Mr and Mrs H had lived in their existing property for twenty five years and now that their family had left home the time was right to down size. The criteria was quite specific, whilst they were moving down market and leaving a good address it was important that the new property still retained good kerb side appeal.
Their concern was that spending less money would limit their options to estate type properties or older properties that had no parking.
After our meeting we had an understanding and feel for their requirements and we commenced the search and gradually built up a short list of suitable properties. We were working to a tight budget and this discounted many of the properties which fitted the profile but not the price.
The idea of village life appealed so we concentrated our search on villages around Tiptree and in particular Messing which has a village green. From Messing you can access Tiptree and Kelvedon within a five minute drive so the location was perfect without being to rural.
A visit to the village paid off and as luck would have it a For Sale Board was just being erected outside a property fronting the green. We made enquiries and immediately added this property to our short list.
We reported to our clients and arranged five viewings from our short list. The Messing town house with period styling was perfect so we arranged a further viewing directly with seller for the following evening. We also checked with the estate agent that there were no other pending viewings.
The following morning our clients had decided that they wanted the property and instructed us to negotiate with the estate agent. After some backwards and forwards negotiations a price was finally agreed. The transaction proceeded smoothly as there was no on onward chain. Our clients were cash buyers so there would be no mortgage valuation. Therefore as standard practice we recommend that a chartered surveyor should carry out an inspection and report. This report confirmed that the property was structurally sound an in good condition. Six weeks later our clients are proud owners of their dream home.