Your Right Move » Estate Agents

REVEALED, what property feeds on our igoogle

Zanet — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:00:20 +0000

Today I reveal some of the best RSS feeds for keeping us up to date on UK property and Mortgage news. There are hundreds of great widgets and apps and feeds on the web today and property news feeds are essential if you want to keep up with current changes in the UK housing market.

So I thought it would be cool to reveal ours.

Telegraph Property News
Property news from the Telegraph, at least a few daily updates – superb resource for property news
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/propertynews/

Tepilo – Blog RSS Feed
The Blog from house expert Sarah Beeny, another promiding site to keep an eye on offering everything Rightmove offers but without the costs
http://www.tepilo.com/blog/

The Latest From Aboutproperty.co.uk
A consumer site for everyone interested in homes and property. Dedicated to news for homeowners and people seeking to become homeowners.
http://www.aboutproperty.co.uk/

Screen Grab of Property Feeds

Zoopla.co.uk Blog
Zoopla is the new kid on the block and has had an incredible year. With recent TV advertising, its become obvious Zoopla intends to challenge Right Moves supremacy.
http://blog.zoopla.co.uk/

Mortgages
Our 2nd helping from the Telegraph feed, this time detailed and insightful financial advice, including the latest information about mortgage rates and taking out a mortgage.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/mortgages/

The 4 Homes Blog
Channel 4 is the UK largest television station for Home releated programmes and this feed is a great way to keep alert to the current programmes related to home improvement, grand designs or property ladder and of course Location location.
http://blogs.channel4.com/4homes/

Your Right Move
Our very own rss feed just to make sure its updates are showing (and of course we are slightly biased)
http://www.yourrightmove.co.uk/blog

uk mortgage – Google News
Google newshas various sections including a UK mortgage news area.
http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=uk&hl=en&q=uk+mortgage

Google alerts – “House prices” location: United Kingdom
This is a Google Alert for the keywords “House prices”. I would suggest you also set an alert for your specific interests. It’s a great rescource for finding new sites.

Property feeds are essential for keeping an eye on the property market, hopefully we have introduced you to a few new ones to keep an eye on.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Buying

Zanet — Sat, 19 May 2012 11:35:59 +0000

The Buying Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

Now I’m about to reveal my normal process for buying a property. Years ago a walk along the local high street and a visit to each estate agent was my only option while taking a day off work. Today its all changed. Far from my priority to visit shops and talk to estate agents, I can now search for my ideal property at any time a like from the comfort of my current home.

Until recently I only really bothered with Rightmove. More than 90% of all UK Estate Agents choose to be members of Rightmove. It’s the largest and most established site with a boasts of 4 times more property than any other house buying site. Though it would be ignorant to think that that is where your search should finish. Findaproperty, Fish4homes and Zoopla are well established and worth a search. The new kid on the block is Sarah Beeny’s Tepilo. This has only a few properties, but it looks likely to grow and is worth keeping an eye on as I’m a believer that this might just succeed far beyond its predecessors as its entirely free for sellers and it uses Google maps to the full.

So what do you need before searching to buy a property?

buying your house online

Below are a list of what you need in effect if you entered these site with the basic four details you would probably get some good ideas of what you can buy for your money.

Where you want to live eg. place name or post code
The Minimum number of bedrooms required
Your Minimum price
Your Maximum price

Other details may be useful but for our favorite 5 you’ll find it will get you started

www.Rightmove.co.uk

Rightmove.co.uk is the UK’s number one property website. We are not estate agents but we aim to be the place for UK home movers to find details of all properties available to buy or rent.

postcode
radius of postcode up to 40 miles
Type of property eg. flat or house
Minimum number of bedrooms
Maximum number of bedrooms
How recent it was added to the site (anytime, 24 hours or last 2 weeks)

www.findaproperty.com

FindaProperty.com claims to be one of the leading property web-site with a comprehensive search facility for house-hunters to find a home – both sales and rentals.
It now publishes the details of over 626,614 properties to buy

place name or post code
Minimum number of bedrooms
Minimum price
Maximum price

www.zoopla.co.uk

Zoopla recently announced that it has acquired UpMyStreet.com, one of the UK’s leading and longest standing property information websites, for an undisclosed sum. You can’t ignore Zoopla and its claim of being the UK’s leading market resource for a property finder to search property for sale, find houses and flats to rent, see house prices paid and current property values all in one place.

place name or post code
Minimum price
Maximum price
Type of property eg. flat or house
Minimum number of bedrooms

www.tepilo.co.uk

Tepilo is an alternative way to buy, sell or let your property and it’s free. You maintain 100% control and pay 0% commission! Search across the UK and get advice from me along the way

place name or post code
refine with price
refine with distance

Advanced Details
property type
bedrooms
Bathrooms
Receptions
Outside Space
Parking
Tenure

www.fish4homes.co.uk

Claims to be the leading property website, fish4homes, celebrates a decade helping agents generate enquiries.
claims 276,653 houses and flats for sale
it looks a little run down the site with its latest news almost a year old!

The ten steps below cover the main stages you will go through when buying a home.

Work out how much you can afford
Get a mortgage agreement in principle
Choose your home from the list above.
View the properties as soon as possible.
Hire a solicitor or conveyancer
Make an offer
Have a survey and valuation
Finalise your mortgage
Exchange contracts
Organise your move

Over the coming weeks we are running some simple tests on the online sites we use to help our visitors buy a property.

The tests will include :

Which property site is the most usable?
Which site has the greatest number of properties?
Which property site provides the easiest search?
Which site provides the best support?
Which property site is best value for money for a buyer and seller?

10 Downing Street For Sale

Zanet — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:16:42 +0000

10 Downing Street isn’t for sale, but if it was…

With Right Move, Tepilo, Zoopla, Up my street or Find a property, we are a nosey bunch in the UK. If we aren’t buying property, we love to know what Mrs Jones paid for hers down the road. Or what the neighbours house looks like on an estate agents site. 10 Downing Street, colloquially known in the United Kingdom as “Number 10″, is the headquarters of Her Majesty’s Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now invariably held by the Prime Minister.

Just imagine if 10 Downing Street was for sale

So what if 10 Downing Street was for sale? well we know its not that simple if you want to move into that address and it certainly isn’t based on price alone. Though imagine for a moment if it was a simple as an asking price…

Zoopla recently valued the residential portion of 10 Downing Street, worked out under which PM value was lost and gained, calculated the stamp duty payable in April 2011 (at 5%, that’s £225K) if it was for sale on the open market, and identified and worked out the value of other 10 Downing Streets around the UK.

Here are their reported results for 10 Downing Street:

Gordon Brown currently worth a £4,574,831
Tony Blair when he left was worth £5,037,251
John Major £1,644,558
Margaret Thatcher £1,804,952

Zoopla also reports that property prices have risen since the last election in 2005 in each of the party leaders’ constituencies

by over 12% in David Cameron’s;
by just over 5% in Nick Clegg’s
by almost 19% in Gordon Brown’s

So there you have it, thanks to Zoopla we now know it’s not been the best property boom in recent times, which of course we knew already.

No related posts.

Do you need an Estate Agent

Zanet — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:16:28 +0000

It’s not the first time we have asked the question, Do you need an Estate Agent in this day and age? With the mighty online agents like Zoopla and Rightmove, the little estate agent down the road needs to offer something different to make his value worthwhile.

We are looking at the debate from the perspective of someone wanting to sell their property. The options include advertising online only for a much smaller fee of around £500 rather than the 1 or 2% for an Estate Agent which can cost around £3000 to £7000 depending on your property price.

If property sells well in your area then you may wish to think about advertising on a free web site like Tepilo. If you go direct to Rightmove then regularly review your on-line advertisement, your asking price, the photographs of your property and the description.

For's and Against's - Do you need an Estate Agent

For’s and Against’s – Do you need an Estate Agent

The argument for having an Estate Agent

You should get a few extra viewings as they keep lists of potentially interested buyers
They will be able to show people round when you aren’t available
They may have a better understanding of the local market than yourself and can use this to negotiate a better price on your behalf
Some buyers may not trust buying any other way as they may remain suspicious if there is no Estate Agent
You may recover the cost of the Estate Agent as some buyers will deduct the calculated cost of not having one.

The argument against having an Estate Agent

They tend to dictate the photos and advertising, so you lose some control
You can change the price or details at any point with immediate effect.
You may have a greater motivation to get the best price whereas an estate agent may undersell your house by tens of thousands of pounds to achieve a sale and commission
If you sell quickly because the price was in the buyers favour, you could be paying out a lot of money for very little work
They see the property as the client sees it as they also are not as attached

So is this a harsh discussion if you are an Estate Agent?

Or what is your view if you are a seller.

Do you need an Estate Agent in todays market of online selling?

Rightmove could be knocked off top spot by Zoopla

Zanet — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:10:45 +0000

Its been on Zoopla’s mind for a long time, but Zoopla wont stop until its number one amongst the property search portals.

The merge of Zoopla, Primelocation.com and FindaProperty.com

It seems they have announced the largest step forward yet by merging all the other big names to take on Right Move. Zoopla Ltd and Digital Property Group, a subsidiary of A&N Media Ltd which operates property websites Primelocation.com and FindaProperty.com, have announced plans to merge.

This has been seen as an excelent move as it will provide the first serious challenge to compete against Rightmove since the internet provided property searches as a useful way of searching. Opinion is a merger such as the one announced is set to be a big win for estate agents and housebuilders across the UK, creating a clear alternative in a market that has had a single dominant player for a number of years.

Rightmove could be knocked off top spot by Zoopla

The combined business will be in a position to offer a superior value proposition and wider exposure and is expected to result in an audience to rival Rightmove, delivering at least as many enquiries to its members.

And for consumers either searching for property to buy or rent or doing market research, the combination will deliver a number of benefits including significantly greater coverage of property listings and enhanced features to help empower them with the resources that they need to make better-informed decisions in the UK residential property market.

Zoopla has become even stonger as they have put a huge budget into advertising in 2012. With London cabbies going purple and TV adverts like Kerching, Zoopla are insistent on moving to the top spot

Rightmove could be knocked off top spot by Zoopla - Zoopla’s Alex Chesterman gives his view:

“This deal will be transformational for both businesses allowing us to compete effectively in a market where it takes significant investment to challenge the current market leader. But more importantly, the deal will deliver real value for UK estate agents and developers and we will be in a position to provide them with the widest possible exposure and be their most cost-efficient marketing partner.”

So what do you think, can Zoopla with the merger of Primelocation.com and FindaProperty.com really prove to be an even alternative to Right Move?

Estate Agent with Rightmove – 7 Reasons To Use One

Zanet — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:45:00 +0000

Not everyone is a fan of Estate agents. For many years we’ve wondered whether online property portals like Tepilo from Sarah Beeny would start the disappearance of Estate agents. Basically the question do you need an Estate agent with Rightmove Zoopla and Tepilo adverts has been asked many a time.

So do you really save money by using an online estate agent? Some would prefer the security of using an Estate Agent they can see even though it may cost a few thousand pounds. Often because of the fear of the unknown. All though we are talking about saving money, if an online agent doesn’t sell the property then you have nothing to save as they didn’t sell it in the first place! Now that’s a false economy.

Today we present 7 reasons you need an estate agent with Rightmove, Zoopla or any other online presents

The fact that an online agent have already been paid almost deflates any motivation to see the property. As opposed to an Estate agent who is running at a loss until he gets a sale. I say a loss as he has already committed to an advert, and details to print, local property paper and so on. Will an online estate agent sell a property as well as a High Street estate agent. Where is the motivation to sell and achieve results once you’ve had your payment? Small estate agents rather than a corporate ones are more likely to put every ounce of their energy into finding you a buyer quickly as they have far more at stake.
Local knowledge on property sales. Although Zoopla has some amazing property index and historical data, it has no human element and is often a long way of a realist price. I’m sure this will improve over time. A good estate agent will add value to the sale price. This is one of the reasons many still use high street Estate Agent.
Some buyers don’t really want to meet the vendors face to face. The Estate agent acting as an in between can help keep emotions in place. Homeowners can be very defensive about their homes even though they are selling them. So Estate agents can negotiate a happy medium to keep both buyer and seller at peace.

Are Estate Agents needed?

Estate Agents can use there experience to reassure potential buyers about the issues that a survey might bring up. Also ct to any observations made at viewing stage. A vendor would not carry as much weight in the eyes of a buyer and they might be suspicious of any advice and information supplied.
The high street Estate Agent will have a network of contacts in the area and is better placed to know who is around looking for a property like yours. There are still many buyers that don’t use the online searches and will just register with Estate Agents in the area of interest. Clearly in more affluent markets buyers potentially would have registered with an agent they built a good relationship with and buy through them eventually. So the combination of Estate Agent with Rightmove should cover all basis.
Building trust with a client and establishing and maintaining integrity is essential. Many buyers still like to see the face of the Estate Agent they’re dealing with. The Agent has a duty of care to both vendor and buyer so many buyers prefer to work with certain agents they know and trust.
A duel business exist with many Estate Agents that isn’t so intuitive with an online agent. The point is Estate Agents that have both Lettings and Sales can often refer people from one side of the business to the other. If an Agent has a database of tenants it is highly likely they have a pool of potential buyers as well.

So having seen the value of Estate Agents we have to conclude that they still have a part to play.

Most online agents don’t cost very much (Tepilo is free!) then why not try both? Why not have an Estate Agent with Rightmove. No need to flood the market with your property which can be off-putting to potential buyers but a balance of both might be the best way to go. Certainly the combination of Estate Agent with Rightmove covers all basis.

UK house prices

Zanet — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:53:09 +0000

Will Uk house prices fall or rise in the coming year ? What will the 2012 house market bring ?
We take a look at what the experts are saying and look to see whether the housing gloom is about to lift.

While the average house prices in the UK will have actually risen by 1.3pc by the end of 2011, with inflation currently at 5pc, property values are falling in real terms.

Rightmove expect UK House Prices to drop

Predictions for 2012 UK house prices

The Telegraph predicts 2012 will not see a revivial. They report “Inflation and the eurozone debt crisis will have a negative effect on house prices next year.”

This is Money’s property expert Simon Lambert speaks of Estate agents claiming of a stand-off between sellers and buyers. The sellers reluctant to cut prices and the buyers unwilling to pay over the odds. Home sellers must either have a desirable property to sell in an in-demand area or be willing to lower their expectations, if they want to get a sold sign up outside their house.

Rightmove report UK House prices will show uncertainty. 2012 will be just as challenging as they’ve been in 2011. Asking prices are expected to rise by a mere 2%. Inflation-adjusted house prices will continue to fall in 2012, or at best stand still.

Your Mortgage Decisions predict great variances in house price movement across the UK. With the south and in particular London and the home counties faring considerably better than northern England, Wales and Scotland. It would not surprise me to see some gains as significant as 5% to 10% within a commutable distance to London, as has been the case this year for pockets of desirable housing served well by schools, transport links and good community facilities such as leisure and retail. Other areas are likely to see a more benign outlook with a neutral to 5 to 10% decline in the areas of highest unemployment.

Capital Economics expect prices to decline by 5% in both 2012 and 2013.
UK House prices often follow the USA trend the following year. so while the UK doesnt have any exciting changes, The United States are predicting a better change. Newspapers in New York predict a positive outlook. Wall Street expect the U.S. economy to keep growing, albeit at a sluggish 2% annual rate but fast enough to avoid a recession. In the CFA’s survey, only 12% of respondents said they expect the U.S. economy to contract in 2012.

Rightmove improves property listings

Zanet — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:46:46 +0000

Rightmove is already the UK’s largetst property listings website, but now things have become even better for the huge listing site.

A recent survey revealed that potential property buyers complained that often the properties viewed in the search results were often out of date. So a team of developers have now improved the quality of the results.

Rightmove now provides an improved property listing

Rightmove claim this new update will improve the data quality and involves the removal of out-dated sales and lettings properties using a range of new filters and detection controls. The data quality programme has been introduced following consultation with estate agents. The aim was to establish what would represent a fair period of time for certain properties to be left on the site.

Quality and accurate property listings

Rightmove comments regarding the property listings : “The data quality measures we have introduced emphasise Rightmove’s commitment to maintaining an accurate property search facility for home-hunters and a fair and highly effective advertising environment for our member agents.Given the frustration that inaccurate or misleading advertising causes for home-hunters, we felt it right to introduce measures which restrict the amount of stock left on the site when it’s no longer available. This activity is equally frustrating for the majority of Rightmove member agents who keep their advertised properties in order and up-to-date.”

Rightmove started the data quality programme in January with the removal of over 50,000 ‘for sale’ properties, which had been cross-referenced with the Land Registry to reveal they had already been sold. So its been quite a clean up on the listings.

The data quality measures were widened this week to target properties indicated as being unavailable for excessively long periods of time such as resale properties listed as ‘Sold Subject to Contract’ and lettings properties listed as ‘Let Agreed’. Over 80,000 properties will be removed under this new measure.

All Rightmove member agents have since been kept informed of each new data quality measures. The feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive.

Update: It’s worth noting that this was a change in the property listings which is hidden data, not the actual presentation of the listings themselves, so little differences will be seen.

How to sell your house on Rightmove

Zanet — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:46:59 +0000

Selling your house on the Rightmove web site is certainly a great way to be seen and find many more potential purchasers. But how do you get on there? Most good estate agents are experts in selling properties and will know that a web prescence is essential for capturing the market of people moving into the area. So the next question follows: how do you choose a reliable Estate agent in the UK market with a good Rightmove presence?

You won't see a RightMove estate agents in your road

As 25% of buyers found their property on the Rightmove web site, it is a priority to make sure your agent can advertise your home on Right move. You may find it is worth paying more to choose a proactive agent who will
ultimately achieve a better price for your property.

Before you commit yourself to one agent, take narrow down your estate agent list to approximately three finalists who you want to invite to do a valuation. Make sure you ask them how they will invest in marketing on behalf of the vendor and should, at the very least, take photos of your property. Also ask how long it takes to go live on Rightmove as it could take up to a week and yet shouldn’t take longer than a day or two after approval.

Rightmove enhanced advertising options

You may want to speak to your chosen agents about the Rightmove enhanced advertising options, Showcase and Premium Display to help sell your home even faster. You may need to negotiate with each agent to get the best commission rate though the lowest rate doesn’t always mean the best service.

Check out the estate agents profile describing their business. Does your estate agent belong to Ombudsman for Estate Agents or the National Association of Estate Agents. Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is also acceptable.

Don’t forget if the estate agents don’t impress you, it’s unlikely they’ll impress your Right move.co.uk visitors.

How to advertise on Rightmove

Zanet — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 23:15:53 +0000

Is it possible to advertise on Rightmove for free ?

Many seeking to sell their homes online, want to advertise on Rightmove. Rightmove is the biggest property websites in the UK. Understandable as more than 90% of all UK estate agents list on Rightmove.

It appears that sadly individuals selling their homes directly cannot list their property on Rightmove without an estate agent.

Should it be free to advertise on Rightmove

This is due to Rightmove’s advertising policy. All properties advertised on their site should comply with the “Property Misdescription Act of 1991″. This Act was designed to protect the public from estate agents that stretched the truth about a property. It was devised to provide protection to the general public making it illegal to make false or misleading statements.

So are there any other ways that an estate agent can offer access through there registration with Rightmove? Any way to supervise the statements made and thereby approve the submissions for a minimal cost?

It’s worth noting there used to be a few estate agents that did comply with the act. For a small fee they enabled you to advertise on Rightmove.

Good news!.

Well I thought so, until I contacted The Little House Company online estate agency
In the past, they were are able to list your property on Rightmove for a small fee, until Rightmove decided to block the idea.

I decided to contact The Little House Company to find out what had changed since they couldn’t now directly advertise on Rightmove.

Nick Marr founder of The Little House Company told us, “We offer an online estate agents service that does not include listing on Rightmove anymore. We were working with a number of agents but Rightmove sent us a legal notice asking us to stop. They felt we were amounting to reselling their service. We now simply recommend or refer our clients to this panel if they want a Rightmove listing”.

Nick continues, “We offer a full online agents service apart from Rightmove. Despite us being registered estate agency in the eyes of the law and the fact we produce compliant listings Rightmove are uncomfortable with us on their website as we promote private sales. They receive complaints from estate agents and we will never be on that website whilst we offer consumer choice with our services”.

“One of my main competitors www.mypropertyforsale.com has given up private listings so that he can have his properties on Rightmove. If we did the same it would be yet another private sale business squeezed out of the industry”.

Will you be able to advertise on Rightmove in the future for free?

Maybe we will see things change in 2012. But currently Nick Marr told us “We contributed to an OFT report last year which concluded: The OFT’s study into home buying and selling FEB 2010 found that the housing market remains dominated by traditional estate agents with weak competition between them on price. As property prices rise during housing booms, so too do estate agents’ fees. Overall satisfaction with estate agents, however, has improved in recent years, according to research conducted as part of the study. Where there are problems with transactions, consumers generally do not think the estate agent was at fault. The OFT believes that innovation in this sector, in particular through online services, could have a dramatic impact on the cost of buying and selling a home”.

So there we have the reasons why you can’t advertise directly on Rightmove, but there does seem to be some good alternatives to consider.

We will review some of these alternatives over the coming weeks. What do you think? Should you be able to directly advertise on Rightmove web site?