Swindon Estate Agent and Solicitor

[Pulse]

Anyone know any? Or is anyone one?

[DKL]

I can recommend a good solicitor, he does all my home and work bits. Not actually in Swindon but for conveyancing it doesn't make a lot of difference.
I can Pm his details if you would like them.
David

[miniman]

Kevin Dobson at Goughs (Chippenham) is excellent for conveyancing. www.goughs.co.uk

[Pulse]

DKL said:

I can recommend a good solicitor, he does all my home and work bits. Not actually in Swindon but for conveyancing it doesn't make a lot of difference.
I can Pm his details if you would like them.
David

Yes please

[CatherineJ]

Atwell Martin are pretty good estate agents.

[Pulse]

CatherineJ said:

Atwell Martin are pretty good estate agents.

If it all goes through, I think we'll be going with Forefront, since it's just much cheaper. At least £600 cheaper than the next agent. Thanks for the suggestion!

[miniman]

Pulse said:

CatherineJ said:

Atwell Martin are pretty good estate agents.

If it all goes through, I think we'll be going with Forefront, since it's just much cheaper. At least £600 cheaper than the next agent. Thanks for the suggestion!

We paid 1.5% which worked out at around £2,300. Believe me, they worked hard for it, and I don't think for a moment they would have done so for £800. If you think it is going to be a fairly straightforward deal, you might be ok; we knew from the start it would be tough (slightly odd builders who didn't seem to want to sell their houses) so it was money well spent.

I would certainly recommend that you don't go for one of these fixed-price conveyancing deals either, get a proper solicitor. As with the estate agent, mine and his secretary worked hard for their money.

[Pulse]

miniman said:

Pulse said:

CatherineJ said:

Atwell Martin are pretty good estate agents.

If it all goes through, I think we'll be going with Forefront, since it's just much cheaper. At least £600 cheaper than the next agent. Thanks for the suggestion!

We paid 1.5% which worked out at around £2,300. Believe me, they worked hard for it, and I don't think for a moment they would have done so for £800. If you think it is going to be a fairly straightforward deal, you might be ok; we knew from the start it would be tough (slightly odd builders who didn't seem to want to sell their houses) so it was money well spent.

I would certainly recommend that you don't go for one of these fixed-price conveyancing deals either, get a proper solicitor. As with the estate agent, mine and his secretary worked hard for their money.

Should be a fairly simple sale to be honest. Doesn't seem to be anything complicated. I am a bit wary that it's £400 up front, so there's no real incentive to grab for the other £400, but it does considerably lower the costs.

We used a solicitor last time, who was next to useless. Well, slow anyway. Will search around, as I'd want it to be under £1500 total fees for selling and buying.

[CatherineJ]

What's the £400 up front for?

[Pulse]

CatherineJ said:

What's the £400 up front for?

I guess that's why they can do it cheaper, because if people decide they don't want to sell, or the house doesn't sell, then they still gain something from it, rather than losing out all the time.

[DKL]

Pulse you have PM

[stigmundfreud]

On the last 4 house purchases I have used http://www.awdrys.co.uk/ and the service has been so smooth each time (even when dealing with sellers that use the internet 200 quid bottom feeders) that I will only ever use them. Having experienced the absolute bottom of the market I can say these guys are superb.

[splodge s4]

CatherineJ said:

What's the £400 up front for?

The HIP? You dont have to use the estate agents HIP provider to get the HIP, you can look about & get it cheaper. If an estate agent recommends a certain HIP provider then part of the cost of the HIP is commission to the agent.

Its not all about money, often you get exactly what you pay for. Remember to take into account the stamp duty aswell, its 1% of the purchase price for anything over £175k, this goes back to 125k in Jan. I think you said you were looking at 200k in which case you'll pay it anyway, £2,000 unfortunately.

[m444ttb]

Solicitor wise I used Bower & Bailey at Regent Circus for my house. Pretty reasonable given I've never been through the process before.

[stigmundfreud]

REgent circus in London??

Wherever you go, make sure you can drive to their offices if required

[Luckyluciano]

stigmundfreud said:

REgent circus in London??

Wherever you go, make sure you can drive to their offices if required

There is a regent circus in swindon.

[CatherineJ]

Yes and there is a big car park just opposite their offices, they are a client of mine and parking isnt a problem.

[stigmundfreud]

Luckyluciano said:

stigmundfreud said:

REgent circus in London??

Wherever you go, make sure you can drive to their offices if required

There is a regent circus in swindon.

there is, st. A girl I met a few years back asked to meet outside regent circus and she never turned up!!! Fuggnuts

[Pulse]

WTF? Trust Stig to random up the thread

Well, just had another st valuation on the house, so it looks like it's going nowhere unfortunately.

The optimistic side of me says that the 2 commission-based agents want to shift quickly, so it makes sense to price it low (£125k and £128k); and the 1 who takes £400 up front has said high (£137k) due to wanting to bring us in with a great price, just to get the £400 and then make us lower the price...

Unfortunately I'm normally pesimistic, so I reckon we're pretty screwed, since we ideally needed/wanted £135k to move.

[CatherineJ]

Yes that's quite a difference between the mid £120's and £130's. I wouldn't have expected so much disparity.