March is the Golden Month

I have been saying all year that the time to buy is now. The market is rising and mortgages are both cheap and available. There is a demand for property and there is still a choice with our offices still carrying good stocks of property for sale. One of our Senior Mortgage Advisors summed it up perfectly yesterday when he said that March is the 'Golden Month' in addition to the things I have already stated he pointed out that new MMR come into effect next month where mortgage applications will be judged on affordability more than just straight income criteria. This will involve more checking and analysis of the person and their spending habits in addition to their income and he thought that inevitably mortgages will take longer to process and become more difficult to obtain. There is still time to buy and get your mortgage in place before the new legislation comes in, so don't delay. Right now buying a property is the best thing to do and it will never be this affordable or accessible again. I am certainly aware that the buyers down here in the South West know that, as sales have risen steeply in March. This is a great opportunity for anyone thinking of selling because the buyers are about, they are serious and in a position to buy. If you are thinking of selling and would like to take advantage of Bradleys free valuation offer then email our Customer Services Department at customerservices@beagroup.co.uk and they will be pleased to book an appointment for you with your local office. Bradleys have 33 Offices spanning between Taunton and Penzance so can help you where ever you are based. If you want to know more about Bradleys before booking an appointment then read what our customers say about us at the estate agents review site allAgents.co.uk where we are ranked 3rd out of 12,400 agent nationally.

If you found this information useful then please feel free to like it or share it with anyone else you think may find it useful.

 

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director

 

Right place, right time!

Speaking to a number of our potential buyers recently it has become obvious that some serious purchasers are taking a risk of missing out on their ideal property. Buyers should be aware that, at Bradleys, the well placed buyers on our register are often contacted well before a property appears on Rightmove, Zoopla or Radar Homes. If you are seriously looking for a home I strongly recommend that you register with your local Bradleys Office to hear about our new instructions as soon as we are instructed. If our negotiators don't know you are looking they can't tell you about our new property listings! Sometimes it can often take a few days before our clients give us the green light to circulate details. By the time a property appears on The Internet a number of viewings could already have taken place.

If you have found this information helpful please pass it on to your friends.

Mike Dibble
Bradleys Director

Help to Buy is working!

The Government has released figures that state over 100,000 properties have now been agreed to be purchased under the current scheme designed to help the property market back on its feet. I personally am very grateful for their help as all that have been involved in the property market over the past 7 years know it has been a tough time. I know the buyers in the South West where wages can be lower and prices higher are now able to buy, who previously had no hope what so ever are even more grateful, so we should all congratulate the Government on an excellent piece of work. There is no doubt that the scheme is just a short term fix and the longer term repair to the UK property market must come in the form of building more homes. I can only assume that if the politicians have understood  that requirement and will be working towards that as the long term goal. It's a pretty basic supply and demand equation, if there are more buyers than houses then the prices will be driven up and the shorter the supply the higher the prices will go. If the Government really want to control the market to maintain it at a sustainable level them more homes are going to be needed over the next few years at a faster rate than we have ever seen before. Stamp Duty used to be an irritation to buyers but at its current rates it is now a serious consideration for buyers and certainly does prevent some buyers from buying the property they could otherwise have afforded. If the Government are serious about helping the market then they should also lift price of exempt from stamp duty to 200K. Again here in the South West where our prices tend to be driven up by second home owners it would be a relief to local buyers who struggle to buy based on lower South West wages.

Congratulations to our Looe Office who raised over £240 on Sunday by organising a walk to Looe Island in aid of the Pituitary Foundation. About 25 past and present customers supported the Looe team and whilst the tide didn't go out quite as far as it should have due to low pressure there was a valiant effort all round.

 

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

So What’s Next For The Thirty Somethings?

The Good old days!

I’ve recently experienced what I consider to be a life changing event, it may not be life threatening but it has made me think about things that I have not considered until now.

Football has been part of my life since I can remember, I’ve never been very good at it but I have enjoyed playing the sport and supported Liverpool from the age of 5. During a recent game I missed a tackle (not unusual) but in the process managed to tear the ligaments in my knee! As a result, I have been advised to give up the sport as I’m in my 30’s and therefore it may never repair itself as well as if I was younger, and could cause big problems in later life. It appears I have no choice.

So what next? My friends and colleagues often tell me that I am a creature of habit and so to change my routine on a Saturday afternoon is going to throw me but more-so, what to replace it with? I love following sport; watching Somerset play cricket, Exeter play rugby and my friends play for local sports clubs but watching doesn’t help me keep fit!

I am a fairly active and sociable chap and also see weekend sport as a good way to release the stresses of the working week. I guess the obvious come to mind; Golf, fishing, swimming, gym, cycling, running, the options are endless.

I haven’t made a decision nor do I intend to just yet and have to focus on my rehabilitation first and foremost. It has made me realise there are so many new opportunities out there for us thirty somethings as well as the twenty somethings, or fifty somethings and so to enjoy the next chapter of sporting activity whatever it maybe.

 

Kai Logan

Bradleys Marketing Manager

Thirty Something (Apparently!!)

 

The time is right and the time is now!

As every week of 2014 passes it becomes even more clear that now is the time to jump in to property ownership. If you weigh up the cost of renting for your life time against buying you will quickly calculate that it is generally cheaper to buy than to rent and you will eventually in 25 years' time end up with a property where you do not have to pay either a mortgage or rent. I have said before this year that mortgages are incredibly cheap and available, property is starting to move up and will be a sound investment over the coming years. There is confidence back in the market and Mark Carney has again said he will hold on to interest rates even if unemployment goes below 7%. It really doesn't get any better than this and if you are thinking of selling to move up in the market then now is the time as there is a good supply of buyers and the longer you delay the jump, the wider the gap in price will become as the % increase stretches the prices in a rising market. To be sure of getting the right price and achieving a sale make sure you use an agent with a good track record. Thanks to allAgents.co.uk it is easy to identify who to trust with your most expensive asset and also who can make it happen for you. At this point you will see by looking at allAgents.co.uk that Bradleys are ranked 3rd out of over 12,000 agents in the country for delivering customer service. Remember always use an agent others have been happy with, they will have certainly valued the property correctly in the first place to enable the deal to be done. If you over price an instruction it will go stale and you will end up having to reduce your price whilst the type of property you wanted to trade up to will have increased and possibly moved out of reach. Don't fall into that trap which can be set by some agents just to win your instructions. Thinking of selling? Use Bradleys, we have a fantastic allAgents rating and your dreams will have the very best chance to come true. We have a Customer Services department who are open until 10.00 at night who will be able to book your free valuation whilst our competitors here in the South West are closed for the evening. Put us to the test and request a free valuation by emailing customerservices@beagroup.co.uk

If you found this helpful or think others might then please feel free to share it and like it.

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

Pain Relief for Property Repairs

After my Maintenance Team within Bradleys Property Management were overrun with calls during the past spell of unrelenting weather, I felt I had to streamline the system.  I therefore turned to technology yet again to help the team manage the high volumes of maintenance issues that resulted from the horrendous storms. 

Bradleys now operate an online maintenance, repairs and issue reporting system for the Rentals Properties under their Management, assisted by a web solution from Fixflo.  Providing a simple system that enables tenants to report their issue, the picture based diagnostic system prompts users to provide accurate information, ensuring a complete report with a full description and options for photographs. These reports are then relayed to both landlord and contractor. Nothing is missed. 

Tenants can also log a problem in up to 40 different languages which will be accurately translated in the report received by the maintenance team.  The whole process is far more efficient and enables delivery of faster repairs. 

All of this is not to say that Emergencies cannot be reported in a conventional manner.  Of course, it is very important that urgent issues are attended to very quickly, if they are of a nature that would be of danger to life or of imminent peril to the structure of the property.

As I have over many years, I will continue to employ the most up to date systems and processes to continually improve the service we provide to our clients.  Next: Tenant pre-referencing.   Watch this space…. 

Have a look for yourself how easy repair reporting is at bradleys.fixflo.com

Lyndon Bent FNAEA MARLA

Commercial Director

Agricultural outbuildings. A golden development opportunity?

A golden development opportunity?

As this is a Bradleys blog I am assuming I am addressing an audience based mainly in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall – three rural counties accommodating a rich tapestry of Farms and smallholdings interspersed with a diverse range of agricultural outbuildings, whether a defunct piggery, barns, makeshift shelters etc.   

This year could be the year that these buildings come into sharp focus for residential development opportunities under a planning consultation carried out late last year – with very little publicity. 

The Government, rightly or wrongly, believes that a house building led economy is the chosen route out of a recession. After all, housing development and property moves tend to touch many other industries whether manufacturing or services. 

In an attempt to accelerate the provision of housing this government is looking for a multitude of ways of achieving this, and if this planning reform becomes planning law in April, just a couple of months away, there is the potential for agricultural outbuildings, irrespective of material condition, to attract a planning permission for either conversion or complete replacement to a residential dwelling or dwellings. 

Our advice to our vendors, since this little known consultation last year, has been to keep hold of the out building(s) they own until we all know what format new planning policy will take. 

So, if you have that outbuilding within your farm or smallholding or even attached to your farmhouse or cottage, don’t be persuaded by less informed agents to go to the market now, but to wait and seek the right advice after April in what is a rapidly evolving planning reform system. 

I am more than happy to advise potential vendors further on this point and if this applies to you please give me a call on 07968 137038 or email me chrisbaxter@beagroup.co.uk

 

Chris Baxter

Bradleys Land & New Homes Director