All's well that ends well

Mon 22 Oct 2018

"Superb from start to finish. They worked very much as a team, all the staff knew the details of our sale whenever we contacted them. They were informative, supportive and completely unbiased: several years ago, they valued our property, and, hearing our circumstances, suggested we keep the flat in our possession. With this in mind, we later approached them to sell the property, and through a very difficult process, including a lease extension and lengthy repairs, they have been as patient and helpful as they were when we first spoke to them five years before. I don't know the standard of other estate agents in Bournemouth, but if anyone else comes close I'd be amazed. Thank you Karen, Margaret and Leigh."

Seeing our latest testimonial led us to looking back on what turned out to be quite an exceptional sale, of a two bedroom first floor flat, one of two in a converted building.

We pride ourselves on taking a long term approach to building lasting relationships with potential sellers and buyers, and this sale typified that approach in so many regards.

As mentioned by this seller, when we first went to see their property, it was our view that it was not the right time for him to sell the property.  We recommended a local independent rental agency, who let the property out successfully.   Whilst the property was rented out, the seller dealt with extending what was by then a fairly short lease, and that turned out to be quite a protracted procedure.  However, eventually it was concluded and it was time for us finally to market the flat for sale.

A buyer was found, but then it turned out it was not going to be a straightforward sale at all.  Access to the rear of the building had not been possible for some years due to a rather reclusive tenant of the ground floor flat and it turned out that there were some rather serious structural issues.  The buyer was prepared to wait, but again it took much longer than expected to resolve all the issues as a lot of work was required.  As the seller lives away, we liaised with freeholder’s agent, insurance assessor and structural engineer to try and hurry things along.

In the meantime, the buyer’s current rental agreement was coming to an end, so we suggested to our seller that he rent the flat to the buyer whilst matters progressed to the point where the sale could be concluded.  This suited both parties, as the buyer had somewhere to live and the seller received some rent.

We stuck to the task and eventually the sale completed, to everyone’s relief and delight!    We never like to give up, but this has been a fairly extreme case.  However, with our experienced team we were able to ensure a good result – All’s well that ends well!