There are two distinct types of occasional occupiers who own lock-up-and-leave properties, each with specific criteria, but both with similar concerns to address.
One is the escapee from London and the Home-Counties, looking for a more serene and uplifting existence. This particular neck of the woods is attracting ever more interest from such a purchaser and now is not a bad time to buy.

The other is the habitual traveller who needs to have a home that they can be confident of enjoying every time they return to it.
So what makes a good bolthole? Ideal properties are often those with close neighbours and communal grounds such as Wardour Court near Tisbury or The Lattiford Estate near Wincanton. There are, however, a few overriding factors that any seeker of such a property will have to consider:

Convenience – The property has to be conveniently located, not only to reach, but also for the everyday activities, interests and amenities that its owners will want to enjoy. Will they want to jump in a car every weekend or be more content to use the train and walk to their house? Tisbury and Castle Cary are ideal locations for the latter choice with their mainline stations and boutique shops, while for those opting to drive, a location within striking distance of the A303 is valuable. A good local Inn is a requirement for many people, as are nearby leisure facilities and shops.

Security – So important if the property is going to be empty for long periods of time. Ideally it should have close neighbours or a community who can keep an eye on it and a very good security system. A property on its own, in the middle of nowhere is courting trouble. Insurance should also be carefully considered and many insurers will have specific demands.

Maintenance – The property should ideally be up together and if it is a period house it should have an ongoing maintenance routine to keep it in top shape. It is amazing how a small lapse in upkeep can cause major problems down the line. There is a balance to be had between period charm and modern practicality and these need to be weighed carefully before commitment. The garden will also be an issue and should be regularly maintained so that every visit need not be taken up with sheer hard work.

Communication – Occasional occupiers may not feel the need to pay for a landline rental which means that a good mobile reception is normally essential. There are pockets which are renowned for their poor reception, but this needn’t be a deal breaker as signal boosters are efficient and not too expensive.

If you are an occasional occupier and need some help there are specific managers of second homes around who can provide piece of mind in the majority of cases. Services include routine visits, maintenance, gardening, cleaning, fridge filling and more. Alternatively a simple empty property management service can cover the essentials, ensuring that the time that you do spend in your bolthole is valuable and stress free.

Many times over the years we have shown properties where potential buyers have been deterred because there is no room for particular items of furniture.

If you have inherited any furniture or furnishings, then you will know what I am talking about; possession, pride, love, guilt and duty all unite to form a resolute determination to hang on to Granny’s bookcase at all costs, even if you don’t particularly like it.
Last month a client related the story of her maiden Great Aunt who, nearing her end, invited family into her house to divide among them the furnishings that she would be leaving behind. Following a few hours of tactful diplomacy and the odd envious glance at each others’ choices the great nieces and nephews came away with car boots stuffed to the gills. My client recently visited such a cousin who had the walls of his not-so-large sitting room stacked with Georgian secretaries, tallboys and chests. They didn’t fit with the style of his 1980’s suburban house, they were splitting because of the pumped up central heating and you could barely move for the bank of brown furniture. When she asked him why he had taken so many pieces, his response was that nobody else had room for them.
A couple of years ago a viewer of a decent sized farmhouse in Dorset seemed to love all about it, but hesitated as we chatted on the drive after the viewing. He was concerned, it seemed, that the landing and stairwell walls wouldn’t take his collection of six foot canvasses, mostly oil portraits that had been passed down to him and his siblings. He didn’t buy it in the end and as far as I know he is still looking.

We also sold a house recently where a substantial oak dresser took pride of place in a relatively small dining room. Inherited from three generations down, the piece, although lovely, took up half the room, meaning that one side of the dining table could hardly be sat at. The owners had been meaning to sell it on but couldn’t bring themselves to do it and this made me wonder whether prior generations had felt the same.

It can be a foreboding step to part with inherited furniture that stirs sentimental memories. It is so important, however, to create space when selling on a house and large pieces of furniture in small rooms simply don’t help. By the same token, house buying, whether downsizing or changing style, should be an adaptable experience and if the house is almost perfect, but for the lack of space for that inherited linen press, then you just have to weigh up what is most important to your lifestyle. After all, it’s you who has to live it.

While there is some caution in the current property market, there are actually some positives out there if you are considering selling your home in 2012. And here are some of them:

Focus: You can almost guarantee that those people viewing your property will be serious Buyers. In the past, window shopping was part of the game and ‘Sunday drivers’ made up a good percentage of the viewing public. Today’s Buyers, however, know what they want and aren’t about to waste your, or their time. We have logged a distinct shift in viewing patterns over the last year or so where viewing numbers have fallen, but quality has risen. After all, would you rather have twenty snoopers tramping through your Kitchen or five serious prospects?

Prepared: Today’s Buyers are organised and have their finances arranged in principal. They will have consulted with a Broker or gone directly to a Lender and will have a clear indication of their borrowing ability. More importantly, the Lender will have looked at the applicant’s criteria and given the nod in principal, subject to survey and valuation. It is generally expected that if they are dependent on a mortgage, Buyers should be in this position before viewing any properties. If they are not organised, the Agent should not be encouraging them to view.

Effort: Because transaction levels are far less than in the heady boom years, every sale is important to all with an interest in it. Gone are the days when income was rolling in for those involved in the property industry – it is now tough and any fall through hurts. You will therefore find that Agents, Mortgage Brokers and Solicitors are now working just that little bit harder to hold sales together, because they will earn nothing, or at best very little, if the deal collapses in an undignified heap.

Negotiation: Like it or not, Vendors are often at the mercy of the Buyer’s whims. The occasional property still creates enough interest to reverse this state and leave the Vendor holding the cards, but in general we are in a Buyers’ market and negotiations are often tough. The positive side of the coin, however, is that onward transactions can be just as robust with Vendor becoming Buyer, and satisfaction can be had seeking out a deal that restores any perceived loss in the sale.

Marketing: There is a fair amount of property for Buyers to pick from and run-of-the-mill houses are often overlooked. Faced with two similar houses, but one with better photos, description and size of advertising box, it is obvious which one a Buyer will want to view. The better Agents are taking this on board and concentrating more on presentation and imaginative marketing. We have turned around the marketing of particular properties that had been on the market elsewhere for ages, and been swamped with interest, so we know it can be done. Again, the market is forcing a try-harder attitude which can’t be all bad.

Beyond the baked bread, fresh coffee and gentle Mozart drifting in the background, there is a myriad of emotional, practical and sensitive issues that need to be tackled if you are to sell your house successfully. And here are just some of them:

Take advice from your estate agent

The best Agents are there to help, acting in the best interests of their clients rather than concentrating on their balance sheets, and you should accept the advice that they give you. Any business is as good as its reputation and referrals would soon dry up if an Agent kept getting it wrong, so trust what you are told and be prepared to act upon it.

Iron out property problems early on

You should know your property well enough to know where any problems lie, so share these with your Agent before you begin marketing, after all, everybody suffers if a last minute glitch emerges causing the collapse of a deal.  Areas to mention include restrictive covenants, rights of way, structural issues, boundary disputes and building regulations. Early knowledge and the chance to put things right will save heartache later on.

Step back emotionally

This is often easier said than done, especially if your home has years of happy memories, or you take great pride in what you have created there. Wherever your emotions lie, you have to detach yourself and treat the sale as that of a commodity. One man’s meat is another man’s gravy and a buyer may look at your property from a completely different perspective. I’ve often heard clients say that they want to sell their house to a family they like. Sadly, we don’t have that luxury anymore, so as long as the buyer can complete a purchase at an acceptable level, then that is the person to sell to.

Let the Agent do the Viewings

Agents are very good at showing people around houses because they are salespeople . Not in the sense of the hard sell, but more in knowing which buttons to press and when. Viewers also need to relax and take their time and it is very difficult to do so if the owner is there and the feeling is one of intrusion, so take the dog for a walk or pop to the shops. Try also to always insist that the negotiator dealing with your house is the one to show it, rather than viewing staff. They know it best and can talk turkey if it comes down to on-the-spot negotiations.

Accept market conditions

The property boom is over and we are in a fragile market. If you want to sell your house and move on you have to accept the economic conditions and position the marketing of your property accordingly. Buyers are buying and will continue to buy, but they are reluctant to pay what they consider to be over the odds. Take your Agent’s advice, find the right buyer at the right price for the prevailing conditions and move on. You will be able to negotiate just as hard on a purchase, and if you rent and wait for the right house to come up, you could be quids in.

Following the gradual erosion of confidence in the latter part of 2010, 2011 turned out to be a tricky year for residential sales. Transaction levels were badly knocked and a buyers’ market swiftly evolved making negotiations challenging. While there were some very good buyers around, they were cautious and for the most part there were plenty of properties for them to choose from.  A disparity between Vendors’ and Buyers’ expectations became evident with  offers generally 5% – 10% below guide prices, causing a slow and reluctant correction in pricing for some properties.  While those Vendors with an urgency to sell did so, many others disregarded any interest at reduced levels. Of course, some highly geared homeowners are caught between a rock and a hard place with the threat of negative equity hanging over them, while others may simply be content to sit back and wait for better news.

The pool of ready and able buyers has greatly diminished since pre-crunch days. It has been reduced to true cash buyers and those who can afford a hefty deposit while satisfying tight lending criteria. Many buyers are downsizing financially and moving house to realise capital and improve lifestyle, but they still have to sell their own properties and chains are liable to collapse. Steering an agreed sale to exchange of contracts is therefore often an achievement.

Buyers who are able to act now are increasingly risk adverse. They are also taking plenty of time to make decisions because they think that there may be a better property around the corner; this can be a dangerous stance, however. Houses in the best locations are selling very well because that is what everyone is looking for. We have plenty of families waiting for uncompromised, semi-rural period houses, for instance, but they are rare and when they do become available there is always a scrum; the message to buyers, therefore, is widen your horizons and accept that there is no such thing as the perfect house.

So what of the next twelve months? The wider economic picture is affecting confidence and it is confidence that drives markets. There is little certainty as to where interest rates may be this time next year (although it is quite possible they may not have changed), unemployment is rising, measures to cut the national deficit is biting, lending is tight and Europe will be unresolved for a good while yet. The underlying problems are far from over, so it is unlikely that 2012 will fare any better. We can see a similar market this year, perhaps still with slight downward pressure on prices.

There remains an active market, however, so the key to selling is the same as for 2011 – sensible pricing, attention to good marketing and an open mind.