The Property Sales People

My former premises at 22 Market Place Ely were being worked on again today with the arrival before 8:00am of two guys from Crescent Staircases. When the shop unit was a Launderette the spiral staircase was removed, as the first floor was just one large water tank. When we took over and joined the premises together there was an obligation on the launderette to replace it. We didn’t need two staircases so agreed to take over the responsibility. They look pretty good even in a dark grey primer finish!

I can remember back in 1990/91 when I was with the forerunner of this firm (my god that's nearly 20 years ago!) that we were in the middle of a property market down turn that I personally believe was far worse than the current one. Osbornes Property Services as we were then called was suffering from a serious lack of income that also had a root in a serious lack of good saleable property to sell. We were new, very professional, very keen, very hardworking and very keen to please but no one had heard of us. Our marketing budget was limited - we were skint to be truthful! What did we do? Well we set about making people aware of us by 'canvassing'. I wrote letters to other agents vendors, I dropped leaflets, we advertised as imaginatively as possible saying that even in that market we needed property for sale. Did it work? Yes to a degree and we certainly wound up some of the more established local estate agents who were not keen to lose instructions to newcomers like us. 20 y...

  Paula at TheLittleSIGNCo has completed sign witing the back window of our little Toyota Yaris pool car. Great job and not too expensive! If you need anything sign-wise give her a call on Ely 861740

Looking for lettings information on our web site? You can now link directly to lettingsearch.co.uk and Rightmove rentals from the 'Rentals' tab on our site.

Had an interesting e-mail from Rachel our resident independent mortgage adviser from Bright Advice. The government propose to remove the extension to the stamp duty threshold at the end of the year (currently your purchase price must be over £175,000 in order to attract tax at 1% on the whole price). Rachel is saying that with mortgage applications taking longer to process, in order to get a mortgage offer out and complete the purchase before 31st December, buyers need to be making that application in the month of September. From 1st January the threshold is supposed to go back to £125,000 so virtually everyone will be paying 1% on their purchase - that's £1,750 at £175,000 where currently it's exempt from tax. Call us if you want further information.

In the final days of August we have acquired a new pool car - a one year old Toyota Yaris SR diesel. Amazing little car should do almost 60mpg on diesel fuel. This will make it easier for Barbara and Louise to get to viewings etc. without breaking the bank! I’m thinking about a bit of ‘corporate branding’ but be assured it will be more subtle than some agent’s logo’d vehicles!

Have you got an iPhone? If you do then you are likely to know all about 'apps'. Rightmove have created an app that uses the GPS in your phone to discover exactly where you are on the planet then serve up a listing, with photos, of the properties listed on the site that are very close to you and up to about a mile away. I downloaded it from iTunes the other day while I was waiting for an applicant to show up for a viewing and, lo and behold, the house I was about to show was top of the list! Have a look here http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-you/iphone-application