Category: Buying Property

So you’re thinking of selling your house and moving to that dream home?

But whenever you look on the web the properties that take your fancy seem to be just out of reach for your limited budget. The tempting solution is to put your own property on sale for more than it’s worth and hope that you strike lucky. NO!!!!!! This will not happen. Even if an uninformed buyer is daft enough to pay over the odds (which is highly unlikely in today’s market), their mortgage lender will refuse to lend against an overpriced property.

Here’s a secret tip. Lot’s of homes regularly sell for less than market value BUT rarely do properties sell for more than market value. So if you’re struggling to bridge the gap between what your home is worth and the price of your dream home then the solution is to sell your own place at market value and then to try and pick up a bargain.

And finding bargains is easier than you think. Look for properties that have been on sale for a long time. The owners will be getting anxious and may well be prepared to listen to offers. Also be prepared to look at the homes that all of the other buyers are ignoring. These may have issues that are putting people off,  but these may be solved quite easily and allow you to pick the property up at a bargain price.

Remember: no-one will pay more than market value but owners often sell for less than market value due to exceptional circumstances.

 

 I have just finished talking to a “soon to be” landlord who is in the process of completing on her first property investment. She was excited and a  little nervous.

When I called her following her enquiry, I was the only Estate Agent to call her back. She’s secured a three bedroom family house in Coundon for a price of  £125,000. Nervous? She needn’t be. The average price of a three bedroom house in Coventry is currently £676 pcm. I had valued hers at £675.

Interestingly, she could mistakenly have paid £20,000 more to return no greater a yield. Nervous? Why? This lady has clearly been well advised and her research has proved very successful. With a yield of over 6% she has purchased a property to  suit professional residential tenants in an area that will appeal to them. She has decided what sort of tenant she wants to rent to, what areas will fulfil their requirements and secured a property at a price that works. With the security of our nil excess Rent Guarantee policies, free Legal assistance and our honest and realistic advice, this landlord will certainly harvest the fruits of her efforts and time. Where else would you achieve a yield of 6% or more?…..We look forward to hearing from you……author: Mark Walmsley 18/06/13

As the temperatures drop and the nights close in again, Christmas is just round the corner. Will your festive shopping include a visit to the local Estate Agents office to see what’s on offer? If not then it should do!

November and December are traditionally a very quiet period for the housing market with many buyers going into hibernation or hiding away under the mistletoe. Shrewd buyers will see this as a great opportunity to hunt for bargains and find a good property without the hindrance of competition.

So if you’re thinking that you should wait until the new year then it may be worth thinking again. As sure as day follows night, the market will pick up momentum again come January and you could find you’ll be competing with lots of other buyers when the desirable properties come to market. With the average conveyancing period being around 10-12 weeks, an accepted offer at the end of November will  mean a completion date in February, so any worries of having to move prior to Christmas are unfounded and not really a consideration.

So pop down to your local Elizabeth Davenport office and after we’ve given you your free mince pie we’ll see if we can find you a suitable dream property to buy.

Plans for the future always depend upon ones state of mind and current outlook. So when it comes to purchasing a new property (or renting one) mental positivity and confidence can be key to the way forward. And in a world where the media tends to report all of the bad news and good news seems to be completely ignored it can be difficult to focus on reasons to move forward.

But lets face it, life goes on and everybody has to live somewhere. So if you’re hoping to move to a new home then there’s no time like the present. And after all, it makes much more sense to purchase property at the bottom of the market than at the top so if you can get the finance you will surely be making a smart move.

Everyone was buying in 2007 and at the time thought that they were being clever. But in years ahead people will look back and realise that the sensible time to buy was between 2010 and 2014 when prices had fallen back and bargains were readily available. So why not be one of the confident, clever buyers and strike while the iron is hot (or stone cold in the case of the housing market!!!)

If you have access to a deposit of 10% and a mortgage then in my humble opinion you would be mad not to buy during the current economic downturn. And at Elizabeth Davenport we price our property to sell and in keeping with market conditions. So you would be a shrewd buyer to look at one of our properties. And if you are a seller then you would be smart to market your home through us. Call me on 02476 010105 and I’ll be happy to offer you advice, whatever your circumstances.

George Hartshorn   21st June 2012

 

So you’ve found a buyer for your house, you’ve accepted an offer and now comes the most exciting part of moving home: the search for your new dream property.

So where do you start your search? The last time you moved home, you probably started your search in the local newspaper, or perhaps if you were relocating to a new area you may have called some of the Estate Agents nearby and asked them to put you on their mailing list. Back then things were different, the internet was something you’d heard about on the news but had never experienced, property portals were unheard of and Estate Agents hadn’t even dreamt of having their own websites. Searching for a home began with a slog down the High Street, going into all of the Estate Agents’ offices and registering your requirements in the hope that they would post out details of some relevant properties.

Nowadays things are quite different. Finding a property is a science, one that you can have total control over if you know how to use the right tools. So here’s a checklist of what you will need:
1. A laptop, PC or Mac
2. A Broadband Connection
3. An Email Address

And that’s it! You now have access to every property on the market at the touch of your fingertips. So where to begin? Visit these four property portals and you won’t go far wrong:

1. Rightmove
2. Findaproperty.com
3. PrimeLocation.com
4. Zoopla

Between them these four portals list ninety-something percent of all of the properties avalable for sale at any one time (at the time of writing – June 2011). They have map searches, price searches, number of bedroom searches, email alerts, in fact any type of search you could think of. Beyond these portals you may also want to visit individual Estate Agent’s websites but this will be once you have identified a particular property and want to have a closer look. Good Agents’ web details will show better images and details than the web portals.

The greatest element in all of this is the fact that you get to do all of this research from the comfort of your own home. There’s a wealth of information at the touch of a keypad meaning that you can do all of the research first before refining a short-list of properties that you want to go and view in person. And if you take advantage of the email alerts on some of the web portals you will be the first to know when the best properties come to market, giving you the edge you need over the other buyers in your area.

This could tip the balance in your favour when it comes to finding your dream home. Good Hunting!!