Q.

A. When it comes to selling a property presentation is everything. Even the most tired properties can be given a new lease of life with a simple coat of paint and a few new accents of colour. Paint costs nothing really when you consider the difference it will make to selling your property. Potential viewers will be impressed by the smell of fresh paint and clean walls, it will immediately give them the feeling that the property has been well looked after and not left to deteriorate. Of course anything that is priced right will always sell no matter what condition it is bought to the market in, but if you are keen to secure a good price and achieve a relatively quick sale then it’s always worth putting a little money and effort in to seal the deal. You would be surprised how much more you can actually achieve for a property that is sold in good order than a property that has been left to deteriorate and is looking generally tired and unloved. Agents in general – myself included constantly report that properties that are closest to ‘showhome condition’ and ready to move into  sell more easily and achieve the highest prices, offering prospective buyers a ready to move into, little to do  experience. With many buyers having put their cash towards raising a deposit, they have little to spend on improvements when they move in.  I would definitely recommend you attempt a mini-makeover as a tactic to secure the best possible price, and achieving an early sale. A recent report suggested that only 17% of sellers would invest in a house makeover, even if it meant they stood to gain financially by achieving a considerably higher price. This reflects many sellers’ lack of access to funds to carry out what would be financially astute improvements. It also highlights one of the legacies of the downturn with many sellers suffering from shrinking equity pots, limiting their ability to raise relatively small lump sums for small renovations.

Q.

A. As a rough guide I always advise my potential Landlords that if you are offering a furnished flat the tenant should be able to turn up with just a suitcase, unpack and be able to live. So in general everything they would need to go about their day to day life within reason. However furnished properties do vary and certainly when a tenant views and is thinking of making an offer, during the viewing if he spots anything that appears to be missing this should be requested upfront prior to having an offer accepted, this in turn gives you as the Landlord to agree to provide the item or reject the request. Of course within reason sometimes a tenant will move in and discover for instance that the iron is broken or there is no kettle. Items such as these are regarded as essential and would normally be provided. However if the tenant is requesting things such as a tumble dryer for drying their clothes when he knew full well that the machine provided was a washing machine only then this would be considered an unreasonable request, a washing machine or washer dryer (as some properties have these fitted as standard) must be considered as essential items, but if the tenant requests a regular washing machine to be replaced with a washer dryer when it is still perfectly functional or a separate tumble dryer then this would be deemed unreasonable. Tenant’s expectations need to be managed and as long as they continue to ask and you provide the list will be never ending. Be diplomatic but firm at the same time and let them know that their request is outside of what is deemed as a reasonable provision. And I always find saying that although you cannot provide this as part of the tenancy you are more than happy for them to purchase the item themselves if they so wish, that way you are saying its ok for them to have the item for their use during their stay but it’s just you are not prepared to pay for it. Most tenants are not nearly as demanding so don’t let this put you off being a Landlord, you just need to toughen up a little that’s all and most of all remember this is an investment, every penny spent will eat into your profit so it’s important that all unnecessary spending is capped.

Q.

A. Given that you are happy with the current freeholder it’s obviously frustrating that you now have to consider other options. It’s clear that you have two choices here, either you do nothing and just allow the freehold to be sold to another party and hope they continue in the same manner as you have been accustomed to, or you decide to explore the option of purchasing along with your fellow leaseholders. There are pros and cons associated with purchasing a share of the freehold. Obviously to move forward with this in the first place you will need to have a majority of owners wanting to purchase with you. The advantages being, autonomy of decision making processes in the future, ability to influence management decisions to include the appointment of agents and staff, control of future costs, ability to maintain standards. The disadvantages include, costs both the speculative costs of investigating the opportunity and the actual cost of the purchase, the need to get involved to progress the transaction and finally the possibility that the estate becomes controlled by a small number of leaseholders, albeit at the discretion of the majority. As a whole though most owners seem to prefer owning a share of the Freehold where possible as it does obviously give you far more say and control over the Estate and how things are run.

A. Honestly, even as an agent that has been practicing for the last 14 years it still defies me that what originally looks like the sale that will pose no problems and will simply cruise through to exchange and completion are normally the sales that cause the biggest concern and take the longest to complete and sometimes as in your case fall out of bed (agents jargon for an abortive) altogether. It’s so difficult to predict at the onset some of the issues that may flag up, although in your case given that you have already lost a buyer if it was over a particular issue maybe this is something that your solicitor can now be prepared for and prevent the same thing happening again.

Personally I believe that if you have a truly motivated seller and buyer and they both have great solicitors acting for them and an efficient agent acting for the seller that is able to liaise with all four parties I really believe that there is no reason why a chain should be frowned upon, and all things considered it really is going to be difficult to eliminate perfectly good buyers just because they are trading up or down, you really are cutting your audience down quite drastically.

Of course we have all heard the horror stories of chains collapsing and a whole chain of buyers and sellers being hung out to dry but given there is only you, your buyer and his buyer involved, two properties then I would have no hesitation and go ahead and accept. Given your recent experience I don’t think things can get any worse can they!

It’s official, Dawn Sandoval was awarded Female Estate Agent of the year at The Wharf’ Property Awards.  The awards were held at Radisson Blu Edwardian, New Providence Wharf on April 25.   The night started with a champagne reception, followed by a three-course dinner, the awards presentation and evening entertainment including an exclusive cocktail bar.  The categories were judged by The Wharf’s editor Giles Broadbent, Trinity Mirror National Sales managing director David Emin and Docklands Business Club chairman Janette Withey.

Q.

A. The latest housing initiative from the Government was recently unveiled, offering support for aspiring homebuyers and sparking hopes for better mortgage rates and availability. The Help to Buy scheme is seemingly bigger and bolder than previous proposals to get the housing market moving. There are two strands to Help to Buy: equity loans worth up to 20 per cent of the value of a new home, which was launched on the 1^st of April and will run for three years, and mortgage guarantees for people with smaller deposits, which won’t be available until next January 2014. Help to Buy is an expansion of the existing, more restrictive First Buy scheme. This time financial support is available to both existing homeowners and first-time buyers like you, with a more generous maximum property price of £600,000 and no cap on the amount homebuyers can earn to be eligible.  In a nutshell this means that Lenders are able to reduce the risk they are perceived to take and buyers have the benefit of reduced interest rates through borrowing at 75% or below, as opposed to a 95% loan with considerably higher interest rates. Under the equity loan scheme, homebuyers need to raise only a 5 per cent deposit to buy a new property worth up to £600,000. A fifth of the property price will then be met by a government loan which is interest-free for the first five years. From year six a fee of 1.75 per cent is payable, rising annually by the retail prices index plus 1 per cent. The loan can be repaid at any time during the term of the mortgage, or upon the sale of the property. The second strand of Help to Buy is the mortgage guarantee which covers existing homes as well as new-builds worth up to £600,000. Once again, homebuyers can secure a mortgage with a 5 per cent deposit, while the Government guarantees part of the loan to encourage lenders to relax their purse strings on low-deposit mortgages. This limits the risk associated with high loan-to-value (LTV) lending, where first-timers typically operate, but also second steppers struggling to upgrade because they don’t have enough equity in their properties to remortgage. The finer details of the mortgage support scheme have yet to be ironed out, and one key issue will be whether there is enough of an incentive to persuade lenders to take advantage of the guarantee. However, the Government has promised to make £12bn of guarantees available to lenders, running for three years from January 2014, supporting an estimated £130bn of high-LTV mortgages. There are other options worth looking into for buyers with modest deposits. If your family is willing to help, there are a number of guarantor schemes that require only a 5%, including the Woolwich Family Springboard mortgage. This provides first-time buyers with a three-year fixed rate on the proviso that the applicant’s family opens a linked savings account with 10% of the purchase price.

Q.

A. I am afraid this is absolutely correct. The information concerning this in your lease. You seem to have vacated the apartment and entered into a lettings contract without knowing what you are permitted to do as a leaseholder or seeking any legal advice about this, a genuine mistake that many new Landlords are not aware of. If you have a mortgage on the property there may be restrictions from the bank or lender also, so you should also contact them immediately requesting permission to rent the property if you haven’t already done so. If you are the original owner of the property then you will have signed the lease which is the contract and your solicitor can advise you as to your obligations as a tenant (remember as a leasehold property you rent the flat from the Freeholder on a long lease and this entails obligations on both sides) If you purchased the apartment from somebody else you will have signed a Deed of covenant promising to uphold the covenants as per the original lease. You will need to complete the notice of subletting the Managing agent has sent you and return it together with the fee. Unfortunately they are perfectly within their rights to charge you a fee for this for this as there is administration involved in issuing the documentation for the notice to sublet and consequently the updating of their records accordingly. Ultimately and although yet a further expense and yet more red tape, when it comes to leasehold properties it is always best to co-operate with your managing agent and keep everything above board as it were. Particularly as if you ever come to sell the place you will need their co-operation in providing the necessary documentation to the buyer’s solicitor, if you already have a good track record with them as a leaseholder you will find that they in turn will be more willing to assist if you have conformed to all the rules and regulations stated within the head lease.

Q.

A. Becoming a tenant and renting your first property can be pretty daunting at the best of times, but if you do happen to be self-employed and are unable to produce at least three years’ worth of accounts then yes – you are right, this will likely cause a few issues when your estate agent applies to one of the professional reference agencies to qualify you as a suitable tenant. The reference agencies are there to qualify you in all areas of your life, this will include checks on your current address and Landlord, a search against their tenants database to establish nothing of a detrimental nature is registered against you, and a voters roll check and finally an income check. Of course if you are employed this is a simple case of checking with your HR department to confirm proof of salary, if however you happen to be self-employed as in your case and are not able to produce the minimum of three years accounts required  then there are actually two avenues that you can pursue that both provide a good solution to this issue. The first solution is for you to pay rent in advance, do bear in mind though that you can only be qualified by the referencing agency for a tenancy that is covered by the same period of advanced rent paid. So if for instance you were intending to take out a 12 month contract but could only afford to pay 6 months’ rent in advance then the contract could only run for 6 months, this of course could be extended for another 6 months when a further six months’ rent is paid. If you are unable to pay rent in advance then the second solution is using a UK based Guarantor. The guarantor will also be referenced in exactly the same way as you are and they will also be named on the rental contract, should things go wrong the guarantor would be held just as responsible for the rent as you are giving the Landlord peace of mind that the rent will be paid regardless of the current income your accounts might show. Do let your agent know right from the start that this is your situation as it will save time in the long run, as a plan can be put into place right from the onset to ensure the referencing runs smoothly and ultimately you have no unnecessary delays moving into your new home.

Q.

A. I can sympathise with you having dealt with this situation a few times over now. As a whole, Leasehold developments are not generally agreeable to having pets on site for a number of reasons, and that is why you will find that overall most head leases contain a ‘no pet’ clause. Pets can cause disruption to other residents within the development and cause an extra workload for the maintenance staff too in some cases where pets are not kept under control and allowed to roam around the development. Dogs particularly are often a cause of noise disturbance, so for this reason dogs are usually always a no go area. Some managing agents will be willing to grant a ‘Pet Licence’ but each case is looked at individually to determine whether or not granting a licence should be allowed. When viewing tell your agent right from the beginning that you have pets as they will normally know whether pet are allowed in that particular development or whether there will be any chance of the managing agents looking at granting a pet licence, that is of course if the landlord is agreeable to two cats in the first instance. Many tenants like yourself have pets and the agent is usually the best person to start with as he will normally be in a position to direct you to properties that can facilitate the pets, rather than wasting time viewing places that are simply a non – starter. Remember the managing agents will always have the final word and even if the landlord is agreeable if the managing agent says no then ignoring that and overriding it will result in you being asked to vacate if they realise you have moved pets in, ultimately if the managing agents find out they will come down quite hard on the landlord which will result in you having to vacate your home.