How do we as buying agents understand the full complexities of a buyer’s mind?

Our job is to slip into their shoes, understand every reason for their purchase and deliver. Sometimes their brief does drift somewhat ‘off piste’.

For example, the client must have a period house – they purchased a contemporary one. The client must have a detached house – they purchased a wing of a country house. The client must have a view – they purchased with no view whatsoever, but in a great village location.

The wonderful attribute we have, being buying agents with years of experience, is we know that the wish list can change. Presenting perhaps an 8/10 house often works, as we all know there is no such thing as the perfect property.

Being professionally represented can bring huge advantages, as one of the greatest benefits of knowing a location for many years is that we instinctively recognise the difference between a good purchase and one that is not.

There are many advantages that we can provide, such as laying out the ‘pros and cons’ of a possible opportunity, especially regarding location and other factors that will affect you. Of course, we will also recommend levels at which you should or shouldn’t propose an offer.

It is important to know what you are buying and where. Location, as we all know, is an important priority, but other factors which may not initially be obvious can make the difference between a good purchase and a poor one.

Here are a few helpful tips when looking for a home:

1. It’s always better to search at your lower end of your budget, then work up to your top end.
2. Acting alone should be avoided as it’s probably one of the biggest purchases of your life. Buyer agents will know the pitfalls, but always have a relation or a friend at your side.
3. Do you want to do work or buy a turnkey home?  How much time, effort and money do you want to spend, and is it easier to pay a premium for a turnkey home and not do the work yourself?
4. If you’re willing to consider a project, have vision! Often a probate or an unloved house can be made into something far more amazing, so always consider this option.
5. Beware of planning applications that could affect you. Always check out local planning portal using the property postcode.
6. Be careful not to offer too much. Make sure you know the market, or even better, engage the services of a buying agent to ensure you buy well.

Test driving a location by renting first is a popular tactic used by buyers who are moving to a new area, and we were delighted to share our views with The Daily Telegraph on this topic.

Relocating is such a big decision and if you’re not very familiar with the area you want to move to, jumping in at the deep end by buying a house before you’ve come to know the intricacies of the local housing market and what it’s actually like to live there, can feel like too big a risk.

Downsizers especially are less likely to be plugged straight into a new community through work and schools, so for them, joining local groups or the church and making new friends and connections is really important. They can take their time finding the right property, do viewings at the drop of a hat and are in a chain-free position with cash in the bank.

We always advise our buyers to insist on a 6-month break clause in their rental contract, so even if they find a property to buy quite quickly, they can get out without incurring major costs.

It’s not just downsizers taking this scenic route to moving home though. We’re also seeing younger buyers opting to sell and rent in the short term, giving them time to put all the jigsaw pieces together with new school and working arrangements, before committing long-term.

You can read the full article here if you’re a Telegraph subscriber.

We were delighted to contribute to an article in The Daily Telegraph, looking at costs for people selling their London home and upsizing to the countryside.

Someone selling in London for £2m – £2.5m can expect to acquire a family home with a good size garden and possibly an annexe, some land, a pool and tennis court in an edge-of-village location in the South Downs. But London leavers with £1m – 1.5m to spend are often surprised to discover they need to stretch their budget to get the kind of space they want in a small town or village location with good transport links.

The rise of home working has made living out of London a possibility for so many more people, so the competition for homes in this price bracket is considerably greater than it was five years ago. One of our clients sold in London for £850,000 and recently bought a property on the edge of Haslemere for £1.4m, close to the school and train station with views over adjoining fields. The property did require a little updating, but this enabled them to double the size of their home and hugely increase their outside space to meet the needs of their growing family.

You can read the full article here if you’re a Telegraph subscriber.

The first 100 days in power are crucial for any new government as they set the tone for their term in office and lay out their policy priorities.

We’re delighted to be included in this PrimeResi Journal article, where leaders from across the prime property sector offer their views on what those policies should be, including our own founder and director Jennie Hancock who makes the case for freeing up the market by scrapping stamp duty for downsizers.

Jennie says: “The most straightforward and effective policy the new government could introduce would be to scrap Stamp Duty for downsizers with immediate effect. After two years of stagnation, the economic benefits of kick-starting the housing market again by removing the enormous disincentive to move at the top, would be immediate.

“We have sellers moving from a £3m home to £2m who are looking at a Stamp Duty bill of over £150,000. It’s a huge deterrent. So many people are living in beautiful big houses they have owned for 25 years, which are now far too big for them, but they just can’t face handing such a large chunk of their children’s inheritance to the tax man. At the same time, there’s a multitude of frustrated family buyers looking for their forever home but good quality 4 and 5-bedroom properties are few and far between. Removing the Stamp Duty barrier for downsizers would incentivise them to move and re-energise the market at every level.

“Stamp Duty is such a prohibitive tax, and that was clear for everyone to see when the temporary Stamp Duty holiday was introduced during covid. In over 30 years of working in the housing market, I’ve never experienced such a turnaround in the market, and the wider economic benefit of all those thousands of home moves would have no doubt been significant. Whilst I would love to see the tax permanently scrapped altogether that seems highly unlikely, so downsizers would be an excellent place to start.”

You can read the full article on PrimeResi here, if you’re a subscriber.

We work with many downsizers across West Sussex and the Surrey/Hampshire borders, so we were delighted to share our thoughts on this hot topic with the Daily Telegraph.

Most of our downsizing clients have children who have flown the nest, and they want to simplify their lives and their finances by buying a more manageable property, leaving them with a nice nest egg with which to pursue hobbies and travel while they’re still fit and able.

Often, they’re using only a small part of the property, with certain rooms or even whole floors shut off, but they’re paying to maintain and upkeep the whole thing. A smaller property and garden is easier and cheaper to look after, and if it’s located closer to the local shops and amenities, or on a bus route, they have the option of giving up the car at some point in the future.

Many people have built up considerable wealth in their properties over 20 years or more, and they want to enjoy themselves by travelling to far flung places, which they might not have been able to do before. If Labour introduces VAT on private school fees, as it warns it will, we may see more downsizers gifting equity to their children to assist with those costs.

You can read the full article here if you’re a Daily Telegraph subscriber.

We are delighted to announce exchange of contracts this month on this lovely house in a village location a few miles north of Chichester.  The property is set in two acres with amazing downland views, yet with easy access to Chichester, the coast and train service to London.

Their priority for this client was to settle in this fabulous part of the world from London, in a forever family home that would accommodate their young and growing family.

Whilst this specific patch very close to Chichester is highly sought after and known for having a lack of good quality housing stock with land, we were able to source this home through our network prior to the property entering the open market.

Our thanks go to Mark Astley at Jackson Stops for introducing us to this amazing property.

How things have changed over the past 30 years with our choice of homes.

In the 90’s, top-end buyers only wished for the classic Georgian House with a tennis court, swimming pool, a few acres of land; a grand imposing home in the heart of a village.

This came with a huge maintenance list such as cleaners, gardeners, and permanent trade helpers that were always on hand for endless repairs. It was not unheard of to have a painter permanently on hand that started one end of the house and after finishing, it was time to go around again!

Now, these same buyers are looking at modern, contemporary homes with low energy costs, and as low maintenance as possible. Living needs to be simple now, and that’s the highest priority for all age groups whether upsizing, downsizing or making the city-to-country transition and never looking back.

Edge-of-village locations

In West Sussex, and the Hampshire and Surrey borders we as buying agents cover, there is a premium to have everything. The latest must-have is a home on the edge of a village.

These homes can be gems, as it’s often easier to obtain planning permission to change older homes to the modern way of living. Planning applications can be simpler with fewer neighbours to object, but buyers can still benefit from all the advantages of village life, the gastro pub, open spaces, excellent dog walks, village store, good schools, even good Wi-Fi. The list is endless.

Perhaps the odd negative may be thrown in, like rights of way and farmyard smells to endure, but the general consensus is it’s a small price to pay.

Creating low maintenance homes

I hasten to add, village life doesn’t come without the price tag to achieve this, but we have seen some amazing changes in recent years with architects successfully incorporating the old and new, giving clients the much-wanted character with easy to maintain homes.

If this isn’t necessarily what someone wants, then always remember that if you start again there is no VAT on new build, which at 20% of your home value is a healthy chunk towards something else. If you are building from scratch, the plot will be a lot less expensive than the finished article, which also helps as stamp duty can also eat a huge hole in your pocket.

There are lots of new exciting ways to have your dream home rather than the traditional 1990’s ‘Trophy house’ that was once something we all wished for. 

Labour’s policy to scrap VAT relief on private school fees is a hot topic at the moment, but what impact could it have on the property market? We were pleased to share our thoughts with the Daily Mail, outlining how in our experience, protecting children’s schooling from disruption is one of the most important considerations for any parent. Whilst lots of families paying for private school are financially stretched, many will be willing to pull whatever financial lever necessary to ensure their children can stay put for as long as possible.

Those with young children however, will be looking at the additional costs and deciding it’s better to invest some of the money they would have spent on private schooling into buying a house in the catchment area of a good state primary school.

Many of West Sussex’s most sought-after villages have fabulous junior schools with old fashioned values and traditions that are already a major draw for families. It’s common for retired professionals who live locally to give their time to help with extra reading and lots of added extras that so many City schools don’t benefit from, making them quite exclusive.

Read the full article here if you’re a Mail+ subscriber.

Property Acquisitions Founder and Director Jennie Hancock was delighted to be asked by The Times to author a comment piece on the impact of digital communication on buying and selling homes.

Jennie says, “When it comes to matching people with properties, I would challenge anyone to beat the speed, efficiency and meaningful connection that can be achieved in a single call, compared with a long chain of emails, texts or WhatsApp messages.”

Being a buying agent requires us to step into the shoes of our clients, to really understand what they’re looking for – which is why face to face meetings and phone calls are a vital part of the job.

You can read the full article here if you’re a Times subscriber.

I had the privilege of spending a day at The Chelsea Flower Show last week with clients we acquired a home for earlier this year. What a fabulous day we all had and we were exceptionally lucky to have the weather on our side, bearing in mind this year’s track record. It was wonderful to see so many fabulous gardens and I fell in love with the purple poppies!