The sale of Mount Pleasant, Delamere was one which, on paper, seemed to be a simple sale of a bungalow in a popular location. As we know, bungalows are sought-after properties - particularly attractive, but not exclusively, to the older buyer, often because they come with a more manageable garden. However, at Mount Pleasant the garden was far from this, as it extended to 1.25 acres with a combination of lawns, floral beds, raised beds and specimen trees and owned the access, and an access road to which six neighbours have right of way. This meant the future owners of Mount Pleasant held the keys to any development potential, either on its land or for any neighbour aspirations. Certainly, a strong position to be in!
This exciting opportunity led to a flurry of activity when the property came to the market in mid May 2022. Given that there had been a shortage of stock on the market, we were not surprised that there were high levels of interest, but we had not foreseen quite how much there would be. The profile of viewers was wide, with younger couples looking to move to a rural area, older couples downsizing and developers looking to either redevelop the existing bungalow or to gain planning permission for another property on the site. Within a matter of weeks, and 32 viewings later, we brought matters to a head through informal tender at the end of May 2022, resulting in 17 offers on the property, ultimately going to the highest bidder (over £600,000 off a guide of £550,000).
While the owners were naturally impressed to have received such demand and competition, we at Jackson-Stops were not stopping there. Thankfully we had the foresight not to advertise the whole extent of the property’s ownership. We, with the owner’s collaboration and approval, decided to retain two slithers of land so we could offer to two neighbours, in the hope that we could extract a premium - which we did.
It was important to weigh up the pros and cons of this approach and we felt that the exclusion of these two slithers of land had little or no impact on the value/saleability of Mount Pleasant. More importantly, the buyer of Mount Pleasant would not have paid the same premium that the neighbours paid for these parcels of land. Our fall-back position was that we would simply include one or both parcels of land with Mount Pleasant should the neighbours have not wished to purchase them. It was important to be open and transparent about this with all 32 viewers, and we even went to the extent of marking out the boundaries, excluding these pieces of land to give the potential purchasers the best vision of the property.
With our many years of experience, a director who is also a RICS surveyor and other qualified staff, means that rather than taking a simple 'sell the whole' approach, we were able to maximise the sale price for our vendor – something all estate agents should be doing, but sometimes taking the “easy” option means that does not work in their clients’ best interests.
If you’re considering the sale of your home we’d be delighted to discuss your requirements and how we can help:
01244 328361
chester@jackson-stops.co.uk
