Meet the agent You might think you already know what goes on inside an estate agents or have seen one of the many programmes on the industry but there’s a lot more to our day to day life than whizzing around in branded cars jangling keys. Agents do operate in slightly different ways dependent on… Read More
Looking forward to 2021 – what will the New Year bring in the local housing market? In many ways 2020 was a year we might want to forget ever happened. Hopefully 2021 will see some sort of return to normality once vaccines are rolled out but, for now, we enter the New Year in Bath… Read More
Alongside pent up demand post lockdown and an appreciable amount of Londoners on an exodus down the M4, the stamp duty holiday is a crucial factor in creating the unseasonably strong property market we have seen in Bath since May. The SDLT relief runs until 31st March 2021. You might wonder why I’m highlighting it… Read More
House Buying Stress: Reduce the pressure with our stress-busting tips. A survey commissioned by estatesdirect.com highlighted that house buying was one of the most stressful things you can do in life; above that of getting a divorce, having a new baby, being made redundant or planning a wedding – survey at https://www.moneywise.co.uk/news/2018-08-13%E2%80%8C%E2%80%8C/half-first-time-buyers-sick-stress “Stress – Dictionary definition: a state of mental… Read More
Six top tips for moving by Christmas – Just like Easter and the beginning of the summer hols, December is a very busy month in any year for movers. With about three months to go now, we’re right in the middle of the time many homemovers decide they want to be in the new pad… Read More
Expectations in estate agency After some difficult negotiations during sales recently, we’ve been having quite a few discussions in the office about managing expectations. Here are some of our thoughts on when and with whom do we have to manage expectations within estate agency? manage expectations 1. seek to prevent disappointment by establishing in advance… Read More
Yesterday afternoon, an email pinged in from a new buyer with all their details enclosed to substantiate the offer they’ve just had accepted. Everything was fine until we got to the section on which conveyancing solicitor they’d chosen – at that point, you could hear a collective sigh in the office as we all realised… Read More
Episode 3 – (Return of the estate agent) of our regular Bath Chronicle bite sized info columns on estate agency in Bath “Property multitasking” “Thanks in part to Mr Osborne’s stamp duty shenanigans for BTL investors and second home purchasers but also to the extraordinarily low supply levels continuing from 2015, the property year in… Read More
“Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes” from Virgil’s Aeneid has been paraphrased into the proverb “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”. Originally used to warn of the danger of the Trojan Horse, the proverb now serves to warn of possible deception in general and it sprang to mind again yesterday when speaking with an owner who is… Read More
One of our partners moved house last Friday for the first time in 6 years – it looks like nothing has changed in the conveyancing process! Solicitors still “go to lunch” for an hour at the critical part of the day, mortgage lenders send money when they feel like it rather than when needed, estate… Read More
