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