Renting your Property
The downsides of renting your house out
There are some problems in being a landlord that do need considering before you go ahead. A number of problems have happened with people I know who have rented out houses. The worst problem was the family who hired a van and cleared out everything from the house. (Check possible tenants carefully is the answer.) [...]
House not selling – what about renting?
It used to be an easy thing to plan. Decide to move, look for a house, put yours on the market, wait a bit, sell it and then move into your new house. Nowadays many houses are sticking on the market and owners currently in negative equity with their house value cannot afford to sell [...]
Renting out a property
November 22, 2011 By Z Pope
Many couples find that they have one property too many when they get start living together. While you can both sell up and buy a bigger place, it can also be a very sensible financial decision to keep one for your joint home and let the other one out. How you go about managing the [...]
How does your flat beat the others?
December 5, 2011 By Z Pope
The property boom that lasted roughly a decade from 1997-2007 saw thousands of purpose-built apartment blocks thrown up all around the western world. Some areas have since become synonymous with wasted pointless building resulting from the property boom’s giddy zenith. In parts of Ireland and Florida, whole new developments stand idle, whilst in the UK [...]
Selling your Property
Time to Sell Your House
In springtime as the housing market picks up it is really important to make sure that your home stands out from the crowd if you want to sell it. With a few months to go until peak sales time it is now more than ever that you want to spend a bit of time and effort to make your property more appealing on the house market. When I look down my, albeit quite long, street the number of ‘for sale’ boards which have been there for quite some time is rather worrying so I am going to make sure my house leaps out from the rest.
First of all I went to stand on the opposite side of the road and made an honest assessment of what needed doing to give the house instant appeal. It is well known that many homes which stay unsold for a length of time might be being overlooked for viewing as they don’t pack any punch from the outside. My list includes hiding the bins from view, tidying the garden and hedge, replacing broken paving stones in the driveway and painting the front door. What about you?
On the inside I want to appeal to my target market directly and so need to turn the home office back into a proper bedroom. With money tight at this time of year I am researching beds on finance and have found that the range and deals on offer at Bensons for Beds is fantastic. I have also moved unwanted items into the loft and garage, including over-sized furniture which make the rooms look smaller than they really are. With a lick of paint around the place and a really thorough clean and tidy I think we are just about good to go. Cross your fingers for me!
Smarten Up to Sell Up
In the current financial climate house prices are still not quite at their best. House sales are moving slowly, and whilst estate agents predict the usual uplift in the market come the spring it is up to the home owners themselves to do everything they can to make sure their house is looking at its best for potential buyers. If you are wondering how to go about selling your house in the shortest possible time then the following tips might just help:
-
Get the right estate agent on your side. Take a recommendation from a successful neighbour and make sure all available advertising channels are being exploited on your behalf. Try to get the fee to an acceptable level too!
-
Stay in touch. Make sure you are easily contactable and flexible about being around for viewings as this will make the estate agents life much easier.
-
First impressions count. Many house hunters will do a drive-by of any properties they have seen online or in the newspaper which they like the look of. Make sure your home passes this test by keeping the front garden tidy and the front door looking inviting.
-
Freshen up your paintwork. Don’t spend a fortune re-decorating somewhere which you are about to move out of, but a lick of paint to cover up marks will not go a miss. It will show you care about the property too.
-
Tidy up all the time. It’s a tough one this but keeping on top of household mess will help when it comes to viewings. Get the family to lend a hand and enjoy the results everyday.
-
Present rooms in the right way. If you have an empty bedroom then consider beds on finance to dress it for the sale; many people are not able to visualise how big a room is without some scale clues to tell them whether a double bed will fit in or not.
-
Smarten up the appearance of your rooms. Get some nice new bedding from http://www.bensonsforbeds.co.uk so that potential buyers aren’t put off by washed out old linens
-
Be nice! Smile and be as welcoming as possible when people come round, but give them enough space to look everywhere too.
In the current financial climate house prices are still not quite at their best. House sales are moving slowly, and whilst estate agents predict the usual uplift in the market come the spring it is up to the home owners themselves to do everything they can to make sure their house is looking at its best for potential buyers. If you are wondering how to go about selling your house in the shortest possible time then the following tips might just help:
-
Get the right estate agent on your side. Take a recommendation from a successful neighbour and make sure all available advertising channels are being exploited on your behalf. Try to get the fee to an acceptable level too!
-
Stay in touch. Make sure you are easily contactable and flexible about being around for viewings as this will make the estate agents life much easier.
-
First impressions count. Many house hunters will do a drive-by of any properties they have seen online or in the newspaper which they like the look of. Make sure your home passes this test by keeping the front garden tidy and the front door looking inviting.
-
Freshen up your paintwork. Don’t spend a fortune re-decorating somewhere which you are about to move out of, but a lick of paint to cover up marks will not go a miss. It will show you care about the property too.
-
Tidy up all the time. It’s a tough one this but keeping on top of household mess will help when it comes to viewings. Get the family to lend a hand and enjoy the results everyday.
-
Present rooms in the right way. If you have an empty bedroom then consider beds on finance to dress it for the sale; many people are not able to visualise how big a room is without some scale clues to tell them whether a double bed will fit in or not.
-
Smarten up the appearance of your rooms. Get some nice new bedding from http://www.bensonsforbeds.co.uk so that potential buyers aren’t put off by washed out old linens
-
Be nice! Smile and be as welcoming as possible when people come round, but give them enough space to look everywhere too.
How to make your home sell
Selling your house can be an exhausting process, especially in today’s market where there are so many properties for buyers to choose from. A lot of whether your house sells is down to luck, of course. You need the right person to come and see it at the right time.
But there’s plenty of stuff that you can do yourself to make sure that when a viewer comes to see your house it stands out in their mind as a beautiful home, somewhere they could imagine themselves living.
Be manically tidy
A house can be totally transformed by having everything neatly tidied away and just a few ornaments left out on display. Viewers will be able to imagine their own possessions in a house that looks clean, clear and spacious. If you have piles of paperwork everywhere and piles of ironing on the spare bed, it doesn’t create a good look. You’ll find that it’s a much nicer place for you to be in until you sell as well!
Spring clean
Have a really good clean up around your home. Do the things that sometimes get neglected –skirting boards and woodwork around windows and doors. A bowl of hot soapy water will get most sticky marks off, and if necessary, you can paint over anything really stubborn.
Be an illusionist
If your sofa has seen better days, it could drag the look of the living room down enough to put buyers off. While it might not be sensible to rush down to a sofas sale for a new one – that might not fit in your new home – you can put a throw or cover on it to ‘lift’ the room’s appearance.
You might think about getting new furniture if it makes a significant difference to a room. For instance, you can easily pick up a cheap dining table and chairs – and they come in standard sizes, so you can pretty much guarantee these will fit in your new house when you make that sale!
Buy a Guide
House Doctor A-Z of design
In providing real life case studies with before and after transformations, House Doctor Ann Maurice gives invaluable advice on how to best smarten up your property. From TV’s home staging guru, House Doctor Ann Maurice, this new title offers sure-fire tips for fixing up the house. A complete A-Z guide, the book looks at every [...]
Brow of the Gallowgate
The brow of the Gallowgate is where Albert Ogilvie buys his property in 1890 the shop he has dreamed of for years. As their babies are born there will be eight in all Albert employs three sisters as nursemaids. Bathie finds Mary and Jeannie Wyness satisfactory but Bella is troublesome and sly and creates a [...]
Buying a Property
Features the best places to buy. This title gives the lowdown on visas job-hunting and education. It covers the details of finding a property: choosing types of accommodation renovating and security. It offers specialist advice on mortgages taxes surveys and conveyancing. It helps with the challenges of settling-in.
Mammoth Book of True Hauntings
Includes a huge range of 20th-century first-hand accounts of hauntings such as the American troops who repeatedly saw the ghosts of a dead platoon of men while on patrol in Vietnam; and the witnessed haunting of a house near Tintagel in Cornwall that led actress Kate Winslet to pull out of buying the property.