Thursday 8 October 2009

Look4aproperty Billions - Renthusiast probes further

Renthusiast have asked further questions of Look4aproperty and the comments thereafter a worthy of a read.

Look4aproperty keep saying just ask if you want anything so I did. I called the number on the site and the woman who answered didn't really know what I was talking about. I asked if there was an agent in my area providing the loan scheme. She said she hadn't seen the website and was not sure why I was asking her. Following a lengthy explanation from me about the product she said she thought registered agents would be on the website, although she hadn't seen it. I explained they were not and asked who she was working for. She replied LMS, who are the property services group 'facilitating' look4aproperty.

She gave me another number and I spoke to a gentlemen who knew more about the matter and cheerily explained there was not a current list of licenced agents as they were still in the very early stages of the scheme being set up and at the moment no loan schemes were available to the public. He explained that they were still signing agents up to the scheme and would hopefully be ready to offer the product to the public in a couple of months.

Not quite the same picture as being painted by Look4aproperty and is probably why there are no terms and conditions as yet. I would hazard a guess that the product is not yet finalised and/or there is not yet enough new agents to warrant the product release, or ... there is no product?! Either way, there is currently no product to offer joe public.

I have also asked Hitachi to comment and will publish any comments I receive in due course.

Wednesday 7 October 2009

HIPS will be History say the Tories

Grant Shapps announced at the Tory conference yesterday that he would 'consign Home Information Packs to History' if the Tories were to win the next election.

Well, Boris Johnson promised that bendy buses would be replaced and guess what, yep, they are still out there. We all know you can't really believe a word that comes from a politicians mouth, but what if, they are actually telling the truth?! Unbelievable as it sounds, (the truth that is) would this open the way to a new approach in the modernisation of the house purchasing process? Indeed, HIPs in the original form did seek to help this process, but they were watered down and everyone moaned and whined until they were left with the dishcloth of a product that exists today.

I suspect the HIPs providers will be lobbying hard to keep them in some shape or form and we will be lobbying hard to modernise the entire process so perhaps there will be a home for a better product in the future?

By the way, the Tories are 1/4 to win the next election and the bookies don't normally get this wrong, (source William Hill)