Making the right move in 2023

Twixmas is the perfect time to browse for your next house and at the same time do some searching into making sure you get competent conveyancing solicitors to help make the perfect move.

What is Twixmas?

The time between Christmas and New Year, fondly known as Twixmas, is the time to do some research to help you make a smooth move. There are nine days of holidays from Christmas Eve when a turkey sandwich and a new smartphone, tablet or laptop will help when you’re browsing for properties.

At Pearson Solicitors, we tend to see a surge in instructions following the Christmas and New Year online property searches.  Our online property portal makes it easy to get a quote and keep up to date as your move progresses, from instruction right through to completion.

“As well as searching online for a house it’s always a good idea to search for the best solicitors, look at reviews, ratings, testimonials, and above all else make sure you know that the price quoted is the price you pay, as quite often there are additional costs involved,” said residential conveyancng solicitor, Michelle Ong.

“A firm which might seem much more reasonable will sometimes not be quite as reasonable once any add ons or hidden charges are taken into account.”

Property Searches

“Christmas property searches increase every year, it’s almost the new spring, with 54% more people looking for their new home on Boxing Day last year, much higher than the previous year. It’s perhaps because we all have some free time, we start to make plans for the forthcoming year and so it can be a great time to buy and sell,” added Michelle.

Top tips for purchasing a property

For most people, a house is by far our most valuable asset, so our top tips for your Twixtmas house search are:

• Get a qualified solicitor to deal with it from search results to surveys, mortgage offers, gifted deposits and money laundering, as well as the actual title of the property.
• Shop around for quotes remembers cheap is not always best. You expect the property solicitor to deal with the transfer of the legal title of the property but, how many other necessary aspects of your purchase will they cover? Does the quote include the cost of search results, surveys, advice on mortgage offers and gifted deposits?
• Will the conveyancer protect you from fraudulent activities?
• Check out reviews and recommendations for your solicitor, if they’ve done a good job people tend to review them.

For more tips on buying or selling a property see our helpful guide to conveyancing.

Wrapping up the year in property, Michelle Ong added:

“Despite an initial prediction that property transactions might start to slow down in 2022, we have seen nothing to that effect in practice.

At Pearson 2022 is recorded as one of our busiest years yet and the team have certainly been powering through another successful (but busy) year!”

Industry experts have been more sceptical in respect of 2023 – it is forecasted that property transactions are set to face a downturn due to the high interest rates and the ever challenging UK economic climate.

“The past 3 years have also changed the way we worked and I would say, for the better. This is evident with the recent nationwide postal strikes whereby many of our clients have been able to fully complete their transactions via e-signatures and we have got people in their new homes for Christmas,” said Michelle.

How can we help?

For help with your next house move call our residential conveyancing solicitors on 0161 785 3500 or email enquiries@pearsonlegal.co.uk

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Please note that the information and opinions contained in this article are not intended to be comprehensive, nor to provide legal advice. No responsibility for its accuracy or correctness is assumed by Pearson Solicitors and Financial Advisers Ltd or any of its members or employees. Professional legal advice should be obtained before taking, or refraining from taking, any action as a result of this article.

This blog was posted some time ago and its contents may now be out of date. For the latest legal position relating to these issues, get in touch with the author - or make an enquiry now.