6 Ways to Sell Your Medway Home Quickly at Christmas

December 2nd, 2022

Christmas is a magical time of year. However, if you’re trying to sell your Medway home during the holidays, it can also be a bit stressful. After all, most people are more focused on spending time with family and friends and enjoying the festive season than they are on buying a new home.

Luckily, there are a few things you can do to help make your home more appealing to potential buyers during the holiday season. From decorating your home in a festive way to offering incentives, there are plenty of ways to make your home stand out from the rest.

Here are 8 tips for selling your home quickly during the holidays:

1. Get your home in tip-top shape: This is the time of year when buyers are looking for move-in ready homes. Take care of any outstanding repairs, give your home a fresh coat of paint, and make sure the landscaping is neat and tidy.

2. De-clutter and de-personalise: Buyers want to be able to envision themselves in your home, and that’s tough to do when your personal belongings are everywhere. Put away family photos, clear off countertops, and make sure closets and cabinets are organized.

3. Stage your home for the holidays: This is the time of year when people are looking for cozy homes they can settle into for the winter months. Make sure your home looks warm and inviting by adding festive touches like holiday decorations, scented candles, or a bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen counter.

4. Highlight any special features of your home that would be perfect for the holidays: Do you have a fireplace? Mention it in your listing! Is your kitchen big enough to accommodate a large Christmas dinner? Be sure to mention that as well! Whatever makes your property unique, make sure you highlight it so that potential buyers can see how perfect it would be for their holiday needs.

5. Create Great Kerb Appeal: First impressions matter, especially when selling your home during the holidays. Take some time to spruce up your curb appeal with festive holiday decorations. This will help make your home more inviting and appealing to potential buyers.

6. Offer incentives for buyers who close before Christmas: If you’re really keen on selling before the holidays, offer incentives such as paying for moving costs or offering a gift card to a local restaurant or shop. This can help sweeten the deal for potential buyers and make them more likely to put an offer on your property.

7. Price it right: In today’s market, buyers are looking for a great value. If you price your home too high, you’ll likely sit on the market for months with no offers. Work with your agent to come up with a competitive asking price that will attract buyers but still allow you to get the return on investment you’re looking for.

8. Be flexible with showings . . Within reason, of course: With families busy during the holidays, you might need to be flexible with showings so buyers can see your home when it’s convenient for them. Being flexible with showings doesn’t mean you have to let just anyone in at any time—screen buyers beforehand so you only allow serious potential purchasers into your home.

Selling your home in Medway during the holidays doesn’t have to be stressful—with a little extra effort, you can make it happen quickly and smoothly! Just remember to declutter and deep clean before putting your home on the market; create kerb appeal with festive holiday decorations; stage each room strategically and price your home competitively. By following these simple tips, you’ll be well on your way to selling your home before New Year arrives.

For tips on how to keep your home safe during the Christmas period click here.

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6 Ways to Sell Your Medway Medway Home Quickly at Christmas tom dix best independent personal medway estate agent
6 Ways to Keep Your Home Safe at Christmas

November 25th, 2022

The holidays are a time for family, friends, and lots of fun. But they’re also a time when home safety is more important than ever. Here are six ways to make sure your Medway home is safe during the holiday season.

1. Get a home security system: A home security system is one of the best ways to deter burglars and keep your family safe. If you don’t have a home security system, now is the time to get one. There are many different types of systems available, so find one that fits your needs and budget.

2. Keep valuables out of sight: Don’t leave gifts or other valuables where they can be seen from outside your home. Burglars will often target homes that have valuables in plain sight. If you must keep gifts in your home, put them in a cupboard or another room where they can’t be seen from outside.

3. Be careful with social media: Don’t post about your holiday plans on social media until after the fact. Burglars often use social media to find out when homeowners will be away from their homes. If you must post about your plans, set your privacy settings so that only your friends and family can see your posts.

4. Keep doors and windows locked: This may seem like common sense, but it’s important to remember to keep all doors and windows locked, even when you’re home. Burglars can be brazen, and they will often try to enter homes even when people are inside. Make sure all doors and windows are locked before you go to bed or leave the house.

5. Have a friend or neighbour check on your home while you’re away: If you’re going to be away from home for an extended period of time, ask a friend or neighbour to check on your home periodically. They can make sure everything is okay and take action if there is any suspicious activity around your property.

6. Install outdoor lighting: Outdoor lighting is an effective way to deter burglars and make your home safer overall. Install motion-sensor lights around your property so that any potential intruders will be lit up if they try to approach your home in the dark of night.

Home safety is important all year round, but it’s especially important during the holiday season when burglars are looking for easy targets. By following these simple tips, you can help keep your home safe in Medway this Christmas season.

For tips on how to effectively sell your Medway home throughout the holiday season click here.

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6 ways to keep your medway home safe at christmas tom dix best independent medway estate agent
4 Reasons to Get Ready for the Boxing Day Buyer Boom!

November 18th, 2022

Are you thinking of selling your home in the new year, but planning to wait until January?

A lot of people think putting your house on the market during the holidays is a crazy idea – it’s actually not.

If you’re wanting a quicker and smoother sale then launching your house to the market on Boxing Day is one of the smartest things you can do.

Why? Well here are four reasons…

House Hunters are Searching in their Droves during the Festive Period: Between Boxing Day and the end of January, Rightmove say there are more than 150 million visits to their website which means your perfect buyer could be a click of the mouse away if you launch at the right time.

Why Not Capitalise on the Boxing Day Buyer Boom?: Boxing Day is the most popular day of the year for buyers to search for a new house on Rightmove. In fact, web traffic to the property website soars by 70% the day after Christmas. Plus, the number of people browsing properties on Rightmove during the post-Christmas Day period has been increasing every year, with visits on Boxing Day last year 54% higher than the previous year.

Get Ahead of Your Competition: By launching your house to the market on Boxing Day you will get your property ahead of the January rush of people putting their houses on the market. By the time they take action at the beginning of 2023, your property could already be sold!

A New Year, New Start : After Christmas people start looking for a change and new adventures, for many people this means moving to a new house so it’s important to have your property in pole position to be found online. By launching to the market on Boxing Day, this can really help you to do that.

So there you have it, 4 reasons why it’s a great idea to launch your home to the market on Boxing Day.

If you have any questions about getting your house ready for sale ahead of the holidays then please get in touch today and I’ll get you Boxing Day ready!

Things to check before buying a property in Rochester

November 10th, 2022

If you’re looking to buy a property in Rochester then here’s some simple, free things you can do before buying a property. An insight into what homeowners wish they’d have checked before buying a property.

So one of them is checking to see what the temperature is like in the property during different times of the year. So if they viewed and bought the property in the summer they wish they’d known what it was like in the winter to find out how cold it was. You can get an indication of how warm or cold a property will be during different times of the year by considering:

  • Where the sun rises and sets in relation to the house. What part of the house will get the sun the most? Will any trees block sunlight in the winter when the sun is lower?
  • Is the property insulated?
  • How many radiators does it have and are they big enough for the room they are in?
  • Consider open plan layouts as to how this may effect heat loss.

Visiting the property during different times a day will give you a great impression as to what it would be like to live there. Is the parking bad at weekends? Is it busy during school drop off and pick up times?

If you are a commuter then test your commute to and from work to give you an idea how long it will take.

Many people also wish they had checked the doors and windows to make sure all mechanisms were working and all the windows and doors open.

You can also check check the water pressure by running the taps or shower.

If you are looking to buy a property and would like my help please feel free to contact me on 07557783325.

Click here for a list of questions you should be asking when going to view a property to buy.

Why you should sell your home in Chatham before offering on a new one

November 3rd, 2022

Would you like to move house in Chatham but feel that the choice of available properties for sale is too limited right now? Are you worried that if you sell first you may not be able to find anywhere to move? Are you thinking that it may be wise to find somewhere first and only then put your own on the market. Well these are the type of questions that thousands of Chatham homeowners are currently asking themselves, and all perfectly reasonable too.

On the surface however there are five important reasons as to why you should really put your own property on the market before finding somewhere to move to.

Firstly let’s look at the downside of finding a property before you put your own on the market. Let’s say you start browsing the portals and do indeed find somewhere that appears to be suitable. Could this be the one? So you contact the Chatham estate agent for a viewing and if that agent is doing their job properly they’re bound to ask you what your position is. In other words as part of their due diligence and duty to their client they need to establish whether you’re in a position to buy now. When you tell them that your own property is not even on the market yet well with all respect they’re not going to regard you as a hot buyer are they well that’s a huge disadvantage when you’re competing with other buyers who may have nowhere to sell. So if you want to look at that property and then make an offer on it at anything other than the asking price or possibly more it’s likely that the seller would not accept your offer because you’re simply not able to proceed. They wouldn’t want to delay their sale by effectively making the saleability of their own property reliant on the saleability of yours. If they’re going to do that it would have to be worth their while and you’d probably be expected to pay top dollar in that situation but it doesn’t stop there.

Let’s say the seller does agree to sell to you well then you’re under considerable pressure to sell your own property quickly aren’t you? Which may mean that you’d need to let it go for a lower price than you would have liked so you end up paying through the nose for your purchase and losing money on your sale. It doesn’t stack both ways.

Thirdly as a buyer who’s not yet put their property on the market you’ll recall that I said Chatham estate agents would not regard you as a hot buyer well it’s been estimated that as many as a third of sales happen off market. These are properties that never make it to the portals because estate agents in Chatham offer exclusive access to these properties to the hottest buyers before posting them on the portals. Now this may be why you believe there is not much available, there is but unless you’re in a strong position it’s very unlikely that you’d get to hear about these properties and so often they’re the best ones as well. That’s why they go so quickly.

Fourthly, of course if you come to market first then your property could be one of those that’s offered to those hot buyers. You’d then be regarded as a hot buyer yourself even if you haven’t actually found a buyer yet. At least you’re on the market and you’d find that all sorts of opportunities open up for you so you can get moving. You’d be selling from a strong position and also buying from a strong position. If you’re trading up in a rising market then you absolutely should be selling quickly in order to avoid another potential cash gap. Let’s say the market has for the sake of the maths risen by 10 percent so you’ll say £400 000 pounds sale is now worth £440,000. You’ve just made forty thousand pounds tax free sounds. But don’t forget that your let’s say five hundred thousand pound purchase has also risen by ten percent so you’re making forty thousand pounds on your sale but your purchase is costing you fifty thousand pounds more a cash gap shortfall of ten thousand pounds. So if you’re trading up in a rising market the key is don’t wait move fast.

So all in all, five reasons to list your property before you find your next property. I’m sorry if it’s not what you wanted to hear but I only ever promise you sincere straight talking good advice why not call me and get things moving. You can reach me on 07557783325.

Medway Towns Property Market Update for November

November 3rd, 2022

What’s happening in the Medway Property Market?

If you’re in the market to buy or sell a property or just generally interested in the housing market then stay tuned for your Medway Housing Market Update for November.

Are more properties being reduced?

During October, 4001 properties were available for sale in The Medway Towns, 297 more than in the previous month of September. 1115 properties were listed for sale, 113 less than the month prior. 762 properties sold, 127 less than September and 675 properties were reduced throughout October, 171 more than the month prior. With political uncertainty rippling through the markets it’s clear to see less properties were listed and sold during the month of October.

Are mortgage interest rates coming down?

Rightmove state ‘Buyer demand is still 20% higher than the more normal market of 2019, but it is down by 15% in the last two weeks compared with the same two weeks last year.’ So even with a hike in interest rates and political uncertainty there are still plenty of buyers in the market. Zoopla also announced 900 new mortgage products have been added to the market, also suggesting ‘Mortgage rates are expected to fall to 4-5% next year and this is likely to be the new norm.’ Further backed up that all fixed rate product interest rates came down on 31st October. Zoopla also claim that 48% of buyers are using cash or very small mortgages to purchase property. That’s just under half of all transactions not effected by the interest rate rises.

Are house prices dropping?

With regards to prices, the average price of new properties listed to the market for sale increased again in October by 0.9% according to Rightmove. Just 23% of all properties on the market for sale have felt the need to reduce their price in order to get sold.

In my case study for the month I’d like to tell you about the sale of King George Road in Chatham. A 3 bedroom terraced house listed for Offers Over £270,000. In 5 days 13 viewings were booked with 5 offers received following the open day. All offers exceeded to list price of £270,000. Activity on the ground from buyers is still very strong as you can see. It seems many buyers are looking to lock into a fixed rate as soon as possible with fear of them increasing further.

Now could be a great time to list your home for sale, with less properties coming to the market and buyer demand still higher than the ‘normal market’. The shortage of properties for sale still seems to be underpinning house prices. My advice is listen to the market, if you’re a buyer and your offer has been rejected because a higher offer has been made, unless you increase your offer, the other buyer will likely buy that property. If you’re a seller and you have just 1 offer with no other viewings booked in or no viewing at all then something is wrong. Listen to the market.

If you’re looking to sell a property or buy one in The Medway Towns then please give me, your personal estate agent a call on 07557783325.

Questions to ask when viewing a property to buy in Medway

October 27th, 2022

If you’re a buyer looking to buy a property in the Medway Towns right now then here’s some questions you should be asking when you’re out there viewing properties.

A good thing to know before you start is your monthly budget. So you’ve already taken into consideration your mortgage payments but what about how much it’s going to cost for you to run that particular property. Ask the estate agent or the owner how much the council tax is going to cost you a month, your electricity, your gas bills, your water bills. Then you can build that into the offer that you’re looking to make so you don’t over stretch yourself. You also you might be able to offer that little bit more if the running costs are nice and low.

Ask the owner why they are looking to sell or the estate agent why the owners are looking to sell. This will give you a good idea of how quickly they’re looking to move and also ask if the property is involved in a chain. The last thing you want to do is make an offer on a property that you think you can move in straight away and you find out that you’re going to have to wait for the chain to go through. Even if the property is empty that could also mean that the property is involved in a chain you just need to be making sure that you ask that question.

Find out how long the property has been on the market. If it’s just come onto the market then obviously the owners are probably going to really want to explore their options and give it time for the property to be exposed to the market. If it’s been on the market for that little bit longer then they may be more receptive to an offer that you make, so it’s important to know how long it’s been on the market for.

Not all work that’s been done on properties is evident so ask if there’s been any major works done to the property recently so things like a boiler, new radiators, anything done to the roof or guttering that might not be evident to you but it could be something that’s been done. It’s important to know or if it hasn’t been done then obviously you can bear that in mind in terms of the offer that you make.

Make sure to find out what’s included in the sale. When you go to view properties that are lived in you do see a lot of furniture there and that can sometimes influence your decision making but just remember when you get the keys it’s likely that you’re going to be walking into a completely empty property with walls and flooring so make sure to ask what’s included in the sale as you can build that into your offer negotiation. If they are going to be leaving a lot of things then obviously you can build that into your offer as well.

Lastly find out about the neighbours, not necessarily asking if there are any bad neighbours but find out what the general demographic is for the people who live there so if you’ve got young children yourself is there young children in the road as well obviously the children possibly can make friends and then you’ll know that it’s a safe family area as well.

I hope you found these tips helpful and if you do have any questions about buying or selling please call me on 07557783325.

Should you move or extend your Walderslade home?

October 21st, 2022

If you’re in two minds whether to move to a new home in Walderslade or extend your current one then here’s what you need to consider. Firstly, find out how much the extension is going to cost you to do and weigh that up versus the cost of moving to a new home.

Then it’s a good idea to get a value of your current home in Walderslade and get an idea of how much value you would add by extending. Then it would be quite handy to speak to your lender or a mortgage broker to find out how much in your current circumstances you would be able to buy up to based on the value of your current home. Then you can see what is out there for you, what’s available for sale and how much you’d be gaining by moving versus how much you’ll be gaining by extending. That will give you a really good idea to whether or not you should extend or move.

5 Mistakes Not To Make When Selling Your Rochester Property

October 14th, 2022

First of all we need to prepare for photos so when I come around to take the video and the photos for the property for the marketing it’s of show home standard. This will make your Rochester property stand out against the competition versus some very low quality photos of a messy house that you wouldn’t be proud to see.

Secondly you’ve got your preparing on the legal side of things, don’t wait until you get an offer and then sort out your solicitor, get yourself prepared. Fill out your protocol forms so as soon as you find a buyer you’re ready to go straight away.

Lots of sellers in Rochester call me when they have found a property first and what that does is it puts them under immense stress to get their property sold in the quickest possible time frame. This could also mean accepting the first offer that is put on the table which could be a lower offer.

Having the property show home ready for viewings is very important as first impressions count. If a Rochester buyer gets a bad first impression when they turn up that could be their lasting impression on the house especially if they’re viewing others as well.

Many sellers get drawn in by Rochester estate agents charging low fees and quoting very high valuation prices. Try to avoid this and get at least 3 valuations. Do your own research and homework because sometimes the fee that’s quoted and the price that’s quoted can be very different to what they seem. Make sure you do your research on estate agents in Rochester before deciding to employ them to sell your property.

What’s happening in the Medway Property Market?

October 7th, 2022

What’s happening in the property market is probably the question I’ve been asked the most in the past week, so if you’re wondering what is actually happening rather than what the media are reporting then here’s your Medway property market update for October.

A lot of things in the world are media led, doom and gloom with nothing but bad news. The increasing price of petrol dominated the news just a few months back but now no mention of the prices coming down what so ever. The property market will always be driven by mortgage interest rates and supply and demand. There’s no doubt mortgages interest rates have increased this year in line with the bank of England base rate rise and they will almost certainly continue to do so. What this means is that property owners will pay more per month for their property. The lending criteria hasn’t changed and the amount of money lenders are prepared to loan hasn’t changed. It has been widely reported that mortgage products have been pulled from the market, this happens all the time, it’s just not so highly reported on. If you are a seller and you have agreed a sale and your buyer has not yet received their mortgage offer then make sure to check in with your selling agent to ensure your buyer is still able to get the mortgage they intended too at the beginning of the process. This is backed up by the Medway Property sales that fell through over the last few months. In August 1501 sales aborted but only 1460 in September.

On top that we have been given stamp duty relief in the past week which will help buyers and sellers alike but it seems only bad news will be reported on your screens. Over the past few years the Medway property market has experienced a historic low for mortgage interest rates and properties for sale and a historic high for demand to purchase. This means we have been in a market that we will likely never experience again in our lifetimes.

Zoopla reports the difference on September last year vs this year and the national 5 year average. In September 2021 buyer demand was up 23% vs the 5 year average. In the same month this year this buyer demand decreased by 15% but still 8% up on the 5 year average. The number of sales agreed was 10% above the 5 year average in September 2021 and this year 3% above the 5 year average. The stock of homes for sale was 31% down vs the 5 year average in 2021 and in September 2022 21% down on the 5 year average. Less than 6% of properties for sale reduced by 5% in September and average asking prices increased by 0.7% bringing house price growth to 8.2%. A slight decrease in buyer demand and a slight increase in properties available for sale will naturally cause a change to market conditions but we are still very much in a sellers market. We’ve gone from a boiling pot of water, bubbling over the sides, to a pot of water that’s still too hot to put your hand in it’s just not boiling over the sides anymore.

Ultimately buyers and sellers have to listen to the activity. If you’re a buyer and your offer has not been accepted and another buyer is prepared to offer more, that property will be sold to the other buyer. If you’re a seller and you’ve received just one offer with no other interest in your property, you must listen to the market and the buyer intel. And remember, any changes in prices will be relative in respect of your onward purchase. I can only report on the sales I have agreed since the week commencing 26th September but both properties were sold for above the list price with multiple buyers making offers which suggests the rise in interest rates has not yet effected buyers spending power.

I hope this has helped you with any uncertainty you may have surrounding the Medway property market and if you have any questions at all please comment below or contact me on 07557783325. Speak to your local agent before believing the media. I’m here to make your move happen. As the business owner I promise a highly motivated, pro-active and honest approach.