Help to Buy is GO!

So finally the lenders are able to offer the Help to Buy scheme and the rules are made clear. Will it help? Yes has to be the answer, but it certainly isn't going to overheat the market or create a bubble. Following on from all of the spin of the last two weeks, the rates announced today for the 95% mortgages are considerably higher than those on offer for an 80% mortgage with the same lenders. If you think back, what is the problem with that? My recollection is that a 95% mortgage always did cost more and the borrowers with a higher deposit always were rewarded with lower rates brought about by safer lending. From my point of view we will just return to a market where the first time buyer can now buy but it won't be easy and I think that is both prudent and correct in terms of a healthy and stable market.

My advice is exactly as it has been over the past months since Help to Buy was announced. If you have the extra deposit it is better to use it and have the lower % mortgage at the now more advantageous rate. The market will pick up with more buyers in a position to buy so don't delay, find the property you are looking for now as it will never be as cheap again as it is today.

The press and internet is full of stories of late night opening in banks to cope with the demand and only yesterday there was talk of a stampede in London, well we will see what transpires over the next month.

And what about Bradleys, how does this affect our customers. We have fully Independent Mortgage Advisors who are ready and able to help with your mortgage regardless of if you want the Help to Buy or not and can guarantee that they can find the best deal for you. Our 33 offices cover from Taunton to Penzance so we are sure to be able to find what you are looking for.

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

Exciting times are upon us!

Exciting times are upon us. David Cameron has announced that the Help to Buy scheme destined for January 2014 is to be released next week catching the property industry completely unaware. I have be saying for some months that anybody contemplating buying should do so before this scheme is released because we will see a rise in demand due to buyers that were previously excluded from the market now be able to buy. That will certainly create a rise in prices and if you are thinking of buying and do have your 20% deposit available now then you should make the effort to find your property to buy this week, I am sure you will save 1,000's over delaying until next year.

As we draw to the end of September Bradleys have had another good month, generally in line with the recovering market. We will have to wait and see what October brings but I have a very strong suspicion that it could prove to be quite remarkable for sales on two different counts, both thanks to Mr Cameron's announcement at the weekend.

Remember you were advised in advance of the consequences of this scheme at the Bradleys Blog and were given the advice on how to play the market in advance on this page. If you think others would like to receive the insights to the market don't forget to share or like this and feel free to let me know if you have made the advice work to your advantage.

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

Come on, Wiggo!

The Lib Dem conference brought the help to buy scheme to the front of the national news again last week along with the debate on prices, false bursting bubbles and then the man I affectionately like to call Muppet Cable had another go about Mansion Tax and rounded it all off by stating he needs to halt the army of Estate Agents just because they have created some employment! What does it all mean? From what I can see the market is improving in the South and still needs stimulus in the North, whilst a few areas of London are getting quite excited. The main thing is if property is starting to sell then instructions will be the key to an estate agents future and that is where allAgents (the Trip Advisor of estate agents) will help a lot for those good quality agents who deliver good service and are not afraid to give their customers a chance to say what they think at the end of their experience. If a good review is the most important thing in modern marketing then I am very grateful we have allAgents to prove we are very good and to help win those valuable new instructions. Just check out our reviews on the allagents.co.uk website

 

Another piece of innovative marketing was devised by Panos in our Honiton office last week. When the Tour of Britain sped through Honiton Panos and Chris had improvised some great support material for Bradley Wiggins which the organisers liked so much they elevated the photo to the front page of the tour website. Quite a good plug for Bradleys too so excellent all round.

If you think this is good why don't you 'like it' or 'share it' or even reply and tell me what you think?

Happy 50th Birthday Enid Marshall !

Nick Clegg was on the TV over the weekend being totally evasive to very direct questioning about his and the Muppet Cable's plans for a mansion tax if they get to have any influence after the next election. What he did say that was quite revealing was, whilst all the property commentators are calling for the 'help to buy' scheme to be withdrawn because the market in London is rising quickly right now, the rest of the country still needs the scheme and the government cannot just legislate for London. He was completely aware of all of the stats regarding prices and lending and had obviously been in a meeting to discuss the future of the scheme which looked to me like it will now go ahead. That can only lead to a strengthening of the market and again is why if you are thinking of buying then do it now if you are able because prices will rise.

We are starting to see the market evolve when we sold more than we took on in August and the same is happening again in September. If this continues and stocks drop then we will surely see an increased demand which will force prices up through natural market demand.

I have just come back from attending a meeting of the Property Academy on internet marketing and that has given me great insight on what Bradleys should be doing with Facebook but also was further proof that review sites are what customers listen to in this day and age and I am delighted to confirm we rank so favourably on allAgents.

After the meeting in Bishops Stortford I took Enid to London for the weekend to celebrate her 50th birthday where we met up with our daughter Lisa who now lives in London and all went out on Saturday night to celebrate. Enid is slightly unhappy about being 50 and has kept it low profile so I am only sharing this on my blog as I know nobody will comment!

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

Fingers crossed!

After a very busy August, September does seem to have started just a little quieter. It may be there were other distractions around last week but maybe everything just got a little ahead of itself and a few weeks of more normal business levels might be due in September. That said the buyers are still about so long as the property is priced correctly it can be sold reasonably quickly so if you are thinking of moving it is still a very good time.

A busy week for me this week, I have had a meeting with the new Regional Managers today and have some interviews for the vacant Bovey Tracy Managers Role. I am hopeful that we have some very good candidates. Tuesday is Area Meeting day this week meeting with the Eastern Managers in the morning at HO and the Western Managers at the end of the day in Liskeard. I am very much looking forward to that with their latest updates on Market activity. Wednesday I am in HO all day with Directors 1:1 meetings and my meet with Brian in the afternoon. Thursday is in HO again in the morning before driving to Bishops Stortford for a marketing meeting on Friday all about social media so I hope to learn something!

I think the allAgents awards are being announced next week so I have my fingers crossed for that as we have had some great reviews this year.

 

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

Awesome August!!

As we move into September does that mean that we leave the summer behind as the evenings draw in and the sales start to slow? Absolutely not. August was the best on record for many years for the property market and at Bradleys we had excellent performance which gave us our best overall month since 2009. Sales were exceptionally good and at Bradleys we work hard with the solicitors to actually get our sales to exchange, something we think we do much better than most other agents. At least that is what the MI shown on Vizzi Home says.

We have 3 new Regional Managers in Bradleys who took up their roles yesterday and I wish them the very best of luck in their new positions. Darren Ellis will run the Easter Offices, Darren Hole Torbay and Mid Devon with Ed Parker covering Cornwall and Plymouth along with the northern part of Mid Devon. I am sure they will bring excellent skills to their new offices to help them perform at an even higher level.

So back to the market. What will the autumn bring? My advice is if you are thinking of buying then get on with it. The market is busy and instructions are scarce so prices will certainly rise over the coming months and right now there is still a decent choice to be had.

 

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

Don't even get me going on the lawyers!

As we near the end of the month the excitement mounts to see if we will beat our targets. The big one in question is the exchange target, where we, along with the rest of the industry are being hampered by poorly run lenders who are causing many delays and where apparent incompetence is now bordering negligence on their part. It's no joke when perfectly organised people do and supply everything asked of them and everything is in order and completed quickly, then have to wait weeks for a lender to look at something and then ask for something else and then take more weeks to look at it and then ask for something else again which could all have been asked for in the first place. Once this has gone on for a couple of months or three everyone loses the will to live and somebody pulls out of a sale where both the buyer and seller were, as they used to say, very ready, willing and able. That’s just one part of the story, don't even get me going on the lawyers.

The rest of our targets all look like they have been achieved already so I will wait until Monday to see if we can celebrate a great success or not.

 

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group