near there (within a couple of miles)? Anywhere I should avoid like the plague?

Obviously you can go north/south or east/west. I personally prefer the Central Line to the Northern Line, but its purely a personal preference (they're both awful). In the east I'd recommend South Woodford (nice and leafy, not too busy but some good pubs and resaurants), and in the west Shepherd's Bush (lived there for 8 years and loved it, can be a bit dangerous but its probably changed a lot since the Westfield opened)

3.How have people gone about meeting people and making friends when moving to a new city? I have a few friends and some family down there, but I feel like it could get lonely.

Work, college friends and the missus' mates.

4. If I get the job and decide to move down, any Freddies want to meet up for a few celebratory (overpriced) beverages?

Sure there are plenty of people knocking around although it does seem to be like herding cats with this lot.

 

[Chilly]

http://www.locatable.com mate. Disclaimer - that's my website but it's mint for working out commuting times. Give me a shout if you need a hand.

 

[Vae]

http://www.locatable.com mate. Disclaimer - that's my website but it's mint for working out commuting times. Give me a shout if you need a hand.

Very nice mate. I checked my commute and my normal commute time fell on the edge of the light green (before it gets to yellow). It may be worth having a guide explaining the different colours. Effectively taking the idea of Nestoria to a new level. Are you planning to add any other databases of property other than Zoopla?

 

[opticle]

http://www.locatable.com mate. Disclaimer - that's my website but it's mint for working out commuting times. Give me a shout if you need a hand.

Off-topic but as feedback for Chilly: When you click on the orange area to show available properties, it draws a circle.. at first it isn't clear that it isn't selecting the whole area and only showing that circle, which means you don't immediately see all the properties and have to click around a lot to find them all. Might be better to have a circle that's area is greater than the size of the highlighted area clicked if you can manage it.

On topic: House shares can work really well, but sometimes it can take a lot of viewings to find one you like. I used spareroom.co.uk - its a really decent website - payed £20 for the month's earlybird access (you have to, tbh, as the rental market is mad) and found a place pretty easily, though I looked at 7 different rooms and nearly gave up. Lot of nice ones with professionals though.

Definitely have a good idea of your budget before you go looking.

Meeting people is hard.. Through work or sports really, or old friends. I'm from the countryside originally and find it quite difficult without a good reason.

Some sort of FreddyBeer or FreddyLAN or whatever would be sweet.

 

[Chilly]

Very nice mate. I checked my commute and my normal commute time fell on the edge of the light green (before it gets to yellow). It may be worth having a guide explaining the different colours. Effectively taking the idea of Nestoria to a new level. Are you planning to add any other databases of property other than Zoopla?

Yeah Zoopla is for buy/rental properties and we've got agreements with some flatshare type sites to show their listings too, working on the integration and contract details now.

As for colours - if you left the default time of 20 minutes in, then you get an even spacing of isochrones - so one near the middle will be 10 minutes etc. However, your point is well taken and we are in the process of showing a key. The site is, atm, essentially a prototype. Functionally it's mostly there but lacks a lot in UI magic. We've got a designer/ux guy and pro webdev working for us 4/5 days a week now on this and the new version of the site looks elite.

 

[Vae]

Yeah Zoopla is for buy/rental properties and we've got agreements with some flatshare type sites to show their listings too, working on the integration and contract details now.

As for colours - if you left the default time of 20 minutes in, then you get an even spacing of isochrones - so one near the middle will be 10 minutes etc. However, your point is well taken and we are in the process of showing a key. The site is, atm, essentially a prototype. Functionally it's mostly there but lacks a lot in UI magic. We've got a designer/ux guy and pro webdev working for us 4/5 days a week now on this and the new version of the site looks elite.

My commute is about 50 minutes so I put that in and wanted to see what colour the shading over my house is which was the edge of the light green one. From that I assume the different shades beyond green indicate bands for how far beyond the specified time the other areas are and the darker green would show bands for how far under the specified time the areas are.

 

[Chilly]

No, the very edge of the last isochrone would be 50 minutes.

 

[Killswitch]

Such thread hijack!

 

[DaGaffer]

http://www.locatable.com mate. Disclaimer - that's my website but it's mint for working out commuting times. Give me a shout if you need a hand.

Very nice. What other cities are you planning? Not everywhere has nice open apis like TFL...

 

[Chilly]

Unhijack. No further comment about locatable. Let's find Killswitch somewhere to live instead!

 

[Killswitch]

Unhijack. No further comment about locatable. Let's find Killswitch somewhere to live instead!

I don't mind...it's a discussion board after all. I've had a look on spareroom.co.uk and it looks like I can get somewhere within a mile of the new office for about £1000pcm. Now I could get a whole HOUSE for that outside of the city, but then I'd have to pay a full house worth of utilities and council tax AND £200 or so a month on travel costs. Not sure I want to live in the middle of London, but it's only for a few months.

Incidentally...that site is very cool!

 

[Chilly]

Single bet flats are possible the worst value in terms of monthly rentals - I'd avoid if possible. House shares are good fun, I live in one and have done for 5 years or so. Obviously some people you meet are wankers, but most are just regular cool people.

 

[Vae]

No, the very edge of the last isochrone would be 50 minutes.

Hmm in which case for my situation it's a little out. It predicts my commute as being between 30-35 minutes when it's more like 50 minutes and i'm a fast walker!

 

[DaGaffer]

I don't mind...it's a discussion board after all. I've had a look on spareroom.co.uk and it looks like I can get somewhere within a mile of the new office for about £1000pcm. Now I could get a whole HOUSE for that outside of the city, but then I'd have to pay a full house worth of utilities and council tax AND £200 or so a month on travel costs. Not sure I want to live in the middle of London, but it's only for a few months.

Incidentally...that site is very cool!

A thousand quid for a share? Fuck that. I rent out a two bed flat for less than that (actually two two bed flats and neither are a grand).

 

[Zarjazz]

Yeah, that does sound a lot for a share unless its some amazingly immaculate architecture magazine winning property. It could probably get you a single basic flat within zone 2.

 

[Killswitch]

Yeah, that does sound a lot for a share unless its some amazingly immaculate architecture magazine winning property. It could probably get you a single basic flat within zone 2.

A thousand quid for a share? Fuck that. I rent out a two bed flat for less than that (actually two two bed flats and neither are a grand).

Nothing good like that, but it is only a mile from the office, saving me probably 2 hours a day of my time (which I value highly) and £200 in travel costs each month. Even if I bill my time at minimum wage that's still £450 a month total, which brings the price of the room down to £550 a month AND I'll be splitting the bills 3 or 4 ways.

Not saying you guys are wrong, just putting forward the reasons I looked at Central London house/flat-shares in the first place!

 

[opticle]

I don't mind...it's a discussion board after all. I've had a look on spareroom.co.uk

It's a good webby - when you're looking make sure you get early bird access and be prepared to put an offer in within days (/day) of looking at a place - they move that fast.

Most people will want you to look around and meet you too, so I guess line up some viewings on a day you're free and head on down

 

[Killswitch]

Just resurrecting my thread to say;

"Interview done...all three chuffing hours of it. Now to see if I actually need to find somewhere in London to live or not."

 

[opticle]

Just resurrecting my thread to say;

"Interview done...all three chuffing hours of it. Now to see if I actually need to find somewhere in London to live or not."

Good luck mate, let us know how you get on!

 

[Killswitch]

Good luck mate, let us know how you get on!

Initial feedback today was all very, very positive. Recruiter reckons it's 99.9% I'll be getting an offer on Monday.

This could be interesting as I'm flying to the New Jersey office on Sunday for a week. So walk in on Monday morning, hand in my notice, spend a very uncomfortable week working out there...

Apparently I'm "technically outstanding", "an excellent, effective communicator", "process focused"...boy have I got them fooled!

 

[opticle]

Apparently I'm "technically outstanding", "an excellent, effective communicator", "process focused"...boy have I got them fooled!

.. Are you a porn star ?

 

[Killswitch]

.. Are you a porn star ?

Actually, from what I can tell that looks like a terrible, terrible job. Incidentally the London job is mine if I want it. Got the call about an hour ago. Decisions, decisions...

 

[opticle]

Actually, from what I can tell that looks like a terrible, terrible job. Incidentally the London job is mine if I want it. Got the call about an hour ago. Decisions, decisions...

Congrats