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Monday 22nd January 2024: 37 years doing this Unique Property Bulletin and we have fallen flat on our face many times. Philosophically, we prefer to make the mistakes and save YOU from costly face-planting in the financial mud. Since relaunching Unique as a DAILY news facility, we have and shall continue to add a little extra to each listing. For new readers, we are NOT an estate agency. But our core group has 132 buildings and over 311 new jobs created in their body of work across the 37 years. Therefore you can hopefully derive some comfort that when we make best efforts to save you tens of thousands of pounds and make your dreams of owning a unique home come true, these efforts are from the heart and the head.

Our readers buy a lot of houses. Our readers have pet-hates. As one long term buyer of buildings featured on these pages said to us yesterday, his top-three FUBARS and pet-hates are (1). When an estate agent/seller puts “POA” (Price On Application) on their property. He ignores POAs as a waste of his time and scrolls on by. (2). No floor plan. For decades house-buyers have had to wade through estate agent guff: “stunningly stunning with a stupendously stunning lavatory closet. Must be seen to be truly appreciated because it is deceptively spacious” blah blah. Bin that guff. Here is an actual USEFUL addition: the floor plan. Our buyer said he ignores those listings that fail to include a floor plan. (3). No photos. Our house buyer’s reply was filled with expletives, we cannot print them (FUBAR was a risk, but he is in the uniformed services, from where that acronym hails, so fair play). But he just scrolls past listings that have badly taken pictures or insufficient photos for him to get a decent appreciation of what is being sold.

Why do these three pet-hates from buyers matter? Some poor house-owner is wondering why they ain’t selling their home. Or why the offers are £100,000 lower than expected. This triumvirate causing seller shortfall in achieving their desired price is something we have seen it many times.

This is where our readers who are buying can win. If an estate agent is not on their A-game, you may get a bargain. Our crew save between £10,000 and £100,000 whenever one of the three from that bunch of bad habits and seller-fails appears in a listing. Please hold that thought…

Today we have a delightful looking Yaxham Mill, Norwich Road, Yaxham, Dereham, Norfolk, NR19 1RH. Priced at an ambitious £450,000, the estate agent has ended up leaving us without pictures. We are a not-for-profit entity run by volunteers. As such that means we are legally within the “Creative Commons” internet photograph copyright protocol.

The estate agent has slapped their corporate logo on EVERY RUDDY PHOTOGRAPH. For legal reasons we cannot publish these pictures. All because some estate agent appears to be garnering free publicity off of the back of their customer.

About 85% of unique property that lands on our desk does NOT make it into the Unique . But we wanted to show what happens to a genuinely interesting building when it is bereft of photos. Less free publicity, Fewer viewings. You may get to make a £350,000 offer for a building that an owner is hoping to sell for £450,000.

You might think that all of this is a bit harsh. But it gets worse. In looking for photos elsewhere on the internet that we CAN reproduce, we ended up on a site that reviews Air B&Bs. Yaxham Mill used to be in there. Unfortunately, a lot of reviews apparently show mould, or damp or rot, or grotty bathroom tiling. Not exactly the photos you might want to be used in selling your building!

So here is a real-world example of something that may save you ANOTHER £10,000 off of the price: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g190797-d1154920-Reviews-Yaxham_Mill_B_B-Dereham_Norfolk_East_Anglia_England.html

Putting mouldy showers aside, according to Rightmove, there seems to be NEW UPVC DOUBLE GLAZING. That hopefully will have improved the EPC rating (we could not find the EPC certificate on the estate agent details). The official registry was not looking as good as it should (frankly the EPC certificate SHOULD be clearly displayed on the estate agency sales literature (online and paper format). It is likely to be better than what we found on th official government site… https://find-energy-certificate.service.gov.uk/energy-certificate/9239-3022-0397-0001-7001 ~ Our readers would be wise to check if Yaxham Mill or anything in its environs is a “listed building.” The installation of UPVC into listed buildings is a serious matter and the penalties can be severe. We don’t think Yaxham Mill is listed, but buyers really should check this when the details seem to be silent on the matter.

The current owners are looking for £450,000. On the candid camera pictures floating around the internet (to be clear we cannot use the estate agents logo-splattered commercial photos), the conclusion based on a lifetime of experience buying unique buildings, means we suggest offering £325,000 and be prepared to go up to £350,000. If you want to arrange a viewing, we recommend you contact the owners direct: https://www.yaxhammill.co.uk\

Monday 22nd January 2024: 37 years doing this Unique and we have fallen flat on our face many times. Philosophically, we prefer to make the mistakes and save YOU from costly face-planting in the financial mud. Since relaunching Unique as a DAILY news facility, we have and shall continue to add a little extra to each listing. For new readers, we are NOT an estate agency. But our core group has 132 buildings and over 311 new jobs created in their body of work across the 37 years. Therefore you can hopefully derive some comfort that when we make best efforts to save you tens of thousands of pounds and make your dreams of owning a unique home come true, these efforts are from the heart and the head.

Our readers buy a lot of houses. Our readers have pet-hates. As one long term buyer of buildings featured on these pages said to us yesterday, his top-three FUBARS and pet-hates are (1) When an estate agent/seller puts “POA” (Price On Application) on their property. He ignores POAs as a waste of his time and scrolls on by. (2) No floor plan. For decades House-buyers have had to Wade through estate agent guff: “stunningly stunning with a stupendously stunning view. Must be seen to be truly appreciated because it is deceptively spacious” blah blah. Bin that guff. Here is an actual USEFUL addition: the floor plan. Our buyer said he ignores those listings that fail to include a floor plan. (3). No photos. Our house buyer’s reply was filled with expletives, we cannot print them (FUBAR was a risk, but he is in the uniformed services, from where that acronym hails, so fair play).

at ni]o more than £325,000. One house value site suggested £190,000, it have, one way or another, been paid for by the seller. BUT the seller has used an estate agent who has watermarked and spoiled every photo with advertising for their estate agency. We are NOT an estate agency and for “Creative Commons” reasons, as a not-for-profit website, we cannot reproduce these baffle spoiled photographs that do more for advertising the estate agency than they do for the owners trying to sell their property. Because of legal reasons that also hover over these pictures and an impact upon our “Creative Commons Licence” we have gone to other sources for photos. Sadly again for the owners, their naff estate agent has caused another problem Othe first to deprive entities such as Unique Property Bulletin for giving them free publicity. The photos we were able to locate are from a complaints website. They show a poorly maintained structure. as a result, we would value Yaxham Mill, Norwich Road, Yaxham, Dereham, Norfolk NR19 1RH at ni]o more than £325,000. One house value site suggested £190,000, irt was not clear how the value got to £190,000. Our valuation of £325,000 is based upon 37 years of valuing actual property less the costs of bringing older buildings up to habitable standard. PLEASE do YOUR due diligence and study the EPC report and the CANDID photos based on the experience of people who have stayed at Yaxham Mill. For example: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g190797… . The current owners are looking for £450,000. If you want to arrange a viewing, we recommend you contact the owners: to

Russ McLean

Personal Blog

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