Houses for when Zombies attack.

Sponsored by a Louisiana-based US architecture firm, the 2010 Zombie Safe House Competition features four homes designed to be safe from a zombie attack (something which the Home Information Pack never really explored, but if you're concerned you could always ask your surveyor). There are four designs to choose from. Go and vote... your future may (or may not) be at stake.

Vote For Your Zombie Safe House

Frighteningly Yours,

Mr J.

Stirling - 'I was robbed.....'

Sir Stirling Moss - Robbed by his tenants.

His Italian chef and girlfriend tenants are said to have failed to pay rent for seven months, before scarpering on the eve of the bailiffs' arrival, and taking the Pimlico flat's furnishings with them. Crockery, furniture, bed linen... all gone. Moss's daughter, who manages her father's portfolio, describes her initial concerns:

Alarm bells did ring when I first met him, because he had tattoos on his neck.

Seriously, though... I wonder whether a high-profile case like this will do anything to add to the pressure to change a system that forces landlords to affectively offer half a year's free accommodation to any tenant who just doesn't fancy paying?

Apologies for my lack of blogging of late - Another longer stay in hospital, without Wi-Fi, put paid to that.....

All the best now,

Mr J.

Conman's £1m Fraud

A conman who stole his landlord's identity to sell his £1 million house in one of London's most exclusive areas was jailed three years today.

Steven Rice, 43, was part of a gang of fraudsters who used false names to rent two houses in South Kensington.

Using bogus identity documents, Rice then adopted his landlord's name to sell the home for just over £1 million, Southwark Crown Court heard.

The conman was caught when he tried to transfer the proceeds from the sale of the house in Donne Place to an account in Dubai.
A diligent bank employee spotted he was using a fake driving licence in the name of the 83-year-old owner and reported him.
Passing sentence the judge, Mr Recorder Phillip Bartle QC said Rice was at the 'front end of the fraud'.

'Although I accept, as does the prosecution, that you were not the principle architect in relation to this fraud ... you were as has been described at the front end of the fraud in which you did play a part.'

The judge continued: 'You were used by other people, I have no doubt about that.'
Rice claimed he had been offered £10,000 to provide his photographs and signature to the gang of fraudsters but had no idea how they would be used until his arrest.
The judge said this was an 'undoubtedly carefully planned and sophisticated' con.

Prosecutor Gavin Ludlow-Thompson told the court: 'This case involved the plundering of an innocent person's identity on a grand scale. 'The prosecution say that this was a skilfully orchestrated and planned fraud involving millions of pounds.

'In a nutshell what the defendant and the other members of the gang were seeking to do was to get control of high value properties in the Kensington and Chelsea area and then posed as the vendor of the property either to sell it or to raise funds by way of a mortgage or loans.'

In September last year, former yachting Olympian Vernon Stratton, put his three-storey, four bedroom house in Donne Place up for rent.

Rice and his gang of fellow conmen, none of whom have been caught, managed to secure the tenancy agreement for the house, which is behind Harrods, using a fake passport and references in the name of Stewart Knight.

'Two electronic transfers were made from an account in Dubai in December and January for around £20,000 in advance rent and deposits,' the prosecutor said.

Once Rice, who was in Dubai at the time, had control of the property his henchmen quickly changed the locks and went about gathering information in order to 'purloin' the identity of Mr Stratton, who lived on the Isle of Wight.

Within weeks a 'facilitator' had been approached by the gang to sell the property.
Mr Stratton's home was then sold to property company Pall Mall Developers for £1.047 million.

The money was then paid into a fraudulent account set up in the landlord's name.
Rice was caught out on March 15 of this year, just a day after arriving from overseas, when he went into a branch of Halifax in Brompton Road and asked to transfer £850,000 to a Dubai account.

Staff raised the alarm when Rice presented them with a 'poor quality' fake driving license in Mr Stratton's name, and he was arrested shortly afterwards.

Detectives discovered Rice had also been involved in an attempt in October last year to secure a loan on a £4m home at 27 Montpelier Square in Knightsbridge.

The defendant adopted the name of Alan Mason to take a tenancy and a loan of £489,235 was agreed to be advanced by Lloyds TSB bank.

But the attempt was thwarted at the last minute and the money transfer was cancelled.
Others were involved in both scams, including a female accomplice who posed as the owner of the Montpelier Square house, Caroline MacKay Lewis.

Mr Ludlow Thompson confirmed that no other arrests had been made but said 'enquires were ongoing'.

The defendant is the managing director of a company called Alchemy Yachting, which refurbishes luxury yachts in Majorca and Singapore and employs 50 people.

Jacqueline Vallejo, defending, said Rice was under enormous financial strain due to the recession and mounting debts. She said he owes at least £50,000 in unpaid tax and VAT. Rice was promised £10,000 for the 'successful' completion of the fraud.
Ms Vallejo said: 'No one else is before the court. 'He is the fall guy and is taking the wrap for everybody else.'

Rice, of Basingfield Close, Old Basing, Basingstoke, Hants, admitted two counts of possessing a false ID document with intent and one count of acquiring criminal property.

He also admitted a charge of acquiring criminal property in relation to the Montpelier Square fraud, and asked for it to be taken into account for the purpose of sentencing.

Oh the joys....

Afternoon All,

This little story was told to me by Tracey Kellett at BDI Homefinders, after chatting with a local agent recently

"There are no buyers," says the grim-faced estate agent.

"Transaction levels are going through the floor." "Well at least you have the lettings side to see you through," I say cheerfully. "Ah yes, lettings", he says. "That's kept us afloat the past few years. But no more, I fear." "But aren't rents going up, and aren't we increasingly becoming a renting society?" I ask. "Hmm, yes… theoretically. I'm advising landlords to raise rents 8%. But I've got nothing to rent out. All the tenants who used to move out to buy, can't, so are staying put. The tenants who moved out to better places are staying put because there's nothing else out there."

"Not only that," he continues, "but over the last few years the market has been replenished by all those amateur buy-to-let landlords. It drove down rents but it kept a constant new stock supply. They've gone." He continues sombrely, "I make my money when tenancies change, be it new stock or old. So things for the business, sales and lettings, are pretty dire. The only real winners in this market are the landlords. They're starting to hit pay dirt." I throw him a sympathetic glance. "Oh don't worry about me," he says. "Got myself a nice little portfolio in 2008… when all those amateur buy-to-let landlords panicked."

The joys of being an estate agent !

Have a good weekend y'all.

Mr J.

Top Gun No More..... ?

Reading in the P&J today, the Ministry of Defence confirmed that it owns more than 900 houses either outright or under a private finance initiative.

Gordon(Nice Guy with Elvis hair)Hay, of Harvey Donaldson & Gibson chartered surveyors in Elgin, said closure of the bases at Kinloss & Lossiemouth would over-saturate Moray’s housing market in the rental and home-ownership sectors.

Sellers would be forced to accept lower prices, developers would stop building, and tradesmen would be out of work, he argued.

“It’s a knock-on effect. It’s not just property value that will be affected. Nothing positive could be taken out of this at all,” he said.

Moray Solicitors Property Centre chairman Sandy Mitchell said that closing a base would take a few years, hopefully giving the area time to absorb the impact.

HIE's manager for Moray, Calum MacPherson, said a recent report in this matter provided a factual base for decision-makers.

He added: “Due to the scale and long-term presence of the RAF in Moray the two bases are woven into the surrounding communities, not least because they support at least 16% of local employment. The threat to the economy and population in the region is therefore more acute in Moray than other region in the UK."

Moray business leader, Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jim Johnston, said nobody should be in any doubt about the value of the bases to the economy.

“It’s the equivalent of taking a town the size of Keith and closing it down. Just obliterating it from the face of the earth,” he added.

Moray Council convener George McIntyre said: “In addition to the economic input, the RAF personnel and their families play a vital role in the communities in the region with significant contributions to volunteer and charity work.

“It is vital the decision-makers consider the economic and social consequences of the defence review.”

A government document leaked earlier this month revealed plans to save £7.5billion by grounding RAF Lossie’s 120-strong fleet of Tornado GR4/GR4As.

RAF Kinloss is equally insecure.

The base has lost all its Nimrod MR2 surveillance aircraft and is waiting for the arrival of the next generation of Nimrod MRA4s. Which will no doubt land, therefore honouring BAE's contract, then turn straight around and head 'down South'

The MoD said speculation was “entirely unfounded”.

Speculation is rife around Moray, with stories about the Army moving into Kinloss, the Navy into Lossiemouth, Richard Branson basing Virgin Galctic here, etc... etc....

Lets' face it, no one knows, certainly not your butcher, hairdresser or the local journalists.

No local report is going to carry any weight at Whitehall I'm afraid - It's just a money saving exercise as far as they are concerned. We just have to keep our fingers crossed that they make the right decision.

Until the next time.

Mr J

Meet Bob......

From the Guardian today and the mystery to many how ordinary people can afford to live in the UK's capital. Consistently ranked one of the most expensive cities in the world, London's house prices are ever more ludicrous, even in these dark days of pay freezes, mass redundancies and bankruptcy.

Visit one of the campsites encircling the city and it becomes clear how some people make the sums work: by shunning bricks and mortar to live in tents, caravans and mobile homes.

Each morning at these sites the shower blocks teem with commuters washing, shaving and making themselves presentable for a hard day's graft in the big smoke.

Last week a council worker called Philip Hanman hit the papers when he claimed he had been forced out of his job after his bosses discovered he was commuting to work in Barking and Dagenham in east London from a campsite in Epping Forest, where he slept in a £30 tent. Hanman has taken voluntary redundancy from the council and now lives with his family in Cornwall, where he previously spent his weekends.

Camping commuters are far from rare in the capital. On the Lee Valley site in Edmonton, north London, near a monster branch of Ikea and surrounded by pylons, 40 pitches are reserved for "long-termers".

Many of them work constructing the Olympic park, driving buses or in other jobs in the city, returning to their "real" homes at the weekend.

Here, in a neat caravan, lives one of the more unusual residents. Last year Lucy Boggis, 21, spent her days chasing amateur athletes up a climbing wall in her role as Tempest in the Sky series of Gladiators. Now, she is devoting all her energy to the 2012 Olympics, where she hopes to represent Britain in the heptathlon.

With no lottery funding, money is tight. So last September she decided to set up camp at the Lee Valley site, which is next door to an athletics centre.

Each morning, she makes herself porridge on the small van's stove, before padding over to the shower block for a wash.

She's at the track for 9am, and spends the day practising the hurdles, high jump and the other five disciplines that make up her event. On the weekends she goes home to her family in the West Country. "Some of my fellow athletes take the mickey, but most of them actually think it's a good idea. If you don't have funding, you don't have much spare money, and it's much cheaper to stay in a caravan than rent a one-bedroom flat," she said.

Lee Valley is one of the more expensive sites around London, charging between £12.30 and £16.40 a night for a one-person pitch, depending on the season, plus £3.60 per day for electricity.

In a caravan a few doors down from Boggis lives IT contractor Keith Davidson, who commutes to Canary Wharf each day.

The City is less than an hour away by public transport, with a regular bus service stopping at the site and taking campers to the nearest station.

"My family lives up in Aberdeen, but I often get contracts down here. The main reason I stay here is because of the flexibility – if you rent a flat you often have to commit to six months or a year, whereas here you can come and go as you like," he said.

The campsite's only residency rules are that everyone has to clear off during the few winter months when the site is closed, and that you pay for every night you're taking up a pitch, whether you're there or not. In a motorhome nearby lives Bob Casbeard, who commutes a few days a week to his urban planning job in Hackney. "I've been coming here on and off for eight years," he said, showing off his retractable satellite dish and extensive cooking facilities. Unlike many of the other long-termers, Casbeard is not camping to save money – he owns houses in east London, Suffolk and the Champagne region of France. "I do it to save the planet," he said, pointing up to the solar panels on the roof.

He added: "It does save me some money, though. Sometimes I stay in a hotel in Chigwell, and it costs £70 a night, which even for three nights is more expensive than parking my van here for a whole week."

We'll see more people on the campsite in Findhorn soon I reckon !

Until the next time.

Mr J

Depressing....

Sorry for the lack of blogging of late - Avid readers may remember my previous exploits and my resulting broken hip. Unfortunately, of late my hip has been giving me 'jip' and I've spent a few days being looked after by the excellent staff at Raigmore.

I'm pleased to say that I'm back on the mend and I am all wi-fii'd up and ready to get back on the blogging wagon - which I've really missed, (along with my cakes and buns from Macleans) A mention sometimes guarantees me a free doughnut !

I've also popped in to see David at Moray Property - Seems things are going rather well and already they have a window stocked with properties. David tells me the rental market is presently 'on fire' and doesn't have enough rental stock to keep up with demand. (That wallpaper doesn't get any duller does it David !)

The same can't be said for sales - where it's certainly a 'buyers market' at present. With many vendors choosing to go down the fixed price route, rather than the more traditional 'Offers Over', snaring the first 'ready, willing and able' buyer.

It seems that prospective vendors in the area are awaiting the defence review which is due next month, we will then hopefully put an end to the speculation about the future of RAF Kinloss & Lossiemouth.

Let's hope it's good news, as closure of either base would hurt the local economy and housing market badly. We'd see house prices tumble, as many personnel are forced to ship out and sell up.

Though as usual, there is talk of the army moving into RAF Kinloss and the Navy back to RAF Lossiemouth, then again there's always talk of this every couple of years. We could do with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic taking off soon (quite literally). That would certainly see the area 'Rocket'.

All this, coupled with the poor Summer and the forthcoming sale of Mackenzie & Cruikshank (one of my favourite shops) in the Forres High Street, things are certainly looking a bit bleak.

Thank heavens for Benromach and the cakes in the cafe on the green at Cawdor, like rental properties, both are well worth indulging in and will raise anyone's spirits.

Lets hope for the best & keep smiling.

Until the next time.

J.

Bauhaus Blocks....

A genuine design from the Bauhaus school, with the Naef Bauhaus Building Game by Alma Siedhoff-Buscher now available to entertain and educate your children.

In truth, it's more likely to entertain than educate, but if you like the idea of your little one being an architect, it's the perfect place to start.

During her training at Bauhaus in 1924, Alma Siedhoff-Buscher designed this building game, as part of the children’s room in the 'Am Horn' model house in Weimar.

Now it's available once more - a 22-piece set retails for £99 - Wow ... Your parents would need to be architects to afford that.... !

Play Nicely Now.

Mr J.

Confused by conveyancing....

Starting with... what it actually is. A new survey by Reallymoving.com really suggests Brits are really ignorant about the realities of the property exchange.

Thirty-seven per cent didn't know what "conveyancing" meant; 54% thought conveyancers organised the survey; 16% thought the conveyancer negotiated the price of the property on their behalf.

Amazingly, that 37% who had no idea what conveyancing was only dropped to 23% when the poll was narrowed to include homeowners who've been through the process themselves. Reallymoving have published a guide in response... here.

Happy Reading,
J.

Rightmove In Top 10....

From 'Estate Agent Today' they report that Rightmove climbed into the top ten web domains in June alongside the BBC website, Google and Facebook.

The latest statistics were produced by web monitoring agencies including Comscore and counted UK page visits for the month.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: “To be amongst the top ten web domains in the UK is a notable achievement for us.

“Rightmove is synonymous with home-hunting but this underlines our position as one of the most popular overall consumer brands on the web.”

Despite concerns that the World Cup could bring a slowdown in search activity, Rightmove measured an 11% increase in pages viewed on its website compared with June of last year.

Shipside added: “In spite of the World Cup distraction, it’s a sign of growing pent-up demand that people continue to search for properties.”

I would have thought that the World Cup proved no distraction for the people of Moray, perhaps only the England v Germany game, when I could hear cheering for each German goal echoing around the area !

Only another 4 years to wait, by which time Rightmove should have cemented its place in the top 5 and Wayne Rooney will be at his prime (perhaps...).

Seems incredible but still many local agents are not listed with them. When buying a house 'out of area' it's the first port of call for all potential purchasers.

Off to the Highland Games in Forres this weekend, please say hello if you see me there, I'm always keen to meet any of my blog readers.

Until next time,

Mr J

Bored about Boards....

Estate agency boards have returned to the streets of conservation areas in London’s Kensington and Chelsea after a 15-year ban expired.

The re-emergence of the For Sale and To Let signs in some of London’s finest streets have prompted fury among local residents.

Agents said the streets could be fairly targeted after the lapsing of the Regulation 7 restrictions first imposed in 1995, and said that once one firm put boards back up, the others had to follow or risk losing business.

It emerged that Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council wanted to renew the ban but there had been disagreement over how extensive it should be. Last year, it applied to extend the ban to 80% of its area, but the Secretary of State refused permission.

Other London boroughs, including Hammersmith and Fulham, Camden and Westminster, have also sought Regulation 7 controls.

Meanwhile the reappearance of boards in Kensington and Chelsea from the likes of Hamptons, Savills, Marsh & Parsons and Foxtons has prompted heritage groups to call for a blanket ban across the whole of central London.

Amanda Frame, chairman of the Kensington Society, said: “The more the boards go up, the more it shows they need to be controlled. The agents are cutting their own throats by putting them back up. It blights all areas, not just those with conservation status.”

Ian Dungavell, director of the Victorian Society, said the boards were “an anachronism” in the internet era.

The conservationists have an unlikely ally – in the form of an estate agent.

Ed Mead, of Douglas & Gordon, said: “My view is very strongly that boards should be banned – period.

“I think they are a blight and they are just used to advertise the agency. Why on earth, at a cost of £6 a board, should an agent be able to blight a street when everything is done on the web these days?

“A ban would get rid of much of the stigma attached to the estate agency industry.”

Personally I can't help but smile when I see David's new boards (above), they certainly brighten up any street - they match the shop wall paper in case you hadn't noticed.

Hope you're not 'board' reading this - Until the next time.

Mr J

Celebrity House Sitters...

From the ever popular 'Rat & Mouse' blog.....Thanks guys !

Ever wondered who would be the UK's preferred celebrity house-sitter? Me, neither. But thanks to a survey of moneysupermarket.com users, that data is available:

1. Jeremy Clarkson (28%)
2. Christine Bleakley (23.9%)
3. Sarah Beeny (23.8%)
4. Cheryl Cole (14.2%)
5. Lord Alan Sugar (6.3%)
6. Wayne Rooney (3.7%)

The results are surprising. Remember, these are people entrusted to look after a gaff while the occupants are away, so catching Bleakley in the shower isn't a possibility. And what possible value will the presence of Clarkson add? To anything? The lovely Sarah Beeny? I suppose you could always leave a note asking her to do a bit of remodelling if she's time.

Poles Apart.....

An extraordinary recent poll by Barratt shows:

71% rated home ownership an eight or above in importance (out of ten)
46% rated marriage as important
44% gave having children the same rating
27% considered an active social life an eight or more
Between the ages of 18 and 24, that 71% rises to 81%

How many wished to live in a Barratt house though ?

The poll doesn't say...

Surprisingly Yours,

MR J

Now leave your home.....!

It's a new show, planned for BBC 1, looking for six individuals with ambitious grand designs.

The show will fund the projects through to completion, and film the process. But - and here's the twist - only the "winner" (judged by an as-yet-unannounced property "guru") will get to keep their home.

It's like Britain's Got Talent, crossed with Grand Designs, crossed with Property Ladder, crossed with Fame Academy.

Oh dear....things are set to get ugly.

Mr J

ASBO's for Landlords..?

LANDLORDS of Edinburgh's "party flats" could be served with Asbos under new plans to crack down on trouble sparked by visiting stag and hen groups.

Edinburgh Central Labour MSP Sarah Boyack said the Scottish Government had agreed to consider changing the law to make it easier for councils to tackle the problem.

Residents plagued by drunken revellers causing a disturbance in the early hours have long been campaigning for action.

The existing law allows tenants in short-term and holiday lets to be served with anti-social behaviour orders, but because stag and hen groups are only in town for the weekend, it is not seen as a practical way to deal with the problem.

Ms Boyack said she had held a "very constructive" meeting with communities minister Alex Neil on the issue and was now optimistic about progress on the issue.

She said: "The minister has agreed to examine options which would mean amending the Anti-Social Behaviour Act to extend the capacity of serving notices not just to tenants but to landlords and owners of short-term and holiday lets.

"The suggestion is councils could have the power to require landlords to do certain things such as a limit on numbers, noise insulation and so on, and they would have to have enforcement powers and a backstop to enable them to serve a stop notice if there was persistent non-compliance with orders."

Mr Neil said: "I am sympathetic to any resident who has to put up with anti-social behaviour linked to a party flat.

"I am grateful for Ms Boyack's input on ideas to tackle this issue and this government will consider legislative change where this can make a difference."

The meeting between Ms Boyack and Mr Neil came after yet another incident a few weeks ago when police and an ambulance were called to a flat in Grove Street, near Haymarket.

Neighbour Stan Player, who has petitioned the Scottish Parliament for action to deal with party flats, said: "We got wakened at 4am with a lot of noise and shouting. I phoned the police about 5am, then it was just getting worse and worse so I phoned again at 6am.

"Then at 6.30am all hell let loose. It sounded like a fight, people bashing against doors and it seemed to be happening in the stair.

"An ambulance arrived, there was someone in the stairs screaming in real agony, then there were lots of police cars. We believe there was a woman seriously assaulted."

Mr Player welcomed the move to allow landlords to be served with Asbos as a step forward. "That would be a help," he said.

Good idea I think - Let me know what you think to it......

Until the next time,

MR J

Surveyors - Upping the pain .....?

This from the Daily Mail made me think this week !

The most recent figures from Nationwide say house prices rose one per cent last month, and are up more than ten per cent in the past year.

Halifax says they're nearly seven per cent higher than a year ago, while the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is predicting a post-Election bounce, with modest increases expected across most of the country in the next three months.

But mortgage borrowers say this good news isn't yet being reflected in the prices that valuers put on their homes, and that low valuations are jeopardising their chances of getting the mortgage they want, or of moving home.

A typical example is a reader from South London who paid £176,000 for a house four years ago. After spending £24,000 on improvements and getting three estate agents round, the house was valued at between £200,000 and £216,000 in February. But when the owners tried to remortgage last month, their bank's surveyor put a maximum price of just £160,000 on it.

The couple have a £155,000 mortgage so were rejected for their bank's best-buy fixed rate because it is on offer only to people with at least 20 per cent equity in their homes.

They're now paying the bank's standard variable interest rate and are worried that they will not be able to afford the repayments if interest rates rise - and that if they try to sell, a low valuation will mean potential buyers will not get a mortgage either and will have to withdraw from the deal.

Experts say low valuations continue to plague the market and that victims may struggle to overturn them.

If your lender just did what's known as a "drive-by" or " desktop" valuation and you think an internal inspection will produce a higher figure, you can ask for them to send someone round,' says David Hollingworth, of broker London & Country Mortgages.

You may be charged a few hundred pounds for the new inspection and there are no guarantees it will produce a higher figure. If you are unhappy after a proper internal inspection, you can try appealing against it by finding examples of similar local homes that have sold for more in recent months. Most lenders require details of at least three comparable homes.

'Unfortunately, this can be a struggle if the number of transactions taking place in your area is low, or if your home is particularly unusual,' says Melanie Bien of broker Savills Private Finance.

Websites such as www.houseprices.co.uk can also help by giving actual 'sold' prices for most postcodes, while the Home Valuation Calculator at www.thisismoney.co.uk shows how your home's value may have changed over different time periods.

You cannot expect high valuations from estate agents to carry much weight with lenders. They assume that agents overvalue homes to try to win business from sellers.
As there is no conciliation or independent ombudsman service for people unhappy with low valuations, the odds are you will have to accept the price your lender puts on your home.

If it's so low that you don't qualify for one of its best-buy deals, you may need to look elsewhere if you don't want to stay on its standard variable rate.

Rates may be high, but lenders that will remortgage high loan-to value properties include the Post Office, Halifax, the Clydesdale/ Yorkshire Bank, NatWest/Royal Bank of Scotland and LloydsTSB.

Shop around carefully out there folks, locally I know of both lenders and surveyors who will value properties VERY differently - Do your homework before you instruct or apply, it will save you time and hassle in the long term.

Until the next time.

Mr J.

My HIPS gone.....!

The recent Government change in Westminster will not have any effect on home reports north of the border, according to a leading Edinburgh property firm.

The Conservative Party has announced it will be scrapping home information packs (HIPs) in England & Wales, which has caused confusion in Scotland over whether home reports will also be axed.

But Edinburgh property solicitor Warners has stressed that, despite the sweeping changes planned in England, the home report legislation will remain in effect in Scotland – and added that it remained a beneficial addition to the country’s property market.

Uncertainty

Scott Brown, estate agency partner at Warners, said: “Ever since the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition took power, there has been some uncertainty about what’s going to happen to the property market.

“We’ve already had a number of calls from people in Edinburgh who are either buying or looking to sell their properties and who are concerned about the legislation. They have been asking whether they still need a home report to be able to sell their property or not, now that there is a new Government in place.

“Therefore it’s important to stress that the home report legislation is governed through the Scottish Parliament, so the new coalition has no control over it at all. If you’re planning to sell a property in Scotland, you will still need to have a home report in place, and if you’re buying, you will be able to request to see these reports before purchasing.”

Positive

He added: “Home reports have actually been very positive for Scotland, so axing them would be a bad move for the property sector. They have created a greater sense of realism among buyers and sellers, as these people are now able to use property valuations contained in the reports as a marker when judging how much to buy or sell a home for. It also means that more homes are being sold for ‘offers around’ prices, which is helping provide even more transparency in the market.

“I would therefore like to see the Scottish Government reassuring people in Scotland that home reports are here to stay, regardless of what happens at Westminster.”

Locally, Paul at Moray Property confirmed today that they were also getting enquires as to whether Home Reports were still required. Lets hope the Scottish Government gets their act together and conveys the situation to the actual people it affects 'the man in the street'.

It's a positive jungle out there - be careful !

J

Any fool can sell a house.....

Peter Rollings, the thoroughly nice chap from Marsh & Parsons wrote this great article below, I thought you, my reader may well be interested in, it's all about how anyone can sell a house....

It’s true. However, that’s the straightforward part. The role of your estate agent is not just to sell your property but to use their marketing capability and knowledge to obtain the very best price that the best buyer will pay and that is absolutely NOT straightforward.

Here is the first paragraph of a letter I received this week from a delighted client:

"We exchanged contracts on our house last Friday at more than 10% over the asking price, having instructed Marsh & Parsons only 10 days before. As the property had been on the market with another agent since the previous September, we were delighted with this result."

She was especially delighted as the value of the house was substantially in excess of £2,000,000 and after finding several suitable buyers, we actually achieved nearly 20% more than the best offer obtained in December last year by the other agent.

I hope this doesn’t sound too conceited, it isn’t meant to. What I am trying to say is that not all agents are the same. Just like not all restaurants or builders are the same—there are good ones, average ones, poor ones and, by and large, the average or poor tend to be cheaper than the good —unsurprisingly it is the same in our business.

One of the main reasons this particular client hadn’t instructed us before is that we were a little more expensive than a competitor and we wouldn’t cut our fee to match them. My view is that, as an agent, if you can’t even negotiate yourself an acceptable fee, what chance have you got of achieving an excellent price for your client?

In this case, as in many others, we already knew the buyer—we were selling their flat in Notting Hill and because of this it was simply a matter of encouraging them to pay what they had to in order to buy the house—in the first week of marketing the property, there were 19 viewings and competing offers from three other buyers. This is Local know how, better results in action.

There seems to be continuing interest in the 'Sell your home for free' type websites which have now been around for years. If I was a buyer then I would be very tempted to find a property through one of these websites. There is a good chance that, as you’re not dealing with a professional negotiator but the owner who has emotional involvement, you may get a ‘bargain’. Great news I hear some of you think and perhaps it is… if you’re the buyer. The thing is, as agents, we act for the seller and they pay us a fee (still the lowest in the developed world) to achieve for them the most amount of money for their biggest asset.

As Red Adair once said in an often used quote "If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, just wait until you hire an amateur." I feel confident that our client mentioned above would agree.

Take heed & Choose carefully,

Until the next time,

Mr J

Censored....

A rather unusual story over at Estate Agent Today.....

A falling-out between former friends and colleagues has resulted in one firm of estate agents being ordered to pay a competitor £15,000 in damages after admitting unfair tactics on the internet which involved porn.

Eddisonwhite, a south-west London firm, brought the case against SW19 and SW19’s proprietor, Luke Bennett. Bennett had bought the website domain eddisonwhite.com and diverted it to hardcore porn sites.

Eddisonwhite’s own website was eddisonwhite.co.uk, which it had registered in 2004. In December 2005, Bennett subsequently bought the same domain name but with .com

It was said that he continued with the website, despite a series of requests from eddisonwhite for removal.

Last June, the Chancery division of the High Court found that SW19 was guilty of passing off and copyright infringement, and made a series of orders, with costs to be assessed if not agreed.

The costs have now finally been agreed at £15,000.

Peter Adediran, the lawyer acting for eddisonwhite, said: “This is an important case for small businesses everywhere who are not sure where they stand in the areas of internet law. I’m extremely happy I was able to assist eddisonwhite in this and hope their victory will help all businesses protect themselves against such practice.”

Richard Eddison, joint owner of eddisonwhite, said: “I am relieved and happy this ordeal is over. It has been difficult for us and all of our customers and most importantly for those individuals who were subjected to some truly awful images thanks to Mr Bennett’s antics.

“For a professional service business to act in this way is beyond contempt and does little to challenge any pre-conceived ideas members of the public may have about our profession.

“We have sought to rise above that by running a truly professional business and offer excellent service to buyers and sellers alike. It’s just a shame Mr Bennett didn’t chose to operate with the same values.”

He added that the legal costs of mounting the case were unknown: "But yes, it will have cost us a lot of money."

He said that the existence of the .com site had been pointed out to them by a client: "He saw the pornography and subsequently became a witness for us. My advice to any firm caught in a similar situation is to take legal advice – and don't give up."

Bennett told EAT at the weekend that he had at one time been a flatmate and close friend of Simon White when the pair worked for another estate agency firm.

The pair fell out for entirely private reasons and both went on to set up their own estate agency firms. “I noticed that eddisonwhite were using the co.uk version of their website, so I bought the .com version and rather jokingly offered it to them,” Bennett said.

“They refused, and at first I diverted it to some soft porn websites. For a week, I diverted it to the estate agency where we used to work. Then, things got nastier and I upped the ante and diverted it to more serious porn sites.

“However, the whole thing has been blown out of all proportion. The public would never have found the .com site and the only people who knew about it were the handful involved in running the two firms. At first, they went after £100,000, so it is rather telling that the court was happy with £15,000. They tried to turn my foolish prank into a money-making exercise, but the case must have cost them an awful lot more than that in legal fees.

“But what I did was silly. I shouldn’t have done it and I regret it.”

Now now boys, about time you grew up - You won't be doing the 'good name' of estate agents any favours.

By the way in case you are wondering the site no longer depicts large bodies obscuring the delightful modern, light and airy living spaces - I've checked !

Until the next time,

Mr J.

Golden Gate Bridge View - Without The Price !

Do you fancy looking out of your window in Lhanbryde or Elgin and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge....? Or even the East Beach at Lossie.... ?

Well perhaps soon you can - take a look at this - Modern technology never fails to amaze me.



I'm all for a giant sized Kirsty Alsop outside my window, again best not mention that to Mrs Jackson.

Until the next time.

J

Tesco Town

House-building... a good thing.

House-building, by Tesco, conveniently around its stores, the home purchases funded by Tesco mortgages (it's easy to imagine favourable mortgage terms on Tesco properties)... sinister.

It reminds me of the perspective you get of some medium-sized American towns as you fly above them, really just large consumer machines in which people live, work and mall-spend to feed the corporations. McLives.

Initial plans appear to centre around four "mini-villages" in the south east. Surely 'Tesco Town' has already been done in Inverness, with it's 5 (Five !) Tesco stores, where's Lord Sainsbury when you need him, to throw some orange into the mix.

I wonder if you'll get clubcard points with a house purchase..... Every little helps.

Mr J

Oh dear.....stranded in paradise

I, like tens of thousands of other Britons, am stranded overseas with little idea of when I might return home, thanks to volcanic activity thousands of miles away. But far from feeling anger, frustration and helplessness – I simply cannot believe my good fortune.

While horror stories continue to surface of epic overland journeys and airport slumber parties – plundering the reserves of both the great British resolve and holidaymaker’s bank balances – I remain reclined on a sun lounger in a West African paradise, and all at the expense of my tour operator.

If ever an advertisement was needed for the fully protected package holiday, surely this is it. From my sunny haven, the alternative route home for an independent traveller, or for one whose holiday company refuses to cough up compensation, would be ghastly.

I am in on holiday with The Gambia Experience (www.gambia.co.uk) in Africa’s smallest country, whose tiny, solitary international airport serves just a handful of destinations. As things currently stand, to get home I would be forced to take a 40-minute flight to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, followed by a four-and-a-half -hour flight to Madrid, from where I would be required to continue my journey by train, and/or bus and boat. Judging by the hectic scenes at train stations and ferry terminals across Europe, this schlep could take several days and would cost as much as £1,500.

The situation appears to be improving. Eruptions have eased and European airports are starting to open, much to the delight of those travellers far less fortunate than myself. But for me, and the majority of other Britons at my beachside resort, we tune into BBC World News each morning selfishly hoping to hear of further disruption and volcanic activity.

The backlog of flights could still force us to stay here for several days after UK airspace re-opens – and should our tour operator’s patience wear thin, we may have to contemplate the aforementioned odyssey. But as long as our airlines and tour operators continue to pick up the tab for meals and accommodation (and our family remain understanding), we couldn’t be happier......

J

Cheap As Chips....

Today from the 'Property Hawk' Landlords looking for a buy-to-let bargain will have to head west & north according to the latest figures released by Mouseprice.com.

Mouseprice have released figures for the cheapest streets in the UK.

The one street they have identified as being the cheapest is Fernhill in the Welsh region of Mountain Ash where the average property costs just "28,600. This street also topped last years poll, although average pries have risen over the year from £24,640.

The top ten cheapest streets in order were:

1. Fernhill,Mountain Ash. Wales £28,600
2. Oxford Street, Brierfield, North West £32,800
3. Ann Street, South Bank, North East £32,900
4. Edward Street, South Bank, North East £34,200
5. Scarborough Street, Middlesbrough, North East £34,400
6. Redcar Road, Middlesbrough, North East £34,400
7 Victoria Street, South Bank, North East £35,600
8. Wood Street, Burnley, North West £35,700
9. Elmwood Street, Burnley, North West £35,800
10. Altham Street, Burnley, North West £35,900

Landlords looking for a bargain property investment should remember that a cheap property isn't necessary a great investment. Cheap properties are also likely to have low levels of rent so that what a landlord should look at is the relationship between the capital value and the rent. The rental yield. Areas with low capital values are likely to be blighted by low demand from owners and renters leading to lower capital and rental growth prospects.

Check them out on Google Street View - some don't look too bad, though I personally wouldn't be tempted. It's a bit like deciding to buy a Korean car or one made in Germany....

Lets be careful out there folks !

Mr Jackson.

Radio Ga Ga...

Early on Easter Monday, I joined in a BBC Radio Scotland discussion about the Scottish property market. I was on as the bear (obviously) and the other participant, representing ESPC (the Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre), was to be on as the bull.

But it didn't quite work out as the BBC had planned. I was participating in the discussion from my car (I couldn't get to the studio and there were too many chocolate-sick children moping around inside for me to use a land line). It was also raining pretty heavily.

So when my supposed opponent announced that the best we could hope for for the rest of the year was that house prices would stay stable before they fell again, I thought I must have misheard.

But I hadn't. Further discussion showed that he really meant it. Unlike most property market professionals, he not only thought the market was unsustainably fragile, but was prepared to say so. Amazing.

But the weird thing is not that he suddenly came over all honest, but that for so long most other estate agents have not been prepared to do so.

The collapse in the number of houses for sale (the main factor behind the mini-boom in prices over the last 10-12 months) has not been driven by a sudden shortage of housing in the UK. It's been driven by a belief among would-be sellers (pushed in part by over-optimistic agents) that the longer they wait to sell, the more likely things are to return to 'normal' – i.e. the more likely they are to get the price they think they would have got in 2007.

But this is not in the interests of estate agents. As we've written here before, agents need high sales volumes more than they need high prices if their businesses are to succeed. So it makes sense for them to try to persuade reluctant sellers to come to the market by telling the truth. The truth being that with house prices still massively overpriced by historical standards; with interest rates only able to rise from here; with unemployment and taxes set to soar; and with mortgages still relatively hard to come by, it is almost impossible to make a case for house prices across the nation to keep on going up.

In the process of looking for a house for my own family I have seen a huge number of overpriced houses. Many are still on the market thanks to the fact they have been too highly valued by the agents. Once a seller has a price in their head it is really hard for them to take less, and that's one of the main reasons why the current market (outside prime London) is so very illiquid. It is also why I was so pleased to hear the man from ESPC being so honest: if he can persuade his fellow property professionals to do the same, we might suddenly find some liquidity returning to the market.

On that bombshell - if you have a house for sale that's sticking around, is it time you got an honest opinion from your agent and perhaps looked at the unthinkable - Dropping the price...?

Until next time.

Mr J

Poverty & Homelessness...

Poverty and homelessness in a wealthy society is not just an UK issue. Spotted in Madrid Spain was this poor soul.

I was all for offering a helping hand and taking her home with us, unfortunately Mrs Jackson would have none of it - She's normally so charitable too....

Yours wishfully,

Mr Jackson.

Millionaire developer with an ASBO !

Continuing on from my good neighbours theme, this from The Telegraph yesterday made me laugh and also wince a little !

A millionaire property developer harassed her neighbours for months by peering through windows, screaming insults and placing curses upon them, a court heard yesterday.

Patricia Bailey peered through other people’s blinds, pushed open windows and threatened “damnation” upon all those who lived nearby.

Her behaviour was so bad that she was given an indefinite nationwide Asbo and told by a judge that he wished she could be banned from “the entire planet”.

Yesterday, Mrs Bailey tried to get last year’s Asbo lifted, saying she was wrongly penalised and the punishment was unduly harsh.

Under the terms of the Asbo the 60-year-old was forced out of her original flat in central London and moved to another property overlooking Lord’s cricket ground.

James Couser, representing Westminster City Council, said the anti-social order had been necessary because of Mrs Bailey’s “bizarre” behaviour.

"Mrs Bailey is a woman who has a history of neighbour disputes,” he told Southwark Crown Court.
"The behaviour that is complained of is simply put, bizarre, of the most bizarre nature I have ever encountered.

"There is a CD containing footage of several incidents - this is very much a greatest hits compilation because there are a lot more video recordings.

“Mrs Bailey had a propensity at that time to go into communal areas and peer through windows, peek through windows and push through those windows - very strange behaviour indeed."

Neighbours recorded her antics and a video played in court showed Mrs Bailey, who lived at number three, chanting: “Keep away all evil my Lord, from flat four and flat five. “Banish them, O Lord, from here to damnation and hell.”

In the footage, Mrs Bailey was seen accusing her neighbours of carrying out a “witch hunt”, while they described her as “mad” and living in a fantasy world.

Mr Couser said the residents where she used to live wanted the Asbo to remain in place because they were worried she might come back to “haunt them”.

The order reads: “You must not use threatening, abusive, aggressive or obscene language or behaviour towards any person, in any public place in England and Wales, until further notice.” Oh dear, we'd best watch out for her up here next....

Mrs Bailey, who has a previous conviction for racially aggravated assault, was also banned from contacting her old neighbours.

The hearing continues......

I'll keep you updated, until the next time,

Mr Jackson

Slide with the snakes

Just a reminder to my 'newer' readers (Where have you been up until now....?) To check out the Property Snake for cut-price house bargains in your area.

This great, easy to use website shows you which houses have been reduced recently, some by as much as 50%, however the best reductions I could find in Moray were 10%, better than nothing though !

This just goes to show the Moray property market is a law unto itself and doesn't really follow the trends. It seems the only people reducing their prices in the area are those who are desperate.

Shop further a field and snap up a bargain or two, in a couple of years time when the market rallies you should have yourself some half decent equity.

Here's a couple that caught my eye - Property 1, Property 2

www.propertysnake.co.uk

Slitheringly Yours,

Mr Jackson.

I'm going outside, I may be some time...

(Lossiemouth, pictured above, this afternoon).

Once again the weather in Moray has turned cold & frosty (like when Mrs Jackson found out I've been talking to an 'attractive lady' on the beach at Findhorn - why I mentioned the words attractive and lady I don't know...Won't be doing that again).

However I digress, the weather is particularly poor at present, with snow, rain and strong winds. Not a great time for looking for your next property, or so you would think.

This afternoon, I called in to see David at Moray Property in Lossiemouth, to discuss their expansion plans for the Summer (Hope I haven't said too much David ;-). He tells me there is a noticeable change when the weather is poor, there are less enquiries by phone and less visitors to the office. However their website statistics go up. Which indicate people are stopping at home and viewing on-line.

This in turn leads to your estate agent being quieter than normal, so it is an ideal time to call in and discuss your requirements in detail, they will be much more inclined to spend time with you and go through your property requirements in detail, than they would with a busy office full of potential purchasers.

So, now is the ideal time to visit your agent in person and even snap up a sale bargain, as the poor weather looks set to be with us for a while longer. Don't wait for the sun and the first signs of spring, as you'll have to queue out of the door.

Unfortunately the same can't be said for the ravenous rental market, David tells me they only have 2 rental properties available at present, from a portfolio of 180. So, if you are in the market for a rental property, then you need to get out there - whatever the weather !

Even the staff at Harbour Lights were looking slightly worried as I ate my delicious blueberry custard cake, as the waves crashed over the marina walls this afternoon, perhaps they would feel safer in the estate agents up the hill...

Wrap up warm out there !

Mr Jackson.

Nodding Dogs.....

Following on from my earlier post this month, I've just been reading another great article by Jon Canter, the novelist and scriptwriter, about the very same, in yesterday's Guardian.

He suggests that you pay hundreds of pounds for a survey. Why? No surveyor answers the £164,455 question. (That, according to the Land Registry, is the current average house price in England and Wales.) Without an answer, no one should buy a property, anywhere, ever. The question is: what are the neighbours like? Never mind the state of the property — what's the state of the neighbours? Are they unsafe? Are they cracked? Are they falling apart? Are they dangerously wired?

I ask from bitter experience. We're regularly woken at five in the morning by neighbours hollering from the rooftops, with weirdly Mancunian vowel sounds, like 10 Liam Gallaghers fighting 10 Noels. The police keep telling us – correctly – that there's nothing they can do. These are seagulls. There's no such thing as an anti-seagull behavioural order. Surely our surveyor should have warned us, though. Perhaps he reckoned the nearby presence of the sea was a clue.

Mercifully, the humans living under the seagulls are good neighbours. "Love thy neighbour as thyself": even I, as a Dawkins-worshipping atheist, can see that this is the fundamental commandment of civilisation. Loving them, though: it sounds like a high-risk strategy. We all know what love can turn into.

Christopher Boyce, Gordon Brown and Simon Moore, psychologists at Warwick and Cardiff universities, have just published a study called Money and Happiness: Rank of Income, Not Income, Affects Life Satisfaction. The study, involving 80,000 participants, bears out the "rank income hypothesis" – your happiness is not determined by your absolute income but your income relative to others. "You might buy a new car," says Boyce, "but if your neighbour has just bought the very same car, that new car doesn't seem as good as it once was." So. Neighbours can make you happier. Not by loving you but by earning less than you and having an older car.

Sorry, Boyce, Brown and Moore. As I sit here at No 7, I couldn't tell you, without looking, what make of car is outside No 9. I couldn't tell you its age or current resale value in comparison to our Citroën. I can tell you this, though – it's green. The point is not that I'm a Buddhist who's oblivious of material things and sits here smiling serenely and – Om! – not wanting. I want, all right. It's just that my wanting is not relative to what my neighbours have.

Neighbours are random. They're the people who happen to be living next door when you buy or rent your place. My relative happiness isn't determined by those who are linked to me by walls alone. I'm affected by people I grew up with, by university contemporaries, by friends. I'm affected, in particular, by friends who were poor when I was poor and now, unhappily (for me), are far, far, far richer. (It's that third "far" that does it. I'm OK when they're far, far richer. But far, far, far richer makes me want to weep.) To be made happier or unhappier by another human being, I need to have invested something in them. I need to have invested emotions, over time. Without that investment, there can be no loss or gain, either of my happiness or unhappiness.

There is nothing, of course, to stop me spending so much time with my neighbours that they become friends too, assuming they like me and I like them. Nothing except the basic and unavoidable problem. The problem with neighbours is, they live next door. Once you start loving your neighbours, where's it going to end? You'll end up thinking about them all the time. You will, in that rank Boyce, Brown and Moore way, become dependent on them for your happiness or unhappiness. I don't think of my richer contemporaries all the time. Out of sight, out of mind. But neighbours are never out of sight.

The secret, surely, is neither to love nor hate your neighbours. Be polite, without intruding into their lives, or inviting them to intrude into yours. Yes, I talk to my neighbours – about seagulls, or that night when we accidentally set our chimney on fire – but mostly I nod. Nodding is good. Nodding is low-key. Nodding keeps you from developing a mutually loving relationship; equally, it keeps you from car-envy hell.

Nod thy neighbour as thyself......

Yours noddingly,

Mr Jackson .

Budget & The Million £ Stamp Duty Rise.....

"I've just sold a house for £1.85m to a hard-working family, not millionaires," said Lindsay Cuthill, head of the property agent Savills' South West London division, as he drove round Fulham on Wednesday afternoon. "They've worked hard to get there. We're not dealing with Russian oligarchs."

Selling a house for £1.85m is not uncommon for Mr Cuthill. His average sale touches £2m and some of his clients were rather worried when in Wednesday's Budget, Alistair Darling said stamp duty for properties over £1m is to be raised to 5pc from next April.

"I've had three people on the phone wanting to rush through their exchanges today," said Mr Cuthill. "One for a sale of £1.5m, one for £2.5m and another for £3m."

"They were aiming for the end of the week anyway. But now they want it done today."
Distrustful of the Government's ability to introduce such a measure in a fair manner, sellers wanted to exchange quickly to avoid falling victim to a "government cock-up".

The estate agent was – perhaps not surprisingly – disdainful of the policy, calling it "a relatively easy tax from a PR perspective".

"There aren't too many people out there who are going to have sympathy for a buyer with £1m to spend."

On that basis, if Steve Austin were a house and you were to buy him at today's exchange rate, then he'd cost you the equivalent of an additional City centre flat in Aberdeen !

Somewhere that sympathy may be in short supply is Doncaster, where terraced houses sell for £60,000. (Equivalent to Steve Austin's ear).

Mark Hunter, a partner at Grice & Hunter in the Yorkshire town, is unimpressed by the rise in stamp duty. "I can't see the point. It's what affects the majority that affects the market."

He is more concerned with the fate of first-time buyers, along with the down-sizers and buy-to-let clients using his agency.

Scrapping stamp duty for first-timers buying homes for less than £250,000 is a positive, he said, but warned "it's not a panacea".

The biggest problem for first-time buyers is still finding a deposit as lending remains tight, not stamp duty, he said.

However, it's the first-time buyers scrabbling together a deposit that are more likely to elicit the sympathy – of Labour voters at least – than those with a £1m budget, no matter how hard-working....

I trust the 5% Stamp duty won't be too damning for the majority of my readers !

Until the next time,

Mr Jackson.

Join the Silver Surfers....!

According to the BBC It has been a tough couple of years for people trying to earn a living in the property market.

The slump in home sales that followed the onset of the credit crunch and the recession led to widespread job cuts among house building firms and saw thousands of estate agency branches closing down.

With lenders restricting their funds, and in some cases ceasing lending at all, people like mortgage brokers, solicitors and removal firms have all suffered.

But with the housing market picking up, albeit gently, new types of businesses are hoping to take advantage of some opportunities.

Inevitably these days, the internet has a lot to do with it.

Simon Gerrard is the managing director of Martyn Gerrard, a traditional estate agency chain in North London which has been going for just over 45 years.

Business is good again and he says prices in his neck of the woods, stretching from Kentish Town to Whetstone, are now back to their previous heights of 2007.

This January was the best January in the firm's history, despite the freezing weather, and in the first two months of the year 75 sales were tied up - much more than the 43 in the same two months last year.

But some traditional selling methods have gone for good. Simon has just paid for his firm's last batch of adverts in his local papers.

From now on, his advertising will be restricted to his own firm's website and those of the big property portals.

"It is a sea of change, 20 years ago we spent an absolute fortune on the local press," he says. "In the last two months we have pulled our last bits of advertising out of the local press because it is a luxury." "The local press is not where you look - you look on the internet and that is where we advertise."

Online estate agency is dominated by traditional firms using either their own websites or the property portals, such as Rightmove and Findaproperty, which in turn choose to deal with the traditional estate agents only.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said recently that the transaction costs of buying and selling homes would be cut if more businesses were prepared to set up as pure online estate agents, or were prepared to help individuals sell their homes without an agent at all.

Seems like the guys at Moray Property may be on to something, offering the best of both worlds, with their fixed / capped fees and Internet advertising.

Though there are a few of us who also still look in the local press, but our numbers are getting fewer and fewer - It's mainly the older generation too, time they became Silver Surfers, embraced new technology and secured a new house to boot !

Until the next time,

Mr Jackson.

Love Your Landlord .....?

Here's how to show it... lettings agency Corporate Homes has launched a 2010 Best Landlord competition.

If your landlord has been more than landlord (and - presumably - less than a lover) you can show your appreciation by going here and nominating him/her. The deadline is May 15, after which CH will pick 20 finalists, and the final poll will be thrown open to the public.

(Presumably the reasons for nomination will be published, so if your landlord gave you his/her kidney, best mention it when you fill in the form.)

Hope all of my tenants are reading this.

I can supply you with a pen if neccessary.....

Mr Jackson

Everybody needs good neighbours......

Reading the Telegraph today and it seems that neighbours from hell have led to more than 360,000 Brits moving home in the last year - and can knock £30,000 off the value of a home, a study suggests.

Nearly one in ten have moved because of poor relations with irritating neighbours, and the number of disturbances are on the rise - up a third in the last two years.

And despite the postcode lottery of schooling, rows with those next door are a bigger influence on householders choosing to relocate.

The most frequent complaints fueling the moves include aggressive behaviour (60 per cent), excessive noise (53 per cent) and a messy property or garden (19 per cent).

Other factors involve neighbours allowing their home to fall into disrepair (18 per cent), stealing and even curtain twitching (12 per cent and 11 per cent respectively).

The study, by Halifax Home Insurance, found that one in three neighbours have a dispute of some sort, and house buyers are willing to pay a £5000 premium for a guarantee of a quiet life.

Anti-social neighbours, of the other hand, can knock £30,000 off the price of a house, the survey of 2000 UK adults found.

The cost has not been lost on Brits moving, and four out of five sellers with nuisance neighbours don't inform the estate agents of the problem, despite it being a legal requirement.

A fifth of Brits also report that a neighbour has caused damage to their property costing an average of £312 per incident to fix.

Martyn Foulds, senior claims manager at Halifax Home Insurance said: "Having a good neighbour is one of the most rewarding things a homeowner can experience; not only will they keep an eye on your property when youre away, but they may also become a close friend.

"But people shouldnt put up the for sale at the first sight of problems with a neighbour it may just be a simple misunderstanding."

Best course of action before making any rash judgements is to speak to your neighbours !

Lets get talking out there...

All the best,

Mr Jackson

Neville's Telly Tubby House.....

No, it's not a new gameshow, starring Noel Edmonds and a latex suited delnquent.

This is about the residents of Bolton who are getting het up by Manchester United footballer Gary Neville's plans for a flower shaped eco-home on green belt land. Quotes - here - from a meeting in a Methodist church hall show how the message is in the subtext.

"Why do we have to have this dirty great big house because he has lots of money?"

You don't. You can still keep your little house. He gets to have the great big house. And that's possibly the problem. The use of the word "dirty" is interesting. This, from the architect's website:

Make (The Architects)have submitted a planning application to Bolton Council for a new eco-home which, if approved, will be the first zero-carbon property in the North West of England... The design team has worked closely with Peter Rolton, a key member of the Government’s advisory panel for renewable and sustainable energy, and the proposed scheme has already been identified as an exemplar project within the Government’s ‘Planning Performance Agreements for Renewable and Low Carbon Energy Schemes’ programme.


Gary Neville - Pictured Above.

It just seems a shame to me that while Barratt's gets to squat above the country, dropping these at will, innovative, eco-friendly architecture that tests technology for future use is made so difficult.

Though he is a Manchester United player, so no wonder people will want to complain - Then again, I'm sure the planning will sneak through - probably in the last few seconds of extra time.....

C'mon you blues !

Mr Jackson.

Heads Up - Street View To Go Live !

You heard it here first.....!

The most comprehensive 360 degree map ever made of Britain will go online tomorrow, thanks to a mammoth undertaking by Google. Their Street View tool is being extended from a few select cities to almost every street in the UK - which amounts to 238,000 miles of public road.

The street-level imagery will cover all areas both urban and rural from Penzance in Cornwall to the north of Shetland - Including Moray !

Google believes the service will also be a boost for UK businesses, which can embed its maps into their own sites for free.

Plus Street View is not only limited to the roads. A number of landmarks off the beaten track have been captured thanks to the Google trike. The 18-stone tricycle with a mounted Google camera was ridden around sights such as Stone Henge last summer.
The project, launched in partnership with Visit Britain, also imaged the Millennium Stadium, Angle of the North, Loch Ness, Eden Project and Warwick Castle. A number of National Trust properties are also viewable.

And of course Google maps and street views allow you to explore the cities and streets of countries that you may never see in real life.

See if you can spot your neighbours in Lossie, or Elgin, albeit with blurry faces !

Photogenically yours,

Mr Jackson.

Gamble with Phil....?

Our good friend Phil Spencer advises to sell and rent !

Somewhat bravely - we believe - Phil (looking quite menacing in the above photo) is advising homeowners to sell now, buy again later.

Clinch a sale at today’s prices, but buy after the election, when values might dip and you can get more for your money.

All the logic's in Phil's favour. Wages are about to be squeezed, taxes are about to go up, lending's about to be squeezed, the market's currently bubbling along on little more than blind faith. But he's still brave to say this.

I've seen so many people get their bank balances burned trying this in the past, and I'm sure Phil's seen even more. And as his onscreen partner knows, this kind of thing can come back and haunt you.

Lets hope you don't end up with egg on your face Phil, or worse !

Yours, somewhat unsure,

Mr Jackson

Studentification.....?

As you may have heard the Government are considering making changes to planning law. If they do this, the effect would be that if you want to let out a house or flat which you have previously rented to a couple or a family then you would have to obtain planning permission from the local authority should you want to rent it out to a group of three or more unrelated individuals.

The same could apply to the other way round. As the law stands at the moment, you do not need to obtain planning permission to rent out what was previously a family house/flat as a shared house/flat which is to be lived in by a group e.g. friends, students or young professionals, nurses etc.

As part of the studentification campaign pressure groups are lobbying the Government to make these changes and the Residential Landlords Association, along with the British Property Federation, the National Union of Students, the Local Government Association and other landlord associations are urging the Government not to make any change.

In any case, a change would not be retrospective. If your property was already a shared house/flat you would not need planning permission, unless, of course, you were subsequently then wanting to let it out to a family again, or a couple.

A survey is being undertaken by the RLA, who are surveying landlords about their reactions if they were faced with having to obtain planning consent in this situation.

Planning permission might well be needed each time you wanted to change over the use of the property in this way. I believe that this will take a lot of flexibility away from the private rented sector and will seriously damage the sector. This is why there is a high profile campaign against what is being proposed. At the moment the Government’s decision is still awaited.

Seems like another stealth tax on landlords, for what is basically a paper exercise. However the costs will no doubt be passed on to the tenants who will see an increase in their rental payments.

Visit the RLA site for more details and to add your voice to the campaign to stop the implementation of this hare brained scheme.

Until the next time,

Mr Jackson.

Rental Property ? Be Snappy !

This just in from Tracey Kellett - At BDI Homefinders.

I was out with the pickiest rental client in the world today, seeing a peach of a bachelor pad on the banks of the Thames. He was late of course, him being a very important person and me being a service provider.

He liked it, he wants it. Now I just need to finalise "a few bits". New carpets are needed, obviously. The slippery roof terrace needs attention - it could be dangerous. The stairs are steep, a handrail is essential. "Someone could come a cropper."

There"s not nearly enough storage, will need more. "I have winter & summer wardrobes to accommodate." Obviously we are not going to offer full asking price. Ten per cent discount on rent is our best offer.

Terribly nice agent, wants to help but they have just received two full asking price offers since we viewed and with no conditions. The pickiest rental client in the world discovers that there's no messing about in today's rental market.

Under-supply and over-demand for good quality rentals are making it a landlord's market and very possibly a buy-to-let dream.

Same happening in this neck of the woods Tracey, David at Moray Property tells me that rentals are being snapped up at an alarming rate, "many the same day as they are advertised, thanks to our RSS Feed, which alerts prospective tenants every time a new property is listed".

You heard it here first, best be snappy folks.

Have a good weekend.

Mr J