Author: adamh

Is Now a Good Time to Sell in Scraptoft?(Late Summer 2026)

Posted on by adamh

Yes, I believe there is still a good market for the right homes in Scraptoft, but buyers are being noticeably more selective than they were during the more frantic years of the property market.

Homes that are sensibly priced, well presented and marketed properly are still attracting buyers. Where properties tend to struggle is when the asking price gets too far ahead of what buyers can justify against the other homes available locally.

What does the data tell us?

Looking at completed sales recorded by Zoopla, the average sold price for a property in Scraptoft over the last 12 months is currently £323,691.

There is, however, quite a difference between property types. Detached homes have averaged around £393,775, semi-detached homes £286,622 and terraced properties around £280,000. Zoopla’s figures are based on HM Land Registry data, so there can be a delay before the most recent completions appear.

For me, that variation is more useful than the headline average.

Scraptoft isn’t really one single housing market. It has older houses and bungalows around the established parts of the village alongside substantial areas of modern development, and the type of buyer looking at each can be very different.

What I’m seeing on the ground

Scraptoft is one of the areas I work in most regularly.

A buyer looking for a three or four-bedroom family house here might compare homes around Pulford Drive and the surrounding modern developments with properties in Thurnby, Bushby and Houghton-on-the-Hill.

That means sellers aren’t only competing with the house three doors away.

They’re competing for attention with everything else that buyer could reasonably purchase within a few miles.

I’m currently preparing a three-bedroom semi-detached home on Pulford Drive at around £325,000. That sits close to the overall Scraptoft average, but the more important question is what somebody buying that particular type of home can choose from at a similar price.

At the other end of the market, larger detached houses in Scraptoft attract an entirely different audience.

This is why I think using an average house price to value an individual home can be misleading.

Why some homes outperform others

The properties generating the strongest response tend to have three things in common.

Firstly, the asking price feels credible.

Secondly, they present well online.

And thirdly, buyers can immediately understand what makes that particular property different from everything else they’re seeing.

The first few weeks of a property launch are particularly important. That’s when the property is new to the market, buyers receive their alerts and the home has the best opportunity to build momentum.

If the asking price is too ambitious during that period, the danger isn’t simply that it doesn’t sell. Buyers can start to question why it has remained available.

Presentation matters when buyers have choice

Two properties can appear almost identical on paper and generate completely different responses.

Professional photography, video, a well-considered description and a clear understanding of the property’s strongest features can all influence whether somebody stops scrolling and books a viewing.

A home backing onto open countryside should be marketed differently from a similar-sized house with an exceptional kitchen extension, landscaped garden or particularly good position.

The job of the marketing is to make that difference obvious.

So, is now a good time to sell in Scraptoft?

For the right property at the right price, yes.

I wouldn’t base the decision to sell purely on whether average prices have risen or fallen by a few percentage points. I’d look at your particular type of property, what is currently competing with it and how much demand exists at your likely price point.

That’s where a genuinely local valuation becomes much more useful than an online estimate.

I work regularly throughout Scraptoft and the surrounding East Leicestershire villages and am constantly speaking with homeowners and buyers in the area.

If you’re considering selling in Scraptoft and would like an honest view of how your property would sit in today’s market, I’d be very happy to come and take a look – just contact me via my profile.

Why Won’t My House Sell in Peterborough? What Changed on a Five-Bed on Dogsthorpe Road (2026)

Posted on by adamh

A five-bedroom detached house on Dogsthorpe Road had been on and off the market since March 2024 with two established high street agents, both at £550,000, without selling. We relaunched it in January 2026 at £500,000 with new photography and a block of viewings in the first week. Three buyers came through in the first fortnight, and it sold.

282 Dogsthorpe Road is the sort of property that should sell itself. Heavily extended, five bedrooms, three reception rooms, a re-fitted kitchen diner, three bathrooms, driveway and garage. It’s a genuine family house with enough space for a growing family or two generations under one roof.

On paper it had everything. It still sat for the best part of two years.

By the time it came to me, the house had spent well over a year in front of the local market at a price buyers had quietly declined. That’s the real cost of getting a launch wrong. It isn’t the weeks you lose — it’s that every serious buyer in Peterborough looking in that bracket had already seen it, scrolled past it and formed a view. Relaunching a house that everyone has already dismissed is a much harder job than selling one nobody has seen.

The previous photographs didn’t help. They were dark, and for a house whose main selling point is space and light, that was doing real damage before anyone picked up the phone.

Pricing at £500,000 wasn’t going cheap

Dropping to £500,000 sounds like the obvious move, and vendors are understandably wary of it. But it wasn’t a decision to accept less. It was a decision to price where buyers would actually compete, rather than where the house had already proved they wouldn’t.

There’s a difference between a price that leaves room for negotiation and a price that stops the phone ringing altogether. At £550,000 the house had gone almost two years without an offer. A property that no one views can’t be negotiated up. One that three people want can.

Booking the viewings in a block

The other change was how we handled the launch. Rather than drip viewings out over several weeks as enquiries trickled in, we held them and booked them together. On this one the block landed within a day of the house going live.

That matters more than it sounds. When buyers view sequentially over a month, each one goes away to think about it with no sense that anyone else is interested, and “we’ll have a think” becomes the default answer. When three people walk through on the same day and see each other in the driveway, the conversation changes. You’re not asking someone whether they like the house — you’re asking whether they want it more than the couple who just left.

Three buyers viewed in the first two weeks. The sale was agreed and it completed.

What I’d take from it

Two things, and they apply well beyond this house.

Presentation and price do most of the work before anyone arrives. Dark photography on a price the market has rejected doesn’t get rescued by more portal spend or a bigger board. Both had to change here, and changing them changed the response immediately.

Your best chance of selling is in the first four weeks. That’s when your listing is new to everyone watching the market, and it’s the only window where you can create genuine competition. Once a house has been sitting for six months, buyers stop asking what it’s worth and start asking what’s wrong with it. Block viewings aren’t a gimmick — they’re how you use that window properly.

The house didn’t change. The way it was brought to market did.

Thinking of selling in Peterborough?

If your house is currently on the market and not moving, or you’re about to launch and want to get the first four weeks right, I’m happy to give you an honest view on where it should be priced and what needs to change before it goes live.

Book a valuation here

Buying a New Build? Look Beyond the Show Home

Posted on by adamh

A lot of my work involves looking at new-build developments from the other side of the table, from pricing to how plots and schemes get positioned before they reach a buyer. It means I probably look at a show home differently to most buyers because I see how much of what you experience on a visit has been built to create a particular impression.

That’s not a criticism. It’s just worth knowing, because it changes what’s worth paying close attention to.

Why Two Identical House Types Can Have Very Different Prices

Walking a development, it’s easy to assume price differences between plots are roughly proportional to size, or come down to which one you prefer. In the pricing work I do, it’s rarely that simple.

Garden size, aspect, position relative to other plots, whether it backs onto open space or another house, and even the view from the rear windows are all things I factor into plot-by-plot pricing.

That’s useful to know as a buyer because the premium you’re asked to pay for a plot usually has a reason behind it, even if nobody explains it. It’s worth asking why one plot costs meaningfully more than a similar one nearby. Often there’s a good reason. Sometimes there isn’t, and that’s worth knowing before you commit.

Incentives Are Usually Protecting the Asking Price, Not Softening It

One thing I see consistently in how new-build schemes are sold is that developers strongly prefer offering incentives – upgraded specification, flooring packages or a contribution towards costs – over reducing the headline price.

There’s a good commercial reason for that. Every sale on a development sets a reference point for the next one, and for future resales, so protecting the headline figure helps protect the value of every other home on the site.

For a buyer, that means it’s worth looking at the whole deal rather than focusing only on the asking price. Flooring, upgraded specification or a contribution towards costs all have real value, but work out what they’re actually worth to you and weigh that against the price you’re paying, rather than thinking the number on the board is the whole conversation.

The Show Home Plot Is Often Chosen for Logistics, Not Just Looks

It’s easy to assume the show home is simply the developer’s best plot, picked to set a flattering tone for the rest of the site. Just as often, it comes down to the build programme.

A show home needs to finish early and sit on a safe route that avoids the active building site, often a plot near the entrance or on a completed early phase, not necessarily the one with the best garden or aspect.

The plot on show and the plot with your name on it are two different things, so it’s worth asking directly what differs between the showcase plot and your own, rather than assuming one tells you much about the other.

The Show Home Can’t Fix Decisions Made Long Before It Was Dressed

This is the point I’d weigh most heavily. Floor plans, room sizes, bedroom mix, parking and garden size are set at the planning stage, long before paint colours or staging furniture. By the time a show home opens, those decisions are locked in.

A well-dressed show home can make a layout feel more generous than it will day to day, for the twenty minutes you’re standing in it with someone else’s furniture doing the work.

So it’s worth looking past the styling to what doesn’t change once you move in: how the rooms flow, where the storage is, and whether the parking and garden are genuinely usable rather than just present. Those are the things you’ll still be living with long after the show home furniture and sales flags have disappeared.

What Else Is Coming, and What That Means for You

This is somewhere I can add real value because I spend a lot of time looking at planning applications, development sites and land.

I’d want to understand the planning history of the development itself, whether the current phase is part of a larger consent, and what later phases could contain.

I’d also look at what’s happening on neighbouring land, whether anything nearby is allocated for development, being promoted through the local plan, or already has an application in for more homes.

A view across open countryside feels very different if that same land already has permission, or is likely to get it, for more homes.

It’s worth thinking too about future new-build competition, since that affects price and how long a resale takes. Planning applications and allocations are public information, and it’s a far more useful conversation to have before you buy than after.

If I were buying a new-build home tomorrow, I’d spend far less time in the show home, and more time asking about the specific plot: why it’s priced the way it is, what genuinely differs from the plot on show, and what’s already committed for the wider site.

The show home tells you what the developer wants you to feel. The plot, the planning history and what’s happening around it tell you what you’re actually buying.

What Is Development Land Actually Worth? Why GDV Is Only the Starting Point

Posted on by adamh

One thing the land work I’ve been doing recently has really reinforced for me is how misleading GDV can be on its own. It’s an important number, but it doesn’t tell you what the land itself is worth, and I’ve seen that in a few recent appraisals where small changes to the assumptions underneath it produced very different answers.

A good chunk of my work involves looking at viability from the developer’s side, working out what a scheme can support once build costs, fees, finance and risk are factored in. Two schemes with the same GDV can land on very different residual values depending on what’s underneath them.

The Build Cost Assumption That Changes Everything

I worked recently on a small backland site – a couple of plots behind an existing property, nothing overly complicated in planning terms. The sales side was straightforward: two similar houses with a comparable local market to price against, giving a combined gross value of a little over £600,000. On paper, it looked like a site worth pursuing at the guide price being asked.

Where it got interesting was the build cost. The first pass used a fairly standard floor area assumption, and at that size the numbers came out negative. Refining that assumption – not the design, not the sales value, just a more accurate read of what was actually going to be built – turned the same site from a loss into a residual land value comfortably above the asking price.

What surprised me was how much difference that one assumption made. Nothing about the site had changed. One input, corrected, moved the answer by close to £200,000.

That’s the part that’s easy to miss. The GDV is usually the straightforward half of the calculation. It’s the build costs, fees, finance and margin underneath it where the real work and uncertainty sit.

Why More Homes Doesn’t Always Mean More Land Value

I’ve also worked on a site with planning consent already in place for a modest scheme: five houses, low risk and a known quantity. There was a case for going back in for a larger scheme instead – seven or eight units on the same footprint – which on paper pushed the gross value up by around a third. On paper, the larger scheme looked like the obvious answer.

Once I worked through the rest of it, it wasn’t quite that simple. That uplift came with a cost that doesn’t show up in a GDV figure: giving up a live consent, applying afresh, and carrying twelve to eighteen months of planning risk with no guarantee of the same outcome.

Once that risk and time were priced in, the uplift in land value was real but noticeably smaller than the uplift in GDV. The bigger scheme still came out ahead, just nowhere near a third more valuable.

Planning Certainty Is Worth More Than People Expect

The clearest example of this is smaller and simpler: a couple of self-build plots without planning permission, in a spot with genuine appeal but no consent secured.

Sold as they were, that land would have achieved a modest sum per plot. Securing outline planning consent first – costing a small fraction of the eventual uplift – roughly doubled what each plot could achieve.

Nothing about the land itself had changed. What changed was certainty. A buyer paying for a plot with consent in hand is paying to remove risk, not just to acquire ground. It’s easy to underestimate how much value sits in resolving uncertainty before you go to market, rather than after.

Why More Deals Now Get Structured, Rather Than Simply Sold

Build costs, labour and planning have all moved the wrong way for viability over the past few years, which is part of why option and promotion agreements come up in a lot of these conversations now.

Rather than a developer paying for unconsented land upfront and carrying all the planning risk alone, an option lets both sides agree the price mechanism now and complete once planning is secured. It’s often a more realistic route to a deal happening than holding out for a cash sale at a number that quietly assumes the risk away.

What This Means If You’re the One Holding the Land

None of this means land is worth less than people hope. It means the honest answer to “what’s my land worth?” is closer to “it depends what someone can build, what that costs, how much risk they’re taking on, and how sure they can be of the outcome” than a single number or a percentage of GDV.

A residual value that looks low at first pass can look very different once the assumptions behind it are tested properly, and a generous headline GDV can shrink fast once real costs and risks are priced in honestly.

If someone gives you a GDV or a development figure, it’s worth asking what’s actually been assumed underneath it: what sales values, what build costs, what planning position, and what time, risk and developer return have been factored in.

Knowing the GDV is useful. Understanding what’s assumed underneath it tells you far more about what the site can actually support.

More Homes, Bigger Houses, Higher GDV? Not Necessarily

Posted on by adamh

I’ve spent a good chunk of the last few months working through pricing, GDVs and comparable evidence on a handful of residential schemes, and the same thing keeps coming up: bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better value.

The biggest houses on a site will usually sell for more in cash terms. That part isn’t surprising. But once you look at the price per square foot, how deep the buyer pool actually is, and what real comparable evidence supports, the picture changes quite a bit.

The Middle of the Range Often Does the Most Work

One scheme I priced recently, in Childs Ercall, a small village in Shropshire, had a genuinely wide spread of house types on one site, from two-bedroom homes up to a handful of large five-bedroom detached houses.

Going into the pricing, I assumed the biggest houses would carry the strongest numbers. They didn’t.

Once I’d built the pricing from proper local evidence, the three-bedroom homes came out with the strongest price per square foot on the whole scheme, comfortably ahead of the four-bedroom units and a long way ahead of the five-bedroom homes, despite the five-bed being the most expensive individual sale on paper.

A nearby comparable made the same point even more clearly: a genuinely large house, close to 4,000 square feet, had sold at a rate per square foot roughly half what the three-bed homes on my scheme were achieving. Past a certain size, the pool of people who can actually buy those homes shrinks, and the market simply won’t pay proportionally more for the extra space.

I think that’s worth knowing before a unit mix gets locked into a planning application, not after. If a scheme leans heavily on its biggest house types because bigger feels like it should mean more valuable, the evidence I keep coming across suggests the mid-sized homes are often the ones doing more of the heavy lifting for the scheme overall.

More Units Doesn’t Automatically Mean a Better Outcome

I’ve also modelled a site in Romsley, Worcestershire, two different ways: a smaller scheme on part of the site, and a larger one extended across the whole plot at close to double the unit count.

On paper, the larger version produced close to double the headline GDV simply because there were more units to sell.

But GDV on its own doesn’t tell you what you need to know. When I checked both scenarios against the market, including a national housebuilder scheme selling nearby, it was clear the local catchment already had a fair amount of competing stock, and three-bedroom homes in that area were taking an average of over four months to go under offer.

Doubling the unit count meant putting a lot more of the same product into a market that hadn’t shown it could absorb it quickly. The bigger scheme wasn’t wrong, but the headline GDV uplift didn’t automatically mean a proportionally stronger or lower-risk outcome. That’s the bit that actually needs testing properly before anyone commits to it, rather than assumed from the unit count alone.

Where Stamp Duty Genuinely Changes the Answer

This isn’t something I’d flag on every scheme, but on one I priced only last week, the top plot sat right around the £995,000 mark, which matters because stamp duty steps up from 5% to 10% on everything above that threshold.

Market evidence in the area showed homes above £1m sitting unsold for 200 or more days. Rather than pushing that plot as high as the specification could arguably justify, the sensible call was to price it cautiously around the threshold and check the buyer profile before going any higher.

It’s a good reminder that a buyer isn’t only weighing square footage and bedroom count against their budget. They’re weighing the whole cost of the purchase.

What I Keep Coming Back To

What the work I’ve done recently has reinforced for me is that there isn’t a simple formula. Bigger sells for more in absolute terms, and more units mean a bigger number on the GDV summary, but neither of those things automatically means better value or a stronger scheme.

The question I keep asking myself on each one is whether we’re starting with what fits on the site, or with who’s actually going to buy it.

Bedroom mix, room sizes, parking and density – a lot of that gets decided early, often before anyone has tested it properly against the real buyer at that price point and what they’ve actually shown they’re willing to pay. By the time a scheme reaches planning, most of that is locked in and expensive to change.

I’d rather have that conversation early, while there’s still room to shift the mix if the evidence points somewhere different, than find out after planning that the numbers don’t quite add up in the way the site plan suggested they would.

Emma Gough: Why did I become a self-employed estate agent?

Posted on by adamh

It may shock people to realise that I have always been self-employed and, in fact, I’ve never really known anything different.

I started my career working for a fast-paced, well-known estate agency, in a self-employed capacity, and it was certainly a great way to learn the job. I learnt extremely quickly because there was very little time to stop and think. Everything was about the next valuation, the next listing and the next sale.

But, for me, something was missing.

There was very little time to consider the emotions involved for the customer, and ultimately, I felt that the level of customer service was lacking across the board, unfortunately including my own delivery of it. Coming from a background where I had always prided myself on providing great customer service, I found it quite demotivating to work in that way.

Don’t get me wrong, it taught me a huge amount and gave me a fantastic grounding in the industry. But it also taught me something equally important… that wasn’t the way I wanted to work.

I didn’t want to simply list properties and pass the customer on to the next person. I wanted to be involved in the whole journey.

I didn’t want to be drowning in valuations and listings, constantly moving on to the next property. I wanted to have the time to actually get to know my clients, understand what was important to them and be there throughout the process.

I wanted my career in estate agency to feel more like a consultative experience for my customers. Selling a home isn’t just about putting a property on the market. For most people, it’s a huge decision, and there are often a lot of emotions attached to it. I wanted to be able to give my clients the time, advice and service that I felt they deserved.

I also wanted to build my reputation as an estate agent in Castle Bromwich, Water Orton, Coleshill and the surrounding areas by putting customer service first and giving people a genuinely personal experience.

That was when I realised I needed to do things differently.

I decided to partner with Hortons because I quickly realised that they had the same work ethic and values that I did. We share the same vision for how estate agency should feel for the customer, and that became very clear from my very first conversation with Adam Horton.

For me, it wasn’t simply about finding somewhere to work. It was about finding a business that shared my way of thinking and gave me the opportunity to deliver the kind of service I had always wanted to provide. I am very pleased to say that is exactly what I found in my partnership with Hortons, and I am immensely proud to be a part of this team.

So, what does doing things differently actually mean?

There are a number of ways that my service differs from a traditional estate agency, and I think more and more people are starting to understand those differences.

From the very first contact, right through to handing the keys over, I am with my customer every step of the way.

There is no waiting on hold trying to contact me, only to find out I’m out of the office, or being told that someone will call you back and then never hearing from them.

If you contact me, I will always come back to you.

From day one, your market appraisal will be as honest as I can possibly make it. There is no inflating a property’s value just to win the business, no over-promising and no making promises that simply cannot be kept.

The one thing I always say to my customers is…

“The one thing I will promise is that I will do my absolute very best to sell your home to the best possible buyer.”

That’s the promise I can make, because it’s completely within my control.

I will always be on hand to offer advice, give my honest opinion and tell you what I think, even if it isn’t necessarily what you want to hear.

Ultimately, my customers’ best interests will always be at the centre of every transaction.

That doesn’t stop with the sale itself. If I recommend other professionals to you, whether that’s a conveyancer, surveyor, mortgage adviser or home mover, I will only ever recommend people that I know, trust and would be happy to use myself.

For me, it’s about taking away as much of the stress and uncertainty as possible and making sure my customers feel looked after, informed and supported throughout the process.

The areas I cover…

Some are not just areas, they’re part of my story. I grew up in Water Orton and went to school in Coleshill, so these areas and the surrounding villages mean a lot to me. I’m also extremely knowledgeable about them. I know the differences between roads, the communities and the small details that only really come from living and growing up in a place.

I specialise in helping people buy and sell homes in Castle Bromwich, Coleshill, Water Orton, Kingsbury, Tamworth and the surrounding villages. Having grown up in the area, I understand the different roads, communities and what makes each location unique.

My work often stretches further afield too. Those instructions usually come through recommendations from people who already know me, trust me and want me to represent their home with the same care and commitment I bring to every sale.

Whether you’re selling your first home, upsizing, downsizing or simply looking for honest advice about the local property market, I’d be delighted to help. If you’re looking for an estate agent in Castle Bromwich, Coleshill, Water Orton or the surrounding areas, please feel free to get in touch for an informal chat.

Thank you for taking the time to get a little insight into my “Why.”

Emma x

Why Pricing Your North Devon Home Correctly Matters More Than Ever

Posted on by adamh

One of the conversations I have most often with homeowners is about pricing.

It’s completely understandable. If you’re selling your home, adding “just another £10,000” to the asking price can feel like it’s worth a try. After all, you can always come down later… can’t you?

The reality is, in most cases, that approach ends up costing sellers both time and money.

As someone who lives and works here in North Devon, I spend every day speaking to buyers, carrying out viewings and seeing first-hand how people react when a new property comes to the market. What I’ve learnt over the years is that the first couple of weeks are incredibly important. That’s when your home gets the most attention, the most online views and the greatest number of enquiries.

If the price isn’t right, buyers simply move on.

Today’s buyers are well informed. Before they even book a viewing, they’ve usually compared your home with everything else that’s available locally. If they feel it’s overpriced, they’ll often wait to see if the price comes down rather than arranging a viewing.

That’s why I always encourage my clients to focus on achieving the best result, rather than simply the highest asking price.

Ironically, pricing correctly from day one is often what creates the strongest competition between buyers. More viewings usually lead to more interest, and more interest gives you a much stronger negotiating position.

I saw exactly that happen with a lovely three-bedroom link-detached home on Bramble Walk in Barnstaple. Because we positioned it realistically from the outset, it generated numerous viewings and an offer was accepted in just 20 days. Better still, the sellers were then able to secure the home they had already fallen in love with before bringing their own property to market. Having that certainty made the whole moving process far less stressful for them.
One of the things I love about working in North Devon is that demand for homes here remains incredibly healthy. Whether it’s families looking for more space, people relocating for a better lifestyle or buyers searching for a second home by the coast, there are always people wanting to make this part of the world home.

We have so much to offer – welcoming communities, fantastic schools, beautiful countryside, Exmoor National Park on our doorstep and, of course, one of the most stunning coastlines anywhere in the country.

That doesn’t mean every property will automatically achieve a premium price, though. Buyers still expect value, and they know the market better than ever.

For me, valuing a property isn’t about telling someone the highest number they want to hear. It’s about giving honest advice, backed by local knowledge and current market evidence, so you can make informed decisions and move forward with confidence.

If you’re thinking about selling in Barnstaple or anywhere across North Devon, I’d be more than happy to give you an honest opinion of what your home could achieve in today’s market – with no pressure and no sales pitch, just straightforward advice from someone who knows the local market well.

How I Sold This Home on Forge Close, Fleckney in 10 Days

Posted on by adamh

Selling a home quickly isn’t about luck. It’s about understanding exactly what makes a property stand out, pricing it to create genuine competition, and controlling how buyers experience it from the very first day. Here’s how that played out on a recent sale on Forge Close.

A home with a genuine point of difference

This was an attractive four-bedroom detached home, tucked away on a private drive and set on a generous plot, with a large garage attached. From the outset, it was clear that the privacy, the driveway, and the garage would be a real rarity at this price point. Homes with that combination don’t come up often, and buyers know it. The strategy from day one was to make sure the marketing led with those points rather than burying them, because they were what would genuinely set this property apart.

Pricing to create competition, not just to sell

The vendor was chain-free, which gave us flexibility, but the pricing decision was where the real strategy came in. At the time, there were homes on the market above £400,000 that simply weren’t moving, several had sat unsold or been heavily reduced after missing that crucial early interest. At the same time, a handful of smaller properties had listed around £375,000 and gone sale agreed, but it had taken as long as five months to get there.

Neither of those outcomes was right for this home. The wider market at the time was price sensitive, buyers were doing their research, comparing closely, and quick to overlook anything that felt optimistically priced. Getting the price right first time was essential, not just to avoid sitting unsold like the homes above £400,000, but to make sure the property was taken seriously from the moment it launched. Pricing it at £400,000 sat in exactly the right place to draw serious interest quickly, positioned above the stalled competition but priced to move rather than sit and wait.

Banking demand before opening the doors

We launched to the market on a Friday afternoon, and rather than opening viewings immediately, we held them back until the following Saturday, eight days later. That was a deliberate decision. Telling buyers there was interest in a property is one thing, showing them is far more effective. Holding the viewings back gave us the time to build a genuine queue, and it demonstrated to every buyer walking through the door that urgency would be needed if they wanted to secure the property.

Nine viewings, one weekend, a sale agreed

That Saturday, nine viewings took place. By Sunday, after negotiations, the property was sale agreed. As expected, the level of interest meant there were multiple offers, and inevitably some buyers missed out. The vendor received offers at 99% of the asking price, but rather than automatically taking the highest, they chose the buyer who was in the strongest position to complete quickly. It was the smartest outcome for their circumstances, not just the most obvious one on paper.

If your home compares, it’s worth a conversation

If you own a home with genuine points of difference, a private plot, a garage, chain-free status, or anything that sets it apart from the general market, it may be worth more to the right buyer, and it may move faster than you’d expect with the right approach. If that sounds like your situation and you’re considering a move, get in touch. I’d be glad to talk it through.

Working with a Fleckney Born-and-Bred Agent

Posted on by adamh

If you’re thinking about buying or selling in Fleckney, there’s a question worth asking before you pick an agent: do they actually know the village, or do they just cover it?

I grew up in Fleckney. I spent the first twenty-five years of my life here, and for the past ten years I’ve built my career in estate agency focused on south Leicestershire, this village and the surrounding area. A few years ago, I moved back, and my wife and I made a deliberate choice to raise our family in the village we both know so well. That’s not a talking point I’ve picked up for marketing purposes. It’s simply where I’m from, and where I’ve chosen to stay.

The village most people get wrong

The thing that gets overlooked most often by agents who don’t know Fleckney is how well connected it actually is, while still feeling genuinely rural. Yes, it sits a little way off the bypass, but you’re looking at around a 20-minute drive to Market Harborough, Leicester city centre, and Oadby and Wigston are also within easy reach. You get all the benefits of village life, the quiet, the community, the sense of space, without the isolation that puts some buyers off villages altogether.

That combination is becoming more relevant than ever. Leicester City Council’s boundary is expanding, and Fleckney sits just outside it. I’m now seeing a noticeably wider pool of buyers considering the village, across every demographic, many of whom previously wouldn’t have looked beyond Wigston or Oadby. That boundary detail is exactly the kind of thing that only comes up if you’re speaking to people on the ground day to day, and it’s shifting how people think about the area.

A village with genuine variety

Fleckney’s property stock reflects its history. There are period homes throughout the village with real character and traditional features, alongside more contemporary properties for buyers who want something newer. Two recent developments, Freer Road and Burton Way, have also gone in, and importantly, they’ve been built in central locations rather than tucked away on the outskirts. That matters more than it might sound. It means new residents are woven into the village from day one, not living somewhere adjacent to it.

Life here, from a parent’s perspective

I’m not just telling you Fleckney is a great place to raise a family. I’m living it. My eldest daughter has just finished her foundation year at Fleckney Primary School, and my middle daughter starts in September. The school has been excellent, in the classroom, in the support it offers, and in the sense of community around it. When I talk to buyers with young families about what it’s actually like to settle here, I’m not repeating something I’ve read. I’m telling them what I see every week.

Local knowledge, put to work for you

I operate as a personal agent, which means every client I work with gets my direct, dedicated attention throughout their transaction, not a handover to someone else once the initial conversation is done. I’ll write more about exactly how that works, and why I chose to build my business this way, in a future post.

For now, if you’re weighing up a move to Fleckney, or thinking about selling here, and you’d like to know what it’s really like to work with someone who knows the village from the inside, get in touch. I’m always happy to talk it through.

Is Autumn a Good Time to Sell a House in Chester? (Autumn 2026)

Posted on by adamh

If you’re thinking of selling this autumn, you’re probably asking yourself one question… Should I wait until spring?

It’s a question I’ve been asked a lot over the last few weeks. With mixed national headlines, mortgage rates edging upwards again and endless commentary about the housing market, it’s understandable that many homeowners are wondering whether autumn is the wrong time to sell.

Based on what I’m seeing across Chester and the surrounding villages, my answer is no. The market hasn’t stopped. It has simply become more selective.

Having spent more than 15 years selling homes across Chester and Cheshire, I know that national averages only ever tell half the story. Property has always been local, and what’s happening in London has very little bearing on what’s happening in Hoole, Handbridge, Tarporley or Tattenhall.

What I’m Seeing on the Ground

One phrase I keep hearing is:

“Nothing seems to be selling.”

That simply isn’t what I’m seeing.

Homes between £300,000 and £600,000 remain what I call the gold dust price bracket. These family homes continue to generate healthy viewing numbers and competitive offers, particularly when they’re presented well and priced sensibly from day one.

The biggest difference compared with a few years ago isn’t demand. It’s buyer confidence.

Today’s buyers want certainty. They are increasingly happy to pay more for a finished home than gamble on the unknown cost of renovating one.

Only a few years ago, buyers would often overlook a tired kitchen or dated bathroom because they could see the potential. Today, many won’t.

With labour costs and building materials still significantly more expensive than they were a few years ago, people are thinking much harder before taking on a project.

That doesn’t mean renovation homes won’t sell. It simply means pricing needs to reflect today’s market rather than yesterday’s.

A Chester Trend I’ve Noticed Recently

One interesting trend I’ve noticed over recent months is buyers widening their search beyond Chester itself.

Villages such as Tarvin, Farndon, Tattenhall, Christleton and Guilden Sutton continue to attract strong interest from buyers looking for more space while remaining within around 20 minutes of the city centre.

I’m also continuing to deal with enquiries from buyers relocating from London, the South East and even overseas. This week alone I spoke with a buyer returning from the United Arab Emirates who specifically wanted to buy in the Chester area.

That tells me confidence in this part of Cheshire remains remarkably strong.

One Recent Example

A good example of today’s market involved a four-bedroom family home that had been on the market with another agent for more than three months.

The owners understandably felt the market had gone quiet. In reality, the issue wasn’t the market. It was the way the property had been positioned.

After reviewing the pricing strategy, refreshing the marketing and relaunching the property with stronger photography and video, we generated renewed interest almost immediately and agreed a sale shortly afterwards.

For me, it reinforced something I tell sellers almost every week:

The right buyers are still out there – but they need a compelling reason to view your home.

Three Things I’d Tell Anyone Selling in Chester This Autumn

1. Don’t “test the market”

Your first couple of weeks are when your property receives the most attention. Launching too high rarely creates a bidding war. More often, it creates a stale listing.

2. Buyers are paying for certainty

If your home is well presented and ready to move into, don’t underestimate how much buyers value that today. The premium for a finished home is growing.

3. Ignore national headlines

The property market has never been one market. It’s thousands of local markets.

The conversations I’m having in Hoole are very different from those happening in central London. That’s why local advice always beats national averages.

My Own Business Numbers

Rather than relying on national property portals, I prefer looking at what’s happening within my own business.

Over the last 12 months, my clients have achieved an average of 98.7% of their asking price, with an average time to agree a sale of just over 33 days.

Those figures come from properties I’ve personally marketed and negotiated across Chester and the surrounding villages.

As both an estate agent and an active property investor, I also understand the decisions buyers are making because I make many of them myself.

So, Is Autumn a Good Time to Sell in Chester?

Yes.

But it isn’t the market we had two or three years ago.

Homes that are presented well, priced realistically and marketed properly continue to sell. Those relying on optimistic pricing or hoping buyers will overlook obvious shortcomings are finding the process much more difficult.

In my experience, success today isn’t about waiting for the “perfect” market. It’s about having the right strategy for the market we’re actually in.

Wondering What Your Chester Home Could Achieve This Autumn?

If you’re thinking about selling in Chester, Hoole, Handbridge, Tattenhall, Tarvin, Christleton, Farndon or any of the surrounding villages, I’d be happy to give you an honest, evidence-based opinion.

Every valuation I carry out is based on what buyers are actually doing today – not national averages or automated estimates.

Sometimes that’s exactly what people want to hear. Sometimes it isn’t.

But it’s always the advice I’d give if it were my own home.