I highly recommend Jeremy and Mercury Homesearch. I have hired many advisers over the years and this has been one of my best decisions both in terms of convenience and economics.
My main home is not in London and it would have been very hard, near impossible, to find something by myself. Jeremy listened well to what we were looking for, kept us updated and found a place within a month. It was a near perfect match to what we wanted.
He showed us the flat and got us comfortable that it was a good deal by showing me nearby flats in a similar price range. He was able to point out why a flat on the other side of the block that was similar but cheaper and would have been a bad deal because it was on a major route. He checked up on various things we were concerned about, led the negotiations, recommended a good conveyancing solicitor, kept up the pressure to bring the deal to a close, checked the flat at completion and posted the keys to us. Throughout the entire period Jeremy got back to any questions we had immediately.
In terms of economics, I was keen to buy something quickly that was right for us, as I anticipated price rises. Jeremy knows who the main categories of buyers are of the flats we were interested in, so advised on what qualities the flats would need to have to be sold on more easily. For example, he mentioned that most of the buyers in the area would only consider a flat with a lift. Not something I would have thought of as critical.
Jeremy developed a thesis about why he believes the prices were not fully priced in the area he showed me, which is plausible and which I would have taken time to develop myself. He demonstrated why the price was reasonable by referencing others and showing us comparable flats. Because he knows all the agents, he advised on how they tend to negotiate and provided us with carefully thought through advice about what was and was not material in the negotiations. Hard to quantify the economic value of this, but Jeremy generated significant value in addition to making the acquisition the most pain free property purchase I have made.
