About
Linda Carr,
Experienced Property Consultant
"Invest in a Home Away from Home –
Secure Your Child's Future in Edinburgh!"
I am extremely conscious of finances, largely because I was a bank manager prior to getting in to property. I hate seeing people over paying for anything and I hate hearing people getting bad advice. I am extremely honest, trustworthy and knowledgeable. I have worked in various solicitor firms in Edinburgh and have invaluable contacts that can assist with all the legal side of the purchase, mortgages and finance options, surveyors and many specialists to call on for advice on matters such as potential damp, structural issues etc. I have bought and sold thousands of different properties over the years so I have experience of both sides of the transaction.
For as long as I can remember I have always had a passion (I hate using that word, but it’s the best one to describe it) for property. I bought my first flat in the year 2000, shortly after my 21st birthday. It was a 2 bed, city centre flat with residents parking and all for only £66,000. I bought my second property 5 years later, a 2 bedroom house with sun trap garden, this time I paid £125,000. In 2011, I reluctantly had to sell both as I needed the equity to buy a bigger home for my growing family. I sold my 1st flat for £155,000 and the house I only managed to get back what I paid for it as it was not long after the financial crash and the market was still suffering, but I also managed to buy my next home for a good price so it works both ways.
I began working in the property industry in 2013 when the market was still pretty poor. A few months in and I could see the market was picking up. It went from strength to strength and as the years went by some of the prices people were paying were crazy. Home Reports were meant to put a value on each property in Scotland to show buyers what a property is worth but instead it started to make people second guess what other people would offer and then they would try and outbid the other parties and this started to push the prices higher and higher. The Home Report valuations were calculated from recent sales data, so as time went by there would be more data to justify increasing the value on the Home Reports and it continued like this for about 10 years. Buyers were always asking what percent over things were going for and you couldn’t give a definitive answer, you could only give a guide on what other similar properties had sold for, but we all had and still have the same sources of information so it is a bit of a guessing game. A property is truly worth what someone will pay for it and that will always be the case. When I was dealing with sales I would often see offers varying by tens of thousands of pounds. Top offers sometimes being £50,000,£60,000, £70,000 higher than the next offer down. They would never find that information out as all the offers were confidential. Seeing all of this I knew it couldn’t be sustainable and after 10 years of price increases the market finally settled. Now more things are going in line with Home Report valuations and prices are rising annually on a more predictable way. I am delighted to say I now have a portfolio of rental properties across Edinburgh, all of which I have managed to secure for no higher than their valuation.
My dad always said that the property market will go round in circles, prices increase for a good few years, then the market will fall, but it will always increase again and I believe that bricks and mortar are the best long term investment. Edinburgh is on a par with London, it is a financial micro-climate, which is great if you are fortunate enough to be able to get your foot on the ladder here.