frontdoorz is a local independent Property Search and Property Styling company, offering a range of specialist services that are designed to save time, money and effort for those who are buying, selling or renting property. Cathy Dunbabin and Sonia Kearns work in partnership to provide search services for buyers or tenants, in addition to styling for sellers. Emma Connolly reports for B4.

Searching
With a background in sales and property spanning many years, Cathy uses her experience, expertise, and award-winning negotiation skills not only to find clients their perfect property, but also to secure it at the best price. Her clients include a wide range of business professionals relocating to the Oxfordshire area, as well as people who are just moving around the corner. frontdoorz’ services are highly recommended by a wide range of professional companies, including solicitors, financial advisors and letting agents.

Cathy explains how their service works. “As an independent property search company we are able to explore the whole property market to find the home that fulfils the specific criteria of our client. We deal with estate agents directly and filter the properties for our clients, so they don’t receive lots of poorly matched property details or waste time viewing unsuitable properties. Due to excellent long-standing relationships with agents, we have early access to new or potential instructions - even properties that are being discreetly marketed. This gives our clients an unbeatable advantage.”

Sonia goes on to explain. “We spend a lot of time with our clients to draw out exactly what is essential to them. We determine exactly what it is that they want, whether it’s a particular school, transport links, or access to a work place.”

frontdoorz research and view all potential properties and compile a shortlist. Clients are then accompanied on all viewings. Once their client has chosen a property, Cathy and Sonia use their experience and knowledge of current industry data to determine what price should be paid in the current market. They then negotiate to secure the property at the best possible price.

“An agent’s role is to drive the price achieved upwards for their client, while we drive it downwards. We’ve saved an awful lot of money for buyers in negotiations.” Emphasises Cathy. “In most cases, our service pays for itself through the savings we can negotiate.”

Once they’ve secured the property, they then actively manage the transaction to a successful completion by liaising with all associated professionals.

You would think that such a personal and stress-free service would come at a price, but that’s not the case, as Cathy confirms. “When you engage us for our property search service, we charge a £500 retainer. On legal exchange of contracts, we charge 1.0% of the purchase price when buying, or a full month’s rent on rental properties (minus the retainer fee).” Property search is definitely no longer a luxury service only available to a select few.

Styling
Property styling is frontdoorz’s other vital service. Sonia describes how this works. “We understand exactly what potential buyers and tenants look for when viewing properties. We know that a professionally styled property will appeal to the widest possible audience, will command the highest price and will result in a speedier transaction. We compile a room-by-room report giving honest, constructive advice, informing our clients of exactly what they can do, and more importantly, what they don’t need to do, in order to improve their property. The intention is to prevent costly, time-consuming mistakes and to create dramatic results with minimum outlay.”

Property styling ensures the client’s property stands far above the competition. The transformation of their clients’ home greatly increases the opportunities for selling or renting quickly, at above-market value.

When styling a house for a sale, Sonia explains. “It’s not necessary to spend thousands of pounds to reap the financial rewards. When you’re selling, you want to spend as little as possible so that you can save the excess cash for your new home. However, investing in the right areas can ensure you increase the value of your property, giving you extra pounds in your pocket for your new pad. That investment will primarily be your time and a bit of effort.

“It’s important to understand what attracts buyers, what they’re looking for and the pitfalls to avoid. The aim is to enhance your property’s best features and to correct or hide any weaker aspects. Living-in and selling a property are two different things – it’s necessary to let go of the emotional attachment and think of your home as the vehicle that will enable you to take that next step towards an exciting new adventure.”

Sonia concludes how frontdoorz are truly focused on giving their customers an excellent service. “I think the important thing is that we are very approachable, very friendly and incredibly honest. It’s about building relationships with people. We have found we can do this to great effect, for the benefit of all parties.”

Whether you’re looking to buy, rent or sell, you can be assured that Cathy and Sonia will be working with you, for you, and providing informed and expert advice throughout the whole process.

Testimonials
“If you were to put the search for your perfect new home in somebody else’s hands, what skills would you want them to have? Fantastic listening skills, bundles of empathy and the ability to negotiate on price from a position of knowledge of the market. Cathy has these skills in spades, she understands what clients are looking for and so they only see the properties that they need to and importantly she makes sure that the right price is paid - killer deals in heels!”
Daniel Kitchen, Principal Optimum Wealth Management

“Using frontdoorz to negotiate when we purchased our new home not only enabled us to buy the property we had set our hearts on but made a challenging period extremely easy and straightforward. frontdoorz secured the deal, using market knowledge to get an incredible £50,000 off, the already reduced, asking price!”
Candy Woodington, Operations Director Clarendon Enterprise Centre

www.frontdoorz.com