[Big Joe]

I picked up what Margaret said in a previous post about buying a house and it got me thinking. I know progress and technology have moved things on. Now you can get a mortgage by simply by ringing the bank, speaking to some acned youth whose last job was school milk monitor answer some questions and so long as you have the massive deposit your in.
My first mortgage. We were living in married quarters. I came back off operations with a shed load of unspent money. Some wiser bunny said that's probably a deposit on a house. Transfer funds into Northern Rock, find house, agree to buy it, THEN I have to go into the building society IN PERSON for an interview with the branch manager. We sit at a table he has a file an inch thick ( Ive been with the Northern Rock at this point 3 weeks). We have this half hour chat/interview/interrogation discussing my finances health and career prospects and my long term savings plans after which the chap says yes subject to survey blah blah. First home we thought it was brilliant. Sadly as we moved around had more income and grew the family our starter home faded into obscurity. If ever I'm in the area I take a drive past it. The area has gone down hill, from being a nice area full of young families starting the lives together it has become very run down. However like my first car I will never forget the sense of achievement I felt walking in the door of my home with my keys for the first time.