The property market is the best it has been since the crash

There is no doubt that the Hertfordshire property market is moving again and with properties selling quickly and new stock slow to come onto the market it looks like prices are going to be a good bit higher by the end of the year than the start. The attached article chimes very much with our experience – which is that we have put 20 properties under offer in the last 8 weeks, something we haven’t done since the good times of 2006. The thing that is driving this is the London market that is booming. As an example we put a house on the market in Walthamsto of all places and we have to take it off Rightmove after 7 hours as we already had 16 viewings. We had a bidding wara and sold for 27k over asking price. All the bidders were first time buyers with finance agreed. So if you are wondering whether this summer is the time to move, let me give you the answer. It is!!

http://bit.ly/13rcBeh

London Buyers drive the Hertfordshire market.

The Hertfordshire market has always been hugely influenced by the flow of buyers moving out of London to the relative peace, quiet and undoubted beauty of Hertfordshire. In fact I am a direct example of this trend as my parents moved our family from North London to Little Berkhamsted in 1973 and many of their friends did likewise. It is fair to say that the housing market in Hertfordshire has always been supported by the warm flow of people and their salaries heading up the excellent railway lines from London every evening. What this means for sellers is that you have to have your toes – indeed both feet – firmly dipped in this warm water. This is where the internet has really come into its own. Rightmove figures show the biggest surge in visits to their web site is from 8.30am when professionals log in to their office computers to see what new properties have come on the market. No surprise that London buyers make up the biggest proportion of visits to our web site, potential buyers on our database and buyers for our clients’ homes. Indeed the London market is clearly taking off again – we sold a house in Walthamstow of all places in a couple of days last week – and the trend for people to want to move out to Hertfordshire if anything is growing. So if you want to reach the London market, but don’t want to pay through the nose for the privilege, take a look at the beautiful presentation we give our clients properties and our very competitive fees ( both on http://www.bigblackhen.com) then call for a free valuation!

Do not read this.

Someone recently set up a web site with a giant red button saying “Do not press?” Most people did. A bit like you reading this blog post. Your attention has been grabbed and so you read on, wanting to know what it is all about. The first rule of selling. You have to grab a buyer’s attention, only then might they listen to what you want to tell them. And whether you are selling a house, a car or a bar of chocolate there are always other houses, cars and chocolate bars vying for those buyers’ attention. Make no mistake, if you are selling your house, you are in a major competition for buyer’s affections and you will only win if you get noticed. Which is where we come in. As a former Director of a top London advertising agency I know how to make your home stand out from the crowd, how to grab your buyers’ attention. Just like we did yours. It sound simple but it is easy to get it wrong. So if you’d like to take advantage of our marketing expertise and achieve a successful sale at the best possible price, please stop reading. Try calling BigBlackHen.com instead.

Surprise news this Spring – things are hotting up!

Despite the cold weather the property market seems to be warming up as we move into April. All the indicators suggest that this year should be better than 2011 and 2012 in terms of the number of successful house sales that sellers will achieve. The Council of Mortgage lenders predict an easing of mortgage availability as we move through the year and the biggest property advertising website, Rightmove, are also seeing a gentle rise in prices as we move into the Spring market. That is not to suggest that we are moving back to the boom years of 2006/7, far from it, which is no bad thing. It still means that house sellers will have to make sure that they present their homes as well as possible before putting them on the market – our free House Doctor Consultation will help there – as well as getting the price right. Everyone wants to achieve a good price but if it is not realistic the house sale will stall and go stale. You also need to make sure that your marketing stands out from the crowd, which as our name suggests, we know a bit about. So if you are looking to take advantage of the Spring uplift, please call!

Nominated for The Estate Agent of the Year Awards 2013

Great news today, BigBlackhen.com has been nominated for the Estate Agency of the Year Awards for 2013.

This is fantastic news as the ESTAS are the only awards voted for by people who bought and sold with us – each one has to fill out a questionairre asking how happy they were with the level of service we provided across a whole range of areas, initial marketing, general helpfulness, follow up once a sale is agreed, chasing solicitors, etc, etc. So it is fantastic that we’ve scored well enough to reach the shortlist.

We have form in these awards – our Exmoor office was voted the 20th best estate agent in the UK at the 2010 awards, so lets see if we can do just as well or even better this time around!

Get me out of Jail – and help Isabel Hospice!

On Friday the 1st of March I’m going to jail (many would say about time!) and I need your help to raise the £1,000 bail needed to get me out.

All the money goes to the Isabel Hospice who help care for local people with terminal illness, so a very good cause. If you can spare a fiver or even better tenner, please go to my Just Giving web page:

http://www.justgiving.co.uk/BigBlackHen

Thanks in advance for any help you can give to this worthy cause.

Brilliant map showing what areas are hot in terms of house prices

I’ve just discovered a really neat little app on the multimap.com website that allows you to look at a map of an area in terms of relative house prices with red areas being the most desirable (and hence expensive) and green/blue areas being the least desirable (hence least expensive). Either go to multimap.com put in your post code and click on the map – where you can move around to look at other towns or zoom in/out to see larger of smaller areas. Alternatively, try the link below to see house prices in Hertford.

http://www.mouseprice.com/property-information/ref-12277038/60%20harmer%20green%20lane%20al6%200aw#tabsinfo