It is hard for people to make a move on the property market with so much uncertainty around and with so much unwillingness on the part of mortgages lenders to take risks and to give people the opportunity to access the property market.

This is where more inventive ways of lending come in. Contractor mortgages are a great example of mortgages that are designed for a specific purpose. These mortgages for contractors take into account the special circumstances involved in working as a contractor instead of dismissing contractors altogether.

Offering a contractor mortgage option demonstrates a commitment to flexibility – something that is really important given the current climate in the property market. Lenders need to be flexible to meet the needs of the public and creative industry insiders ought to be looking at devising a new range of realistic options.

Paying for home improvements can be something of a burden, especially if they entail emergency work because the expense is unexpected. However, you can prepare yourself by earning as much money for home improvements as possible from sources other than your regular income.

Online bingo is a surprising source of extra money for a lot of people who are savvy with the game on the internet. It’s easy to get involved. All you need to do is sign up to a website like Sun Bingo and start familiarising yourself with the game and the rules.

It’s like that plenty of Sun Bingo winners over the years have spent their winnings on home improvements, as well as renovations and accessories to enhance their interior design. A healthy jackpot can also take the pressure off paying for emergency work.

My boyfriend and I had no money to buy any luxury goods, like carpets and wide screen televisions. We had to survive by watching an old fashioned deep television and by sitting on deck chairs in the living rooms.

Fortunately times have changed since then because my boyfriends dad knew someone who was trying to get rid of their settee because they had ordered a new one. At the time they wanted some money for it, however we had to refused and just say sorry we cannot afford to pay you for it we will just have to give it a miss. Luckily for us, this person couldn’t find anyone else to buy his settee off him so the day before his new settee was to arrive he offer us the settee FOR FREE! woo hoo. I am proper chuffed with my new settee, it is a cream leather couch with a chair and also a puff to put your feet up on!

Anyway, when you first buy a house and it needs a lot of work doing to it, it is important to decide where to start first? It is imperative to sit down and write a list of your priorities. For example when we first moved in we sorted our bedroom out and then the next major job was ripping out the bathroom and starting again with a brand new bath suite (we were very lucky because my mum and dad paid for our new bathroom for us).

After the bathroom we started decorating the living room, then we did the front bedroom and plastered all the walls and put some feature wall paper on one of the walls. My house is looking good and I am very pleased with the way it is all coming together – my advice would be to stick at it!

We live in a quasi semi – which means there are four of us in a row and since moving in I have had numerous conversations with my neighbour who has informed me she also has water under her house and it is common around here!!

UNBELIEVABLE. So why have I got water under my house? I have searched online and it seems that water can occur when a house is built upon a natural spring, and over time as the house has become more established the natural water table has risen.

I’ve got water underneath my floor boards, how on earth do you get rid of that?? Firstly let me tell you if you don’t get rid of it, over time this water will have a detrimental effect on your house and the chances of selling in the future. It will cost you more money to heat the house because obviously if you are on top of a swimming pool the water will soak up the heat. Furthermore, as this water heats up it will be causing damp and then your house is more at risk of the floor boards becoming rotten and mouldy.

In order to get rid of the damp, my boyfriend had a week off work and helped my dad to resolve the problem. We pulled up all of the rotten floor boards and joists. We then pumped out all of the water – even though it came back the next day. Once pumped out we had to put a layer of tanking all around the sides of the walls and then pour a load of concrete into the floor in order to displace the water so that the concrete is above the natural table level.

With the current economy first time buyers have a right to be cautious, there are many TV programs on which tell people the pit falls and errors to try and avoid when buying a house. I bought a house with my boyfriend just over a year ago, it was when the housing market was at a low so we bought our house for a bargain. My dad is a builder so I knew we could ask for his help if we bought a house which needed a lot of work doing to it.

I wish I could go back in time and somebody would tell me to get a more detailed and in-depth survey carried out o n the house. The reasons being, we actually have about 6 inches of water underneath the floor boards of the whole of the ground floor. If we had a more expensive survey carried out this would have been spotted and we probably would not have bought the house!

Most sellers slashed their prices over the summer as fewer people were on the lookout for property and more houses were on the market. The number of people struggling to get a mortgage is not helping either.

But although the national picture does not look good, things in the East Midlands seem to be on the up.

In fact, new statistics show that a third of smokers lie about their habit in order to secure a rented property. Finding a property that will accept smokers is not easy and only 7 per cent of landlords allow smokers to rent from them.

Not only this, but landlords take a dim view of anyone who lies and 38 per cent say they would evict a tenant who smoked in their property.