Member Article

Selling or renting your home in 2015? ‘Tis the season to get painting!

• 32,000 North Easterners look for new homes on Boxing Day – the same as everyone in Durham City or North Shields trying to move house at the same time

Making moving your New Year’s Resolution? Looking to let out a property in 2015? Then use the next two weeks to redecorate or carry out those DIY repairs you’ve been putting off for months – that’s the advice of one property expert.

Figures from Rightmove show that as many as 500,000 people looked for new homes last Christmas Day – with more than 1.3 million looking on Boxing Day.

That means at least 32,5000 people in the North East will be looking for new homes over the festive period - the equivalent of everyone in Durham City or North Shields trying to move house at the same time.

Property expert Ajay Jagota, founder and Chief Executive Officer of the North East’s most innovative sales and lettings business KIS , advises anyone trying to move home or rent out a property in 2015 to take advantage of the traditional December lull in the housing market to get their homes looking their best now.

The firm is famous for being the first letting agent in the UK to abolish deposits, replacing them with a one-of-a-kind landlord insurance policy offering guaranteed rent, deposit replacement, legal assistance and round the clock third party emergency home repairs.

Ajay said: “You might think that people are preoccupied with Turkey, George Clooney on Downton Abbey and looking for batteries for the kid’s new toys at Christmas but for millions it’s the start of the journey of looking for a new home.

“Along with office parties, Post Office queues and school nativities, a quieter than housing market is a tradition in December as very few people want to move house close to Christmas. This means sellers and landlords have a rare window of opportunity to get their homes looking their best in time for the New Year surge.

“A lick of paint won’t add too much to the overall value of a home but it could be the difference between your property a maybe and a must have. Likewise superficial defects like peeling wallpaper won’t do anything to damage the value of your home, but they could put buyers or renters off when they could be fixed in seconds, for pennies.

“The equivalent of the entire population of North Shields or Durham is about to ask themselves if they want your house to be their house. That has to be worth the price of a pot of paint.”

KIS manage properties for landlords in every corner of the North East from branches across Tyne and Wear, and were named Letting Agent of the Year in the 2013 Landlord and Letting Awards. The firm expanded into residential sales in 2014.

The property firm is famous for being the first letting agent in the UK to abolish deposits, replacing them with a one-of-a-kind landlord insurance policy offering guaranteed rent, deposit replacement, legal assistance and round the clock third party emergency home repairs.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ajay Jagota .