Rural View estate agency recommends a variety of favourite places of interest in Dorset. If you are looking for fun by the sea or an inland adventure, we can help.

A quintessential part of life in the country is the village pub. Once just a place where the yokel locals quenched their thirst with copious pints of beer or cider and you were lucky to get a ploughmans, now just about every pub offers a varied menu and a reasonable choice of wines.

The phrase ‘gastropub’ is now in common use but is perhaps slightly demeaning and dismissive of those hostelries that serve truly great food that has been locally sourced, is fresh and cooked with style, imagination and skill. We would rather describe them as ‘fine dining pubs’ and our region is blessed with having a number of them including some that have come to the positive attention of widely read national restaurant critics.

Local country pubs

For some, a good local can be as influential for when looking to buy a country property as a good school is for others. It is not uncommon to have buyers registering with Rural View saying that they are looking for a house within a five mile radius of the Beckford for example.

We can not claim to have visited every pub on the list below, after all we are far too busy selling and letting our clients’ homes but we would be happy to discuss our personal favourites.

Rural Country Pubs in Wiltshire & Dorset

The UK market is highly localised and as regional village and country property specialists we are well placed to gauge movement in this area. Our intuition ties in with other professionals and bodies, being that the UK market as a whole is set to improve in 2014 and beyond, and that our region is set to similarly grow in terms of price rises and transaction levels.

There has been a marked increase in first time buyers to the market, prompted by Help to Buy and low interest rates. Local new starts are increasing but there is not enough to satisfy demand, resulting in many first time buyers opting to purchase existing homes and onward demand thus being created in our particular market place.

Mortgage finance remains low and is likely to edge up in the latter part of 2014, if not 2015. This will slow the pace of house price rises. However, the UK housing market ended 2013 strongly with mortgage lending rising by 30% in November, according to industry figures, with total borrowing for the year set to exceed expectations and this will continue into 2014.

Improved sentiment, mortgage availability and rising prices will see more sales holding together and Rightmove predicts a 13% transaction improvement nationally on only a 2% listing increase, while RICS forecasts 1.2m sales across the country in 2014, up from 1.05m in 2013.
Our core patch of South Wiltshire, North Dorset, South Somerset and West Hampshire remains a desirable place to live. This will continue to place pressure on the supply of good family houses and will underpin values. We therefore feel it is likely that we will see price rises in this region of around 4-6% in 2014 with slightly increased listing levels, and completed transactions to still improve further. All around 2014 look to be an exciting year in this neck of the woods.

So the festivities are over, the cat has had the turkey and those of us who have relinquished the sofa will be fighting back to normality, having resolved to change our lives for the better.

The Christmas break is when families to come together and discussions at this time often concern what the forthcoming year might bring, including house moves. More elderly parents may be thinking of downsizing, or being gently pressed by their children to do so. Aspirational moves may be toyed with, and timescales will be mooted.

For motivated sellers, the most obvious time to put their property on the market would be the Spring, when bulbs are erupting, and the first hint of green is appearing on the trees. From now on the countryside will only get better until late May/early June when it is considered to be in its prime. But with everyone thinking similar thoughts the competition among properties for sale is often fierce.

The first few months of the year are, let’s face it, pretty depressing and all most of us want to do is hunker down, Moley and Ratty style until the first shoots start to appear. However there is a strong case, especially this year, for launching your property early.

Firstly, because of the late start to the market last year, many sales chains were not completed until the Autumn/early Winter, meaning that numbers of proceedable buyers emerged late in the day. Many of them are still around now, having negotiated delayed completions or decided to rent for six months. These are very motivated buyers, though, and they will be frustrated to have to wait several months before viewing fresh property again.

Secondly, more demand than supply will mean that an agreed sale on your house is more likely and you will be in a strong position to search confidently when the market truly kicks off.

Thirdly, improving conditions and market sentiment means that we can use the lack of competition as a more effective lever in achieving the best possible price for you.

The early bird is always there to catch the worm, but important consideration also has to be given to effective marketing. Presentation is key and waiting for external shots on a crisp winter’s morning is just as crucial as capturing those blue sky moments in the summer. Light filled interiors and blazing fires can be just as appealing as full trees and colourful beds.

So if conversations over Christmas touched on a house move this year, don’t dismiss jumping earlier than convention has always suggested, because this year especially you may just steal that valuable yard on those who wait.

The ideal way to put an estate agent in a dilemma at this time of year is to ask whether as a prospective rural house seller, you should put your home on the market now or to wait until the spring. The reason for the estate agent’s discomfort is that he is more than likely to be desperately short of properties to sell as the year nears its end and would very much welcome some fresh instructions but at the same time knowing that spring is the more usual time to be thinking of launching a sales campaign when the market is traditionally more active.

There are certainly disadvantages in trying to sell a house in December; one of the primary ones being that unless one had the forethought to take them back in the summer, it is more difficult to capture those essential flattering photographs with the low winter sun (when it deigns to appear) being available for only a short time and casting long shadows.

Gardens and the countryside are without doubt less colourful although they are not necessarily completely devoid of interest all together and on a bright winter’s day can be lovely. Frosty or snowbound shots are best avoided and like daffodil filled gardens in March, can date a photograph very quickly although a good estate agent will update seasonal shots at the earliest opportunity.

The other thing of course is that there are fewer buyers around at this time of year but for the seller, there is also less competition. Those purchasers that are hardy enough to venture out on a cold, dark blustery day and are prepared to ignore the distractions of Christmas shopping to go house hunting are often genuine, seriously motivated buyers. This year, certainly, we are seeing plenty of fresh viewers who have recently completed their chains and are keen to complete their rural move.

It is also true that some rural houses can appear positively gloomy in the depths of winter whilst others, once the lights are on, curtains drawn and fires lit, can be quite jolly and cosy. Therefore the age, style and orientation of a property can be quite influential as to whether they are likely to be winter sellers as can be their décor and furnishings.

The circumstances of some vendors, such as those who have found somewhere else to buy, an executors sale, the property is vacant or there is a job move involved means that there may be little choice as to when to market and there will also be some who will have a ‘let’s just get on with it’ attitude.

The counter arguments for waiting until March or April are perhaps more obvious. The spring is a warmer, greener and more upbeat time of the year and by convention is when both house buyers and sellers (most are both) come out of hibernation, leading to a spring ‘buzz’ and more activity.

With positive signs of improvement in the fortunes of the UK economy, there is a feeling that 2014 will see some growth in the housing sector but it is necessary to remain cautious as the continuing weakness of the Euro Zone could hold things back and a long, cold winter might suppress the spring market or stifle it altogether as was the case earlier this year.
So to get back to the original question, do we put our house on the market now or later? The answer is a fence sitting; ‘do it when it suits you’!