HouseDog

Anyone notice a change on some of these? HD

These guys offer 'buy now - pay later' HIPs service http://www.mysalepack.com/ It is unique because it gives vendors the option at no extra cost to 'buy now pay later' - either in six months or once they have sold their home, whichever is earliest.

Looks like I have my own answer here: http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1161342 So home owners can use their HIP as long as they want!

As a house seller once you've paid you £700 plus and got your HIP, how long is it valid for? HD

The Presenter & Property Developer http://www.garymccausland.com/contact.htm The Company that made the program http://www.rdfmedia.com/about/CreativeExec.asp

The millionaire snap decision house buyer in a helicopter! I don't understand what all these people are on about who can't sell their houses? Just draw a large H in your garden to indicate a helicopter landing pad and there you go problem solved.

I'll try and sort the Northampton house price sales data I have whilst I'm at work next week. However, anecdotally, I have been looking at quite a few houses recently to get a perspective on NN3 and NN1 as I'm quite new to Northampton. It appears that some really 'OK to Good' (but all the damp issues) houses (140K to 180K) have been on the market for over six months and are now on the second and even third EA company, so I think the Northampton market is stagnant or reducing in price slowly. Northampton EA have lost control of pricing and sellers have a distorted view of the value of their houses. EA's all say that there having a really good start to the New Year, but I'm sure this is just a New Year (lets buy / sell a house) thing. Come April it will be dead again.

I just downloaded the actual house sale price sales for NN3, but have not put them in excel yet. Which area of Northampton are you looking at? I think HBOS indicated Northampton was down 4% but I'm not sure of the time period, I'll have to check. HD

Thank you all for your thoughts: I agree that the introduction of HIPs will remove some sellers from the market who currently put their house on at a high price with a 'if it sells it sells .. if it doesn't it doesn't' attitude. Very few sellers will pay £600 or £700 'just to see' if they can sell their house. I also think that in the run-up to HIPs we may well see lots of last-minute sellers trying to sell or offload a house before the mandatory June 2007 deadline. My view is that from June 07 the introduction of HIPs will initially stagnate the market as sellers will not understand the market and will try to holdout for a while, as they come to terms with the new selling cost. Additionally EA fees for sellers will rise, as I'm sure they will claim their doing more work, even if their not. Conversely, from the buyers point of view, we can stop wasting our time looking at houses riddles with issues. I hate more than anything viewing a house at £ 160,000 plus which has more damp than my outside shed. In time buyers will also become more savvy towards whats in the pack and whats not and so prices based on the real condition of the house should prevail. A last thought maybe that the number of cowboy property developers (you know the ones with the large supply of magnolia paint) may decrease as botched conversions and 'improvements', should be more identifiable in the report. Overall I think HIPs are a positive for buyers.

Most estate agents in my local area Northampton (UK), tell me that no date has been set for the introduction of Home Information Packs! However, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister provides a mandatory date of 1st June 2007. http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=100288...ssNoticeID=1996 So my question for the experts is: What impact will the introduction of of Home Information Packs have on the UK housing market? Regards, HD