Stuck in a postcode time warp

Areas aren’t always as you remember them 

– photo courtesy of C Law @creativecommons

I’m searching for an investment property and spending most of my Saturdays in the town where I grew up, viewing houses with garish carpets and questionable extensions. But when considering what would constitute a fair offer, I’ve found I’m suffering from postcode blindness.

I didn’t notice until my husband pointed it out, but I’m judging the quality of an area based on my childhood memories. Which means my valuations are about 25 years out of date!

One of the houses we looked at was close to the town centre, mid-way between the council estate and the boxy suburbs that make up the town’s best housing stock. When I was a child, it was considered a nice street. My friend Michelle lived there and my parents thought her family must be doing well as they lived in a street they’d call “lovely”.

Areas aren’t always as you remember them 

When I walk down that same street where I played British Bulldog all those years ago, I see it as it was then; filled with upwardly mobile families making the most of their back yards and keeping their windows immaculately clean. Somehow, I failed to notice the take-away that’s opened up round the corner with the litter and noise that come with it, and the fact that owner occupiers are a rarity round here nowadays.

Location, location, location

I found myself arguing with my husband that this was a “good area”, he and the estate agent gave me a reality check. “It used to be excellent” they said, and right they were. Nostalgia had clouded my judgement and I was suffering from postcode blindness. Just one of the unexpected upshots of buying in an area you’ve been away from all your adult life.

So from now on, it’s my mission to look at all those familiar streets from my childhood with fresh eyes. The ones that have gone up in the world and the ones that have lost their gloss. 

Alison Doering is a north east landlord who caught the BTL bug three years ago and has never looked back. Going from zero to six properties in three years and juggling a high pressure job in marketing means every day is a school day; there’s always something new to lock away in that mental filing cabinet marked “Never do that again!”


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