This might be a trifle premature but after three years of a fairly stagnant housing market, it seems to have woken up over the last couple of weeks. Rural View have been busy not only registering new buyers, arranging viewings and receiving offers but we have also had a tranche of new instructions come our way with more properties due to be launched to the market over the coming days. Let’s hope this is not a false dawn but a positive return to an active housing market!
Our properties can be viewed here on our website

Red Lion House is a handsome Grade II Listed house that once served as one of the many coaching inns that flourished in Hindon when the village was an important staging post between Exeter and London from the 18th to mid-19th Century. The present mainly Georgian building replaced a previous one on the site that dated back to at least 1711 before being destroyed in the Great Fire of Hindon in 1754. From the regency era up to the present day it has been extended and altered and also used as a rectory, surgery and more recently, a much loved family home.

The present owners have undertaken a painstaking refurbishment, carefully sourcing age-related fittings such as the reclaimed fireplaces to ensure they are true to the period. At the same time the property has been stylishly extended, altered and modernised with a great deal of care so that the new additions harmonise with the original period features and design. The result is the creation of a very special home that is both full of character and ideal for contemporary living.

The accommodation includes three reception rooms, an elegant hall and a magnificent light and airy open plan ‘hub-of-the-house’ living space comprising a kitchen with Aga, breakfast room and an orangery/sitting room. Four of the six bedrooms have en-suite facilities whilst two also have dressing rooms. The second floor has a large family room and a study with scope to utilise it as a flat or Airbnb opportunity. The good-sized basement has a workshop, wine cellar, secure store and boiler room.

An undoubted feature are the extensive, delightfully landscaped grounds that extend to around 0.57 of an acre and are arranged as a series of Gertrude Jekyll like garden rooms. They are surrounded by a mix of old brick and stone walls, some of which are thought to have come from the remains of William Beckford’s Fonthill Abbey which collapsed in the 1820s.

There is ample parking and a triple bay garage with a hay loft over. The detached former coach house has been sympathetically converted for use as a guest annexe, office or staff accommodation and has a sitting room/kitchen, garden room, bedroom and en-suite shower room.

Rural View are marketing Red Lion House with a guide price of £1.35 million and can be contacted on 01722 716895 for more information.

If you thought that selling property by auction was the last resort for a desperate vendor to get rid of shabby, vermin invested dive, a bank offloading its stock of repossessions or a family wanting to move from a severely compromised house on the North Circular, think again! Many sellers are turning to auction as an alternative way of selling their homes and many properties sold by this method are actually high-end houses in good condition and in favourable locations.
As progressive agents keen to increase the range of services we provide to our clients, Rural View have teamed up with a well established and experienced Auction House to launch our own branded auction department.
Traditionally auctions have been held in a venue such as a hotel conference room at a predetermined day and time with bidders either physically present, at the end of a telephone or represented by the members of the auction team by proxy via written bidding instructions. At the fall of the hammer, contracts are deemed to have exchanged and there is a legally binding commitment to complete the transaction, usually in 28 days.
In modern times, online auctions have become increasingly popular as they offer the seller flexibility and control of the process and with Rural View Auctions there is the option that it’s commission free.
So why is the popularity of property auctions on the rise? The answer is multiple; speed, security, price, cost and transparency.
SPEED – Timing is a key factor for many auction sellers. As long as the reserve price is achieved, their property will be sold on the auction day or earlier and completion will be set 28 days or if they prefer, 56 days later.
SECURITY – Rather than the period of anxiety in a standard private treaty sale between accepting an offer and exchanging contracts, there is the certainty that when the digital hammer goes down, the sale is secure. Having already carried out their pre-sale checks and surveys, the buyer is financially committed to their purchase and pays a non-refundable deposit and/or reservation fee.
PRICE – The property is only sold if it meets or indeed exceeds the reserve price set by the seller unless they agree to accept a lesser amount. The starting bid price is advertised at a more competitive level so as to encourage interest from buyers and generate competing bids to ensure that the best price is achieved.
TRANSPARENCY- The process is transparent with both the vendor and prospective buyers aware of the bids being made. Our proactive auction team is there to guide and advise both the seller and purchaser every step of the way.
COST – Vendors have the option of selling at auction without incurring estate agency or auction commission fees which will effectively be paid by the buyer through an additional reservation fee.
The only costs the vendor will occur prior to a sale will be for a legal sale pack that contains all the documentation required to process a sale including the searches. Sellers can use their own solicitor to do this but we have access to partner solicitors who specialise in this type of work and can produce complete packs within days for a highly competitive price. There will be subsequent solicitor’s conveyancing costs to be paid.
If selling your property by auction sounds like a tempting proposition and you want to find out more about it, give us a call on 01722 716895.

Rural View 29.3.19

For a bit of Christmas fun, we have devised a quiz asking you to name the 10 people below who during their lifetime had associations within an area covering a 20 miles radius of Tisbury. The first 5 you will need to identify them from their portraits and the second 5 from objects or places they are connected with.

There’s a magnum of champagne up for grabs for one lucky winner! Don’t forget to answer the tie-breaker.

A – E : NAME THESE PEOPLE WITH CONNECTIONS TO THIS AREA*

A

B

C

D

E

F – J : NAME THE ‘LOCAL’* PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH THESE OBJECTS & PLACES

F

G

H

I

J

TIE BREAKER :
WHEN YOU HAVE ‘UNLOCKED’ THE NAME FOR PICTURE J TELL US WHAT THE CONNECTION IS
& THE SIGNIFICANCE OF 2018

Send us your answers for A – J & the Tie Breaker by
12.00pm Thursday 20th December

Email: admin@ruralview.co.uk
Post: 5 Manor Farm, Chilmark, Salisbury SP3 5AF

The question regularly asked by prospective house sellers is whether it is a good idea to market one’s home over the winter months or is best to wait until spring?

Traditionally the spring/early summer has been regarded as the prime selling season but in recent years the peaks and troughs between the usual ebb and flow of activity in the housing sector over the course of the year have been much shallower. Indeed, it could be said that that the old rules no longer apply in that over the last few years there have been seasons when the market is normally busy which have turned out to be quiet and other times when it is usually quiet but have actually been busy. In 2016 for example, our most productive trading period by far was the last quarter of the year, i.e. autumn/winter.

The unsettling effect of the current febrile political atmosphere surrounding Brexit is likely to rumble on for some time yet and the market in 2019 is likely to be as uncertain as it has been in 2018. Despite predictions at the start of the year and contrary to what has been happening in the London and Home Counties, prices in the South Wiltshire/North Dorset area have remained firm.

This is partly explained by the lack of properties on the market locally coupled with demand remaining healthy and this has helped to shore up prices. Other factors are that people still need to move despite what is happening in the World and also this region is increasingly regarded as an attractive place to live.

It could be argued that with the political and economic situation only likely to become even more chaotic it is better to sell now rather than later. Furthermore, with fewer properties on the market during the winter there are fewer competitors than there might be in the spring. It is also worth bearing in mind that the Christmas holiday season is when the property portals record their highest levels of search activity.

Many years of experience has taught me that the quality of buyers house hunting over the winter months is as good if not better than at other times. After all, few would want to venture out visiting properties on a cold day in December or January unless they are genuinely serious about finding a new home.

A concern for some about going on the market at this time of the year is that their gardens do not look at their best but on a crisp sunny winter’s day good, flattering photographs can still be taken. Indeed, when it comes to viewings, some houses can actually look at their homeliest with cosy fires going and subtle lighting on.

Whereas the time of year was once a key deciding factor when to put their homes on the market, nowadays this is less important. Future trading conditions are likely to be an unknown quantity for some time to come and so my advice to prospective vendor clients is to take the plunge when it suits them and their onward plans but without the benefit of a crystal ball, it may turn out to be better to do so sooner rather than later.

MM
Rural View
Nov 2018