Finding the Unicorn in a Herd of Horses

Why they came to Stacks:

With disparate adult children, Mr & Mrs M planned to downsize nearer one or the other, but leaving an adored family home was going to be a wrench.

“We spent a year registered with agents, checking Rightmove, spending hours and hours each week trying to figure out the pros and cons of each new individual area of each house of interest and occasionally finding something to view, which always disappointed in the flesh. Each trip to view a house took a whole day out of our week due to the travel time being between 2 and 3 hours in each direction.”

“Come the start of this year we decided that, for success, we had to change our approach and cautiously entertained the idea of a property agent. But who to choose? An internet search told us that Rachel covered Northants, which was our preferred county, and she had the benefit of being able to transfer us to another Stacks agent in a different area if we exhausted hers, so she seemed a good choice.”

What the local area could offer:

With unknown locations, properties can look beguiling online, but are in fact compromised when the local context is known, leading to a lot of wasted time and effort. 

“Rachel was well informed on the HS2 route, plus other planned infrastructures which we hadn’t known about, and so could direct her search so much more effectively than we had been able to.”

What they were looking for:

The dream property was described as “a unicorn in a herd of horses” but they were very open to what that looked like, as long as it was easy to maintain and would increase the flexibility of their lives, travel and opportunities.

How Stacks helped:

Their Regional Director for Northamptonshire, Rachel Johnston, says “Our first ‘Mystery Tour Day’ ranged around my patch, looking at different pricepoints and locations to ‘get our eye in’.  Mr & Mrs M were excellent at articulating their thoughts and impressions, and by the end of the day, I knew I had a stunning house in my back pocket which it was essential they saw asap, as it was about to launch on to the open market.

They fell in love, and we secured the house promptly.  That was the easy part however…”

“At that point we thought that Rachel’s work was largely done, but we were so wrong. The buying process was filled with obstacles, and these were fairly tricky ones where much research had to be done into laws, rules and regulations. Rachel was ahead of the curve at all times, burning the midnight oil, liaising with the solicitors, vendors, other professionals and us, to get us the quickest and most effective resolution to each hurdle. And these hurdles kept coming!”

The happy outcome:

“It is fair to say that it is only due to Rachel’s diligence and extraordinary commitment to delivering the house of her clients’ choice that we now own this unicorn; my husband and I became worn down by the difficulties being presented to us and if we had been buying it without her help we would have withdrawn from the process.”

Rachel says “This was the right house, and it would have been a crime for irritating details to derail their downsize when they had found the elusive ‘one’, once thought mythical!  It was a credit to Mr & Mrs M that, even in the midst of the frustrations,  they could trust me to drag the encumbrances out of the way, inform their decisions and make sure they ended up where they wanted to be.”

How Stacks made a difference:

“To sum up, we found Stacks  to be extraordinarily professional and the service Rachel provided exceeded our expectations by a country mile.”

With the weight of hundreds of years of property law in effect, buying English property can be fraught with landmines.  Having calm, professional support that can help you weather the emotional rollercoaster is invaluable.

Don’t let the right house get away from you.

Call Stacks and speak to the team that will help you navigate the process to get started.