Glitzy City, Curious Town

The Easter weekend is always a bit of a treat and this year certainly didn’t disappoint.

Far from being frowned upon, the pursuits of stuffing one’s face with gigantic roast dinners, ovular chocolate and day-beer are positively encouraged, which never fails to fill my clogged heart with gladness.

On Tuesday I experienced a brief bout of commuter chaos when, on arriving Finsbury Park, I learnt that there’d been a jumper on the line and so trains on the Hertford Loop were indefinitely suspended.

Naïvely, I asked why it wasn’t possible to simply pounce down onto the track and snatch it off when there was a reasonable gap between trains, or even try hooking it up with a broom. Did it have a hood, I wondered, because that would surely be a doddle to snag.

After a wearisome roll of the eyes from the First Capital Connect platform manager, the term “jumper” was explained to me and I realised my suggestions had perhaps been a little less helpful than I’d hoped.

Rather than wait around twiddling my thumbs and spending eye-watering sums of money at the organic snack shack betwixt platforms 5 and 6, I quickly scanned the departure board and got set for a four minute wait for the Welwyn Garden City service.

I was in Hatfield about twenty minutes later, and quarter of an hour after that the taxi was pulling up chez moi.

It’s the first time there’s been any real travel chaos in nine months (even during the snow earlier in the year) and, whilst I wouldn’t fancy the prospect of doing it every day, it’s good to know that by crossing a mini-cab driver’s palm with gold (well, fifteen quid), I’m not stranded just because I’m not on the Tube.

I’d have comfortably spent more than that on a couple of cups of boredom tea and floor-biscuits had I waited for the ‘Loop to re-open.

Maundy Thursday arrived and, as I enjoyed quaffing a handful of post-work Soho holiday-beers outside one of the area’s fine hostelries, I was delighted to be approached by a heart-stoppingly pretty young lady dressed as a rabbit and dishing out flyers for some modern discotheque or other.

After a brief, flirtatious chat that was in no danger of going anywhere given the clear disconnect in our relative prettiness, I was able to enjoy a good old fashioned rock back on my heels with my eyes on stalks as she sashayed off into the night never to be seen again.

Feeble, I know, to count this voyeuristic non-event amongst the highlights of my city week, but she had whiskers and everything, that wascally wabbit, so I really was powerless to resist.

I am a bit of an organised control freak (a typical Virgo apparently) so this house buying lark is freaking me out! I feel like all these different people - estate agent, solicitor, valuation surveyor and lender are all talking and leaving me out!

To be honest though, I am just letting them get on with it as not entirely sure what I am supposed to be doing …

Anyway, good news! I got the official mortgage offer which I stared at for a few days, got a bit scared about (I’ll be paying how much?!) and then got my confidence back (this IS a good investment and it IS a good time to buy).

So I signed my social, shoe buying, holidaying life away …

That organised Virgo side of me is coming in handy though as I have put together a spreadsheet of how much I need for first mortgage payments, money transfer fees, mortgage fees etc. Means there hopefully won’t be a shock later on down the line.

I had to do a few more admin tasks as well e.g. getting proof of my identity. My high street bank refused to certify my identification, so did the solicitors down the road (apparently there is a new law and they have to know you personally?) but finally realised that the agent could do it so that is one thing off the list.

And so now I wait …

Spoke to the agent the other day and the vendor is currently negotiating on the cost of the lease extension (it is quite a scary amount of money they have to stump up) but it is a condition of sale so has to be done.

She apparently doesn’t want to lose me, but my heart jumps every time the agent’s number flashes up on my phone. I shouldn’t be so negative but I am scared she could pull out and try and get a higher price for the flat to help with the lease extension cost.

What can you do but keep everything crossed? If it is meant to be, it will be. Actually surprised at how relatively calm I am. I suppose I have heard so many people talk about losing places along the way so am being realistic and not getting my hopes up too much.

I keep saying that if it doesn’t go through I will only lose the £400 that I have paid out for the valuation survey and admin fee to the lender. It is still £400 but not the end of the world although every penny counts at the moment.

I really need to stop ‘treating’ myself in Topshop …

Europe’s biggest all-singing, all-dancing consumer poll, the Readers’ Digest Trusted Brands survey, has released its results for 2009.

Research is conducted in 16 countries to find the top 20 “Brand Specifics” that are common to all countries.  There’s also a “Local Categories” list where each country includes 20 top brands of their own choice.

And so to the results….drum roll, please…

Here in the UK, Nationwide has overtaken Halifax as the most trusted mortgage lender while British Gas topped the list as best utility provider.

Our favourite household cleaning product is Flash, which we probably buy from our top retailer, Tesco, along with our Colgate, Flora and Sure deodorant.

And, since it’s almost Easter, we can’t forget chocolate: Cadbury’s came out as the UK’s favourite choice of confectionary.

Across all 16 countries, Nivea and Nokia hit the number one spots for skin care and mobile phone handset; both brands have been voted in first place by all countries since the survey began in 2001.

Visa is the credit card of choice in 14 countries; Canon the top brand of camera in 13; and Kellogg’s serve up the best cereals in 10.

The survey also threw up some weird little peculiarities according to country.

Russia’s local categories, for example, included seed oil, shoe care - and diarrhoea remedy.

Portugal, on the other hand, voted for favourite laxative and throat analgesic.

In Finland, they had a category for best ‘functional food’. Eh, hello? Isn’t that the ultimate point of food?

Meanwhile, over in the Netherlands, they were busy rating bicycles, dating sites…and beds.  You gotta love the Dutch.

I ask because I recently had two blog posts sent my way, one urging investors to buy flats, the other saying, nah, don’t be daft, it has to be houses.

In the flat corner is Robin Bowman of Property Secrets, who argues:

“There is almost always rental demand for good flats in good locations, which are generally what renters will be looking for rather than houses. Larger, family suited apartments also. Provided there’s no oversupply.”

But  David Lawrenson, over at Letting Focus, reckons the typical leasehold flat can sometimes be a bit of a headache:

“If the management of the block is good, the lease is well drafted and there are not too may other flats in the local area then flats are OK. But often this is not these case.

“If you are thinking of buying a flat, think about noise and inconsiderate neighbours. In converted flats, noise is always a real problem because the properties were never built to be soundproofed in the first place. In the long run, properties that are freehold and have gardens will always keep their price – just as long as they are in decent areas.”

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Feel free to send your reasons using the Comments link below.

Tired of London, not tired of life

I first hauled myself out of Macclesfield around a decade ago and, after a fleeting stop-off in Nottingham, where I abjectly failed in my attempt to seize fame as a latter day, chubby Robin Hood, I found myself living in Clapham.

Did I enjoy my stint in Sairf West Larndan? I certainly did, but given my propensity to binge beyond my means and the proliferation of bars, clubs and e-coli ridden takeaways, I soon found myself knocking on the door of gout.

When gout wasn’t in, I’d be sniffing round to see if Type 2 diabetes was home. Whilst this was truly a glorious time in an already gluttonous existence, there came a point when I had to put my club-foot down.

Where next, then, on my odyssey of discovery? Well, I thought long and hard before deciding it was about time to make a break for the country. Time to bite the bullet, screw my courage to the sticking place and immerse myself in any number of other clichés.

Could I handle the commute? Was I really man enough to get on the overland train at 07:39 every morning and change at Finsbury Park?

Would I miss the edgy 24-hour glamour of ‘town’? Would a quaint market town really be a suitable location for a loquacious bar-propper-upper such as myself?

To answer those questions, I’ll simply ask them again. Could I handle the commute? Was sauntering onto a practically empty train, sitting down, spreading out and reading a newspaper at 07:39 more or less pleasant than shoe-horning myself between half a dozen sweaty city workers on the Northern line at 08:15?

Would I miss the late-night hollering of disaffected youths and my bi-monthly trip to the garage to have my kicked-off wing mirrors replaced?

Is the last train out of ‘town’ at 01:11, and does this leave plenty of room for Soho booze-hounding, whilst also allowing the option of a genteel, countrified night on the tiles if the mood so grasps me?

And there it was.

I realised that what I really wanted was to live in a sedate, picturesque, Waitrosey town but without removing the possibility of spontaneous, Central London debauchery.

I found it in Hertford, and, nine months on, can say with hand firmly on heart, that it’s the best move I’ve made since I slapped Gary Kasparov with a checkmate at the 1998 World Chess Championship held at Macclesfield Leisure Centre, before absconding to Gretna Green to marry Keira Knightley [citation needed].

Rob Phillipson is National Key Client Manager for FindaProperty.com

Everyone’s aflutter over Twitter. Its trajectory over the last few months has been as steep as North Korea’s recent ’satellite’ (cough) launch; but unlike the Korean rocket, Twitter continues to rise and rise (insert Vaughan Williams ‘Lark Ascending’ allusion here).

I’d like to brag that FindaProperty.com was one of the pioneers of the medium, but we were somewhat sluggish to jump aboard the bandwagon - November 2008 to be precise.

And like most of the Twitterati, I remain unsure as what exactly Twitter is good for. Real-time search engine? Global noticeboard? Or just a few million people letting another million people know what they’re eating for lunch. Or tea. Or that they are now awake. In case you were interested. Which you weren’t.

Anyway, some of the more web 2.0 savvy, switched-on estate agents have also decided to catch onto the tailfeathers of the little blue bird and are now tweeting with the best of them.

Some use Twitter to announce they’ve got new properties, some tweet about property-related news, whilst others gaze silently around in wide-eyed wonder, as bemused as our very own Sales Director, but gamely determined not be left behind: 

Should you wish to follow them, here’s a selection of Estate Agents on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/BayEstateAgents

http://twitter.com/Beresfords

http://twitter.com/BigBlackHen

http://twitter.com/CBSlade

http://twitter.com/cwhr

http://twitter.com/IsleoWightHomes

http://twitter.com/jacquidaley

http://twitter.com/knightfrank

http://twitter.com/LifeResidential

http://twitter.com/marshandparsons

http://twitter.com/squarefoot

http://twitter.com/Squires_

http://twitter.com/thelettingsite

http://twitter.com/townends

If I’ve not mentioned your agency on Twitter, then let me know and we’ll start following you. But only if you follow us first: http://twitter.com/FindaProperty.

Quid pro quo, Clarice. Quid pro quo.

Our guys in the Research Team have some interesting news to report.

On Monday March 23, FindaProperty.com attracted 174,014 unique visitors. This is the highest daily level we have seen since daily tracking records began in mid-2006.

How do we explain this?

It’s partly down to the fact that in the week preceding March 23 we had two big events: the launch of our McDonalds Best Chance Monopoly promotion (win 2 x £300k to buy a home) and our partnering of Google to launch Street View UK.

But our research team also say the rise in visitor numbers is evidence of a pick-up in market activity: since the start of 2009, the number of visitors to FindaProperty.com has been 8.6 per cent higher than the same period in 2008.

In March, unique visitors to FindaProperty.com were up 6.7 per cent month-on-month and 8.6 per cent year-on-year.

Is the market enjoying a spring revival? We’d love to hear what’s happening in your neighbourhood.

We wrote about this subject on FindaProperty.com ealier in the week.

Here’s a helpful video about the changes, which took effect on April 1.

Thanks to Ciara over at Royals of Rent for alerting us to this YouTube source.

1. Thisismoney Message Boards: “Sanity returns - but at what cost?” wonders greybaby. I’ve often asked myself the same question, baby. Lively discussion of homes, mortgages and house prices from the best personal finance website in the business.

2. SingingPig: Don’t let the name put you off, it’s got nothing to do with farm animals! Busy and informative property forum that all landlords should bookmark.

3. 4homes: Need to share your passion for Kirstie, your devotion to Phil? This is the place to do it. Lots of practical discussion, too, about buying, selling, DIY, design. And, quite recently: MOLES!

4. Period Property Discussion Forum: You are not alone:  yes, there are other people who need to talk about linseed paint, sash windows, ledged doors and George Monbiot’s scurrilous attack on the AGA.

5. LandlordZone: Active forum that gets down to the nitty gritty: deposits, evicitons, sub-letting, inventories … and whether a dehumidifier is tax deductible. Well? Is it?

6.  FT Discussions: High octane discussion of editorially posted questions. The place to be if, like Ides_of_March, you can say this sort of stuff: “I think the rental situation is too far removed from the fundamentals of the K cycle to gain much of an insight.” Me too, Ides, me too.

7. Swarb Law Forum: Informative legal forum addressing landlord/tenant issues. “What about the duty to mitigate you keep banging on about?” Hairyloon asks Faithless … yeah, Faithless, what about that then?

8.  Moneysavingexpert Forum: Very active forum with lots of chat about property. Searched in vain for “the drinks are on me” thread.

9. The Move Channel Forum: Big property focussed forum. Tenants & renting is the busiest thread at the moment, and Germanjulian is worried about “Draft Excluders and a weird landlord!”

10. DIYnot Forum: Ok, look, there’s a bank holiday weekend looming.  Get advice first and take warning from their disasters thread: “Gas Pipe ARGGGHHHH!”.  I_am_fubar reveals that “looking into how to plumb has caused me to have some rather odd nightmares about waking up and my walls have all washed away.” Don’t say you weren’t warned!

Have we missed any? If so, send us your recommendations.

This week’s graph is from the FindaProperty.com Rental Index for March.

The solid line shows the monthly change in rental values while the red dotted line shows the monthly change averaged over three months.

What’s interesting about this is the gradual slowdown in the pace of price falls, a trend matched by the slowdown in the amount of stock coming onto the market.

Both trends suggest that the rental market may be close to the bottom of the current cycle – it’s too early to call it yet, but it certainly interesting, and not without significance for the sales market.

Go to this page to read the full FindaProperty.com Rental Index for March.

What’s happening to rents in your area? Let us know using the Comment link below.