Author Archives: Sam

If everything on the inside of your home is picture-perfect, it is very easy to think that your home will sell quickly. But what if there are external drawbacks that may deter a sale? The interior of your home aside, external factors are often forgotten about because they aren’t part of ‘the home’, but there are some your buyers may be thinking about. One of the best ways to see through your rose tinted spectacles is to think like a buyer, and see what might be challenging them…

Surrounding properties – If similar properties are for sale in your area, it is very important to keep an eye on what is going on with these homes. If a buyer is already sold on the area, they’ll be looking at the particulars. How does your door compare to your neighbours door? If yours is chipped and aged, and the neighbour’s door has just had a B&Q refresh, they’ll be getting the first visit. Keeping up appearances is essential when the competition is so close.

Pricing – While your price may have been perfect when it was put on the market, what if the market has changed? If your house was put on a year ago and hasn’t shifted, prices could have changed. Any of your neighbours properties that are newly listed could be much cheaper than yours, making you look oddly expensive. Compare your price with your neighbour’s similar properties, and talk to your agent about altering the price to reflect market changes.

Hurdles – A buyer may have fallen in love with your home and be ready to sign on the dotted line, but a massive barrier could stand in their way. As an example, what if your home isn’t going to be ready to move in to on the date that they are requesting? In these instances be prepared to negotiate. Suggest local temporary housing and storage options to them, which can make an otherwise impossible move highly achievable. Especially useful if your buyers are moving a great distance.

Neighbourhood – Local facilities are often very important to buyers. If your neighbourhood is quite similar to another in your town, buyers might draw a comparison between the two. Why not do the research for them? Look for amenities that buyers will be looking for such as good schools, playgrounds, restaurants and sports grounds. List the locality of these local benefits on your property listing. Why not put together a few brochures about these places too, and leave them in your home for people to look at?

If your home is taking some time to sell, thinking like buyer can be an important move to analyse external factors that people are considering. If you think some of these factors could be contributing to your home not selling and you

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

When it comes to selling your property, whether you live in it or it is an investment property, you need to ensure that it looks the part when potential buyers come to view it. This can call for a little bit of work but if it means that your property sells quickly then it is definitely worth the hassle. Look at it this way, if it is an investment property then the cost of sprucing it up may cost less than updating your landlord insurance policy to cover void periods. If it is the home you are living in, the quicker you sell it the quicker you can move on to your next property so either way, staging your property is essential for a quicker sale. We have prepared a checklist of some things you can do to help style your home to make sure it wows your buyers.

De-Clutter

First on the list is de-cluttering. You may be comfortable in the space you are living in and you might have boxes of children’s toy’s everywhere but the purpose of the viewing is to show the potential buyer that they too can live in the property comfortably. This means personal belongings and extra clutter should be cleared away as best as possible. In the bathroom try to hide your bottles of shampoo and shower gel, whilst these things give the property a lived in feel, buyers want something appealing to them and lived in might not be what they are after. Also if there are things such as curtains you want to take with you, take them down. If the buyer sees them then they might ask for it to be included in the price of the house. If you have taken them down they will never know! One of the best ways to de-clutter is to look around your home and think about what really gets used or what doesn’t. If you haven’t used it in the last 6 – 12 months then it is unlikely that you are going to use it. Once you have decided on what you don’t really need a car boot sale is a great way to make some extra cash and de-clutter your home.

Space

When a potential buyer comes to view your property they are trying to determine whether the space is right for them. You need to ensure that each room looks as big as it can and this can be achieved in a number of ways. Light colours, few patterns and clever lighting can really change the appearance of a room. If you are showing a buyer around your property, let them walk into the room first. A room crowded with people will make the room appear smaller. For bulkier furniture that isn’t essential to a room, for example a book shelf, move this into storage so your rooms instantly feel bigger.

Storage

Storage, especially in smaller properties, is often an issue for potential buyers so you need to ensure that you have maximised the space that you do have. If you have extra storage cupboards the buyers need to be shown them so they can see that the property is practical. With the storage that you do have, ensure everything in the cupboards is neatly stacked and isn’t over crowded. If someone opens a wardrobe door and a jacket pops out this implies that storage is tight. Also if everything is neatly packed away it shows that you are careful and that you have taken good care of the home that they may be about to buy. It is best if all cupboards are half full with the essentials only. Anything that isn’t as important needs to be packed away and placed in storage. This will show buyers that there is enough room for what they need.

Colour

The colour of a wall can be easily changed but buyers are now put off by darker rooms or bold colours. If this is your taste then that is fine but you need to make the property appealing to others. Leaving it as a blank canvas for others to make their mark is important as again, they need to be able to envisage themselves living there. Neutral colours make your rooms look bigger but don’t think of neutral as boring. It doesn’t have to be Magnolia, sage greens and dusky pinks are great colours to use, as long as it isn’t bold, it will work. Also consider repainting woodwork. It will give the edges of the room a crisper feel making it more appealing.

Overall, presenting the property in a way that enables the potential buyer to see themselves living there is the key to generating offers. Whilst some of these tips might seem like they are a lot of work, it will be worth it if you get two or three offers on your property then you are likely to get more than you asked for!

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

I visited a lady recently who was trying to sell a very pretty cottage on the edge of a village in Yorkshire. It was one of half a dozen similar properties, and as I parked my car, I noticed one of the neighbouring cottages was also on the market. Over a cup of tea, I asked the lady about this other cottage, and was surprised that she didn’t know its asking price, how long it had been on the market, or whether it was actually getting any interest. How could she make sure she was competing well with her cottage?

There are a number of issues when your house is in competition with a neighbour’s property, and if you get your timing and marketing right, they can actually help yours to sell. Here’s my guide to selling when your neighbour is selling too:

Don’t wait until they sell before putting yours on the market – often, property competition is positive, generating more interest and viewings for each homeowner. How many times have you seen a street with lots of sold signs on it? Interest begets interest, and it can actually create a buzz around the area with viewers booking to see more than one property.

Do your homework – you need to find out all you can about the other property, so that you know how well it compares with yours. Does it have a bigger kitchen, but a smaller garden? Has it been decorated more recently than yours? Is it shabby chic to your minimalism style? Look carefully through all the photographs you can find on the agent’s own website and on Rightmove and Zoopla, and try to look at them through a buyer’s eyes. How does your house compare?

The best way to find out about your neighbour’s house is to….

Talk to them – if you don’t already know your neighbour, (and hopefully you haven’t fallen out!) then go and talk to them about your properties. If you can both see it as a joint marketing opportunity, you have a much better chance of both getting what you want: a sale. Be as honest and open with your neighbour as you can, and discuss your reason for moving (you better hope you aren’t theirs), timescales, even the price they need. You are much stronger as a united front. If you open up with them, there’s every chance they will do likewise. You could even agree between you not to drop your asking price without first speaking to the other.

Use the same estate agent – if your buyers are likely to be similar, using the same agent means that more often than not, they will book viewings on both houses. A buyer viewing both will not only have a true comparison of both properties, but could well be an invaluable source of feedback for you. If both houses are on the market at the same asking price, a buyer preferring your neighbour’s may be able to highlight any areas your property is lacking, giving you the chance to put these right. Having the same estate agent can help to make the whole viewings process more transparent.

Don’t play a negative bidding war – I once had a client who had dropped their asking price nine times over the course of just a few months, because his neighbour was playing the same game. Do this, and neither of you wins. You’re not Poundland. Get your neighbour onside and both agree to stick to your asking price, and don’t drop it without an open and frank discussion withyour neighbour.

If they sell before you do – don’t take it personally; it could have been the smallest of things that persuaded the buyers their property was the one for them. And don’t worry, you may find another neighbour has been waiting until they do before they put their home on the market!

As you can see, selling when you have competition can be a real opportunity to sell your house more effectively. And remember, estate agents’ offices are often clustered together with several on one street. Take a leaf out of their books!

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

I often get asked the question, “Should I use more than one estate agent to sell my house?” Once upon a time, this strategy made perfect sense. After all, before properties were advertised on the internet, how else could you make sure that buyers across different geographical areas would see your home, if you didn’t use two, three or more agents to market it?

But then came the property portals, and everything changed. Almost all buyers (93% at last count) look online to find their home, often browsing a couple of portals, then simply call the relevant agent to book a viewing on a home they like.

A duplicate property from two different agents on Rightmove

What’s the point in being listed twice like this?

So is there any point these days in instructing more than one agent? The short answer is ‘no’. If a buyer spies your home listed several times online, at best it’s annoying, and at worst it’s misleading, because if the agents involved have used different photographs and descriptions to advertise the property, a buyer could be forgiven for thinking that the adverts belong to different houses.

And doesn’t this look like a different property? It’s not!

When a buyer enters a search criteria on one of the property portals, properties appear in a list, in descending price order, ie with the more expensive houses showing first. Any properties that are marketed at exactly the same price will appear in a random order, to be fair and not favour any particular agent. However, one agent I know gets around this rule by adding a pound to his prices, so that his properties will show first, and therefore you’ll see property prices like £300,001 from him!

Another factor to bear in mind, is how does it look to a buyer if you as the seller have instructed several agents? Desperate perhaps? In need of an urgent sale? This could have the effect of generating some very low offers from those buyers looking for a bargain, whilst genuine buyers may stay away completely, fearful of being stuck with a property that they themselves can’t sell when the time comes. Selling a property in Dubai can be a very time consuming and stressful endeavour. There are many factors to consider when selling a property, not to mention the huge emotional investment that a property can represent

Finally, there’s the question of cost. If you instruct more than one agent, depending on the type of agency agreement you have, you’ll either pay the standard agency fee, but only to one of the agents; sometimes called ‘winner takes all’. Or else you’ll pay a higher fee, and it’ll be split between the two agents, typically 2/3 1/3 or else 50/50. The average uplift for a joint agency agreement is around 25%, meaning that if the average fee in your area is 1.5%, you will be paying 2% – 2.25% for a joint agreement. This could be an extra £2250 on a £300,000 house – not an inconsiderable amount, particularly if it doesn’t actually net you any higher a sale price!

When you decide to sell your home, my advice is to choose your agent very carefully, and focus all your efforts on making that relationship work. Ultimately it will serve you well and give out the right signals to instill buyer confidence. So pick slow, pick wisely, and pop into their office with cupcakes every now and again!

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

How viewings can go wrong

Last weekend, my partner and I went house hunting. We move house around every two years, so it isn’t entirely unusual, but it did highlight for me (yet again) the problems faced by viewers today. Our method, like many buyers, was to compile a shortlist of properties worth considering in Rightmove, then with printed list of saved houses to hand, to drive round establishing the areas and positions of each property. If we liked the look of a house, we would call the agent and see if we could book a viewing there and then.

These are the problems we came up against:

No for sale board – it’s so frustrating to be driving around an area trying to locate the house in question, when there’s no for sale board to guide you. We really struggled with a cottage down an almost hidden driveway, and also one house that was almost impossible to discern from the photograph. Which brings me onto the next issue:

The front photograph so misleading you don’t recognise the house – this was the case on several occasions. One particular house was completely unrecognisable from the main photograph and we are still none the wiser as to whether we actually found it. On two other occasions we just gave up and drove off, frustrated at not being able to find it.

No address given – in these days of sat nav and smart phones, finding properties should be so much easier, but estate agents need to accept that we need a property address to start with! I know that they are worried other agents will try to poach their clients if the address is too evident, but surely this is less of a problem than genuine buyers not being able to find it?

The estate agent doesn’t call you back in time – one house we quite liked had a for sale board outside, so I called the agent to see if we could view sometime the same day. This was around 11am on a Saturday, so I figured my chances we good. However, a call answering service took my message, and the agent didn’t return my call until 5pm, by which time we were ready to call it a day. Given that she would then have to take my details, and call the vendor, a same day viewing was by then impractical.

The estate agent can’t give you directions – because there was no sale board for the cottage we were trying to locate, which ended up being down a ¼ mile long track, and through a farmyard, I called the agent to ask for directions. She then had to put me on hold for ages whilst she went to locate the property details, then read the directions out to me. However, as neither she nor we were familiar with the area, we were actually coming from a different direction, and so ended up impossibly off course for several miles. Had she had a map to hand, or someone who knew the area to advise us, we could have been spared this unnecessary and annoying detour.

The seller doesn’t let you view on spec – when we finally found the cottage (almost thwarted yet again by the similarity of its name to another cottage a mile away) the owner happened to be outside in the garden, and greeted us in a friendly manner. After telling her that we were interested in her house, and pointing out how far we’d come, I asked her if we could possibly view. “Oh no”, she protested, “it’s in a right old mess. I’d need to tidy up for you”. I later learned that her cottage had been for sale for almost 9 months: is it any wonder when she deters potential buyers in this way? Why not just make sure the house is ready for viewings, even if just at weekends, for spontaneous viewers like us. I’m sure we’re not unique.

This is a difficult market for sellers, there are no two ways about it. Demand is low, mortgages are hard to get, and many of us are choosing just to stay where we are. So if a genuine buyer in a good position (we’re in rented accommodation until we find the right house) happens to show an interest, the agent and seller both need to do all they can to keep them interested and facilitate a viewing. All the barriers that were put in our way this weekend did the opposite; they left us feeling undervalued and frustrated. In fact, out of the 20+ potential properties we had on our list, we only viewed one, and that’s because someone we asked directions of just happened to be the seller’s daughter-in-law, and she and her husband couldn’t have been more eager to accommodate us.

If you are trying to sell your home, make it easy for your buyers:

Have a for sale board, and if your home is very rural, two or three with arrows and your house name
Make sure your main photograph online is the front of your house
If the directions on your property listing aren’t comprehensive, write them yourself, one from each direction
Have the full address listed online
Make sure your home is ready for viewings at all times, and especially weekends
If you see a potential buyer loitering outside your house, invite them in!

Otherwise, your buyer is doing all the work, just like we did. Given that we know statistically, at least 12 – 15 potential buyers will drive past your house for each viewing booked, make sure you and your agent are being as encouraging and accommodating as possible.

We haven’t bought yet, obviously, but when we eventually do, you can bet it will be a house where the agent and the seller both made us feel special by making it as easy as possible for us to buy the house.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

Copy that crackles

When an estate agent describes a house he’s selling, in a brochure or online, you’ll see he uses words that are found almost nowhere else in the English language: “benefiting from”, “dual aspect lounge” or “located in a premier turning” are all commonplace phrases for today’s estate agent. Surely learned in estate agents’ school, along with the capacity to spell the room we eat in as the “dinning room” and accommodation with only one ‘m’, or one ’c’, or even one of each. Oh dear…….

I’m on holiday as I write this post, in beautiful and windswept Northumberland. Staying in a cosy retreat of a cottage, that sold itself to me via some appropriate images (log burner, super king-sized bed, coffee machine), and also, importantly, the right words: “squishy sofas”, “great jazz cd collection”, “secret garden”.

The whole quirky, fun-sized brochure is beautifully written, and – unlike most property descriptions – really draws the reader in. Listen to this description: “This architect designed house brings you the sound of the waves, mesmerizing coastal views and sand between your toes, just steps away from a spacious and light-filled contemporary interior splashed with vivid artwork.”

Or this: “The fitted gourmet kitchen blends together oak and leather furniture and a cosy ‘snug’ with flat screen TV and piles of reading material, leads of the living room.” This one really sets the scene: “The patio is the perfect place to watch the harbor activity and the changing sea from sunrise to sunset.”

Now compare the above descriptions with those used by local estate agents to describe beach-front properties:

“A 3 bed semi-detached house located in the heart of the village with coastal views to the front.”

“An attractive three bedroom detached bungalow occupying an enviable position on Harbour Road, enjoying superb views to the sea.”

“The apartment is situated within the attic space of the central building with direct sea views to the Farne Islands and along the beach towards Bamburgh Castle.”

These are beach-front homes, for goodness sake!

Which style works better in painting a picture for the reader? Can a buyer really become enthused by these agents’ descriptions? Despite the fact that I’m a professional property expert who has herself, moved home more than thirty times, I’m still a sucker for the kind of emotive language used by the holiday rental company in question, and the combination of such romantic words and atmospheric images wins me over every time.

The lesson here is this: if estate agents employed the same attention to detail in their copy as the best travel companies do, they too would win over their audience – the buyer. If you’re still not convinced, take a look at the website of the company who got my business: www.coastalretreats.co.uk and lose yourself in some holiday dreaming.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

If you’re selling your home, photography is possibly the most significant marketing tool at your disposal. The increasing popularity of smart phones such as Android and the Apple iPhone, mean that most people are equipped with their own personal camera. Will these do the trick? In short, no. Despite increased performance and popularity, personal cameras won’t hit the mark when it comes to photographing your home. This is a job for the professionals. If you want potential buyers to utter a wow beneath their breath and immediately make an appointment, bring in someone who loves photography as much as you love the idea of selling your home quickly.

Our guidelines for achieving the best pictures of your home:

Light it up – A shadowy cheerless picture of any room – despite its size or potential – will turn off any buyer from even making a viewing. It lacks attention or detail, and doesn’t give off any homely feel. Lighting is crucial when making somewhere look inviting; it evokes a lived in feel, a look of warmth and can change the atmosphere of a room in seconds.

Time of day – Nothing can beat a romantic sunset, and they are ideal as a backdrop for your home too. A picture-perfect time of day to make a home look inviting, warm and family orientated, an evening will enable your photographer to get a shot that will have budding buyers flocking to your door. Taking a shot in the middle of the day with a greying sky in the background, will leave your house looking as dreary as dishwater. Make it stand out, and choose your timing right.

Don’t deceive buyers; ban wide angled shots – Before buyers have even set foot in your home, through your images they have begun to visualise putting their own prospective mark on your property; where furniture would go, what room would be the office, and so on. Consequently, they need to have a good grasp of size. If wide angled shots are utilised, they can give the impression that a room is much bigger than it actually is. If your buyers turn up and realise their dream study won’t fit in more than a chair and a lampshade, they likely won’t be signing any forms.

Clutter? What clutter? – A big mistake of the amateur photographer, is taking a photo of a room as it is without any consideration of what is in the room. You still might not have sifted through the papers from the weekend, but do they really need to be in the shot? The washing pile too; do buyers want to think about housework when envisioning their new perfect home? A room needs to be as clutter free as possible. If this means shifting a bit of furniture around, and spending a few hours moving piles of junk to a few boxes that won’t be in shot, it will be worth it.

Choose your rooms – Everyone knows the rooms that every house comes with as standard, but if you only have a limited number of photographs to use, choose the rooms that really make the house shine. The kitchen and a living area will be images people will be very keen to see, and when choosing additional ones, pick your other favourites, whether it is a large pantry, a conservatory with views of the countryside, or a bedroom with en-suite.

By getting a professional in to take beautiful pictures of your home, you will be painting the kind of lifestyle that interested buyers are looking for. By just forking out a little additional money for some remarkable shots, your home could sell within weeks, and not sit on the market long term next to some unimaginative pictures that no one will look twice at. Allow your buyers to love your home as much as you have done!

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

A couple of years ago, I was asked to look at a house in Lancaster that was proving difficult to sell. A large Victorian house set over five stories, the family owners had loved it for twenty years, and now it was time for another family to take over the reins.

Whilst the house had some beautiful original features, it was a very ‘lived-in’ house, and the large kitchen and three bathrooms were really ready for replacement, as were the carpets throughout, but once the new buyer were to do this, the property represented an excellent investment. However, with more than a viewing a week for a year and no offers, buyers clearly couldn’t see past the presentation.

After a long discussion with the lovely couple who owned it, it was clear that there wasn’t really any budget to speak of, though they did agree to put £500 into the pot for use wherever I thought would be best.

£500 for a house that spanned five stories was going to be a challenge! After much thought, I decided to use it all in one place – the entrance hall.

It was a beautiful lobby, with elegant proportions and original features, and with some careful planning, the budget could make a real impact. This is what we did:

Took up the faded, tatty carpet, and hired a floor sander to prepare the floorboards, then varnished them to bring out the lovely deep colour of the wood.
Repainted the banister a lovely warm cream and the walls a soft green.
Bought a cheap rug from a local home store where it was on sale.
Added a large mirror from a junk shop and pinched a console table from one of the bedrooms.
A vase of flowers and some pretty ornaments gathered from around the house completed the look.

It looked absolutely beautiful. Sorry I don’t have any pictures of it, but the one below is very close to how it looked when we’d finished.

So what happened then? The very next viewers to walk through the door offered the full asking price. I know it seems incredible that only updating one relatively small area of the house would make such a difference to how the buyers saw the whole property, but it was the most important part. As I’ve discovered time and time again, if your buyers are given the chance to fall in love with your home in the first 30 seconds, the rest of the house is far less important.

If you enjoyed this post and would like to get our Selling Secrets direct to your inbox each fortnight, here’s the link you need – https://www.home-truths.co.uk/selling-secrets/

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

If your home has been sat on the market for longer than you even want to admit to yourself, you may be considering ringing up your gracious agent, and telling them to drop a few numbers from the big one. They may even be encouraging you to do it, too. People buy homes on price, right? Wrong. Dropping your price is not the way to go, and can actually have a negative effect and create long term damage. Sound a bit farfetched, for something on offer to you? While it may do, you have to consider what people are thinking when they see a house reduced in cost. Get ready to change your mind…

Is something wrong with it? If a house is dropped in price, people begin asking questions. Why hasn’t it sold so far? What’s wrong with it? Why the dramatic price drop? Their image of the house won’t be rosy and optimistic; it will begin to look like a sale item. While your home may suddenly attract a few extra viewings, they’ll be walking around your house looking for the pessimistic side of your four walls, and wondering why it wasn’t snapped up already.

Quality issue – Even though when it comes to many material goods, many of us love a good bargain, it’s different when it comes around to property. With a long term investment, we want to feel like we’re buying in to something worthwhile and valuable, and often budgets are blown and overspent when purchasing the dream property. If a price is assertive and optimistic, it means it is being sold for what it is worth. Drop your asking price, and the quality of it will suddenly seem a little dented. Surprising, but true.

Confidence – If shares were falling on something, would you buy them? The same can be said for property; do you want to put in an offer on something that has decreased in value? A drop in price indicates a lack of confidence in your own home and its original price. If you want to install confidence in your buyer, show confidence in your own home!

Are you thinking of dropping your asking price, or is your agent persuading you to do so? Reconsider! Contact us, we can help.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

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Share your plans with your estate agent

Sharing with your estate agent your ‘why’ behind your move will almost always help you to move on. If they know the circumstances behind your decision to sell, and understand your motivations for the change, they will be in a better position to advise you on what asking price will best help you achieve your desired outcome.

For example, if you’re in danger of being repossessed, and need the quickest possible sale, your estate agent needs to know this so they can not only expedite your marketing and get you listed on the portals as soon as possible, but also so they can help you pursue the best offers from the buyers most able to exchange and complete quickly.

On the other hand, if you are looking to downsize into a smaller property, and a high value sale price is your top priority, explaining this to your estate agent will mean they can take their time over preparing your marketing materials, such as brochures and photography. Spending longer on creating the right marketing campaign for your property means making sure the quality of your home really shines out in the photography and description, and that your online advert encourages enquiries from the right buyers; ie ones that will fall in love with your home, and be prepared to pay your asking price, or close to it.

If your estate agent knows your move is discretionary and therefore that you are not necessarily in a hurry to sell, they will be able to best guide you on the level of price at which to market your home. It’s a very delicate balance between selecting an asking price that benefits you and accommodates your future plans, whilst not putting off so many buyers that you don’t get any viewings.

There are some occasions however, when it may be prudent not to share with your estate agent about your underlying motives to move house. Remember that whilst the law states you must at all times be truthful with the information you convey to your estate agent, you may not want to share with them that you believe the house to be haunted, for example. Again, by law he is compelled to share any ‘relevant’ information you give him with potential buyers, and even interested viewers, to provide them with the most comprehensive information about your home before they arrange to view it. There was a case in recent years where an interested buyer from Newcastle travelled to Milton Keynes to view a property, to discover that the driveway shown on the property details was actually shared with the neighbour. This information had not been disclosed on the property details, nor mentioned on the phone when he booked the viewing, and he was understandably upset about the waste of time and money he had incurred on this trip. He made a complaint to the Ombudsman, who upheld his complaint, and awarded him not only out-of-pocket expenses, but a compensatory amount for his time and effort too. Altogether an expensive mistake for the estate agent, all because they didn’t disclose relevant information ‘that might put a buyer off a property’ in advance of the viewing.

It’s especially hard to leave a home that you’ve lived a long life in; a house full of memories can be a wrench to leave. In situations where a spouse is left after their partner dies, leaving a home to start life again as a single independent person is especially difficult, when they have lived all their life as a couple.

An attic full of photos and memorabilia, a garage packed with tools and hobby equipment, perhaps even a car that the remaining partner can’t drive, these physical and emotional obstacles can all add an extra mental burden to what is already almost certainly a draining and difficult time.

However, the benefits of moving on, in every way someone can move on, can far outweigh these difficulties. Finding a new sense of freedom, being closer to family and loved ones, meeting new friends, discovering new hobbies and interests, and the relief of a secure financial future, can all make moving home after a bereavement a new start, in every sense of the word.

It takes careful guidance and assistance from an estate agent to help someone through this process. The sale of the house itself is only the tip of the iceberg; the real work comes in the separation process, and a really good agent will not only help make this as smooth a transition as possible, they will also help in the more practical aspects of the move too. They should have excellent supplier contacts to help source someone to help with the home organisation, de-cluttering, storage, packing and moving, and may also be able to help find a new home too. In this situation a really proactive, and genuinely caring professional will be worth their weight in gold, especially if the homeowner doesn’t have close family or friends who could help them.

Deciding whether or not to move home can be as exciting as it is daunting. Making new plans, the promise of new friends and exploring new places, all combine to make moving home potentially a really special and even empowering experience.

Research from the US indicates that homeowners take on average around 14 months to progress from the first thoughts of moving home, right through to actually putting their property on the market to sell. Moving home is a decision few people take lightly – it’s a big step, one to be considered, weighed up and discussed with loved ones and friends, over weeks, months and even years.

Brian and Carol had lived in their beautiful Norfolk village home for 27 years. Their three children had all been raised there, surrounded by friends and woodland, and now had families of their own, and were scattered all over the country.

Brian and Carol felt they were now rattling around in their five bedroomed home, but with 27 years of possessions and memories packed into every room, the prospect of packing it all up and moving home was overwhelming them both. Even the decision itself was emotionally draining. The couple knew that needed to make the move at some point in the not-too-distant future, and spurred on by their children, they sought a market appraisal from their local estate agent. Stuart was the owner and manager of an independent estate agency in the village and knew the couple well. He spent a couple of hours with them at the beginning of June one year, looking around their home and discussing with them timing and strategy. At the end of Stuart’s visit, he suggested to them with a valuation upon which they all agreed. Brian and Carol promised to give the prospect of selling their careful consideration, but the months passed; summer turned to autumn, and with Christmas just around the corner, thoughts of moving were put aside.

The following spring, Brian and Carol again asked Stuart to visit and advise them on their current appraisal, and he duly obliged, suggesting a very modest increase in their property value. Again, procrastination by the couple saw the months pass by with Brian and Carol unwilling to take any steps towards their downsizing move.

The following year, Brian had a stroke. Not a serious one, but enough to confine him the downstairs rooms of the house. As he now found the stairs a challenge, they had to have a shower installed downstairs, and gradually, the upstairs of the house became completely redundant.

Something had to change.

For the third time, they asked Stuart to value their house and finally put their house on the market. The couple had now lived in their home for thirty years. A sale quickly ensued and with their children’s help, they were finally able to move to a small bungalow in Norwich, near their grandchildren and within closer reach of health centres, shops and other amenities. Because their financial commitments are so much lower, they are able to enjoy the peace of mind their situation now brings them.

“I only wish we’d done this sooner,” says Carol. “It would have been so much easier to manage a move when Brian was in full health. I tell my friends who are still living in their family homes to move and enjoy their extra time and money, before it’s too late.”

Whilst we estate agents are often very patient, and can wait years for our clients to decide to move home – or not – sharing your plans and motivations with your estate agent early means they can help you make the right decision for you when it matters most.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.