You get what you pay for
For those of you who are new to the house buying game, as the title says, choosing a solicitor to do your legal work can be very challenging to say the least. There are two types of people that can do the legal work for you, the first is a “licensed conveyancer” and the second is a “solicitor”. Both of these groups will do the same job but a firm of solicitors will usually have a dedicated conveyancing department to deal with selling, buying property, lease extensions, probate and remortgage and equity transfers. Some buyers and sellers look online to compare the prices for these services and although this does seem logical to ensure that you get a good price for this service, as an estate agent of 20 years I can tell you that this is probably the worst thing possible for you to do. If you cannot go in to see the person dealing with this, do not use them. During any property transaction there will be a lot of issues that get raised and have to be answered before contracts can be exchanged, usually this entails lots of running around trying to get the relevant information back to your chosen conveyancer. It is always much easier if you can get a face to face meeting and thus ensure that the right questions and answers are being given.
As an estate agent selling hundreds of properties in Plymouth and the surrounding areas, we often have buyers and sellers telling us that they are going to use an online company to fulfil the legal obligation. My first response to this is often to check out the online reviews for these companies, sometimes we already have had experience in dealing them so we are often able to offer a firsthand account of how good or not their services are. The main issue for these big call centre based conveyancing firms is that all the legal groundwork is carried out by paralegals or administrative assistants (not the qualified person that you think), all this paperwork is then put into a file for a solicitor or conveyancer to sign off. Usually in these firms there are several different teams in several different locations and sometimes they don’t always coordinate very well leading to lengthy delays in the purchase or sale process and this in turn can lead to huge amounts of frustration to both sides of the transaction.
In Plymouth and many other cities around the country, there are lots of different covenants on properties. These can vary from things such as “You cannot have chickens at this property”, “You cannot run a business from this property”, “You cannot alter the front fascia of this building” or one of the most common ones being ”You cannot split this property into multiple dwellings”. Plymouth has all of these covenants and many more besides. A lot of them are no longer enforceable but a surprising amount of them are enforceable and this often catches buyers out as it can change their decision as to complete the purchase or to pull out altogether. You can get around some of these covenants by having an indemnity policy to protect you from them being enforced but again using an online firm that does not know the area, or the idiosyncrasies that we have, often leads to poor advice being given and usually a sale will fall through as a result.
There is an old saying “You get what you pay for” this is certainly true when it comes to conveyancing in England. Just because they may be cheap, doesn’t mean that you will be happy. At Cross Keys Estates, we regularly offer our clients several quotes from local solicitor firms so that they can compare local prices, that added to the fact that we have sat in the middle of thousands of property sales, means that we can help you make the right choice for you to ensure that you have a smooth house buying/selling process.
Well what can we say about the housing market, it has been a bit of a merry-go-round the last 12 months and looks to continue to be excitable for the next 12 months.
Brexit has dominated my clients conversations increasingly for the last few months and I am continually being asked for my opinion on what impact that this will have on the housing market, I will endeavour to answer this in the most simplistic of ways towards the end of this article.
After the last recession, when property price went in to freefall, it took several years for them to level out and several more before we saw any increase. During this time we saw repossessions increase and a lot of forced sales as the rising cost of living, wage cuts/no wage increases meant that people were needing to sell properties and in a lot of cases at lower prices than they had been bought at. 2014 saw the first signs that there was a recovery on the horizon and now in 2018 we have seen that the property prices for houses are back to similar or even better values than before the recession, unfortunately that cannot be said for flats and apartments here in the South West. When the government introduced the higher stamp duty requirements for all second properties, the buy-to-let market was to all intents and purpose brought to a halt. This added increase has stopped landlords in their tracks and unless they could get the properties at knock down prices, they, in the majority, have decided to wait things out and see where else their investment should go.
First time buyers are now not as one would expect. Previously fresh faced 20 somethings looking to start their home owning lives either as singletons or as young couples. Now with rent costs spiralling, wages not increasing as they should and unable to save a sufficient deposit for the rising costs of houses, they are staying at home longer to save on their cost of living. Now first time buyers are in their 30’s, partnered up and in some cases with their own families. Dual incomes now mean that they can afford to jump past the first step on the housing ladder and target the mid range family market instead. A lot of our 3 and 4 bed family homes are currently being sold to these older first time buyers.
On the older side of this equation, we find the true cost of the low interest rates. Most of the more settled home owners have climbed the housing ladder and now sit close to the top. Looking at the time of their lives where they are nearing retirement, the question of how they are going to pay off their living expenses becomes increasingly worrying. Previously our savings and pensions should have been able to provide sufficient funds, but seeing as how the interest rates have stayed pretty much frozen since April 2009, pensions cannot be guaranteed to cover these costs. On the flip side, the cost of living has continued to rise year on year which has created an imbalance for many and forcing them to revise their plans and in many cases they are “downsizing” to more modest properties with reduced running costs and thus able to bring the living expenses in line with their reduced incomes. Again we find the mid range family homes are popular for this, which brings me to the conclusion that the reason for the main increase in value for the family homes in this area is down to supply and demand. Plymouth house builders are not building enough 3 and 4 bed family properties and therefore when Cross Keys Estates gets a house in this criteria come to the market, they are usually sold in a matter of days, sometimes even the same day that they come to market and more than often at the top of their price range and even sometimes over asking price.
If we go back to the first point “Brexit”, all I can say is what I believe. I do not feel that the housing market will go down, even if we leave on the WTO option (No Deal) will there be a cliff edge disaster? When we had the referendum 2 years ago, the general public was warned of an immediate recession and disasters that would cripple us and bring our country to its knees. Did this happen?, No it did not and the opposite has in fact happened. If/When we leave the European Union, will major European companies stop trading with us?, will we stop buying Mercedes / Volvo / Audi / Volkswagen cars?, I don’t think this is the case. The comparison I am trying to make is that although due to uncertainty, the property market may “Slow down”, I am confident that the property prices will not “Go down”.
