STACKS – THE FRANCHISE!

STACKS - THE FRANCHISE!
James Greenwood, managing director of Stacks Property Search & Acquisition, explains why an estate agent may want to consider a franchise in property search Anyone considering a start-up business in estate agency, whether as an independent or a franchise, can’t have failed to be at least slightly daunted by the staggering amount of competition in ...

AN AGENTS’ VIEW.

RICHARD  à BRASSARD and his glamorous wife Sandy had hoped to sell their four-bedroom home in Clapham, South London, but now plan to wait a few months to find out how the market reacts to Hips. à Brassard, a director of the estate agency Courtenay, is well-informed about Hips. But inertia has afflicted the industry ...

Avoiding HIPs

From next Wednesday anyone starting to market their home will need a Home Information Pack if it has four or more bedrooms. If you use an estate agent then they will be responsible for ensuring that one has been ordered but with over 2.5 million properties marketed every year, how will anyone know if you ...

HIPS FOR DUMMIES

Home Information Packs become law next Wednesday but what exactly are they and what do they mean for the public? What is a HIP? It is a collection of documents including Deeds, Searches, leasehold information (if appropriate) and an Energy Performance Certificates that has to be ordered before a property is marketed. Who needs one? ...

“No such thing as a free HIP”

Homeowners have been warned to look at the small print when offered either a free or subsidised Home Information Pack. Next week, the law requires a Pack to be ordered for all properties being marketed with four or more bedrooms. Smaller homes will be included by the end of the year. A crucial part of ...

Energy Performance certificates expected to cost an average of £130

With one week now to go and assuming the Government doesn’t perform another u-turn Home Information Packs will be law in England and Wales. From 1st August all properties that go on the market with four or more bedrooms will need to have ordered a Home Information Pack. A crucial part of the pack is ...

LIVING IN A FLOOD PLAIN COULD DEVALUE YOUR HOUSE BY 25%

This weeks flooding in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire comes hard on the heels of the devastation in Sheffield and the North East earlier in the month. Rainfall records are being broken across the country and ironically only flat, reclaimed East Anglia has escaped without serious flood damage. The impact of 2007 floods will be felt for ...

NO INSURANCE – NO MORTGAGE

NO INSURANCE - NO MORTGAGE
Earlier this week there was a suggestion here on BricksnClicks that some insurance companies might be considering withdrawing cover to homes that have flooded resulting in a 25% drop in values. Oh, and here’s the echo of that piece a week later in The Times but with nearer 80% off! Flood homes: prices could fall ...

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
In the rush to explain to their clients that they don’t support private sellers sites (so called For-Sale-By-Owner or FSBO sites) agents seem to have missed that fact that a number of property portals already have similar offerings. FindaProperty power their parents ‘Homes & Property’ site – which also takes private advertisers direct. Propertyfinder powers ...

ESTATE AGENT OF THE YEAR 2007

Registrations for this years event are now being taken but there has already had a suspect application from a new firm in Cheshunt giving a website address of www.tescopropertymarket.com……

FISH4 BAIL OUT OF TESCO

Joe Slavin, chief executive, fish4 says: “fish4homes continually strives to provide the highest quality service to its network of clients. Because Tesco is one of the UK’s biggest and most widely-recognised brands, we initially felt that involvement in the Tesco Property Market initiative would give our new and existing customers’ property adverts maximum exposure and ...

PROPERTY PORN

PROPERTY PORN
No, it’s not what you think. This is the property pin-up, the gorgeous Louisa Fletcher who I shared the BBc Breakfast sofa with in June. Louisa’s Automated Valuation Model (AVM) is one of the most accurate around. PropertyPriceAdvice had got together with Fish4 but is now the power behind the new Tesco private sellers website ...