4 reasons Lego doesn’t sell houses

If you’re selling your home and have children, have you considered their impact on your home viewings? As much as you love your little ones, there are a few things you need to consider when selling up.

Noise and clamour. If there are people over viewing your home, the last thing they want is to be interrupted by screaming children. Yes, children make noise, but it will dampen a home viewing and could leave viewers feeling negative. Ideally get the children babysat during viewing times, or have your partner take them out.

Toys and clutter. No one likes to see clutter during a home viewing. Your home might be lovely and tidy in the majority of the space, but with piles of toys elsewhere mid-use, and Lego pieces lying around to get caught under shoes, it can make a space look smaller.

Lifestyle. We’ve talked about it before; buyers are buying into a home’s lifestyle. If your viewers are a couple with children, they might appreciate a child centred home. People without however, can sometimes lack the imagination needed to see past the Batman duvet and picture their private study. Try to make any children’s spaces as tidy and neat as possible, and put the toys in a wardrobe to have a clear floor.

Pink. Magnolia sells, deep pink walls don’t. Explain to your little ones that you’ll paint their new bedroom pink/with Superman wallpaper in the new house, but for now the walls need to be painted for the new buyers. Your house well sell quicker.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch

Do you follow us on Facebook? Join us today for great daily posts.

What to do next: Sign up to my Selling Secrets http://www.home-truths.co.uk/selling-secrets

The post 4 reasons Lego doesn’t sell houses appeared first on Home Truths.

from Home Truths http://bit.ly/2KWC7tW
via IFTTT

4 reasons Lego doesn’t sell houses

If you’re selling your home and have children, have you considered their impact on your home viewings? As much as you love your little ones, there are a few things you need to consider when selling up.

Noise and clamour. If there are people over viewing your home, the last thing they want is to be interrupted by screaming children. Yes, children make noise, but it will dampen a home viewing and could leave viewers feeling negative. Ideally get the children babysat during viewing times, or have your partner take them out.

Toys and clutter. No one likes to see clutter during a home viewing. Your home might be lovely and tidy in the majority of the space, but with piles of toys elsewhere mid-use, and Lego pieces lying around to get caught under shoes, it can make a space look smaller.

Lifestyle. We’ve talked about it before; buyers are buying into a home’s lifestyle. If your viewers are a couple with children, they might appreciate a child centred home. People without however, can sometimes lack the imagination needed to see past the Batman duvet and picture their private study. Try to make any children’s spaces as tidy and neat as possible, and put the toys in a wardrobe to have a clear floor.

Pink. Magnolia sells, deep pink walls don’t. Explain to your little ones that you’ll paint their new bedroom pink/with Superman wallpaper in the new house, but for now the walls need to be painted for the new buyers. Your house well sell quicker.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch

Do you follow us on Facebook? Join us today for great daily posts.

What to do next: Sign up to my Selling Secrets http://www.home-truths.co.uk/selling-secrets

The post 4 reasons Lego doesn’t sell houses appeared first on Home Truths.

from Home Truths http://bit.ly/2KWC7tW
via IFTTT

Country diary: greenfinches' insistent calls break a Roman reverie

Sandy, Bedfordshire: I can imagine myself a legionnaire marching towards Baldock, but the birds have been fighting for survival

At school we learned about oxbow lakes, the water bodies left when rivers changed their course. Britain has its oxbow roads too, the broken strings of highways bypassed by history, some so reduced that they are mere paths alongside a hedgerow. Here the ancient forerunner of the Great North Road runs in rural parallel with the A1 half a mile west before coming to an abrupt end at a pony paddock.

A Roman garrison was sited at the town end of Stratford Road – the forded street – and archaeologists and diggers have unearthed finds that span the breadth of recorded history along its length: iron-age pottery, Roman walls, coins and skeletons, the footings of a Saxon building.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UQoEs4
via IFTTT

Country diary: greenfinches' insistent calls break a Roman reverie

Sandy, Bedfordshire: I can imagine myself a legionnaire marching towards Baldock, but the birds have been fighting for survival

At school we learned about oxbow lakes, the water bodies left when rivers changed their course. Britain has its oxbow roads too, the broken strings of highways bypassed by history, some so reduced that they are mere paths alongside a hedgerow. Here the ancient forerunner of the Great North Road runs in rural parallel with the A1 half a mile west before coming to an abrupt end at a pony paddock.

A Roman garrison was sited at the town end of Stratford Road – the forded street – and archaeologists and diggers have unearthed finds that span the breadth of recorded history along its length: iron-age pottery, Roman walls, coins and skeletons, the footings of a Saxon building.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UQoEs4
via IFTTT

Net loss of housing to wealthy incomers | Letters

Guardian readers respond to a range of stories on the UK housing crisis

The government should help families like the Earles by keeping rents affordable (Priced out: ‘We had to choose: eat dinner or stay warm’, 22 April). Instead it actively makes their situation worse. On Arran and in other desirable rural areas there is a housing crisis driven by wealthy professionals who want the perfect place to retire. Wealthy professionals can only be attracted to a location if broadband coverage is adequate. To ensure this, the government imposes a universal service obligation on broadband suppliers to subsidise fast connections in rural locations, financed by subscription income from broadband users nationally. The improved infrastructure clears the way for landlords to expel poorer tenants to make way for the influx of wealthy outsiders.
David Cooper
Newbury, Berkshire

• Your report Arran islanders seek help to ease housing crisis as number of holiday homes soars, 22 April) suggests that at a total of one quarter St Ives has the largest proportion of second and holiday homes in the country. Here in Southwold the figure has reached 60%. Now we are told the district council is considering letting as a holiday home one of the few precious remaining council houses that they have not already sold off.
Hugh Williamson
Southwold, Suffolk

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2IN1FHn
via IFTTT

Forget the greige age: the case for painting your house any colour you like

People who paint their houses unusual colours can end up annoying the neighbours – and falling foul of their local council. But is it anybody else’s business what colour your home is?

Future archaeologists may come to know the early 21st century as the “greige age”, when they start digging up the remnants of buildings painted in knockoff muted Farrow & Ball shades and wonder how we could all be so dull. But there are the brave outliers – those who paint their houses in eye-catching shades or patterns, who risk neighbours’ wrath and sniffy letters from the council.

A woman in Cirencester has had her door painted bright pink (“Flamingo Fun”) for 33 years, but now one of her neighbours has complained to the council, according to the Daily Mail. The council, although apparently not taking further action, had sent her a letter asking her to paint it a colour more in keeping with the conservation area. The house is Grade II listed, so more rules apply, but even if you don’t live in a listed building, can you still paint your house or front door any colour you like?

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2XEDper
via IFTTT

Forget the greige age: the case for painting your house any colour you like

People who paint their houses unusual colours can end up annoying the neighbours – and falling foul of their local council. But is it anybody else’s business what colour your home is?

Future archaeologists may come to know the early 21st century as the “greige age”, when they start digging up the remnants of buildings painted in knockoff muted Farrow & Ball shades and wonder how we could all be so dull. But there are the brave outliers – those who paint their houses in eye-catching shades or patterns, who risk neighbours’ wrath and sniffy letters from the council.

A woman in Cirencester has had her door painted bright pink (“Flamingo Fun”) for 33 years, but now one of her neighbours has complained to the council, according to the Daily Mail. The council, although apparently not taking further action, had sent her a letter asking her to paint it a colour more in keeping with the conservation area. The house is Grade II listed, so more rules apply, but even if you don’t live in a listed building, can you still paint your house or front door any colour you like?

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2XEDper
via IFTTT