We welcome our new member Sophie Adams into our Appleton family. Sophie has a wealth of customer relations experience. Sophie said “it is amazing to work here, no one day is the same as the previous”.
Sarah Akkus, the executive director, commented “I have personally known Sophie for many years, and I turst she will treat this as her own business”.
Compared to a decade ago, there are a vast number of options for residential property flooring today. You are spoilt with choise from vinyl to carpets, from wood flooring to laminate.
As a start, it would be good to start our article by analysing some carpeting options that you can easily get hold of today. The DIT stores offer both long and short shag varieties, burlaps, and inexpensive indoor/outdoor carpets. If you purchase a good padding to go beneath the carpet, you can go with a cheaper type of carpet and it will last a lot longer. The padding costs more if it is a good thick pad. However, upon purchasing everything, you will realize how great of a deal you received! A thicker padding will certainly help extend the longevity of the carpets.
Most British people generally tend to use the carpet flooring in in their lounges as well as their bedrooms for a warm feeling on the feet. The wooden floors have become very popular in the country over the last 5 to 8 years; especially inline with the “changing rooms” craze. If laid properly, the wooden floors lifts the property and gives it an instant modern look and feel. You can either go fo the minimalist look or you may choose to have carpet in the middle. The technology has advanced so far over the last few years, and you can nowadays find very durable and water resistant hard floors for the kitchens and the bathrooms as well.
Coordinating the colour of your flooring with is an important decision you can make. It should coordinate with other things in your room. coloring the floor is to add beauty to internal ambiance of any building. But while coloring you should make sure that the floor is a neutral colour. Doing so will not only lasts longer but also can be changed as and when you want to change the color at a later date. Neutral tones like beige, earth tones and grays will go with any color you might want to change to.
The wooden floors come in many colours and shades; sometimes the choice is mind-numbingly great. The spectrum of colors vary from bright to dim. When choosing your wood colors, do not forget that a darker wood flooring will make your room appear darker.
Appleton Estate Agents Cookham provides professional advice on residential property letting, sales and management.
Abandonment is the scenario where a residential tenant leaves the property, often with outstanding rent arrears, without being explicit that the lease has been surrendered by returning the keys to the agent or the landlord.
During the property sales, the act of the buyer lowering the offer on the day of exchange to force the vendor to sell at a lower price.
The government has axed the stamp duty for properties that cost up to £175,000 for the next 12 months from £125,000.
Among possible measures to boost the housing market could be allowing buyers to postpone the payment of stamp duty.
Someone who is buying a property for £175,000 is going to save £1750 with the new changes.
The move that is designed to kick start the housing market in Britain (especially in England) on the back of the credit crunch is expected to cost the government around £600 million. As more and more first time buyers start actively looking for a property again, the housing market is expected to become more buoyant.
The government also announced:
Some sceptics call these initiatives to be “politically” driven where others dismiss the measures as “too little too late”.
Recently the British media discussed reports that the government was considering some changes to the stamp duty that would essentially allow people delaying their stamp duty payments. But this was causing significant confusion and delays in the housing market.
The British government certainly has not gone as far as the US administration to tackle the effects of the credit crunch. And, regardless of how politically driven these initiatives may be, they will certainly breathe some life back into the slowing British housing market.
Do you have a smaller property that you would like to make look larger? There are some inexpensive tips that you can use to make your property seem larger to any prospective tenants. Your tenants may well like the results enough to stay longer and reduce your turnover costs. Although some of these tips apply only to a furnished unit in a direct sense, you may find them useful in other ways as well, such as in enhancing your own palatial quarters.
1. Using Light to Increase the Feeling of Openness — A light and open appearance makes any space seem larger. The feeling of openness is aided by good lighting, because of our lifelong conditioning to associate brightly lit places with open spaces. Shine lights on walls so they will appear to be brighter. You might want to have lighting controls that will allow you to dim or increase the intensity in each room, as an added touch.
2. Colors – Use only lighter shades of warm colors such as red, yellow, brown and orange. These colors can make a room seem bigger and more open. To give a particular room extra depth, you might try using light colors on three walls and a coordinating darker tone on the remaining wall to fool the eye into perceiving added depth.
3. Minimize the Furniture — Any rooms that have too much furniture tend to look smaller. The more crowded a room is, the smaller it will seem. Be sure not to crowd the furniture together when you want to make the room look larger than it physically is. Avoid putting big armchairs and sofas in cramped spaces. Use dual purpose furniture to maximize the appearance of spaciousness. For instance, a footstool that has a place inside for magazine storage saves the space that would otherwise be needed for a second dedicated piece.
4. Accessories – Curtains and other accessories you use to decorate the property can have a big impact on how large or small it appears. Use light colored curtains to allow plenty of light during the daytime. Choose light colored furniture, or as a minimum use light colored covers for the furniture, since choosing light colors tends to give a feeling of extra space.
5. Mirrors Can Be Effective — Use wall mirrors strategically to give the appearance of depth to a room. This is one of the easiest improvement tips ever. Mirrors can serve as attractive art elements in and of themselves, and they serve the additional purpose of making small rooms seem larger.
6. Reduce Unattractive Clutter — Having efficient storage is an important consideration, especially in confined spaces. The more junk there is in sight, the smaller and less attractive the place will look and the less comfortable your tenants will be. This is not just a matter of making the place more attractive to get tenants in, but accommodating a more healthful lifestyle for them in a subtle way. Use storage systems that accommodate a neat and tidy way of using the space. With less clutter, the property will be a petter place to live and will look better to prospective tenants.
These tips can save money and effort in the task of making a rental unit more attractive and marketable. In fact, these suggestions are among the best methods to improve a home for the practical reason of making it more pleasant for the occupants, as well as simply making it look great.
This article was furnished by Colorado’s Boulder real estate specialists in the USA, Automated Homefinder.
One of the main arguments in the property market recently is whether it is possible to replace advertising in the printed press to the online environment. Now this debate is expanding: Is it time to replace the physical High Street presence with a virtual presence?
Only four or five years ago, not having High Street presence with expensively kitted offices was a big disadvantage in getting new properties on the books for sales, lettings or management. People wanted to go into a five-star office to be treated as royalty. There was a very unfair pre-judgement that being an Internet-based estate agency meant not providing the best property consultancy.
What a difference a few years make…
Nowadays, the High Street estate agency offices are not the busiest places. Most people start their research through the Internet and many of them tend not to go near, let alone into, and estate agency office. The landlords/tenants and vendors/buyers contact the agents via the Internet, emails and telephone. As this is the most convenient way of doing it now that almost every home in the country has some sort of Internet connection. People do not have time to spend chit-chatting in an office any more.
Also, people are looking for more competitive fees too.
Especially with the current credit crunch, the traditional estate agents Maidenhead are getting less instructions and they are having to provide the same level of service at a lower price now. As a result, we are seeing some traditional estate agencies closing some of the High Street offices due to cost-cutting pressures. They are then trying to cover those areas from other branches.
Of course, there are still some dinosaurs in the industry. Just recently, one new estate agent who opened up a very expensive office in an upper class area told me that only the “boffins” would go and search the Internet for properties. He even went further telling me that he had not heard of most of the main property portals. Luckily, these types of people are on the decline and are no longer giving the true property professionals a bad name anymore.
According to some recent studies, the number of online listings have gone up by 58% in just the last nine months.
Whether or not we will still see the estate agents row in the High Streets in five or seven years time is another discussion but we are experiencing a definite trend towards using the technology to provide more competitive property services.
One of the biggest differentiators behind the Appleton Estate Agents Marlow brand has always been providing a better property consultancy by removing all the chains that the traditional estate agency has demanded in this country. And, the biggest drive for us has been being on the leading edge of the technology. Appleton Estates has been one of the first “virtual” estate agencies in the area. We have believed in what we have been offering and our belief is now paying significant dividends.
Starting in October of 2008, the residential property landlords will need to provide a Energy Performance Certificate (EPC ) for their property to any prospective tenant; similar to the Home Information Packs for the residential property sales, which were introduced very recently.
The EPC will contain information on the property’s energy efficiency rating on a scale of A to G, along with some additional relevant data, such as general recommendations suggesting ways of improving the energy efficiency of the building.
The government claims that the EPCs will enable the potential tenants, owners and occupiers understand the energy efficiency of the property.
It will not be mandatory to obtain an Energy Performance Certificate for existing tenants. An EPC is expected to be valid for 10 years but can be renewed earlier if the landlord wishes to reflect any improvements made. If a valid certificate exists when changing tenants no new certificate will be required.
However, similar to the HIPs, we are very skeptical that the EPCs will improve the rental process but will actually adversely affect the rental market. There are already many legal obligations on the residential landlord.
Amid signs of a UK economy slow-down, the Bank of England has cut interest rates to 5.25% from 5.5%.
This was a widely expected move by many analysts. Some experts had predicted even more cuts similar to the US Federal Bank’s move.
However, the Bank signalled that further cuts were not imminent due to inflation concerns.
In its statement, the Bank said: “Inflation at 2.1% in December was close to the 2% target, but higher energy and food prices are expected to raise inflation, possibly quite sharply, in the coming months.”
“The Committee needs to balance the risk that a sharp slowing in activity pulls inflation below target in the medium-term against the risk that elevated inflation expectations keep inflation above target,” it added.
Some key players in the property sector are still not satisfied that this move will be helpful for the UK housing market. They are pointing to the data indicating that market activity is 25% down on a year on year basis in terms of mortgage lending and sales volumes. Most people, however, seem in agreement that in 2008, a potential housing crash is very unlikely.
… happy eid and a wonderful new year wishes to all our friends, family and clients from Appleton-Estates.
