Your Right Move » Property

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?

7 Homes Never Seen on Rightmove

Zanet — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:03:14 +0000

Chances are these homes will never be seen on Rightmove. Ok they are all based in America and Rightmove is UK based, but even so. Could you really afford these Hollywood homes?

So we present 7 homes you can’t afford

1. Bill Gates home

Bill Gates Home

He has the finest home technology. Apparently has an automated human dwelling. I bet it has windows too.The hillside is in an earthquake zone, so the foundation sits on concrete piers and uses tiebacks and steel reinforcements several times stronger than the minimums set by the building code. Massive retaining walls, several feet thick in places, created a drainage problem, solved by collecting runoff in buried pipes that feed into the estuary.

2.Eddie Murphy’s House

Eddie Murphy’s House

The Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-, Screen Actors Guild Award- and Golden Raspberry-winning actor and comedian lives here. Murphy’s all-brick, gated and walled 32-room property is in the East Hill section of Englewood and sits high on a 4-acre knoll. It is star-studded estate with a full-size racquetball court, an indoor pool with a glass roof, a two-lane bowling alley, professional recording music studio, elevator, and carriage house with gym.

3. Oprah Winfrey’s House

Oprah Winfrey - Montecito, California

Oprah Winfrey paid $50 million in 2001 for the 23,000-square-foot Georgian-style home she calls the “Promised Land.” Last year the spread was appraised at just under $85 million. For such a public persona, Winfrey ferociously guards the privacy of her home, situated on 43 acres. At a Barack Obama fund raiser last year, guests were strictly prohibited from entering the house, and cameras were forbidden.

4. Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony’s House

Lopez House - Los Angeles, CA

Good thing J.Lo and March Anthony have all this space what with their twins and all. Marc Anthony probably requested a house of this magnitude so he can hide from his wife’s diva demands. J.Lo lives in a seven bedroom and fourteen bathroom, 12,217 sq. ft home

5. John Travoltas House

John Travoltas House Ocala, Florida

John Travolta is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor, dancer, and singer, best known for his leading roles in films such as Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Pulp Fiction, John Travolta is aviation-mad and has lived with planes outside his door for a while now, previously living in a fly-in community near Daytona but had to move after other residents said his jet’s were too big for their facility. Now he lives in his current house in Ocala, Florida and he has a airstrip where most people have a driveway.

6. Halle Berry House

Hale Berry House in Malibu, CA

Halle Berry’s owns an $8 million estate in Malibu, CA. Nearly every room has a coastline view. Halle Berry is an American actress, former fashion model and beauty queen. Berry has received Emmy and Golden Globe awards for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, and an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2002 for her performance in Monster’s Ball, becoming the first and still only woman of African-American descent to have won the award for Best Actress.

7. Ryan Seacrest House

Ryan Seacrests - Los Angeles, CA

This 10,000 square foot crib once belonged to Kevin Costner. The house boasts five bedrooms, a media room, billiards room, tennis court, gym, pool, spa and staff quarters. Los Angeles, CA – Ryan Seacrest recently purchased Kevin Costner’s Los Angeles home for $11.5 million.

Now please let us know if you find any of these on Rightmove or Zoopla
We are convinced that these are never seen on Rightmove and never will be!

Do you know of any other Houses in this league?

No related posts.

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.

Highest House Prices According to Rightmove

Zanet — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:37:01 +0000

According to Rightmove we now have the highest house prices since 2008

House prices rose 2.9% in April according to Rightmove. Although the average house price is now at its highest in the country, this is not reflective of all UK areas. In fact many are lower.

The best advice is to look at your own area as an isolated situation as the UK average disguises a lot of hidden issues.For example, 30% fewer properties were brought to market this month compared to April 2007, and 0.5% fewer than April last year. So it’s not a recovery by any means, just the interesting figures to consider from Rightmove.

“Not a Housing recovery though” - According to Rightmove

This is not a housing market recovery though as the average is due to increases in the South West and London holding its value. London average asking prices are at nearly half a million pounds. This is a historical high, as sellers in the capital drag their heels in bringing fresh property to the market.

This means the average asking price in England and Wales is now at an all-time high of £243,737 – up 0.5%, or £1,237, on the previous record, which was set in May 2008.

According to Rightmove director Miles Shipside, he reported ”In real terms prices are actually down 9.9% as had prices had kept pace with inflation, as measured by the retail price index, they would now stand at £270,459, the property website explained.”

5 Simple Ways to Add Value To Your Property

Zanet — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:57:00 +0000

Sometimes its easy to think that adding the most beautiful home improvement that you’ve always dreamed of will be valued by every buyer walking through your property and therefore clinch the deal. How wrong that thinking would be! So what genuine suggestions would add value to your property and by how much?

You can ask local estate agents as an initial starting point. There often well informed and offer free advice, it’s likely they will be able to see for themselves when valuing the property obvious areas that can add value to your property.

The 5 Simple Ways to Add Value To Your Property

1 Identify your largest Market – Major value
you need to be aware of what is selling well locally. This tells you the type of people moving into the area and this should dictate who you market to as it increases the chances of a sale dramatically, even a potential price bid and we all love those when we are the benefactor. Are Two bedroomed or Three bedroomed houses selling well? What market will you be aiming at and what are these people’s needs? This may well lead to a decsion to keep a bedroom and not make it into an en-suite. Or not to knock down the garage. So in effect sometimes doing nothing and keeping the things the same can be a value knowing the market beforehand.

2. Expand the Kitchen add upto 15% value
If any area of the house has changed in the minds of buyers in the last decade or two, its the kitchen area. Kitchens are seen as the hub of the home, so enlarging to create a multi-functional room will add value to your property.

Extending The Kitchen by working out the most cost-effective solutions. Either taking space from adjacent areas within the home, adding an extension by taking from the garden or just linking to a dining room to make one combined space are the most common solutions.

Once you have maximised the size of the kitchen then make the most of the layout of the kitchen. There are many free kitchen planning services out on the high street and this will provide a great basis for maximising your space with ideas drom there kitchen range. An open plan dining area and possibly living area overlooking the garden with double doors is the most preferred setup.

3. Loft Conversions or An En Suite Bathroom add upto 10% value
If bedrooms are needed to sell property, then a loft conversion can be a simple and effective way to acheive this, alot easier than extensions in many ways as planning permission and application can be quite minimal.

There are loft companies that will do the complete works from planning right through to the final paintwork. This is a great way to increase your market value and yet have little worries. If your more hands on it will probably be slightly cheaper, but make sure your builder has experience and ask to see his work beforehand.

With the adding of an ensuite to a master bedroom it’s worth bearing in mind it doesn’t need to be large, but it should be clean and well lit.

4. Curb appeal works add upto 5% value
Often overlooked, but how your property looks before walking through the door has a massive impact. So much so, that some won’t even walk through the door after a drive by.Easy wins are consistent window design, a well-proportioned entrance. Avoid peeling paintwork or cracked windows.

Familiarity of your own property doesn’t always help and almost makes the obvious areas of improvement invisible, so ask someone passing by, it may be embarrassing but listen as what they say is probably a good direction to consider.

5. Adding An Extra Bedroom or Conservatory add upto 20% value
It may cost a sum, but it will put your property into a new league of buyers with a larger budget.Take into account the road your living in and the largest market in your area before making this decision, in fact its step 1 above that should dictate this as a clear way forward.

With all the above additions, good advice before any decisions are made is vital. If the property’s volume is increased by 15% you will need planning permission. If its within the property then the chances are it fine. In all cases consider each option with care.

If you want to add value to your property you may find this article useful - A great free guide on this web site: How to Value your property

How to Find your Dream Property

Zanet — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:49:04 +0000

When you buy property on the web its easy to think, search on Rightmove – That’s it! Today we take you out of the box. As we saw last week sites such as Zoopla will give you an additional 25% more properties on an average search.

How to Find your Dream Property – The principle:

Simply think and learn from how you would buy property in the days before the web and you may be in a better position to find your dream property.

It’s easy to go down the road and ask your local estate agent for what property is available in a certain area, within your budget, but the chances are he will only have access to half the actual properties available. the next agent has a few more you havent seen. Then finally a few more estate agents have one or two more properties. So after 5 or 6 Estate agents you are convinced you have seen all the current property available. Well you are almost right, but they could be a few that are advertising on there own board without an estate agent, so a drive around the neighbourhood may find the property you really want.

Additionally if you make an effort to drive around the area and find a property with it’s own board, its likely you are doing something few others have done. Less competition and no agents fees means you will probably get the property for a good price.

So how does this analogy help you when your on the web?

Site 1 : Rightmove
- We all know that Rightmove is the number 1 UK propert search portal – so yes, go to Rightmove as your first point of call on the web, but don’t end it there as the gems are yet to be uncovered.

Site 2 : Zoopla
- As we recently saw in our analysis, Zoopla is a worthy 2nd site to visit and will cover many more properties that you would not of seen on Rightmove. Zoopla acquired Houseprices.co.uk and PropertyFinder along with several other databases. Don’t underestimate Zoopla as it has it’s eye on challenging Rightmove for the number one status

Site 3 : Findaproperty
FindaProperty.com was acquired by Associated Newspapers, the publishers of The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and Metro, so in some areas such as London this is a worthy search tool. But it has lost grounds in recent years compared to Zoopla and Rightmove.

Site 4 : Prime Location
Prime Location is also owned by the Daily Mail. It has around 13,000 leading UK estate and letting agent branches list their properties on PrimeLocation.com, including Knight Frank, Savills and Hamptons. It has a niche market for quality estate agents and property.

Site 5 : Tepilo
Tepilo enables sellers to advertise their property for free. It has the advantage of belonging to property guru Sarah Beeny. Tepilo is an alternative way to buy, sell or let your property and it’s free. You maintain 100% control and pay 0% commission! You will find some gems from time to time, but it lacks the number of properties the above have.

Conclusion

So don’t forget, if you go to the sites where everyone else goes – you will pay what everyone else pays and live in a property that everyone else lives in. But if you are looking for something different, then surely going out of your comfort zone and checking out a few of the less know sites, will give you an opportinity to dicover something special.

You may even find your dream property if its out there!
.

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?

IKEA house

Zanet — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:06:06 +0000

So you love allen keys and meatballs and don’t mind the Swedish look with your Billy bookcases. Well if that all sounds familiar to you, you have probably been in an IKEA store on more than one occassion. But how about living in the Swedish showroom, literally! The IKEA house is now released on the housing market.

The Swedish company has partnered with an architectural firm to bring customers an IKEA dream.

aktiv IKEA house

IKEA working along with ideabox have put together their first IKEA house. It’s called aktiv meaning active in typical IKEA diction. It comes with all the typical trimmings. With One bedroom and a kitchen diner leading into the lounge, it’s suprisingly spacious and as expected from IKEA well thought out. The walk way flow is very practical for every day living. When your ideabox aktiv arrives, all of the cabinets, countertops, and flooring are installed.

Production company Ideabox says there’s no wasted space in true IKEA fashion. A combination of corrugated metal, fiber-cement siding, and a metal roof house the mini IKEA home. It also comes equipped with a dual-flush toilet and energy-efficient electronics, PSFK reports. Don’t forget IKEA staples like tundra maple flooring, Pax wardrobes, and Abstrakt cabinets. Though no Billy bookcase in the design!

The IKEA house measures 53’6 length with 14’9 width.

Below is the aktiv floor plans:

There are plans for several further IKEA house designs from ideabox in the future – to order your IKEA home visit Ideabox. The IKEA house is around £55,000 which for a one bedroom house is worthy of consideration. Though you will need to find the land first.

The home’s exterior is made of fiber-cement siding, corrugated metal, and a standing-seam metal roof.

No related posts.

How to use Rightmove

Zanet — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:01:39 +0000

The other day Rightmove asked its users how they used Rightmove. We thought we would consider it from our standpoint today and provide you with our view on how to use rightmove.

With various ways of accessing Rightmoves data we have several options but for serious househunters the web site has to be the ultimate experience. Knowing that your saved searches and properties will always be in one place.

We prefer using the web site and the making sure when we use our mobile we sync the results to our account. So we recommend you log in to your account as you can then save any properties you discover regardless of which computer or application your using. Rightmove Mobile is made to sync with your online account as is the iPad and iPhone versions.

How to use Rightmove on an Ipad

The Rightmove iPad app is free and avaialble on the app store. It uses the same database as the standard web site, so you won’t miss any properties. It enables buying and renting property. Simply use the ‘Rent’ tab to see all the latest properties to rent on the iPad.

So I know many of you make a coffee, put your legs up and explore over a million UK properties for sale or rent at your fingertips using the iPad.

Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. Download here

How to use Rightmove on iPhone and other mobiles

The iPhone version is ideal if your on the move and need to have a very quick access to the knowledge on local property. Similar features to the iPad version, but also boasts a QR code (Quick Response code). This is a type of bar code that can be easily scanned with your smart phone. It will take you straight to a web page, without the hassle of typing in long and complicated web addresses.

The iPhone app boasts Maps, account syncing, floor plans, bigger images than the previous version and of course is free to download.

The newly re-launched Rightmove app has some great features. Rounds and rounds of intensive user testing and learning have resulted in this super-sleek, intuitive and completely free app. So wherever you are, you’ll have over 90% of the UK’s properties for sale or rent at your fingertips.

Although the iPhone app is aimed at iPhone or iPod Touch users, you can also visit the mobile site on any smart phone including Android powered phones. Mobile Site here or visit Rightmove web site and your phone should be recognised as a mobile.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later. Download here

Rightmove Desktop

Finally don’t forget the Rightmove Desktop – This isn’t the web site. It’s a full application to run on your laptop or notebook. Compare properties more easily than the standard Rightmove web site

Desktop is Rightmove tailored to your needs
Easy access to your latest searches and recently viewed properties.
Homepage created around your needs.
Instant pop-up property alerts while your on your computer
Be notified of newly added or updated properties instantly on your desktop.
See more properties, more easily
Gallery view showing up to 100 properties per page.
Sort by date added to Rightmove.

We’ve revealed How to use Rightmove on various application, now its your turn. Tell us how you like to access Rightmove