The Buying Solution: a tale of two clients
To best demonstrate the work of Knight Frank’s independent buying consultancy, The Buying Solution (TBS), we spoke to two clients about their respective experiences when it came to finding their ideal country home
Working on behalf of retained clients, The Buying Solution finds and secures exceptional properties in London and the country, providing the complete solution to your residential property search. Specialising at over £2m, it provides total market coverage and a high percentage of client acquisitions are off- or pre-market. The search is only the start of the comprehensive purchasing service, which includes property due diligence, negotiations, purchase management and property handover, so the buyers’ best interests are represented throughout the purchase process.
Storry Warner used The Buying Solution to secure his family home in the Cotswolds at the beginning of 2021. We spoke to him about his time with TBS.
For trusted advice on the London and country markets, contact The Buying Solution on 01488 657912 (country) or 020 7591 2640 (London) www.thebuyingsolution.co.uk
What made you choose TBS? SW: We knew we wanted to move somewhere with more space and ideally some land in the Cotswolds. We were fortunate on the one hand to no longer have any ties to office locations but this in some respects made it harder to define our search area. We went down the usual path of conducting our own online search, but we were conscious supply was limited and after a number of months didn’t feel like we were making substantive progress. We’d never used a buying agent before, but as soon as we met Harry Gladwin, we knew that we were in good hands. In the early stages he asked the right questions to get to the bottom of our needs and wants, which certainly developed through the process, and he really helped us narrow down our search area.
What element of TBS’s service did you find most beneficial? SW: Harry’s knowledge of the local market and area, and his connections to local agents and all the right service providers, were invaluable. Especially due to the nature of our purchase we really benefited from being able to speak to specialists (planning consultants, architects, legal advisors, etc) who were introduced through TBS during the buying process – and the depth of market insight in our buying report was extremely reassuring. Using TBS also ensured a simplified relationship between us as prospective buyers and the selling agent, and the benefit of having someone who is highly regarded and well connected within that local market can’t be underestimated.
Was there anything about the process that surprised you? SW: The number of properties that are for sale off-market was a surprise. I believe only a couple of the properties that we viewed through TBS were being marketed on the open market. We would never have seen our current house if it hadn’t been for them. Harry at TBS really got to know us on a personal level, which allowed us a focused search as well as making the viewing process much easier and more comfortable than we were expecting.
What advice would you give to someone contemplating using a buying agent? SW: The right buying agent really can add value through all aspects of the buying process; it’s not just about finding suitable houses that match your brief. We ended up buying a small farm which wasn’t a straightforward proposition (albeit an exciting one). It was vitally important to us to have verified connections you can reach out to, which in honesty we hadn’t even considered at the beginning of the process. We probably wouldn’t have bought our current home if we hadn’t been put in touch with the professionals Harry introduced us to – it’s one of the most important parts of the service, and now, almost a year after completing, they continue to be available to us.
Another of our clients, a South American family, who chose to move to the UK during the midst of the pandemic during 2020, discuss how The Buying Solution helped them purchase their dream English country home while they were living overseas, through virtual viewings only. How did you know about TBS? We had used Knight Frank previously; we were living in Bristol and they sold our house for us when we temporarily moved abroad. During the pandemic, we were in lockdown in South America, but had already decided that we would like to move back to England, particularly for the educational options for our four children. After sending a few emails to our contacts at Knight Frank, we were put in touch with The Buying Solution. Initially we were hesitant about using a buying agent, but now, having been through the process, there is no way we could have bought the property we have without TBS. I went from seeing it originally as a potential unnecessary expense to an absolute necessity.
How did TBS help you in your remote property search and in securing your current home? We knew we wanted to move to the South West of England, and that Dorset was our preferred area, but we weren’t sure where exactly. TBS actively searched for us when they knew all of our requirements, and we viewed around 20 properties remotely, some via video tours as we weren’t in the country and obviously could not travel because of Covid-19 restrictions. One of our requirements was that we wanted to farm, so needed somewhere with adequate land for grazing beef cattle. We were also looking for a property that wouldn’t need too much work since we will eventually return to South America. TBS found us a surveyor in April 2020 who specialised in period country houses, which is what we ended up buying. It was a very difficult time, with most businesses locked down, and we would never have been able to do it on our own.
What was the biggest benefit of using TBS for you personally? When you are buying in the UK as a foreigner, particularly when you are physically overseas and unable to see the properties in person, it is of absolute utmost importance that you have feet on the ground representing you – someone who you can trust and who also understands all the nuances and complications of the market, particularly when you’re buying a listed property with land. This is exactly what we got from TBS. The amount of due diligence they guided us through was extraordinary, and the questions they asked made us realise how much we could have potentially overlooked if we had been buying without their services
Is TBS a service you would call upon again Absolutely. Our main contact was Mark Lawson, and he was an absolute expert in the farms and country house market. We were so pleased with his service and the relationship we developed with him, to the extent that we have stayed friends. You can’t underestimate the importance of having someone act on your behalf as an intermediary in a situation like that, the extra time it gives you to think and consider is invaluable. While the timing in many ways seemed awful, buying from abroad in the middle of a pandemic, it actually meant we were in a great position, with far fewer buyers around compared to only a few months later in the summer when the market took off. But without the encouragement and advice we received from Mark, we probably wouldn’t have had the confidence or connections to push ahead and end up with our current family home.