any advice please?

[dani17]

Hi,
we are a young couple with a baby looking for a house. our main criteria is to be close to good schools and good areas with a budget of 600k. we found a house in orpington and we viewed it and it seems good. however , this house is on the market since more than a year so we are afraid that there is something wrong with it. here is the announce:
www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/68799400
any one can advise please? thank you so much.

A building survey would find anything wrong with it.

Could be anything won't find out until you start the ball rolling survey . disputed ownership . neighbor dispute . mine . easement . expired or expiring leasehold . planning issue . unauthorized extension .boundary dispute .

Did you ask the estate agent why the property has been on the market for such a long time?

Unless Kids get into St olaves or Newstead, the school situation is tricky. Out of Darrick Wood catchment.

thank you all. my son is still very young ( 1 year old now) i was more thinking about the primary school and i ve been told that warren road primary school is a very good one and this house is inside catchment area. I saw that 32 pupils succeded the bexley eleven plus exam which is a huge number compared to other schools. can anyone confirm this please? thank you

I’ve heard good things about warren road. However, depending where the children live, you should bear in mind that limited non-selective choice locally can drive parents to quite heavily tutor which will skew the statistics somewhat, and that other primaries in nearby area may have an intake with a more varied and well thought of comprehensive alternative = less pressure to take the test and travel significant distance to secondary school. For example, in the bickley area, Bromley common or Hayes area there are multiple strong secondaries that may mean that the selective tests aren’t seen as being so important. Though those areas also more marginal perhaps in terms of proximity to nearest bexley grammar. Does the 32 number mean that 32 were deemed selective and how many of those deemed selective got into bexley grammars on proximity? Your ds is very young - maybe a bit soon to be able to gauge whether grammar would be the best fit. Me personally, I would recommend trying to find an area where there is a decent fall back. That said, I know people with children who went to the former priory/Harris Orpington who got on well, but it’s a school that’s still trying to shift a reputation.

When it comes to the bexley test if your child scores in the top 180 of all entrants they can go to whichever bexley grammar they choose. Otherwise, they apply to the one they want and it comes down to proximity rather than score (I.e. they’re deemed “selective” by getting above the grammar cut off, but aren’t guaranteed a place - depends how close to the school they are). Worth looking at bexley distances. I know that the area covered by Chis and Sid seems to have shrunk over the last few years. Don’t know anything about any other grammars.

thanks a lot.I really appreciate your advices.
I fully agree with you. I am trying to give all the possibilities to my children in the future . I find this area interesting beacause there is a possibility for grammar and there is good comprehensive as well. the straight line distance to darrick wood is 1.1 miles which is the limit of the catchement area in recent years. and in worst case, there is Ravens wood school which I think good as well with much bigger catchment area ( more than 3 miles ) .
If you know other interesing areas, please let me know .

By the way, OP. The house looks lovely!!!

The house isn’t bad or in a bad area but it is competing with other properties in the area and surroundings that might be in areas with more of a community feel, be closer to shops or have more character. It does seem to have a good balance of not being too close to the A21 and not too far from the station.

Does it back onto the school playing fields or is it on the other side of the road? School playing fields might sound nice and I don’t know that school in particular but they can sometimes attract kids hanging round and getting upto no good.

I have friends off Tubbenden Lane and they have that style of house. They moved from a 1930s semi to upgrade to a detached. They are happy in it, however one thing they dislike is how it traps heat in summer and in winter is cold compared to their 30’s build property. They also find the traffic horrendous at rush hour and school turnout times and it can be difficult getting out of the area at commuter times. A few of DDs year group at Newstead went to Warren Road, but then you can say that about many of the schools in the area.