Welcome to our Autumn Property Market Update. If, like me, you are confused about what you read in the newspapers about the property market then I don’t blame you. Some firms/newspapers like Rightmove etc say there is more activity than this time last year and prices are holding up and others are saying the market is softening.

What is the reality? Over the last 8 weeks or so we have agreed a number of good sales but, as ever, it is all about price.

We all know the majority of people now use the internet to source their properties and the 3 common denominators they generally look at are Photographs, Price and the date the property was launched on to the market. All of these are extremely important and it still surprises me how poorly some houses are presented. First impressions are vital, for example why do some agents have cars in the foreground!

Regarding price, I must make my feelings known about agents who quote ‘offers over’. What on earth does this mean?! In my opinion it serves no purpose whatsoever, sends a confused message and actually smacks to me of the vendor and agent not agreeing on the price.

Just as important is the date the marketing commenced and my rule of thumb is if the house has not sold within 3 months of the house being advertised then it does not reflect today’s price and you need to consider Plan B. One of my sayings is ‘you have to be IN the market not ON the market’.

Interestingly we have more people on our mailing list than ever before and buyers will only get off the fence if it is at the right price. Naturally there is nervousness with UK PLC and this is being reflected in the property Market. Having said that trying to ascertain what the right price is in today’s market ,can be difficult.

Because of the difficulties in the market we have taken the decision to only let people view houses that can only proceed or are at least on the market. I am not quite sure if you are looking for a house why some people do not put their house on the market. How can you be a motivated buyer if you haven’t? I often get the comment ‘my agent tells me my house will sell easily’. Find me an agent who will say any differently?!

Another beef of mine is the poor quality of some of the solicitors. I’m sure they will say the same about agents! However, so many of them seem to have no sense of urgency and seem to do everything they can do to delay. When I first started in this business, on average a sale took about 4 weeks to exchange from when a sale had been agreed. Now it is about 3 months. We know the world has gone bonkers but it seems the property market has joined it.

The Renters Reform Bill is nearly upon us. We are seeing a number of Landlords selling up which surprise, surprise is causing a scarcity of houses to rent and it in turn is pushing up rents. Madness! It really has not been properly thought through.

The recent cut in interest rates has helped but the economy is short of confidence, and everything needs to be affordable. The property market is no different and when that property is the right house and at the right price buyers will perform but as i keep saying “Will Vendors sell at what the Buyer is prepared to pay?!”

Below is a cross selection of Houses that we have recently sold and also Houses that we have available to buy. Please do make sure you are registered with us as we have a number of houses quietly available which are not shown on the appropriate websites.

As usual if we can help in anyway, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Autumn Property Market Update

An update from Mark on The Country Property Market