Of all the rightmove houses we found this…..

Rightmove or not so right move

I’ve seen advertised, this one must take the best award. Not only the cheapest but also the most likely to disappear with global warming. It actually was put on the rightmove.co.uk site as a house under offer as you can see from the pictures.

Tenure: Freehold

Igloo for sale

BUY NOW BEFORE THE PROPERTY MARKET HOTS UP !!!

The house was built from fresh, crisp white sussex snow.

It stands approx. 5’10″ in height with one entrance.

For sale sign

Plenty of freezer space

Rightmove screenshot

Selling your house on the Rightmove web site is certainly a great way to be seen and find many more potential purchasers. But how do you get on there? Most good estate agents are experts in selling properties and will know that a web prescence is essential for capturing the market of people moving into the area. So the next question follows: how do you choose a reliable Estate agent in the UK market with a good Rightmove presence?

You won’t see a RightMove estate agents in your road

As 25% of buyers found their property on the Rightmove web site, it is a priority to make sure your agent can advertise your home on Right move. You may find it is worth paying more to choose a proactive agent who will
ultimately achieve a better price for your property.

Before you commit yourself to one agent, take narrow down your estate agent list to approximately three finalists who you want to invite to do a valuation. Make sure you ask them how they will invest in marketing on behalf of the vendor and should, at the very least, take photos of your property. Also ask how long it takes to go live on Rightmove as it could take up to a week and yet shouldn’t take longer than a day or two after approval.

Rightmove enhanced advertising options

You may want to speak to your chosen agents about the Rightmove enhanced advertising options, Showcase and Premium Display to help sell your home even faster. You may need to negotiate with each agent to get the best commission rate though the lowest rate doesn’t always mean the best service.

Check out the estate agents profile describing their business. Does your estate agent belong to Ombudsman for Estate Agents or the National Association of Estate Agents. Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is also acceptable.

Don’t forget if the estate agents don’t impress you, it’s unlikely they’ll impress your Right move.co.uk visitors.

Battle of the Apps

Recently there seems to be an application for everything.
iPhone users are being given a lot of choice and service from the property sites and Right Move and Find a Property are no exception. Even Sarah Beeny informs me that the new Tepilo web site is currently having an Application built for the iPhone and the android.

FindaProperty vs Rightmove

So who really is the best when it comes to the apps world?

Our contenders today are FindaProperty App vs Rightmove App.
We put them to the test with 7 gruelling rounds of testing using a random town and city in the UK. The Town picked for the test was Bournemouth and the City was London – Noting hill.

Each day we will have a round of testing on these two major challengers for the title – by the end of 7 rounds we are hoping there will be a true champion, so keep

Property Apps Round 1

Which one has the larger number of properties for sale in a given area?
Whilst Rightmove may hold sway in England and Wales, it doesn’t have the same presence in areas of Scotland.

We ran our random test on a town and a city

FindaProperty Results
Town: 45 Bournemouth properties for sale
City: 504 London Noting hill properties for sale

Rightmove Results
Town: 100 Bournemouth properties for sale
City: 100 London Noting hill properties for sale were shown and then the application crashed!

Verdict: FindaProperty won – more results provided and more stable application

1 FindaProperty
0 Rightmove

Tune in tomorrow for Round 2

How could Half a Million Pound House Ever Get Valued at 5 Grand!

With such an outrageous contrast in price of this property in Surrey its a perplexing issue One estate agent values the property at £5,000 pounds

Another values it at £10,000 pounds.

Half a Million House Valued at 5 Grand!

Why then would it have another value of £500,000 !

In effect its actually art work! The house is built from Lego in Surrey UK

3.3 Million bricks were used by around 1,000 volunteers The house was 20ft-tall house in Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey.

Housing market confidence its currently at its highest since recession started a few years back. According to the data supplied from the Halifax, they recently indicated that house prices rose by 1.1 per cent last month to an average of £168,521 and have increased by 5.2 per cent in the past year.

Interestingly the property web site Zoopla.co.uk showed that 81 per cent of people believe house prices will increase in the next six months, with the average rise expected to be 5.7 per cent.

Halifax says house prices over 5 percent rise

Confidence is growing

This means confidence has grown in the UK housing market and is the highest it has been since the start of the recession according to an online source of UK property market information.

The public’s confidence in the future performance of the housing market is great to see and will provide continued confidence for future growth and recovery as is already shown in the Halifax figures.

With the looking general election there will be a lot more certainty about what the state of play is for future months to come in the UK property market.

Rent Going Up

Renting a property will go up, as rental properties coming onto the market has fallen for the first time since January 2008, according to the latest Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors survey. It appears tenants no longer have as strong a bargaining power.

UK Rising Rental

Improvements in the housing market have led to a fall in the number of rental properties coming to the market. Therefore demand for houses to rent is stronger now than for a long time leading to an increase for rental property.

The housing market is having a more significant effect on the lettings market, with many of the accidental landlords returning to the sales market to take advantage of the recent price increases. As a result the recent oversupply is reversing, with new instructions at the lowest levels we have seen. This of course is impacting on prices and tenants no longer have as strong a bargaining power as they did.

Landlord and Tenant Disputes

Below are some really useful tips for landlords and how they can avoid problem tenants.

Good Communication with Landlord and Tenant

They say it’s good to talk. No landlord or tenant  want a dispute. Most issues occur due to a lack of communication with your tenant.  Good communication by Landlords to their tenants may reveal that there are good reasons why things have become difficult in recent months. Call a few times with a kindly enquiry seeking to solve the issue rather than attacking the person. This really works – try it.

If there is no response from a few phone calls, then send them a few letters before you instruct a company  to serve notices and start the eviction procedure. You may need to demonstrate to the courts that you have given your tenant sufficient time to pay their outstanding arrears and have made all efforts to communicate with them.

Landlord and Tenant Disputes

Check Tenants Payments Regularly

Don’t take it for granted that the payment will be made on the day that the tenant is due to pay rent. Make random checks to ensure that the rent has been paid on time and in full. This sort of credit control is vital – especially if landlords take responsibility for managing their own properties.

Give Bad Tenants 2 Months Only

Give two months of arrears before you start taking action against for rent arrears. Our top tip here is not to procrastinate. You don’t want to be a distressed landlord whose tenants are in arrears by several months.

For a landlord to evict anyone in their property, it must be the last result.

Good Reference – Good Tenant

As landlord of your property, do ask for references from your tenant. Referencing your tenant includes knowing where he is employed and checking the character reference and previous landlord references appear valid and not made up at some local pub with his mates.

It reinforces the principle that tenant referencing is vital. As a result, we have also seen a major growth in the number of landlord’s instructing us to thoroughly reference their tenants as to avoid any future problems.

Knowledge Leads To Correct Action

There are plenty of free advice centres, so whether you are a landlord or a tenant, take advantage of these. Gain the knowledge before taking any action. It is only when you are fully aware of what your rights are as a landlord that you can start taking decisive action.

What do you expect to see on Rightmove rental properties ?  Recently Rightmove asked its followers that question.

It’s good they are taking feedback from Facebook followers. The full questions was “If you were looking for a rental property on Rightmove, what information would you want/expect to be included from the agent advertising it?” It seems that floorplans and photos are providing the biggest feedback. So we hope these will be considered on the next site update.

Rightmove has over 300,000 properties to rent throughout the UK.

But the listings don’t always have a all the details needed for rightmove rental properties.

Here are the top 10 missing items on Rightmove rental properties

1. As many photos as possible including interior and exterior photos.
2. Room dimensions and a floor-plan.
3. Specific details on fees and special terms of contract
4. Whether pets are allowed or not in the property
5. Council tax band  on every property
6. Who will be responsible for maintenance of the property
7. Whether there are any restrictions on the property.
8. Information about accessibility.
9. Reference check fee and registration fee if applicable
10. Local broadband speed available – Could Rightmove link up with BT and Virgin to document the available broadband speeds?

Rightmove have the widest range of property types and styles, from studio apartments to detached family homes.

Whether you are a student, young professional or a family, Rightmove is the tool of choice.

Have you found rightmove rental properties have some details missing?

The one thing no one wants to hear is house repossession in there neighborhood. Its bad for so many reasons. How good it is to read that house repossession is at its lowest for 4 years.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) recently showed the dramatic drop. A recent CML report showed the number of repossessions by mortgage lenders last year amounted to 36,200. This is the  lowest annual total since 2007.

We are all well aware that the recent UK recession has made things very difficult for home owners. It’s common to hear of worsening unemployment and other pressures to inflate figures this year.  The reality is, if you are behind on your mortgage, the mortgage company can start proceedings for house repossession.

But it seems that unlike previous recessions, this one is heading a different way.  If we have rapid inflation then you have the situation we had  in the early 1980s where owners paid off a generation’s mortgages.

Those who bought a home in the 1980s to early 1990s, and then held on through double-digit interest rates and the 1990s crash, have emerged with properties that have risen to be worth five to ten times their mortgage.

While falling property prices has brought tough times for those who have seen equity slashed, fallen into negative equity or even had their homes repossessed, there are others who are pleased that prices are falling.

Lower property prices are a boon to first-time buyers and those moving up the property ladder, but only if they can raise the substantial deposit needed to take advantage.

House repossession is back for 2012

Sadly the expectations aren’t good for 2012 when it comes to house repossession. CML anticipates around 45,000 repossessions and around 180,000 mortgages in arrears of 2.5% or more by the end of 2012.

Paul Smee, director general at the CML says, ”Low interest rates and good arrears management by lenders are helping the vast majority of those borrowers who face difficulties to keep their homes and get back on track”

Sadly house prices remain at a stable rate. This means those on the verge of house repossession are not going to be in a position to  increase to a point where they can sell any time soon. For others their repayment will continue to cover only the interest on their mortgage. While interest rates remain low, they will be merely propping up the lender’s balance sheet. When interest rates rise, they will be in difficulty as house prices will be forced down by forced sales further reducing any equity that they have gained.

House repossession in Scotland

The story is different in Scotland for those hit by repossession. If your lender has started legal action to repossess your home you must get help from an experienced adviser. You may be able to come to an agreement with your lender and you may be able to suspend the legal action to give you more time.

Will 2013 change things? What are your thoughts?

Back in 2009 we published the article below.

So how did it turn out. Are we now starting to see the housing market recovery in 2014 that was predicted?

Most are now saying that while there is little or no change, realistically 2019 is the year we will see the prices back to the 2007 peak.

The confidence is still low, and movement is stale, most positives are never more than 3 month spurts, which is not the definition of recovery. So site tight as its here to remain a very slow recovery in the UK

Article 2009…

An economics forecasting group has said that the recent rise in UK house prices is not a full recovery. they claim the recovery is down to a small number of cash-rich buyers.

The Ernst & Young Item Club claimed today that the recovery isn’t going to be as quick as the UK housing market would like to think.They reported “that property values will not return to their 2007 peak for at least another five years. The supply of these funds is limited, which means prices are likely to dip again in the first half of next year.” So if these figures are correct, the UK housing market isn’t due for a full recovery until 2014.

So why a false recovery in 2009? This seems to be down to the shortage of available properties, with many homeowners either trapped in negative equity or reluctant to sell for fear of having to absorb the losses of the past two years.

The report claimed over half of homeowners had a mortgage, meaning that any sustained recovery would have to be underpinned by a recovery in mortgage lending.

Banks are still cautious lenders

Firsts time buyers are struggling to start the housing ladder. A recent report speaks of banks are still being restrictive about the amount of money they were lending. Additionally the possibility of redundancy threats is encouraging buyers to hold purse, just in case.

Mortgage supply and tough lending criteria is making it particularly difficult for first time buyers to enter the market. Due to the likeliness of a first time buyer purchasing a cheaper property, this will have significant implications for those looking to trade up, clogging up the market and limiting the number of property sales.”

The Halifax said “house prices rose by 0.8% in August compared with July – the second monthly rise in a row according to its figures. But the average interest rate on a deal for a borrower offering a 25% deposit rose from 5.68% to 5.72% in August.”