With its 80 or so stalls, marching bands, climbing walls and entertainment the St Ives Food and Wine Festival is a big local event for the community. And this year we are fortunate to have attracted more sponsors than ever, which gives an enormous boost to our aim of raising money for our charity beneficiaries.
One of our silver sponsors is Savills, the real estate agency, which has 5 branches in the Upper North Shore. Whilst the Savills name will be familiar to local home-owners, not many would know that it is in fact a global business with offices in no less than 45 countries employing over 35,000 people.
But the burning question is, does that global strength translate into local service? Well, a couple of recent accolades suggest it does. Savills sold more properties than any other agency in the North Shore in the first 6 months of 2018 – and that’s in some pretty challenging market conditions. Also in March of this year they won the title for Roseville and Gordon of Agency of the Year in the 2018 RatemyAgent Awards – for the second year in a row based on customer reviews and feedback.
But what is also refreshing about Savills is the wealth of useful information you can glean from its website to help the average home-owner. Whether you’re a first-time buyer or on to your second or third home, when you’re ready to move one of the most important things you need is advice. The Savills blog is literally a gold-mine of tips and hints.
There are articles to help first time buyers navigate the journey from scraping together the deposit to popping the champagne corks on moving-in day! Another article aimed at empty-nesters who are down-sizing explains the opportunity for contributing any capital gains you might make into a superannuation fund.
Probably a question which hovers over every house-sale is covered in their article “When is the best time to sell?”, from which I learned that new buyers take between 4 and 8 months to buy from when they enter the market; and the best buyers usually arrive within 7-10 days of the house going on the market which is why the best time to sell is when you’re psychologically ready to move because you’re going to need to be motivated enough to put in the time, effort and money to get the house in prime condition.
And how about “The five most common moving mistakes to avoid” – number one being ‘not starting in time’ followed by simple advice about packing, decluttering and cleaning up as well as making sure you have a plan B in case things don’t go according to plan A.
There’s plenty more, and if you’re in the moving mindset in the near future be sure to include Savills in your short-list of real estate agents. Find out what Savills is all about by taking a look at this short video.