Our Client Journey
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The Behind The Scenes Story
Moving home can be a very stressful experience. Not only is it one of the biggest financial transactions most of us will carry out, but there seem to be so many elements out of your control, so many things to do, and a multitude of people to deal with.
At Ashington Page we work very hard to help you feel in control of the process, whether you’re selling or buying. We are estate agents that are passionate about making the moving process as simple and stress free as possible – from your first thoughts of moving to stepping through the door of your new home.
As soon as you begin thinking about a move you will face lots of questions such as:
- What is my property worth?
- How quickly can I sell?
- What should I be doing to make it as attractive as possible?
- What will the total cost of moving be, including stamp duty, solicitor’s and estate agent’s fees, Home Information Packs, surveys and removal costs?
- What do I do next?!
Property has almost become an obsession with the media in the last few years. There seems to be advice coming from everyone, and so much of what we hear is negative or at the very least confusing. The chaos surrounding the introduction of Home Information Packs in 2007 is an example of how even the government is adding to the confusion.
What is the first step?
As you begin to think about moving your first step is simply to get up to speed with what the local property market is doing. You may find our regular ‘Market Update’ useful – it outlines changes in local prices, key trends in national and local market conditions, and gives an opinion on possible future directions.
You’ll probably start looking at properties currently for sale. Scanning through the local papers is a good starting place, but more much more detail is now available online. We have full listing details at www.ashingtonpage.co.uk, and the UK’s leading website, which features all our properties, is worth signing up to – www.rightmove.co.uk.
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What’s your property worth?
The key fact that you need to know before you start to seriously view other properties is how much your home is likely to sell for. You find this out through a ‘market appraisal’. We recommend you call us or drop into the office to have a no-obligation chat through what’s involved.
We can arrange to come and carry out a market appraisal on your property. So that we can understand your circumstances, timing and individual requirements we will ask you a few simple questions on the phone about your property; its size and condition, improvements you’ve made, your desired timings for moving and whether you’ve identified a possible new home.
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What happens next?
After the appointment has been arranged we will deliver one of our exclusive “Home Moving Files” which includes a free 10 minute DVD entitled “Selling Your Home”. There is also a letter confirming the date and time of the appointment and, for your security, a photograph of the valuer.
The Home Moving File is designed to be an invaluable source of relevant information about the selling and buying process. It explains the Home Information Pack and the legal process and has been designed to hold all correspondence relating to any sale, purchase and mortgage arrangement. It is created to help guide you from before the market appraisal to after you have moved into your new home. There is even an extensive check list of everyone you need to inform of your new address (and not just the obvious ones!) and there are several designs of “We Are Moving” cards to choose from. We will have them printed and delivered to you in good time as a gift from Ashington Page. And of course, the Home Moving file is a gift from us, even if you don’t decide to use Ashington Page.
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Our Market Research
We will carry out extensive office-based market research on your property. This will analysing data obtained from the Land Registry of historical sales in your road and the surrounding roads together with lists of other similar properties from slightly further away.
Next we produce a personalized “Market Comparable” report based on your postcode, type of property, number of bedrooms etc. The report will include all the local properties similar to yours which are currently for sale, together with those that have been marketed and sold in the recent past. You can imagine that by now, using this data combined with our local knowledge, we are building a very good feel of the likely price range of your property.
Subsequently we search our own database of potential buyers and print off a list. We will bring it with us so that we can show you how many there are. We can break this down even further into where the potential buyers come from and data such as how many cash buyers there are.
As well as the Land Registry and Market Comparable report we will produce a report from Rightmove and Primelocation. We identify a property that is as close to yours in terms of likely price range and size and print off a report which will show the level of interest and activity from the websites that you could expect on your own property. This information relates directly to the number of times potential buyers have “clicked” for more photographs or more information about the property. As about 80% of all people looking for a new home start their search online this data is very useful in gauging current demand.
All these reports will be left with you at the end of our market appraisal so you can look through them again and show any others involved who could not be there for the appointment.
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The Appointment
After arriving, on time, we will sit down with you and briefly review the information we have so far and to be clear on what exactly you hope to gain from the appointment. It will also be useful to find out why you bought the property and what you have most enjoyed about your home. We can use your answers in our property details, in advertisements and on the websites.
We will then ask to be shown around your home and if you could point out to us anything that you feel would be relevant both inside and out.
Don’t be surprised if we ask to have another quick tour, this time by ourselves. This helps us to really get to know your home and to relate all the market research data to your property.
Then we sit down again together, probably at the kitchen table, and go through with you the data in the reports and give you own opinion of how this relates to our appraisal of your home. You will then understand exactly how we have arrived at our figures. We know that it is so important for many reasons to give you an accurate market appraisal, one being that to plan a possible move you will need accurate figures on which to make your decision. The other pitfalls of getting the price wrong are explained on the DVD.
- We will give you an overview of Home Information Packs and how it effects you.
- We will explain our marketing process and the various options that are available and together decide which options are better for you, your situation and your property.
- We will explain clearly why you should instruct Ashington Page.
- We will also explain clearly our own charges and contract terms.
- We will recommend, should you need them, the services of well respected local and independent financial advisers who are happy to meet you at their offices, your home or our offices.
We will answer any questions you might have and, if you want us to make an immediate start we can complete the paperwork so we can start marketing your property as soon as possible. Whether you sign-up or haven’t decided yet, we will send you our “Marketing Plan” which will confirm in writing everything we have discussed and recommended. If your partner or any other family member couldn’t be at the first appointment we would be more than happy to pop back again.
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Coming to the Market
We will need to come back again to take photographs, create a floor plan and write up the property particulars and to complete any paperwork including our contract and to conform to the Money Laundering Legislation.
Only once you have approved the details including photographs, floorplan and the text, will we market your property in accordance with the agreed marketing plan which will have been tailored to your exact needs.
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Marketing your property
BOARDS
Despite the importance of online listings, a surprising number of enquiries still come from
people who spot a property for sale from the board outside. We would always recommend placing a board outside your property, although it is entirely optional.
MAILING LISTS
We maintain a list of potential applicants and the type of properties they are interested in. If yours falls within those parameters we send them information about your property through the post, via email and SMS text.
WEBSITE
This recently updated website, optimized to appear high up search results on Google and other search engines, will carry your property details. Up to 80% of initial research is now web-based, so this is a very important factor. We have surveyed our clients to find out what they want from a website, and designed its features and content around that feedback. The website is designed to direct visitors to discuss your property with our team so that we can quickly assess their potential as a buyer and capture their information for follow up.
NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING
We use weekly prominent full colour advertising in the two leading local newspapers, the Bucks Free Press and the Buckinghamshire Advertiser with a combined readership of 85,000 to give you high profile coverage, plus regular PR items to grow readership.
‘Real Estates’ is an upmarket monthly property magazine with a circulation of 20,000, distributed to wealthy parts of Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It focuses on exclusive homes; these are also featured on MOVETO.co.uk
ACCOMPANIED VIEWINGS
We want to accompany all viewings if possible. It reduces the hassle involved for you, but most importantly you will have a professional sales person and negotiator promoting your property.
DISCREET MARKETING
If you require a low key approach we can provide a service that avoids using ‘for sale’ boards or newspaper advertising.
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Feedback
We consider providing you with prompt, relevant and comprehensive feedback one of our most important duties to you. You will experience:
- Feedback after each viewing by email or telephone, whichever you prefer.
- A viewing report sent or emailed once a fortnight listing all viewers to date and their comments.
- Copies of all newspaper advertising.
- Regular activity reports from Rightmove and Primelocation detailing the exact number of people who have “clicked” for more photos or more details of your property. There is even comparable data showing how your property is performing against other properties.
- A weekly phone call from one of our senior members of staff to conduct a review and to discuss and/or agree future activity.
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Agreeing a Sale
Before recommending you accept an offer we need, on your behalf, to use our experience to qualify your potential buyer’s position. Choosing the wrong buyer can be expensive with abortive solicitor’s and surveyor’s fees. We will:
- Check out the financial situation of the buyer
- If your buyers are in a chain we will carefully check each part of that chain and report our findings to you.
- Check that the buyer is able to meet your timescale and any other requirements you have.
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Sales Progression
As important to everything that has happened to date our experience tells us that the longer it takes from agreeing a sale to exchanging contracts the more likely it is for the sale to fail, with the resulting stress and abortive costs. People’s situations can change very quickly and it is not just in politics that a day is a very long time!
We will make sure within the first few days of any sale:
- The buyer instructs, in writing, a solicitor to act for them in the purchase of your property and that they send a cheque to pay for all local searches. Most solicitors now won’t do anything until they have received both these.
- That the buyer has chosen their lender, has filled in the mortgage application form and sent it to the lender together with a cheque to cover the mortgage valuation or home buyers report.
- That your solicitor has applied for the title deeds to your property and, as soon as they are in, that a draft contract is sent to your buyer’s solicitor.
- If these three fundamental tasks are not carried out within the first week of any new sale there will be a delay in exchanging contracts with an increased risk of the sale falling through.
- A Home Information Pack can be made available to the purchaser’s solicitor at the time of agreeing a sale. This has been designed to reduce the time for the conveyancing process and will also include a personal search which increasingly is acceptable to a good number of lenders.
- We will then keep in regular contact with all parties involved and you will receive a progress report from us at least once a week.
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Exchanging Contracts
Once contracts are exchanged you can get ready to move to your next home and we will help you in any way we can to make this transition as smooth as possible.
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Completion
When we have received the telephone call from your solicitor to say that the transaction is complete we will call your buyer to let them know that we can release the keys to them. We will also deal with any last minute issues.
We have close relationships with excellent local removal firms, and can usually get special deals for our clients, so please let us know if this would be useful.
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After the Move …
We will ask you to let us know what you thought of our service to see if there is anything that we can learn to improve our service further. We will be on hand to give any advice about improving your property including extensions and, of course, we can recommend to you architects, builders, sports clubs etc.
Ashington Page is a team of multi nationals including two ladies from Canada and New Zealand and we aim to go the extra mile to give you the best experience out there for moving home.
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