Your Right Move » Rental

Rightmove rental properties

Zanet — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:33:31 +0000

What do you expect to see on Rightmove rental properties ? Recently Rightmove asked its followers that question.

It’s good they are taking feedback from Facebook followers. The full questions was “If you were looking for a rental property on Rightmove, what information would you want/expect to be included from the agent advertising it?” It seems that floorplans and photos are providing the biggest feedback. So we hope these will be considered on the next site update.

Rightmove has over 300,000 properties to rent throughout the UK.

But the listings don’t always have a all the details needed for rightmove rental properties.

Here are the top 10 missing items on Rightmove rental properties

As many photos as possible including interior and exterior photos.
Room dimensions and a floor-plan.
Specific details on fees and special terms of contract
Whether pets are allowed or not in the property
Council tax band on every property
Who will be responsible for maintenance of the property
Whether there are any restrictions on the property.
Information about accessibility.
Reference check fee and registration fee if applicable
Local broadband speed available – Could Rightmove link up with BT and Virgin to document the available broadband speeds?

Rightmove have the widest range of property types and styles, from studio apartments to detached family homes.

Whether you are a student, young professional or a family, Rightmove is the tool of choice.

Have you found rightmove rental properties have some details missing?

Phil and Kirsty – Location

Zanet — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:32:43 +0000

Don’t you just love Phil and Kirsty, and there back again for another new series.
Catch the new series of Location, Location, Location on Wednesdays at 8pm on Channel 4.

Phil and Kirsty, like a favourite Aunty and Uncle they almost row in front of the nation on the great show
Property experts Phil Spencer and Kirsty Allsop were asked for advice on beating the house price slump. They are famous for their down to earth approach and no nonsense understanding of the UK house market. Below are there Top 10 Tips for beating the house Price Crash.

Phil and Kirsty Top Location Location location Tips

Phil and Kirsty from Relocation Relocation

1. Take Your Time

The advice we’d give in this market is largely the same as we’d give in any market. If you’re selling your house, don’t rush into buying. Take your time, even rent for a few months while you look to make sure. Any purchase in this OR ANY market should be for the long term, so it’s important to get it right.

2. Sit Tight

Here is some good advice in a recession from Kirsty Allsop.
Don’t engage with the market if you don’t have to. Unless you HAVE to move house, sit tight and wait it out.

3. Get A Good Deal

Phil from Relocation Relocation suggest you haggle hard when buying – bear in mind the house may soon be worth less than you paid for it – the market always has troughs and peaks.

4. Make Money from a Room

Rent out a room in your house. If you are struggling to make repayments on your mortgage, consider taking in a lodger to lighten the load.

5. Get a Kerb Appeal

The biggest challenge as a seller is getting people through the door – pay close attention to the exterior of your property.

6. Be Realistic

Phil and Kirsty often speak of being realistic. It’s all relative – remember, when house prices fall, you may take a hit on your own sale, but you can make this up when buying as the drop hits the whole market.

7. Sort Your Mortgage –its Costing You

For most people, their mortgage is their biggest debt – and in a credit crunch you want to limit your debt as much as possible. If you’re on an interest only mortgage, lessen your chances of negative equity by changing to a repayment. Before you do anything, though, seek professional advice from an independent financial advisor.

8. Take Advantage Of Rate Cuts

If you are already on a repayment, consider if you can take advantage of recent interest rate cuts to pay a little bit more of the capital each month. The more you pay, the faster you run from negative equity – and the quicker you’ll own your home outright.

9. Look After Your Property

Even if it’s not with a new bathroom or kitchen – keeping paintwork fresh, boilers regularly serviced and gardens well maintained can work wonders. And it’s cheaper to fix little problems rather than wait until they’re big ones.

10. Look For Innovative Ways To Get A Good Deal

Kirsty Allsop suggests house swaps are a good way to beat the stale market conditions. And for many types of people, like first time buyers, key workers or those in social housing, there are government and commercial schemes to help you get on the property ladder.

UPDATE: It seems Phil and Kirsty are really on form in the latest series on Channel 4

Buying 14% cheaper than Renting

Zanet — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:22:38 +0000

If you do your sums, you will find that renting is costing the average person £100 more a month than they would be for a buying and paying a mortgage.

Halifax released a report this week claiming homeowners spend an average of £600 on mortgage payments compared to £700 in rent for the same size property, making buying 14% cheaper. The fall in the cost of buying compared to the average rent has been significant.

The reversal follows a massive fall in the average mortgage rate for new borrowers – from 5.82% in March 2008 to 3.59% last month, cutting monthly payments by around 39%.

Buying 14% cheaper than Renting

Two issues that make it a little challenging for first time buyers are the need for a substantial deposit and the ability to get a mortgage approved. These two factors alone have taken away the choice, and dictated the renting option only.

The Halifax claim marks a considerable turnaround from 2008, when buying cost 43 per cent more than renting. A low Bank of England base rate of interest, combined with falling house prices, has driven the cost of mortgages down, making buying a more affordable option.

The average mortgage rate for a new borrower has fallen from 5.82 per cent in March 2008 to 3.59 per cent last month, cutting monthly payments by around 39 per cent.

Property Top Trumps – RightMove

Zanet — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 15:01:52 +0000

This week we have seen a breakdown of 4 property portals looking to Trump the major player RightMove

Below we have the scores for Home, Findaproperty, Primelocation and Zoopla.

Home – www.home.co.uk

Founded - 1996
Properties selling – 735,431
Properties renting – 180,637
No. Estate Agents – 15,718
Alexa Traffic Rank – 77,237

Zoopla – www.zoopla.co.uk

Founded - 2008
Properties selling – 345,714
Properties renting – 131,348
No. Estate Agents – 9,268
Alexa Traffic Rank – 5,025

Findaproperty – www.Findaproperty.com

Founded - 1997
Properties selling – 410,000
Properties renting – 216,000
No. Estate Agents – 8,779
Alexa Traffic Rank – 5,102

Prime Location – www.primelocation.com

Founded - 2001
Properties selling – 400,000
Properties renting – 200,000
No. Estate Agents – 4,000
Alexa Traffic Rank – 8,301

Now we head to RightMove – www.rightmove.co.uk

Founded - 2000
Properties selling – 650,000
Properties renting – 350,000
Number of Estate Agents – 20,000
Alexa Traffic Rank – 1,221

Super Trumps - RightMove.co.uk

Founded: Rightmove’s success isn’t due to it being around forever as it came a good few years after Home and Findaproperty. So if it has any vulnerability this is probably it

Properties selling: With 650,000 its massive, but not the top! Remarkably its still just under 100,000 less than Home.co.uk

Properties renting: Rightmove has around 350,000 properties for renting. No-one gets close. This is one of RightMoves winner. Trump Winner

Number of Estate Agents: 20,000 Estate agents are part of RightMove. Home, Zoopla, Findaproperty and Primelocation are not even close. Trump Winner

Alexa Traffic Rank: 1221. That’s implying that there are only just over one thousand web sites visitied more than Rightmoves. None are property portals though, so once again Rightmove has a Trump Winner

Its been known for a few years that Rightmove is the Top Dog, the one to beat, the one to trump. We now see where the others can catchup and even challenge Rightmoves title

We’ve had some fun writing this article, but we enjoy hearing your opinions too below.

Property Top Trumps – PrimeLocation

Zanet — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:39:00 +0000

Take the top 5 property portal web sites. Add the public statistics available and then put them in a Top Trump Card challenge to see which one really is the Top Dog.

We have already seen Home, Findaproperty and Zoopla, today we turn our attention to PrimeLocation.

Prime Location – www.primelocation.com

Founded - 2001
Properties selling – 400,000
Properties renting – 200,000
Number of Estate Agents – 4000
Alexa Traffic Rank – 8,301

Top Trumps - PrimeLocation.com

Founded: PrimeLocation came a year after Rightmove in 2001. Maybe its had to live in the shadow of Rightmove’s success.

Properties selling: Apart from Zoopla, PrimeLocation has the lowest number of properties for sale. around 400,000

Properties renting: PrimeLocation does well here. Its around half as many rental properties as properties for sale on PrimeLocation. But only Rightmove beats the 200,000 rentals currently on PrimeLocation.

Number of Estate Agents: PrimeLocation has the lowest amount, with 4000 Estate agents on it’s books. Home, Zoopla, Findaproperty and RightMove all do a lot better.

Alexa Traffic Rank: 8,301 isn’t the best score. This puts it forth in the rankings. In fact only Home.co.uk gets worse (a lot worse)

PrimeLocation is a solid property portal with great support for the iphone and ipad. But although it has a reasonalby great design, it begs the question why would i use it over the others. It’s worth a search, but PrimeLocation wouldnt be my first bookmark.

Do you think PrimeLocation has been rated fairly? We want to hear you view below.

Property Top Trumps – Findaproperty

Zanet — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:19:01 +0000

We started a series of articles this week looking at several statistics relevent to the top 5 property portals. Using the analogy of Top Trumps cards we decided to fill in the stats to make some interesting comparisons.

We have already seen Home and Zoopla, today we turn our attention to a contender that has been around for 14 years (a life time in internet terms)

Findaproperty – www.Findaproperty.com

Founded - 1997
Properties selling – 410,000
Properties renting – 216,000
Number of Estate Agents – 8,779
Alexa Traffic Rank – 5,102

Findaproperty is it a Property Top Trump?

Founded: FindAProperty has been around almost from the beginning. Older than Rightmove by 3 years! But it falls to the oldest property portal Home

Properties selling: FindAProperty is no where near Rightmove in volume of properties for sale, but it slightly leads PrimeLocation and Zoopla with 410,000.

Properties renting: Proportionally similar to its selling number. FindAProperty has around 216,000 rental properties on it’s books. Only Rightmove has more properties to rent.

Number of Estate Agents: With 8,779 Estate agents this is a good amount that sees it just behind Zoopla and well above PrimeLocation. It still has a long way to catch Rightmove.

Alexa Traffic Rank: 5,102 is a great ranking and it puts it just behind Zoopla, and well behind Rightmove. This ranking implies that Findaproperty can still count itself in the big three popular property portals joining Rightmove and Zoopla

Findaproperty seems to of settled just behind the new boy Zoopla. Do you think it has the power to re-challenge Zoopla for the number 2 slot behind Rightmove, or even challenge Rightmove in the future? What do you think?

Property Top Trumps – Zoopla

Zanet — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:41:39 +0000

Yesterday we started using the analogy of an old card game Top Trumps. Home.co.uk set a blistering pace but can new boy Zoopla trump the other 4 property portals?

Zoopla - www.zoopla.co.uk

Founded - 2008
Properties selling – 345,714
Properties renting – 131,348
Number of Estate Agents – 9,268
Alexa Traffic Rank – 5,025

Property Top Trumps - Zoopla.co.uk

Founded: The newest site reviewed and yet one of the smartest and most usable. Founded in 2008 Zoopla is very new. Rightmove, FindAProperty, Home and PrimeLocation trump it in age alone, but Zoopla is far to established to worry about that.

Properties selling: With Zoopla now has 345,714 properties for sale. It is just shy of the others : Zoopla, Rightmove, FindAProperty and PrimeLocation, but Zoopla is relentless to make it to the top and its caught the pack at an amazing speed.

Properties renting: Proportionally similar to its selling number. Zoopla has 131,348 on it’s books. Rightmove, FindAProperty, Home and PrimeLocation all have a few more properties to rent.

Number of Estate Agents: With 9,268 Estate agents, Zoopla has commanded a lead over FindAProperty and PrimeLocation. It still has a long way to catch Home and Rightmove.

Alexa Traffic Rank: Search engines love Zoopla, as do buyers and Sellers. Zoopla recently overtook Findaproperty in it’s Alexa Ranking and now has it’s eye on catching Rightmove. Its leaving Home and PrimeLocation in the dust.

Does Zoopla look ready to topple the mighty Rightmove? What are your thoughts?

Property Top Trumps – Home

Zanet — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:37:35 +0000

Over the next week, Your right move has been looking at the statistics of some of your favourite property portals to find out what is currently the Joker in the pack and which is the Super Trump.

Using the analogy of an old card game Top Trumps, we take a look each day to see whether there are any suprises out there. If you were to pick your hand, would you find that a suprise new kid on the block has hit the property pack?

We decided to include our favorite 5 Property portals

Rightmove, Zoopla, FindAProperty, Home and PrimeLocation

So starting off todays comparison is our oldest contender:

Home - www.home.co.uk

Founded - 1996
Properties selling – 735,431
Properties renting – 180,637
No. Estate Agents – 15,718
Alexa Traffic Rank – 77,237

Property Top Trumps - Home.co.uk

Founded: Google does give a slight preference to older sites, so we will use a similar view and rule that the longer established beats the new kids on the block – Home founded in 1996 trumps all the others : Zoopla, Rightmove, FindAProperty and PrimeLocation. Trump Winner

Properties selling: With a staggering 735,431 properties for sale, again Home.co.uk trumps all the others : Zoopla, Rightmove, FindAProperty and PrimeLocation. Trump Winner

Properties renting: So how does Home do in the rental market? Currently it has 180,637 on it’s books, this is good, but only beats the new kid on the block Zoopla. Rightmove, FindAProperty and PrimeLocation all have more properties to rent.

Number of Estate Agents: Again as Home has been around for some time, you would expect it to have a huge membership. with 15,718 it’s second only to RightMove.

Finally the Alexa Traffic Rank: The site design is in desperate need of an upgrade. It really is a poor design and is by far its own enemy. The web agrees as its rated the worst out of the contenders with a rank of 77,237 in the world! Zoopla, Rightmove, FindAProperty and PrimeLocation all did a lot lot better

Of course we are interested in what you think. Are you surprised on how a site so large in property is so poor in usability?

Changing Face of Britain’s Landlords

Zanet — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:40:07 +0000

SimplyBusiness.co.uk report on the Changing Face of Britain’s Landlords

New analysis from SimplyBusiness.co.uk indicates a significant change in both the age and gender of private landlords in the UK. It seems as though the face of the archetypal British landlord is changing; and there is a younger breed of landlord entering the private rental market.

SimplyBusiness.co.uk have been offering landlord insurance since 2005; and their analysis is based on the 19,851 Landlord Insurance policies sold by SimplyBusiness.co.uk in 2010 versus the 6,234 policies sold in 2006.

When reviewing comparative data of landlord insurance policies sold by SimplyBusiness.co.uk in 2006 versus 2010, a marked increase in landlords aged 18-34 can be seen.

Lasndlords Age 18 to 34

Whilst the majority of landlords are still male, the gender gap is beginning to close as 39% of

landlords insured via SimplyBusiness.co.uk in 2010 were female, versus 36% in 2006.

Female Landlords

Perhaps surprisingly, the types of property being insured have not changed significantly since 2006, and terraced housing still accounts for the largest proportion of private rented accommodation.

So it seems that people still think that there’s money to be made in property.

Julian Watson, landlord insurance product manager for SimplyBusiness.co.uk said:

“There is a great opportunity within the rental market at the moment, as the ongoing financial instability sees first time buyers struggling to get a foot on the property ladder and remaining in rental properties for much longer than planned. However, landlords also need to be aware of the impending housing benefit cuts which may present a challenge, as well as an opportunity to the savvy property investor.”

Types of property

If you are thinking about investing in a buy to let, SimplyBusiness.co.ukwould suggest thinking about the following:

1. Budget – Figure out what you can afford before you start viewing property. Before you make an offer make sure the figures stack up and that you can make money out of renting out your chosen property. Remember to consider all purchase costs including stamp duty, legal fees etc and any costs for renovation and decoration.

2. Save and/or Have a Contingency Fund -Remember you might need to fund the mortgage payments yourself if your property is unoccupied; and you’ll also need to cover maintenance costs etc.

3. Regulation – Keep up to date with the latest regulations and make sure you understand how future regulation may affect you as a landlord.

4. Finance – Make sure you’ve got the right mortgage for you and you can afford the repayments – you may have cover them yourself if your property is unoccupied for any reason.

5. Tenants – Think about what sort of tenants you’d like to attract and make sure your property, the internal decor etc will work for them. Always be sure to seek references.

More ways Monopoly Helps Property Developers

Zanet — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 13:14:49 +0000

Yesterday we looked at how Monopoly can teach lessons in the real world of property development.

When it comes to selected the right location for investment and knowing whether to make improvements on your home, Monopoly provided some very valuable lessons.

Knowing fact and figures as well as the odds of an outcome will also prove valuable in decision making. Know one can guarantee a win at Monopoly, but they can narrow there odds in there favour. Again a lesson for the real world of property development, think before taking the risk and you will increase the likelihood of a retrun on investment.

Monopoly Helps Property Developers - Literally

Here are some further lesson:

Start slow and then build up:

One strategy is to aim for a set of property on the first two sides of the board, which are the least expensive. When you gain a monopoly, buy 3 houses as quickly as possible. Then use the cash generated from these properties to shoot for a complete set on the more expensive side of the board. By the time you’re looking to buy the more expensive properties, you may be able to get them for a song from another player desperate for cash. So start with less expensive properties and work your way up.

Property Developers Lesson:

This is a good real world strategy, too. Buying less expensive properties generally involves less risk. The mortgage will be lower, which can make a huge difference if the property is vacant longer than anticipated or the tenant stops paying. Maintenance is generally less for lower priced properties. And they can still represent an excellent investment. Over time, as cash flow improves and you become more comfortable managing property, you’ll be in a good position to buy more costly properties, such as multi-family units or apartment buildings.

Constantly look for great deals:

When you land on a property owned by the bank, the price is non-negotiable. But as the game progresses, other players may find themselves in need of cash. That’s when great deals can surface. They get the cash they need to stay in the game, and you get a property at a good price.

Property Developers Lesson:

Buying foreclosure properties is the real world equivalent. Have a high standard, be picky and choosy before you commit. All of the rental properties you invest in should start off at a bargain to maximise your ability to hit good profit quickly. House auctions and repossessions are normally a easy way to find a bargain, certainly better than you could ever get buying retail. Look at a lot of properties before putting in a bid, and bid on many more properties than you end up buying.