There are lots of sites to search for house sold prices, but they’re also available on rightmove too
Visit rightmove’s house sold prices page.
You can searcg by postcode – try the first half of your postcode. Sales are listed by street which makes for interesting reading – if a street has a lot of sales does that mean there’s something wrong with it?
You can vary the time scale of house sales too – within the last year to over 7 years. Records online only go back to about 2001-2002.
The listing for each street gives you the full address, the sale date, the tenure (Whether it’s freehold or leasehold) and the price paid.
Author: Diane
Estate Agent speak translated
Deciphering the Estate Agent Code
Some of the things estate agents write about properties can be confusing. So what do their pet phrases mean?
Close to all transport links might indicate it’s so close to a main road that you can guess the tonnage of the lorries whizzing by just by the vibrations alone. May also indicate a direct view of the local motorway.
It might also mean surrounded by a railway and a road. Convenient for local transport does mean that the bus stop is directly outside the front.
Tucked away means that it’s not near any transport links at all and there’s a half hour walk down a dirt track to get to the property. This can also indicate that the property is hidden behind some industrial units.
There’s a scale of estate agent speak about the level of work needing doing on a house.
Of interest to builders means it probably needs a hard hat for viewings and is in danger of falling down, may have already fallen down, or need pulling down.
Original features indicate no work has been done for some years. This can be a blessing as it means original nice features may be retained, or it might mean no work has been done since the 1960s when avocado bathrooms were all the rage.
Rare opportunity usually means it’s been in the same family for some time and has been owned by an increasingly aged occupant who has not heated the property enough to keep the dry rot away.
Needs TLC can mean anything from light dusting to full blown renovation work needed. In need of renovation might also mean the same range of things, that is: rewiring, new boiler, windows, new kitchen and bathroom and then decorating. This can also be described by using the phrase has potential! Would benefit from some updating is another euphemism for this. DIYer’s dream usually means the seller has made some botched attempts at improving the house and that it now needs the professionals in.
Deceptively spacious is an amusing one. We all know the Tardis is fictional, but we still believe that a house can be bigger on the inside than it is on the outside?
Early viewing recommended is one of those things to make you think a property is more desirable than it is.
Corporate Client can mean repossession. No upper chain can also mean repossession.
No upper chain on a family size home can also mean that the current occupants have passed on to a better place. Often Fairviews Nursing home … This can be confirmed by the presence of patterned carpet, tasselled sofas and old fashioned style gas fires.
Reduced for Quick Sale might indicate the owners are desperate to sell before it’s repossessed.
In Our Opinion is an indication that you might well disagree with the following statement.
Cosy means tiny. Compact and bijou mean tiny. Potential to extend also means tiny. Charming can also indicate tiny but is likely to also indicate low ceilings and beams to crack your skull on.
Desirable neighbourhood means that the property is overpriced.
An Up and coming neighbourhood means it’s not there yet, so might be a bit risky after dark.
Studio apartment means that it’s so small you can stir you soup whilst you’re in the bath.
Well maintained property means they did some work about 20 years ago and think it makes the property worth more.
Very well looked after is similar to as above but with the seller wanting to make extreme profit from having repainted the kitchen door five years ago.
Offers over is an indication the estate agent couldn’t persuade the seller how little their house was worth.
Easily maintained garden means that it’s not big enough to actually need a lawn mower and you’ll have to use scissors. May also indicate every plant in the garden is in a pot and won’t be there when you get the keys!
Convenient for local school means it’s got parking problems at school dropping off times and hoards of screaming children at breaks. On the plus note the 15 weeks of holidays offer ample peace and quiet when it’s just people stealing the lead off the school roof that create the noise.
Box room means that the room isn’t legally big enough to fit a bed and a human being but if you need a room to store the ironing board it’s probably big enough. Describing a room as a study is also a euphemism for it not being big enough to be a bedroom.
Good size double bedroom indicates that if you get a smaller than normal double bed you might squeeze it in.
Are you a rightmove addict?
There’s a growing group of people who spend hours each day browsing property on rightmove! They’re not just looking at houses in their budget either! It seems looking at the most expensive houses is incredibly popular as a hobby!
Still with big eurolottery rollovers to be won it’s good to dream!
Sold houses reappearing on searches
I’ve noticed a couple of properties that went SSTC have reappeared. This presumably means someone has changed their mind, perhaps after a survey, or is having trouble getting a mortgage.
Some sellers refuse to negotiate even if a survey throws up serious expensive problems. Buyers should do the right thing and make their own mind up about whether they want to overpay for a property that needs work. My advice would be to get quotes for any work needing doing and then decide if you want the hassle of getting the work done, and paying for it, whilst paying the seller’s asking price. Most of the time I’d say walk away!
Stubborn sellers aren’t actually going to sell.
There was one great thing about the HIP pack introduced and then cancelled … it financially committed people to actually selling. Now there’s very little problem with people putting houses on the market and taking them off when they realise they won’t get the high asking price they want.
If you’re selling a house and they have a survey done which reveals lots of work needs doing, and you don’t want to lower your price, you have to realise you’re probably going to lose that sale. And the work that needs doing will still need doing, and be picked up by any other surveyor who comes to your property.
Property programs on TV
If you’re not yet sick of the daily diet of house programs on TV, then always watch for the dates when they’re actually recorded. Some being shown are from 2007 and this was at the height of the housing bubble.
It does make me worry watching Kirsty and Phil “negotiate” a £440k deal on a property on at £450k for two years though. Is that really negotiating? In the end the couple didn’t buy the property even when their offer was accepted. I’d love to have the time of doing a review of all of the programs to show how many houses they bought, what % they negotiated off and how many times the people on the show went off and bought another house.
I’d also like to do a tally on how many of the couples end up having a baby during the course of the show! Perhaps they used to watch Sarah Beeney’s Property Ladder program (Possible the least repeated program of them all) as she always seemed to be mid-pregnancy during the filming of the shows.
Search by county, town or district
Did you know you can search by county, town or village on Rightmove? It’s a nice feature and although it brings up thousands of properties unless you add in additional filtering options, it also shows the area on the map view. This is great for showing you where a town stretches to, where you own area reaches as far as and for finding out about neighbouring areas and where the borders are.
Sometimes – as in the Oldham map it excluses areas like Shaw and Royton as these are technically towns in their own right (Something some people spend hours at meetings arguing about too…). 
It does seem to work well for smaller areas as the example of Chadderton shows. It also makes it worth looking at overhead satelite views to see what the cut out areas are. You might discover some whole new areas to start looking for a new home in too!
It’s interesting to try this for your areas. If you have too many properties showing up the limit on bedroom numbers and price until you only have a few properties left. It’s certainly different from using a postcode search anyway!
Type in the area name and leave the Radius as This area only.
Danger! Unusual neighbour…
I’d just spotted a new property come up on one of my rightmove listings so clicked to have a look. The Estate Agent had put together a nice PDF brochure which I had a flick through. Nice property but right by a stream which always sends me a warning sign about potential flooding.
However I don’t think I’ll be investigating the flood risk as something on the location map caught my eye!
There was a number of “danger” signs … and the property is close to a rifle range. Whilst I know it’s probably not used every night it’s probably quite noisy when it is being used!
Would it put you off? I suppose if you’re a member of a rifle club already you might find it useful!
Ah well I’ll keep looking!
What’s your worst house viewing experience?
One house I never even asked to view had some interesting pictures of their bathroom. Complete with cat things on the floor. Well done cat for at least getting the right room!
Another house the owner told us she never used the gas fire in the lounge as it was too expensive to have on!
The same house she pointed out that if you took the radiator off the wall you could put a wardrobe there instead!
One house we viewed had a galley kitchen too narrow for a dishwasher. That one was off the list right away.
Taylors Estate Agents
Taylors Estate Agents are right across the South of the UK and cover a region from St Ives in the east to Cardiff in the west.
Their search facility allows you to vary the area search quickly using a slider tab. There are options for price range; type of property; number of reception rooms,bedrooms, number of bathrooms, as well as advanced options that allow you to search for chain free properties.
I’ve just done a search today though and not found any properties in Devon or Cornwall. For properties I’ve looked at in Worcester on their website they have good clear photos, PDF brochure and floor plans. This makes it easy to get an idea of what the property is like.
What information do you want when you view a house?
What sort of information do you want when you’re viewing a house?
Would you like to know what their gas and electric bills are?
Would you like to know how far away the local school is?
Are you more interested in there being a good pub or takeaway near by?
What information would you find really useful?
Why not tell us in the comments below what information you’d most like to see available either from the estate agent or online.