1stAssociated.co.uk can provide help and advice with regard to moving house, residential building surveys, structural surveys, independent valuations, estate agents, mortgages, structural reports, thermal efficiency, home buyers reports or any other property matters.

We, of course, like to meet you at the property during the survey and we are more than happy to talk to you about the reports. Please free phone 0800 298 5424 for a friendly chat with one of our surveyors.

Free phone 0800 298 5424

Caveat Emptor

Caveat emptor means buyer beware. The estate agent will not necessarily inform you of any problems with the property and we always recommend that you have a full building survey, sometimes known as a structural survey, for peace of mind.

 

Why we decided to leave our last property

We only intended to live in our previous property for a couple of years but ending up staying there for over nine years! It was as three bedroom 1950's house on an estate of similar properties in a large village. The main reason we chose to move when we did was that we had three children and my two daughters had to share a bedroom and this was becoming a problem the older they got, with constant arguments breaking out about “it's my bedroom I'll do what I like”, or “you can't put that stereo on when I'm in my bedroom” and so on.

Post war property

What type of property were we looking for?

We definitely wanted a four bedroom property; ideally detached, and we wanted to stay in the same village we were currently in as we were happy there and the children were all settled at the local schools.

 

How did we market the property?

There were a couple of estate agents in the village; one long established and one up and coming (which appeared to be very popular around the village judging from all the for sale boards). We invited them both round to value our property. They both quoted similar amounts but we chose the up and coming estate agents over the established estate agents as we had had good feedback from friends who had used them, plus we had “a good feel” about them when we met them. We decided that we definitely wanted to go down the sole agency route rather than going multi-agency (i.e. using more than one estate agent to market out property).

 

How quickly did we sell our property?

We were lucky in that we put our property on the market during a buoyant selling period. We had numerous viewings and sold our property in just over a week at the asking price!

We felt that the estate agents handled the viewings very well. They always came along to every viewing and showed the people round, so thankfully that stress was taken out of our hands!

 

Articles that may be of interest

The following articles may be of interest to you, but don't forget that we have written articles on many different areas of property:

Why have one of our surveys?

Why you have never seen any building surveys or structural surveys like ours

Location, location, location

Estate agents recommend not having a survey

Homebuyers Report or Structural Survey?

Homebuyers Report or Structural Survey?

What does a Surveyor do on a structural survey?

 

Having a Building Survey carried out

We would definitely recommend having a building survey carried out by an independent surveyor, i.e. one that is not affiliated to any estate agent or mortgage company, and who can give you unbiased feedback and advice. You may think it's not worth having one carried out and just have the basic mortgage survey but it could literally save you thousands of pounds if they find a major fault with the property.

 

Did the sale go through with no hitches?

Well, yes and no! The minute the “Sold” sign went up our next door neighbours came round and announced that the fence between us and them was incorrectly placed on his land and he wanted it moved immediately!! Well, that was the first we'd heard about that and we had always got on with our neighbours without any problems.

We immediately contacted our solicitors who told has we had a duty to inform our purchasers. We were naturally worried as this could have jeopardised our house move. They did come round and have a look at the fence but luckily they were very keen to buy the property and wanted to still go ahead – PHEW!

Anyway, after checking the Deeds and getting the chap who put the fence up to come and look at it it was deemed to be in the correct place!

After that things progressed smoothly without any hitches and we were able to move from start to finish in six weeks, though it was two weeks before Christmas, not exactly the best time to move with three small children!!

 

Did our new property meet our expectations?

We did indeed manage to stay in our desired village and the new house was a 1970's four bedroom detached property in a small cul-de-sac of 12 houses. There were definitely pros and cons about the move:

Typical 1970's/1980's house

Pros:

1. Four bedrooms

2. Upstairs bathroom (we had had a downstairs bathroom before)

3. Large lounge

4. Closer to local schools

5. Closer to village centre

6. Small cul-de-sac

7. Lovely neighbours

 

Cons:

1. Smaller garden (we had previously had a very large garden)

2. No utility (we had previously had one)

3. Closer to local schools (less exercise!!!!)

 

Overall though, the pros definitely outweighed the cons and the girls were able to have separate bedrooms which was bliss for us!! We have now lived here for over seven years and we can honestly say that we have been very happy here and our neighbours are all lovely.

 

Independent Surveyors

If you truly do want an independent expert opinion from a surveyor with regard to valuations, mortgages, mortgage companies, surveys, estate agents, building surveys, structural reports, engineers reports, specific defects report, structural surveys, home buyers reports or any other property matters please contact 0800 298 5424 for a surveyor to give you a call back.

 

Commercial Property

If you are looking for commercial property, whether it is freehold or leasehold, we would recommend a survey as this will prevent dilapidations claims in the long run. You may wish to look at our Dilapidations Website at www.DilapsHelp.com and for Disputes go to our Disputes Help site www.DisputesHelp.com , both of which we have been advised are very helpful!

We hope you found the article of use and if you have any experiences that you feel should be added to this article that would benefit others, or you feel that some of the information that we have put is wrong then please do not hesitate to contact us (we are only human).

 

The contents of the web site are for general information only and is not intended to be relied upon for specific or general decisions. Appropriate independent professional advice should be paid for before making such a decision.

 

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