Other Posts by Cathy Deshayes

• A house with a history
• Cyn(ical) city
• Freedom fighter
• And so to market...
• Party like it's 2009?
• Flat pack: The highs and lows of flat sharing
• Family planning
• You're just too good to be true
• Is home where the heart is?
• One side of the storey
• Polls apart
• Staring Halloween in the face

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Word on the street

By Cathy Deshayes

OK, I'll admit it. Streetview has changed my life. Currently in the midst of the first-time buying saga - which makes me feel stressed even thinking about it - Streetview played a big part in our decision to go for this particular flat.

No longer did we have to traipse over to our chosen area (Kingston) each night to view properties on roads that were totally unsuitable - now we could take a walk down the road without leaving our sofa.

Now that's what I call exercise...

We checked out the flat we are in the process of buying on Streetview and I'd already decided I wanted to live there before we had even taken a look inside.

The streetview street looked Truman Show perfect - we could nose into the neighbours gardens, we could look at the adjoining streets, roam around the park, take a virtual walk to the town centre - in short - I'd seen enough. I was sold.

Looking round it in the flesh the next evening was a strange feeling - like meeting someone you are certain you have met before - a real sense of déjà vu - for of course, in my virtual life, I had been here before. I'd even slagged off the curtains in the front room before walking through the front door.

There's only so much an estate agent will tell you about a property - excellent transport links (code for: on the edge of a motorway intersection with train tracks behind); or a young and vibrant community (code for: opposite a youth detention centre).

But now, it doesn't matter than you don't seem to be able to trust certain estate agents any more than you would trust your credit card with Pinocchio, you can have a tour around the neighbourhood and then decide whether you want to bother going to visit the place or not.

It will be especially helpful for those who live a long way away from where they hope to move to.

I read that one poor woman has discovered that her hubbie was having an affair with her best friend (sigh-that old cliché) when she saw his ‘distinctive landrover' parked outside her friend's £250,000 semi detached home (Daily Mail anyone?) when he had told her he was away on a business trip.

Clearly he was up to another kind of business altogether.

So of course, now that we have streetviewed the road a million times and zoomed in to everyone's window to...well...to be nosy...we have done the one thing everyone warns you against.

We've mentally moved in. We've decided where to put the furniture and what to do with the garden. We know what colours we are going to paint the living room and where we are going to build bookshelves. A warning - do not try this at home! Word on the street is it's a recipe for disaster but I just can't help myself.

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