Here are the reasons why we recommend Cheltenham as a place to live and invest in.

Cheltenham is a superb location and there are many reasons to buy a property in the towns residential areas, whether it’s for your own living requirements, or as an investment. In 2006 the Independent’s property valuation website rated Cheltenham as the most desirable property location in Britain. So it’s no surprise that in 2012, the Guardian found that 41 multi-millionaires live in Cheltenham, which is the forth-highest rate in the UK of multi-millionaires per 100,000 people.

Located on the edge of the Cotswolds, Cheltenham is (according to the AA Illustrated Guide to Britain) the most complete regency town in England. It is famous for the Annual Cheltenham Gold Cup, which is the flagship of British steeplechase racing and hosts several renowned culture festivals including the Cheltenham Literature Festival, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Cheltenham Science Festival and Cheltenham Music Festival. The festivals attract people with national and international reputations in each field.

The famous Spa town offers a wide and varies lifestyle with its variety of bars, café culture and restaurants. The town centre is mostly pedestrianised and has a one of the best selection of independent and designer shops in the area. Centres include the Regent Arcade and Beechwood Shopping Centre and the Cavendish House department store is known for miles around.

Cheltenham Spa railway station is located on the main West Coast line between Bristol and Birmingham. The M5 runs past Cheltenham and offers excellent access to the South West and Midlands. Several A roads cross through the town leading to Oxford, London and Swindon.

Cheltenham has an excellent Employment base. The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is the largest employer in the town and one of the largest in Gloucestershire. Other company headquarters in Cheltenham include Vertaz Data Science, GE-Aviation, Chelsea Building Society, Endsleigh Insurance, Nelson Thornes, Universities & Colleges Admission Service, Kohler Mira, Zurich Financial Services, Sozo and Prirax-Sarco.

There are many residential districts in the town, each with their own character. They include Arle, Benhall, Charlton Kings, Fiddlers Green, Leckhampton, Montpellier, Oakley, Pittville, Pretbury, The Reddings, Rowanfield, St marks, Springbank, Swindon Village, Tivoli, Up Hatherley, Whaddon and Wyman’s Brook.  There are several new developments of New Homes being built in around the Town.

This article was written by Richard Tuck, founder of Turtle Homes who are the best value online estate agent in the UK, with over 5 years experience of selling property online. For more information about buying or selling property in Cheltenham and the UK, please contact our Cheltenham estate agents (online) branch on 01242 530030.

Selling a house can be one of life’s stressful events, especially if you are also buying a house and you want to sell your property fast. This guide will aim to simplify the process step by step. However, more in-depth walkthrough can be found within our guide on how to sell a house online.

1. Preparing your property

First impressions count for everything when it comes selling a property, so it is vital that your house looks at its best for potential buyers.  You will need to maintain the condition from the moment you get valuations until an offer has been accepted.

The external view is the is the first impression to ensure that the gardens are tidy, window frames and doors have a fresh lick of paint and rubbish and rubbish bins are out of site.

Inside the property, create more space by moving some furniture into storage, remove clutter and non-essential items.  Make any minor repairs that are necessary and clean thoroughly from top to bottom.  Include eradicating unpleasant smells and even decorate rooms if necessary.

2. What Price to Ask?

When valuing a property there are three things to bear in mind:

• The property valuation is simply an estimation of what somebody else might pay for it.
• This does not necessarily bear any relation to how much you paid for it, how much money you’ve spent on it since, and how much you need out of the sale.
• Getting the price wrong can damage your chances of a sale.

The most common method of property valuation is by using comparables; you should be able to gain a rough idea by looking a local papers, property websites and similar properties in the area.  Also it is normal practice for a potential buyer to offer a lower price than the asking price, so you will need to allow for an element of negotiating.

However, don’t get greedy, if you price yourself out of the market you will not receive any interest!

3. Marketing

Have a think about how you wish to market your property.  Nowadays there are three options available:

• Sell it yourself
• Online Estate Agent – from £299+VAT
• Traditional Estate Agent – 1.5% – 2% of the asking price.

The main thing to consider is that more than 90% of house hunters search online.  You need to ensure that you are listed on the top property websites in the UK.  The most economical way to do this is by using an online estate agent.

4. Energy Performance Certificate

EPCs are required by law; you won’t be able to market or sell you property without one.  The Energy Performance Certificate consists of two multi-coloured graphs:

• The energy efficiency rating is a measure of the overall efficiency of a home. The higher the rating, the more energy efficient the home is and the lower the fuel bills will be.
• The environmental impact rating is a measure of a home’s impact on the environment in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The higher the rating, the less impact it has on the environment.

5. Property Viewings

The best person to sell your house is the one that knows it the best – you!  Be obliging and flexible when it comes to meeting your buyers.  Don’t turn down a great opportunity.

During the viewing remember that the viewer could be the person that buys your house.  Try and create a good working relationship from the outset.  Offer them a drink but don’t be over-friendly, you don’t want the visitor to think that you are desperate to sell the house.

Make sure that you have as much information to hand as possible.

6. Negotiating

Your own circumstances will play a major role in the negotiation process for the sale of your property.  There are several things to consider:

• How much pressure are you under to sell
• How much demand do you have for your property

Your estate agent will be acting on your behalf to achieve the highest price for your property.  Ensure you discuss and create a strategy for dealing with offers.

7. Legal Process

Once you have accepted an offer you will need to ensure that your finance is arranged for your onward purchase and instruct a solicitor to start the legal process.

How to ensure that your property sells online.

Nowadays, almost anyone that is looking to buy a property will firstly browse the internet.  It is therefore vitally important that your estate agent will advertise your home on as many of the major property websites as possible.

Once listed the secret is ensure that your property stands out from the crowd, and potential viewers actually click on your listing to find out more information.  Once there, if they like what they see, and the description matches your criteria then you have a better chance of gaining a viewing.

So how can you ensure that your property is clicked on rather than somebody elses?

Price

You need to ensure that the price is achievable.  There is no point trying to ask for too much money, you simply won’t generate any viewings.  Ask your agent to provide you with a “Best Price Guide” so you can gauge whether your asking price is competitive.  If it isn’t then potential buyers will simply bypass your listing for one that is.

Presentation

Your property needs to be presented in the best possible light and this needs to be communicated with photographs to potential purchasers.  Ensure that before your estate agent visits that your home is immaculately clean and tidy, not only inside but also externally.  You are planning to move house anyway, so ensure that all clutter and oversized furniture are removed.  Its all about first impressions, if the photographs look appealing the click-through rate will increase.

Property Listing

Ensure that your property is listed on the top property websites, if it isn’t you will be missing out on potential hits. The cheapest way to do this will be to employ an online estate agent.

Summary

Get your price right, get the presentation right, list your property where it will gain the most exposure. 

A big THANK YOU to all of our supporters… we’ve just crossed the 1,000 followers mark on our Twitter account!  If you aren’t following, be sure to follow us on Twitter for all of our latest property instructions and for the chance to earn yourself £50.  We are proud to be the best value online estate agency in the UK and thanks to the extra coverage we get from our social media channels we plan on remaining that way.

To celebrate we will be giving the opportunity for one of our facebook fans to win an iPad 2 in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned to our facebook and twitter account in the coming weeks to find out how!!

According to a recent report by consumer body Which? Choosing an online estate agent instead of a traditional high street estate agent could save you on average more than £3000 in fees.

Another benefit is the fact that a lot more people choose to search for property online rather than visiting the high street.  Recent surveys show that as much as 90% of purchasers find the right property to buy by searching online on property websites.

Despite this, over 90% of vendors currently still employ a traditional estate agent according to the Office of Fair Trading when it comes to selling property.  If you take the example of travel agents and banking then more and more people will use an online estate agent as the advantages become more apparent.

Online estate agents are able to keep their costs down by operating out of a single call centre rather than having a network of local offices.  They don’t have expensive overheads such as high rents, rates and running a fleet of company cars.  By employing the latest computer systems and by advertising through a network of property websites they are able to cover the whole of the UK.  The only drawbacks are that you will have to accompany your own viewings and you do miss out on the local knowledge of the high street agent.  But taking into account the fee savings, that is a small price to pay.

AOL UK owns a portfolio of brands including Walletpop and Daily Finance where daily property related articles will automatically incorporate the property search functionality.

Under the terms of the deal, all properties listed on Zoopla will now also be available on AOL UK.

Zoopla has done earlier deals with MSN, Yahoo, Homes24, Sky and UpMyStreet.

Alex Chesterman, Zoopla’s CEO, said: “We are delighted to add AOL to the list of websites that we partner with.

“This deal provides our members with exposure for their brands and listings to one of the largest online audiences in the UK and provides AOL users with a market-leading property search offering.”

This further increases the number of property portals that turtlehomes.co.uk advertise on.

The construction of a new bypass adds an average of 15% to the value of homes in the town or village that benefits, though local house prices can be boosted by as much as 30%.

A report by property adviser Savills’s residential research team analysed the impact of house prices in 24 locations where a bypass has been opened in the past ten years.

The team has studied house sales recorded by the Land Registry to calculate the uplift in value for affected properties before and after the construction of the bypass.

Overall, residents of towns and villages freed from the blight of through-traffic thanks to the construction of a bypass gain an average 15.3% boost to the value of their homes in addition to any underlying market-led price movement in the wider area.

The report also found this value boost occurs very soon after construction and prices then revert to behaving in line with average price movements within their region. A study of properties bought and resold within two years before and after the opening of a bypass showed an almost immediate average 13.8% boost to values.

This contrasts with other major transport improvements where there is usually a degree of property speculation when the project is announced, followed by progressive price growth, as wealthier demand is drawn to an area over time in anticipation of improved connectivity. In the case of a bypass, the traffic blight remains until the bypass opens and values appear to remain suppressed as a result.

Lucian Cook, director of Savills research, said: “Clearly, properties closest to main thoroughfares will benefit most from a bypass but this research shows that a bypass can lift the appeal of a town or village as whole.”

Online banking, shopping delivered to your door, holidays booked with the click of a button!  From ebay to Amazon, the power of the internet has evolved the way in which we buy and sell.

With 84% of active home movers starting their search for property online the internet is a must have tool for any modern estate agency.  The internet has now become the main driver of viewing leads for estate agents.  Portals and websites such as rightmove, findaproperty, primelocation and zoopla have become essential in the ever growing battle for market coverage.

Online estate agents capitalise on being able to market property effectively but without the associated high overheads of a high street office.  These cost savings are can then be passed onto the customer yet still providing a professional service.

Online estate agents by their nature are also able to successfully sell property across the whole of the UK.  The infinite coverage of the internet means that they do not need to be area specific.

The service offered generally only differs only slightly from a high street, with the vendor having to set his own price and accompany their own viewings.  A small price to pay if you want to save thousands of pounds.

The online agent will still produce colour photos, floor plans, property brochures, a for sale board, extensive internet coverage, arrange viewings and provide feedback, and sales progression.

There is a new breed of estate agents that are now offering a cheaper alterative to using a traditional estate agent.

We have identified five distict advantages of using an online estate agent:

Low Fees

Traditional estate agents are burdened with high street rents and rates and are have systems which are labour intensive.  These costs are passed onto the vendor with fees averaging between 1.5 and 2% for selling your property.  Online estate agents are often low cost operations and are able to pass huge savings to customers as a result with many charging as little as £600 to sell your property.  In many cases this will result in fee savings totalling thousands of pounds.

Internet Coverage

Recent surveys show that almost 90% of buyers find there property on the internet.  Online estate agents offer the best internet coverage and will list your property on all of the major property portals along with the leading social media websites.  Traditional estate agents tent to focus their marketing on the local area and quite often ignore some of the major online sources of enquiry.

UK Coverage

Online estate agents by their nature are able to market property across the whole of the UK and are not limited to a small radius of there office location. 

Latest Technology

By utilising the latest technology and software packages online estate agents are able to streamline the service that they offer to provide the best possible service.  Many online agents offer a vendors area of the website which allows you to simply login to view property statistics and inspect your property details.

Flexibility

By using an online estate agent you will have a lot more flexibility and control over the marketing of your property.  You will be able to choose your marketing price, select which photographs are displayed and even have a say in your property description although it must comply with the Property Misdescriptions Act.

What are QR Codes?

They look like this:

QR codes are very common in Japan and can be used to put a piece of information and put it on your smart phone.  QR is short for Quick Response (they can be read quickly by a samrt phone).

They are much more useful than a standard bar code because they can store (and digitally present) much more data, including url links, geo coordinates, and text.  The other key feature of QR codes is that instead of requiring a chunky hand-held scanner to scan them, many smart phones can scan them.  The full Wikipedia description is here.

How can these help sell my house?

It is still early days and in the UK we are only just scratching the surface of how they can be used.  To start with online estate agents turtlehomes.co.uk have added a QR code to each of out sets of property details.  This means that by scanning the code (as above), anyone reading a set of details can quickly access turtlehomes.co.uk using their mobile phone. 

How does this help sell my house? I hear you ask.  Well once the website is displayed on the phone a whole host of interactive information is available to the user - virtual tours, floorplans, ability to arrange a viewing and so forth.  In a tough housing market, it may just persude a buyer to view your property rather than another.

As QR codes become more recognised you will see then on our “For Sale” boards with an individual codes linking directly to information about the property.  You will also see them on business cards.