That doesn't mean they are unwilling to buy. It means sellers need to give them confidence that a property represents the right choice.

A fresh approach can make all the difference

At Sawdye & Harris, we've always believed that selling a home involves much more than simply advertising it online.

When a property has been on the market for a while, it's important to take a fresh look at how it compares with the alternatives now available.

Has the competition changed? Are there new properties attracting attention? Does the asking price still reflect the market? And is the marketing giving buyers the best possible impression of the home?

Sometimes, the answer may be a review of the asking price. On other occasions, refreshed photography, improved presentation, a revised property description or a carefully coordinated marketing relaunch can help generate renewed interest.

A price adjustment on its own isn't always the complete answer.

It's often the combination of realistic pricing, thoughtful presentation and proactive marketing that makes the difference.

Our role is to look at the bigger picture, understand how buyers are responding and advise on the steps most likely to improve your property's position.

Looking ahead to winter

As the seasons change, the way we present properties becomes increasingly important.

Warm, welcoming interiors, inviting photography and a clear focus on what makes a home special can all help buyers imagine themselves living there.

Winter can sometimes bring quieter viewing periods, but that doesn't mean there aren't serious buyers looking to move. Some will be hoping to find a home before the new year, while others may be planning ahead for a move in the months to come.

If your property is already on the market and enquiries have been slower than expected, try not to feel disheartened. Feedback, including a lack of enquiries, can tell us a great deal about how the market is responding and whether something needs to change.

This is why we believe regular communication and honest advice are so important. We'll continue to review buyer activity, assess the competition and provide considered recommendations tailored to your individual circumstances.

Is your property standing out for the right reasons?

The current market doesn't mean you can't achieve a successful sale. It simply means that getting the details right matters.

With more choice available to buyers, your property needs to offer the right combination of price, presentation and appeal to encourage someone to take the next step.

At Sawdye & Harris, our focus remains on ensuring your property isn't simply on the market, but genuinely in the market.

If you're thinking of selling, or your property has been available for a while and you'd welcome a fresh perspective, we'd be delighted to have a conversation.

After all, it only takes one buyer — but we need to give them every reason to choose your home.

Character homes rarely stay on the market for long. Buyers are drawn to the beams, the fireplaces, the uneven floors and all the little details that a new build simply can’t offer. If you are thinking of selling a period property, this also means thinking carefully about what to update before you list it, because the wrong changes can quietly strip out the very thing buyers are paying for.

We’ve seen plenty of character homes go to market across Devon, and the sellers who do best are the ones who update with the house rather than against it. Here’s what to keep in mind.

Start with what buyers fall for

Before you touch anything, walk through your home and note what gives it personality. Original beams, cast iron fireplaces, flagstone floors, panelled doors, exposed brick and old joinery are often the first things buyers mention on a viewing. Even small, inexpensive details like a cottage latch or an old bell pull can add to the sense that a property has a story behind it. These features cost nothing to keep and a great deal to replace, so build your update plan around protecting them rather than covering them up.

If a feature has seen better days, repair is almost always the better choice over replacement. A skilled local tradesperson can often restore an original window frame or a worn staircase for a fraction of what a full replacement would cost, and the result will usually look more convincing to a buyer than something new trying to look old.

Warmer without the compromise

A cold, draughty home puts buyers off fast, but modern insulation doesn’t have to mean losing the character. Draught-proofing doors and windows is cheap, quick and reversible, and it’s often the single biggest improvement you can make before a viewing season begins. Secondary glazing can cut heat loss while leaving original windows in place, and roof insulation is usually straightforward wherever the loft space allows it.

Historic England’s advice on energy efficiency in older homes is a useful starting point if you want to understand what’s appropriate for your type of property before you commit to any work. It’s worth getting this right early, since buyers increasingly ask about running costs alongside the character of a home.

Kitchens and bathrooms that suit the house

Buyers want modern comfort, but a kitchen or bathroom that feels bolted onto a period property can look out of place rather than aspirational. Simple cabinetry, natural materials and fittings that echo the age of the house tend to perform better with buyers than anything too sleek or contemporary. If you’re planning a refit before selling, keep the scale and style in proportion with the rest of the home, and resist the urge to open up every wall in search of an open-plan layout that the building was never designed for.

First impressions from the lane

Kerb appeal matters just as much for a character home as any other, and the exterior is often where buyers form their first opinion before they’ve even reached the front door. Original windows, doorsand brickwork are worth preserving wherever they’re sound, and small repairs such as repointing or repainting can make a bigger difference than a full replacement.

A garage or outbuilding is also part of this picture, and it’s an area that’s easy to overlook. A garage door is usually one of the largest visible features on a frontage, so one that feels too modern or doesn’t match the proportions of the house can undo a lot of the work you’ve put into the rest of the exterior. A guide to choosing a garage door that suits a period property sets out the styles and finishes worth weighing up before you replace one. Wessex Garage Doors explain that side hinged doors are often the strongest option for cottages and character properties, since they keep a traditional look while still offering a practical, everyday door for storage or parking, and that colour and finish usually matter as much as the door style itself when it comes to blending in with the rest of the house. 

Check before you change

Many character homes sit within a conservation area, a National Park or have listed status, and this can affect what you’re allowed to change before putting the house on the market. Permitteddevelopment rights often don’t apply to listed buildings, and some alterations in a conservation area need permission even when the same change would be straightforward anywhere else. Removing or altering a historic feature without the right consent can create problems during a sale, so it’s always worth checking with the relevant authority before starting work.

For sellers in our own patch, Dartmoor National Park Authority’s planning guidance sets out what does and doesn’t need consent, and it’s a good first stop if you’re unsure where your property stands.

Know what your home is worth

Whether you’re in Ashburton, Chudleigh, Moretonhampstead or anywhere else across Devon, getting the right updates in place before you sell can make a real difference to how quickly your character home finds a buyer and the price it achieves. If you’re starting to think about a move, we’d be delighted to help. Book a free valuation and we’ll talk you through the best next steps for your property.

Most sellers put all their energy into getting an offer. Understandably so. It feels like the finish line. But the truth is, the offer is only the start of the part that actually decides whether your sale goes through, and at what price. What happens in the days and weeks after that first offer is often where sellers lose money, lose momentum, or lose the buyer altogether, usually without realising why.

Someone gets an offer they're pleased with, relaxes a little, and then finds the deal drifting, or slipping, or quietly being chipped away at. It rarely comes down to bad luck. It comes down to how the negotiation is handled from that first offer onwards.

The moment sellers switch off

Once an offer is on the table, it's natural to feel the hard work is done. The property's been marketed, the viewings have happened, and now there's a number in front of you. But a buyer's first offer is rarely their best one, and how you respond to it sets the tone for everything that follows.

Sellers who accept too quickly can leave money on the table. Sellers who push back too hard, or too vaguely, can lose a genuinely motivated buyer who simply walks away and finds something else. The skill is in reading which type of offer you're dealing with, and responding in a way that keeps the buyer engaged while still protecting your position. That's a judgement call, not a formula, and it's one that's hard to make objectively about your own home.

What buyers are actually testing for

Buyers rarely say what they're really thinking during negotiation. An offer that looks low might be a genuine opening position from someone who fully expects to pay more. Or it might be a buyer testing whether you're a motivated seller who'll cave quickly. Without knowing which, sellers often respond in exactly the wrong way, either giving ground too soon or holding a line that scares a good buyer off.

There are usually clues. How quickly the offer came in. Whether it's tied to a mortgage in principle or proof of funds. Whether the buyer has a property to sell themselves, and how far along that sale is. Sellers who go into negotiation without weighing these things up are essentially negotiating blind.

The details sellers overlook until it's too late

It's not just the headline price that matters. Completion timescales, what's included in the sale, and how firm a buyer's own chain is can all shift the real value of an offer. A slightly lower offer from a chain-free buyer who can move quickly is often worth more, in practical terms, than a higher offer sitting behind two other sales that haven't even gone under offer yet.

Sellers also underestimate how much can change between acceptance and completion. A buyer's circumstances shift, a survey throws up something unexpected, or a chain above or below yours falls apart. None of that is under your control directly, but how a negotiation is structured from the outset, what's agreed, what's put in writing, how contingencies are handled, has a real bearing on how resilient your sale is to those shocks.

Where sellers come unstuck, and why the right agent changes that

This is where a lot of sales quietly go wrong. Sellers negotiate directly with buyers, or leave too much of the back-and-forth to be handled loosely, and small misunderstandings turn into real friction. Price gets renegotiated after survey because nobody managed expectations early. A buyer gets cold feet because they felt pressured rather than guided. A stronger offer gets missed because the seller didn't have the full picture of who was really in a position to proceed.

A good agent isn't just there to generate offers. Their real value shows up after the offer, in reading buyer behaviour, protecting your position without losing the buyer, and keeping a sale on track through the parts that tend to go wrong. That's the difference between a sale that completes at a fair price and one that limps along, gets renegotiated, or falls through months in.

What to do next

If you're weighing up an offer, or thinking about coming to market and want to understand how negotiation is likely to play out for a property like yours, it's worth getting a proper, honest read on your position before you're in the middle of it. Decisions made calmly in advance tend to hold up far better than ones made under pressure with a buyer waiting on the phone.

If you're thinking about moving and want clear, honest advice on price, positioning and what it would take to get your home sold properly in the current market, we'd be happy to help.

If you have ever had a deposit dispute drag on for weeks after a tenant has moved out, you will know how draining it is. Nobody sets out expecting a fight over cleaning charges or a stained carpet, but it happens more often than most landlords think, and usually not because the tenant was difficult. Most disputes come down to something far more avoidable: a lack of evidence at the start of the tenancy.

We work with landlords every day, and deposit disputes are one of the things that come up again and again. The good news is that they are almost entirely preventable if you get a few things right before a tenant ever moves in.

Why deposit disputes actually happen

Most people assume disputes are about landlords being unreasonable or tenants trying to avoid paying for damage. In reality, the root cause is usually much simpler: nobody can prove what the property looked like at the start of the tenancy.

Without a clear, dated record of the property's condition on day one, any conversation about deductions becomes a case of "he said, she said". The tenant remembers the carpet already being marked. The landlord remembers it being spotless. Neither can prove it, and that is exactly the situation that ends up in front of an adjudicator.

Cleaning and general wear and tear are the two areas that cause the most friction. A property that has been lived in for twelve months will not look the same as it did on move-in day, and it is not supposed to. The difficulty is drawing the line between fair wear and tear, which a landlord cannot charge for, and genuine damage or neglect, which they can.

The inventory is doing more work than most landlords realise

A proper inventory, done at check-in and check-out, with dated photographs and clear written descriptions, is the single most useful tool a landlord has. Not because it looks professional, but because it removes the guesswork when it matters.

We would always recommend photographing every room, including things landlords often skip, such as inside cupboards, the condition of walls behind furniture, carpets in corners, and any existing marks or wear. It sounds excessive until the day you actually need it. A written inventory alone is rarely enough on its own; photos with timestamps carry far more weight if a dispute ends up with an adjudicator.

One detail landlords frequently overlook is getting the tenant to agree the check-in inventory in writing, not just receive it. A document sitting unopened in an inbox does not help you if there is a disagreement later. Ask for a signature, a reply confirming they have reviewed it, or use a system that logs when it was opened and accepted.

Protecting the deposit correctly, and on time

Every deposit taken for an assured shorthold tenancy in England has to be placed in a government-approved scheme within the required timeframe, and the tenant must be given the prescribed information about where it is held. This step is not just a formality. Missing the deadline or getting the paperwork wrong can leave a landlord unable to recover deductions at all, regardless of how much evidence they have of damage.

This is one of the most common and costly mistakes we see, usually not from carelessness but from landlords assuming a letting agent or a previous process has it covered when it has not. If you manage tenancies yourself, it is worth double checking every single time, not just when the tenancy is new to you.

Where landlords lose disputes even when they are in the right

It is possible to have genuine damage, clear photos, and a fair case, and still lose a dispute. This usually comes down to how the claim is presented rather than whether the damage is real. Adjudicators expect quotes or invoices to support the cost of repairs, not just a landlord's estimate of what something is worth. Charging for full replacement of an item that was already several years old, rather than accounting for its remaining useful life, is another common reason claims get reduced or rejected.

Cleaning charges are a particular sticking point. If the property was not professionally cleaned before the tenant moved in, it is very difficult to justify charging for professional cleaning at the end. Keep receipts for any pre-tenancy cleaning or maintenance, because they become part of your evidence later, even if that feels unnecessary at the time.

What actually reduces disputes before they start

Communication earlier in the tenancy makes a bigger difference than most landlords expect. A mid-tenancy check, even a brief one, gives you the chance to flag issues while they are small and while the tenant is still there to discuss them, rather than discovering problems for the first time at check-out.

Being clear with tenants from the outset about what is expected at the end of the tenancy also helps. Most tenants are not trying to avoid responsibility; they simply do not know what "reasonable condition" means in practice. A short, plain explanation at the start of the tenancy, covering things like professional cleaning expectations or garden maintenance, prevents a lot of confusion later.

When a dispute does arise, dealing with it directly and promptly, rather than letting frustration build on either side, usually leads to a quicker and fairer resolution. Adjudicators respond well to landlords who present organised, proportionate claims rather than ones that read as an attempt to recover as much as possible regardless of the actual damage. 

What to do next

If you are not entirely confident your current inventory process would hold up under scrutiny, now is a good time to check. Review how your last few check-in and check-out reports were completed, whether they include dated photographs, and whether your deposit protection paperwork was issued correctly and on time for every tenancy you currently manage.

Getting this right protects your income and your relationship with tenants, and it means that if a dispute ever does arise, you are working from a position of strength rather than trying to reconstruct evidence after the fact.

We'd love to have a chat with you about how the new legislation will affect your decisions and investment properties going forward.