...and why we dislike ‘best and final offers’ In our view the best and most transparent form of sale is an auction. Everybody can see what is going on: the contract is exchanged so the buyer goes home knowing he has bought a property with no danger of a gazump. Sadly, however, modern day selling … [Read more...]

Confidentiality is an essential art form when it comes to property. Says Jamie Freeman, Country House Buyer at Haringtons Keeping secrets has to be a stock in trade for a premium house buyer. Everybody values their privacy; you don’t have to be a celebrity to want to keep your personal … [Read more...]

Jonathan Harington, of  property buying agency Haringtons, recounts an extreme example It is absolutely vital that there is a good relationship between the purchasers and the vendors.  It makes the negotiations that much easier if the owners actually like the buyers, (hopefully more than other … [Read more...]

Jonathan Harington charts the rise of the property buying agent People think the buying agent role is a relatively modern, new phenomena. But this really isn’t the case at all. It all started in the mid-1980s with houses, but it had been going on for many years before with farms and … [Read more...]

Where a property buying agent really adds value comes after the search, explains Jonathan Harington Is it just terminology? Is it just about the name? Yes, some call themselves search agents – and as you can see I call myself a “buying” agent. But the searching in my view is a very small part of … [Read more...]

Jonathan Harington reveals the tricks of the trade: buying a house privately I always say that, for us, finding the house is the easy part. And do you know, the majority of the houses and estates we buy – and I've bought 193 at last count – are what’s known as sold ‘off market’? That means, buying … [Read more...]