Its been another hectic week and quick house sale Leeds, we have agreed more purchases in the Leeds and Bradford area as well as making a sale on a renovated property.

At quick house sale we have years of experience in the property market and working with all types of property in all kinds of conditions. This means we have worked with many different builders, plumbers and electricians and we have some good relationships with local tradesmen. We are always looking to help people make a property sale either privately or through an agent. Quite often to get the most for your property you will need to complete the jobs you always put off. If you find yourself in this situation and would like us to make recommendations on the works you should complete and who would be best to do it give us a call.

As mentioned previously, property prices have reduced or remained stagnant throughout the majority of this year. One statistic that is not stagnant is the number of unsold properties on the market with an estate agent.

Seven out of ten properties placed on the market this year have remained unsold. We have covered many ways to increase your chances to make a quick house sale on the open market and you can find these tips by clicking here.

It is important to remember that many other properties on the market means more competition for you. The best advice we can offer in times like these is know the property worth and don’t over price yours. We have seen many occasions recently where the agent has valued the property £10,000 over the market value. This price is likely to put buyers off and will not get the viewings you need in order to sell your property.

Property prices remained stagnant in the month of June, with slow economic development not strong enough to reinvigorate the market, according to the Nationwide building society. While prices remain unchanged from the previous month, prices are down -1.1%  so far this year.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “Stability remained the theme in June with house prices flat over the month. This left them 1.1% below the level prevailing in June 2010.

“At 0.3%, the three-month-on-three-month measure of house prices was slightly weaker than the 0.6% pace of increase recorded in May.”

He also commented that there had been “few encouraging developments” for households, employment is increasing and consumer confidence seems to be on the up, but he also commented that demand within the property market was low due to the financial struggle most people are facing.

“Ultimately, these positives have not been enough to make up for the ongoing squeeze on households. With debt levels still high, the need to repair household finances is undiminished,” he said.

“However, sluggish economic growth and wages rising at less than half the rate of inflation means consumers are struggling to make progress in repairing their finances.”

House prices have been supported by fewer properties being built, while the interest rate has remained low which helps loan affordability and ensures the are fewer distressed sales in the market.

“It’s hard to make the case for prices rising or falling sharply over the remainder of 2011 if the economy develops as we expect,” Gardner said. “Economic growth looks set to gather pace in the months ahead, but is likely to remain unspectacular. This in turn points to only modest gains in employment and sluggish wage increases, which will continue to keep many potential buyers on the sidelines.”

However, Howard Archer from IHS Global Insight said he expects that prices will probably trend down for the rest of the tear. “We suspect that modest overall falls in house prices are more likely than not over the second half of 2011 and the first half of 2012.

“On balance, we believe that house prices are likely to fall by around 8% overall from current levels on the Nationwide measure by mid-2012.”

He added: “Not only do economic fundamentals remain difficult overall for the housing market, but the May survey from Rics indicated that more houses are coming on to the market, thereby diluting the possibility that a shortage of properties could provide significant support to house prices.”

Nicholas Ayre, a director of UK buying agents Home Fusion, said: “Consumer confidence is flat, the economy is flat and so the property market is flat, too.

“This week saw May mortgage approvals come in far weaker than expected and so the story looks set to continue.

“It’s surely no surprise that the market is as it is: directionless and flat. We have strikes at home, austerity riots abroad, an imploding high street and an economy on its knees.

“The saving grace of the property market is low interest rates, which look set to remain that way for some time yet given the disarray of the economy. Amid the chaos, there are at least formidable buying opportunities for those with the finance and confidence to make their move.”

Again it seems the crystal balls of the experts are not saying the same things which has been the case from the majority of the past few years. our opinion at quick house sale remains the same as in previous posts, The property market is current stagnant (just about), some area are enjoying increasing prices while other are in decline but overall no major changes can be expected for at least the next year. If you looking to sell the yes, you might experience a slight decline from the moment you advertise your property but overall this will be a minor movement, work out the best sales option for you in the current conditions or even better, give us a call and allow us to work it out for you.

At Quick house sale we have firsthand experience of some of the dangers of having a property left empty. Many people have no awareness of these issues so this post is to describe the issues we have personally had. The reason for highlighting this is that most people are not aware of the potential cost of an empty property.

During the winter before last we had a property in Huddersfield and the tenant moved out just before Christmas. This is a very difficult time to attract another tenant so the property was empty for a short period. A week before the new tenant was due to move in a workman visited to make sure everything was on order and the pipes has burst. This was a pipe in the bathroom so water had leaked through the floor and the ceiling had part fallen in down stairs. The total cost of repair was £4000.

Over the next winter we had another property empty so (learning from our mistake) we left the heating on low to avoid this issue. For the 3 months the property was empty the cost of heating was £450

The most recent issue we encountered is how attractive empty properties are to criminals. The price for scrap metal (especially copper) at the moment is the highest its ever been and many properties are broken into simply for the copper from the heating system and sometimes even for the wiring from the electricity system. The total cost of replacing this can be astronomical. Not only will you need full wiring, heating, plastering and flooring you will likely also have flood damage from the water that should be pumped into the heating system. The total cost of this could be as high as £30,000.

Many of our customers approach us with a property that is empty and many more people leave an empty house on the open market and wait for a buyer to come along. Our advice is simple, if you have an empty property get a quick house sale and give all the above risk to someone else.

One of the most common questions we are asked is how much will we pay for a property and how much under market value do we pay. The answer is generally the same, we will value the property and typically offer 25% under market value. This is a very common figure among Quick house sale companies and in my experience no one is currently paying more that this amount. The thing that sets us apart from the others is that we are honest and transparent throughout. Many companies will say that they will offer up to 90% of the market value for the property but in all cases (that I know of) this is not the case. They will either offer more at the start of negotiations and change the offer prior to completion or they will under value the property and offer 90% of their valuation.

We will not attempt any of the above tricks. We believe we offer a quality honest and transparent service and pride ourselves on the many recommendations our customers make. We will talk you through the value of your house and in many cases we will pay for an independent survey so you can see the true value. No tricks or re-negotiations. This guarantees a smooth transaction and a quick house sale without the worry of it falling through.

House prices have made very little movement in May, increasing by just 0.1%, according to statistics published by the Halifax.

These numbers concur with statistics released by the Nationwide building society in the previous week. Nationwide claimed a little rise of  0.3%.

The small increase in May was preceded by a 1.4% decrease in April, the means that over the quarter property prices are down by 1.2%, while prices fell by -4.2% during the year, the sharpest year-on-year drop since October 2009.

Martin Ellis, housing economist for the Halifax, said: “House prices continue to drift modestly downwards as measured by the underlying trend. Low earnings growth, higher taxes and relatively high inflation are all putting pressure on household finances.

“Confidence is also weak as a result of uncertainty about the economic and employment outlook. These factors are probably constraining housing demand and applying some downward pressure on prices.

“Overall, we expect a moderate improvement in the economy during the remainder of 2011, which combined with continuing low interest rates is likely to support housing demand. This should prevent a further marked fall in prices and help to stabilise property values later in the year.”

Ellis claims that statistics announced by the Royal institute of chartered surveyors show there has been a slight movement in the balance between supply and demand and the amount of property sales increasing in comparison to the amount of unsold houses on agents’ books. But the amount of sales in the first quarter of the year is 5% lower than this time last year – 279,000 in comparison to 293,000, according to statistics from HMRC.

There is still much pessimism from economists in relation to the property market with most expecting property prices to fall during this year.

At quick house sale our opinion remains unchanged, we predict house prices will remain stagnant in the majority of places this year and we do not expect to see a recovery for 2-3 year. We are also still seeing discrepancies between the advertised prices of a property and the amount a surveyor will be prepared to value at.

Statistics published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) indicate the remarkable uplift in the cost of deposits a first time buyer would need to make their first property purchase: from just £12,000 in 2007 to £26,000 today.

This uplift equates to 87% of their median salary in comparrison with 41% 4 years ago.

The CML described this problem as the “biggest challenge” first-time home buyers have to face.

Mortgage consultants have the belief that the lenders are requesting larger deposits because of the fear that borrowers will or may miss payments in the future, due to higher unemployment.

The CML said: “We do not expect there to be a significant increase in first-time buyer activity in 2011 or 2012.  The reality for first-time buyers is that, although there is widespread sympathy for their plight, they are only one of a number of different types of consumer who are experiencing difficulties in challenging housing and mortgage market conditions.”

The majority of first time buyers under 30 now require support from their families in order to make their furst purchase

The reason this is relevant for anyone looking to sell their property is that if the value of your property would mean first time buyers are a proportion of your target market (properties under £100K in West Yorkshire) it could make selling difficult.

If you’re one of the hundreds pf thousands of property owners who have benefited from the all time low interest rates of 0.5% then now really is the time to take stock of your financial affairs. We at Quick house sale are regularly consulting with homeowners who managed to avoid repossession in 2008 – 2010 due to the massive reduction in their monthly mortgage payments that came about as a result of the Bank of England’s unprecedented reduction of the base rate down to just 0.5%.

Homeowners and property landlords who had been previously paying upto £2000 per month on a variable or tracker mortgage found their mortgage payments dropping by up to 2 thirds which allowed them to comfortable maintain a roof over their family’s heads or hold on to that buy-to-let property that was previously losing them money.

With CPI inflation now at 4%, double the government’s target, any people in the know are expecting an imminent increase in base rates and even Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England mentioned in his letter to the Chancellor, George Osborne that he expects rates to rise this year ‘in line with expectations’.

A small rise in interest rates to a still very low rate of 2.5% would make many homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments double and due to this increase in expenditure it stands to reason that many experts are expecting repossessions to increase substantially in 2011

Now would be a good time to honestly assess your finances, can you afford your outgoings if this were to happen? Is your buy to let still profitable at this level? If the answer  to the questions is no and you could be facing repossession as a result, then call Quick house sale today for a free, no obligation offer on your home. As mortgage rates do begin to rise, we expect  house prices to suffer and the offer you receive for your property will not be as high as it could be currently.

Low interest rates and a steady small increase in unemployment have allowed the housing market to make a gentle landing

Some people anticipated in 2008 that the start of recession would lead to total collapse in house prices. However, this was fortunately prevented by lowering interest rates from Five percent to zero point five percent in a short space of time.

In turn, people with a mortgage experienced a sharp decrease in their mortgage payments.

In the 90s we experienced record levels of repossessions caused by high interest rates and a large increase in unemployment.

More recently we have experienced a slow decline within the property market. Applications for mortgages have decreased by over fifty percent since the high point of the property boom. However, property prices are drifting gradually lower even though repossessions are not rising.

This is likely to be due to demand for houses being weak, as people are worried about borrowing money when their budgets have been tightened because of rising living costs and higher taxes. This is also partly due to first time buyers finding it difficult get onto the property ladder and hundred per cent loans now being things of the past.

Please see the quick house sale guide to avoiding repossession if you need help in this area

A recent purchase and refurb for us was a property on Ashbourne Mount (near Peel Park). The property has recently been fully refurbished and is now available to buy, to rent or for a tenant buyer. More pictures will be available soon. If you’re interested in this property please contact us on the number above or speak to Robert Watts at their Highfield road office.