Buying and selling property is a competitive game. It may not be as muddy as the Six Nations, as gruelling as the Tour de France or as hotly disputed as a family Monopoly session, but the prize can be far greater.
Escalating property prices mean our homes have become not only a sanctuary, but a financial asset. Getting the best price possible is a must. Eager buyers, meanwhile, are likely to be competing against hordes of other, equally keen purchasers, which makes the whole thing a bit of a frenzy. Either way, you need to make sure you’re properly prepared. For sellers, that means tidying up the front garden, painting the porch and scrubbing to within an inch of your life — and that’s before you’ve even got onto buying flowers and brewing the coffee. If you’re a buyer, meanwhile, you need to know your chosen market inside out.
Advertisement
The internet has made things a bit easier. Finding a property for sale no longer means trawling the local estate agencies, and getting up to speed on a particular area can also be done from the comfort of your own home, rather than by pounding the pavements. Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, it’s crucial to make sure you’re online to get the best results. Vendors should ensure their estate agent is listed on all the property portals, such as PrimeLocation and Zoopla — the latter has more than 1m visits a day.
If you’re looking for a new property, the internet should be your first port of call. Creating a tailored property search on a website such as Zoopla means you can list your preferred attributes, from budget to bedrooms, and sign up for property alerts so any suitable homes that come onto the market will ping straight into your inbox.
When it comes to searching urban areas, the stakes are often higher. Prices in Britain’s cities are on the rise, and demand almost always eclipses supply. Zoopla figures show that in the past year alone, the average property value in London has jumped by more than £34,000. But it’s not just the capital that has seen prices rocket. In Birmingham, for example — the top destination in 2014 for Londoners aged 30-39 leaving the capital — average values have soared by more than 7% in the past year. Brighton & Hove, Cardiff, Milton Keynes and Huddersfield have seen equally rapid rises.
Advertisement
All of which means that, as a buyer, you need to be ready for action. Intrigued by an apparent hotspot, but keen to find out how lovely and leafy it really is? Zoopla gives a comprehensive overview of an area, covering transport links, nearby schools, crime rates and what kind of neighbours you might expect — from their average age and what newspaper they read to whether they own their own house. You can find out what the most expensive street in the area is, or which one has the highest turnover, and see if there’s anything available that might suit you.
Want to know how long it really takes to walk from the shops to the train station? Zoopla’s AskMe Q&A feature lets you post a question for reply. It’s all there in one handy package, from council tax rates to nearest Tube stations, average property price to useful local tradesmen.
Once you’ve settled on your area, you need to keep up to speed. Zoopla’s SmartMaps tool allows you to create and save a map area. Within that, you can then narrow down your search to property type, number of bedrooms, price range and even travel times to and from a specific location: crucial in a busy city where a train symbol on a map can look a lot closer at hand than it is in reality.
Finally, make sure you’re prepared at all times by downloading the Zoopla app. That way, the next time you’re strolling down a street you like the look of, all you need to do is whip out your phone and find out what’s for sale. Winning in the property game means always being one step ahead of the competition.
Advertisement
