Your Right Move

I decided to analyse how I, and in effect how you search for purchasing property. I’m sure we have all had different experieinces and have different methods in searching for our dream properrty within the area and budget we can afford.

I hope that this article will help anyone wanting to see how others search for property. I will say it exactly as it is from my perspective. I have no ties to any of the agents and property portals and i do have my own opinion.

Worthy note: The search I’m using does not look at renting property just buying.

I would also be happy to hear how you make a property search and any tips you would like to share.

My analyse will look at offline and online property searching.

Today i look at the old fashion way of searching for property – a stroll down the high street – though admittedly these days a search on the internet is my preferred method which I will cover in detail in part 2 next week

I hope my comments and finding prove useful to you.

Part 1 – How times have changed

High street search

In the past I would take an afternoon out and visit the high street in the area under consideration. Armed with a list of requirements and areas i would like to consider along with an approved budget, i registered interest in person with each estate agent and took away details of properties for consideration.

Property Search on the High Street

Property score

Then by way of a “Eurovision Song Contest” voting system, i would mark each property against the list of requirements and find the properties that scored well and met my budget. Scoring included points out of 10 for number of bedrooms, garage included, size of garden, the area itself. Of course only you and those moving in can really give a heart felt score mixed with gut feeling. there is no science to this, but a few hours later you will have a list of details for viewing

Property piles

One thing I learnt early on is the printed details don’t always do justice to the property. What the owner things is great and to some degree the estate agent, you may well find your views are somewhat different. Viewing the property may reveal a real gem that doesn’t barely get a mention on the details. This is why my scoring mechanism above then gets sorted into 3 piles. Yes, No and Maybe. The No pile is for low scoring, awful property, where you would exclaim that “I wouldn’t move there if you paid me”. No point in keeping it and often it was taken to keep the Estate agent happy along with the one you requested. The Maybe pile is worth keeping on hand, especially when the property becomes stagnant. Viewing property can sometimes help you discern where your values really lie and you may find that after a few weeks searching, the property in your maybe pile proves to be the one to view after all.

I hope the above proves really helpful if you are looking to narrow down your property search.

All my property details ive kept and they still all have there “Eurovision Song Contest Scoring” on.

Part 2 tomorrow will take a detailed look at the best online portals to locate property and agents.

How do i use them to search? What would I use and not use to search for property? Why I currently  use 2 out of the top 5 property portals? Revealed: usability issues that need to get addressed sharply.