Join us on Saturday 18th January, 10am – 12 midday,  for the launch of the final phase of the stunning LEWISTON MILL development in Brimscombe.

Choose between the detached Wheel House, three luxury townhouses or a very stylish two bedroom apartment. Four rental apartments, including a penthouse, will also be available to view.

Built to exacting standards by award winning developers Colburn.
Call our Nailsworth office on 01453 836736 for further details and to book your appointment.

See you across the pond next Saturday!

Lewiston Mill, Toadsmoor Road, Brimscombe, GL5 2TE

 

Happy New Year from all of us at Perry Bishop and Chambers.

A new year is often an opportunity for a new start and, as expected, since the beginning of January we have already received a steady build-up of enquiries from applicants looking to make 2020 the year they move.

We have already seen an increase in traffic to property websites so far in January 2020. The number of viewings we are conducting and offers we are negotiating would indicate we have more optimism in the housing market following the decisive general election result, which should lead to more stability.  There is pent up activity from buyers and sellers who had put their plans on hold over the last three years and current activity shows that this is beginning to come through.

Current market conditions are helping  First Time Buyers who are competing with fewer investors and also have the advantage of historically low interest rates, allowing them to fix their mortgage rate.  This then allows second steppers the opportunity to upsize into a home more suitable for their growing families.  Mortgage lenders are facing stiff competition and are consequently offering attractive rates and products.

We put our energy into giving you the best advice for the market conditions, whatever they may be, and tailor that to your personal needs. We will spend time understanding the reason for your move, what lies behind your decision, and then ascertaining what is most important to you – the price you achieve, or the timescales for moving.  We can then tailor a marketing strategy to suit your circumstances, which includes our unique  11 Step Plan to Sell for the Best Price.

Our skilled negotiators are trained to get you the very best price they can for your home, but they don’t stop there.  They can also negotiate on your behalf to secure the property you aspire to move to, helping you to successfully move on to the next chapter of your lives.

Don’t wait for Easter, or the Summer, or for Brexit.  If you are thinking of selling, or know someone who is, ask them to get in touch for a free, without obligation consultation and advice.

We are here to help and hope we will be able to assist in 2020.

Perry Bishop and Chambers’ Cirencester team have this year chosen local charity – The Big Yellow Bus Project – as their Charity Partner for 2020. The estate agents are delighted to lend their support to this fantastic local initiative set up by the remarkable Gerry Watkins to alleviate the suffering of those sleeping rough in the town.

Gerry Watkins recently met up with members of staff during one of Perry Bishop and Chambers’ morning training sessions and filled the team in on how the Big Yellow Bus Project came about, what they do and how they help as well as future plans to set up another bus for rough sleepers in Stroud.

The Big Yellow Bus Project will benefit from a donation from every house sold by Perry Bishop and Chambers Cirencester. The Big Yellow Bus Project logo will also appear across all the company’s marketing literature throughout the year. Managing Director, Phillip Bishop, is delighted that Perry Bishop can help raise awareness and much needed funds for the invaluable work of this small local charity. “We are so pleased to support this fledgling charity which is making a big difference to the lives of homeless people in Cirencester.”

Happy New Year from all of us at Perry Bishop and Chambers.

A new year is often an opportunity for a new start and, as expected, since the beginning of January we have already received a steady build-up of enquiries from applicants looking to make 2020 the year they move.

We have already seen an increase in traffic to property websites so far in January 2020. The number of viewings we are conducting and offers we are negotiating would indicate we have more optimism in the housing market following the decisive general election result, which should lead to more stability.  There is pent up activity from buyers and sellers who had put their plans on hold over the last three years and current activity shows that this is beginning to come through.

Current market conditions are helping  First Time Buyers who are competing with fewer investors and also have the advantage of historically low interest rates, allowing them to fix their mortgage rate.  This then allows second steppers the opportunity to upsize into a home more suitable for their growing families.  Mortgage lenders are facing stiff competition and are consequently offering attractive rates and products.

We put our energy into giving you the best advice for the market conditions, whatever they may be, and tailor that to your personal needs. We will spend time understanding the reason for your move, what lies behind your decision, and then ascertaining what is most important to you – the price you achieve, or the timescales for moving.  We can then tailor a marketing strategy to suit your circumstances, which includes our unique  11 Step Plan to Sell for the Best Price.

Our skilled negotiators are trained to get you the very best price they can for your home, but they don’t stop there.  They can also negotiate on your behalf to secure the property you aspire to move to, helping you to successfully move on to the next chapter of your lives.

Don’t wait for Easter, or the Summer, or for Brexit.  If you are thinking of selling, or know someone who is, ask them to get in touch for a free, without obligation consultation and advice.

We are here to help and hope we will be able to assist in 2020.

Perry Bishop and Chambers’ Cirencester team have this year chosen local charity – The Big Yellow Bus Project – as their Charity Partner for 2020. The estate agents are delighted to lend their support to this fantastic local initiative set up by the remarkable Gerry Watkins to alleviate the suffering of those sleeping rough in the town.

Gerry Watkins recently met up with members of staff during one of Perry Bishop and Chambers’ morning training sessions and filled the team in on how the Big Yellow Bus Project came about, what they do and how they help as well as future plans to set up another bus for rough sleepers in Stroud.

The Big Yellow Bus Project will benefit from a donation from every house sold by Perry Bishop and Chambers Cirencester. The Big Yellow Bus Project logo will also appear across all the company’s marketing literature throughout the year. Managing Director, Phillip Bishop, is delighted that Perry Bishop can help raise awareness and much needed funds for the invaluable work of this small local charity. “We are so pleased to support this fledgling charity which is making a big difference to the lives of homeless people in Cirencester.”

 

 

Our Managing Director, Phillip Bishop, was recently interviewed on Tim Thurston’s show – Mind Your Business – for  Community station Swindon 105.5FM.

Find out how where he learned the ropes and first discovered his passion for property and helping people on the move, which led to the formation of a successful multi-branch agency with offices across Gloucestershire and The Vale of the White Horse.

Click on Phillip’s pic to hear the interview in full.

Alternatively, you can read a transcript of his interview below:

Tim Thurston:

I’m in Cirencester today and I’ve called into local estate agent Perry Bishop and I’m talking to a managing director, Phillip Bishop. Hello Phillip, how are you?

Phillip Bishop:

Hi, Tim, I’m great, thank you. Good to see you.

Tim Thurston:

And you. Just tell me a little bit about yourself. You’ve been in an estate agency for quite some time I believe.

Phillip Bishop:

Yeah. A few years. I started a tender age of 16 in my home town, I live in Cirencester now, but my home time is Faringdon. I wanted to be an architect or a surveyor or an estate agent, but something to do with property. I had a fascination for housing and all things property. Actually, my passion was probably architecture, but actually, that was going to be a long journey of university and I was just ready to leave education at 16.

And I went to the local office, Hobbs and Chambers, which was a general practice firm in Faringdon. Saw Mr. Chambers and he asked me a few questions and invited me into what would now be called work experience. And I had two weeks in their office in Faringdon and it was the best thing I ever did. And he was very, very kind. I spent time with their surveyors, time with their estate agents, time with the agricultural department

He was extremely generous in his time that he gave me and that’s 32 years ago and that’s our Faringdon office that we now own. We trade as Perry Bishop and Chambers. Peter Chambers is a director colleague and he’s the grandson of the orinal Chambers. So, we love that sort of history and that sort of lineage of the business.

My first day in Faringdon we went to sell a farm. And we sold a farm at auction. In the morning we sold the farm, in the afternoon we sold all the machinery, the combine, the tractors. And all the farmers played a trick on me because I was a 15, 16 year old trying to keep up. Mr. Chambers was very fast and knew everybody and sold all these tractors and equipment and goodness knows what else. And I couldn’t keep up.

My job was to run around as the clerk and check their names, check the lot number and check what the price they paid.

Tim Thurston

Right.

Phillip Bishop

And they run me ragged. And they gave me the wrong names and the different prices they paid. And it was chaotic and I didn’t cope very well. But Mr. Chambers was really kind. It was all quite formal in those days.

Tim Thurston

Of course, yes.

Phillip Bishop

And he was very, very kind. He knew, he had enough memory and enough knowledge and knew these people. He knew what they’d paid and what they bought and he let me off the hook, really.

Tim Thurston

Yeah. Brilliant. And did you say you worked in Swindon earlier in your career?

Phillip Bishop

Yeah. We had an office in Swindon. So, as soon as I passed my driving test, I probably was eight to 10 years working in Swindon. Actually, we are on our way back to Swindon as a firm.

Tim Thurston

Fantastic.

Phillip Bishop

So, we’re a six branch estate agency/surveying business and predominately in Gloucestershire. Five offices in Gloucestershire, one in Oxfordshire.

But so many people, I’m delighted to say, enjoy what we do for them, enjoy how we look after people. And we’ve had so many people asking for us to help and support them and help them buy and sell property in and around Swindon that we’ve just started working with our first new associate partner who’s just in training at the moment and will start and go live in the next few weeks.

Tim Thurston

Excellent. So, that’s good news for Swindon and you can bring your services there. That’s fantastic. What’s made you successful? Why has Perry Bishop flourished and you’re able to expand, would you say?

Phillip Bishop

I’m sure we’re not perfect. We try and keep our feet on the ground, but we would be seen as a traditional high street firm, but we try and use the best of tech. But we think of our business from the outside in, and that’s a bit of a cliche, but we constantly think about our clients, about our buyers for our houses, and how to make that easier for people.

So, I just think we’ve got a passion. We work very, very hard. We’ve got a passion for people and for property. We do keep our feet on the ground. We are only as good as … you know, a chef might only be as good as the last meal they serve, we’re as good as the last house we sold or the last property we acted for, or client we acted for.

And we employ the right people. I don’t like that term employee. We have teams and colleagues, but we work with the right people that fit in with our values. So, our values are hard work, integrity and customer service. And we can’t train those things. If people fit in with those things, then they’ll make it. And if people fit in with those values then our clients will get the best experience.

 

Bake a gingerbread house with this simple biscuit recipe and design template. Get the kids involved, too, and weave some magical Christmas memories.

PREP: 2 HRS

COOK: 30 MINS

Ingredients
For the gingerbread
250g unsalted butter
200g dark muscovado sugar
7 tbsp golden syrup
600g plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tsp ground ginger

To decorate
200g bag flaked almonds
2 egg whites
500g icing sugar, plus extra to dust
125g pack mini chocolate fingers
generous selection of sweets of your choice, choose your own colour theme
1 mini chocolate roll or a dipped chocolate flake
few edible silver balls

For the house design
template

Method
Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a large bowl, then stir in the butter mixture to make a stiff dough. If it won’t quite come together, add a tiny splash of water.

Cut out the template (download from ingredients list). Put a sheet of baking paper on your work surface and roll about one quarter of the dough to the thickness of two £1 coins. Cut out one of the sections, then slide the gingerbread, still on its baking paper, onto a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, re-rolling the trimmings, until you have two side walls, a front and back wall and two roof panels. Any leftover dough can be cut into Christmas trees, if you like.

Pick out the most intact flaked almonds and gently poke them into the roof sections, pointy-end first, to look like roof tiles. Bake all the sections for 12 mins or until firm and just a little darker at the edges. Leave to cool for a few mins to firm up, then trim around the templates again to give clean, sharp edges. Leave to cool completely.

Put the egg whites in a large bowl, sift in the icing sugar, then stir to make a thick, smooth icing. Spoon into a piping bag with a medium nozzle. Pipe generous snakes of icing along the wall edges, one by one, to join the walls together. Use a small bowl to support the walls from the inside, then allow to dry, ideally for a few hours.

Once dry, remove the supports and fix the roof panels on. The angle is steep so you may need to hold these on firmly for a few mins until the icing starts to dry. Dry completely, ideally overnight. To decorate, pipe a little icing along the length of 20 mini chocolate fingers and stick these lengthways onto the side walls of the house. Use three, upright, for the door.

Using the icing, stick sweets around the door and on the front of the house. To make the icicles, start with the nozzle at a 90-degree angle to the roof and squeeze out a pea-sized blob of icing. Keeping the pressure on, pull the nozzle down and then off – the icing will pull away, leaving a pointy trail. Repeat all around the front of the house. Cut the chocolate mini roll or dipped Flake on an angle, then fix with icing to make a chimney. Pipe a little icing around the top. If you’ve made gingerbread trees, decorate these now, too, topping each with a silver ball, if using. Dust the roof with icing sugar for a snowy effect. Lay a winding path of sweets, and fix gingerbread trees around and about using blobs of icing. Your gingerbread house will be edible for about a week.

Recipe courtesy of Good Food Magazine

Perry Bishop and Chambers are delighted to extend their exceptional property marketing service to people on the move in Swindon Villages. Tessa Darley, who lives in the village of Blunsdon, has been appointed Associate Partner to head up valuations and sales across the area which comprises Blunsdon to the North, Royal Wootton Bassett to the West, Wanborough to the East and Chiseldon to the South.

“I am thrilled to be able to be able to offer a very personal service to people looking to move in and around the area where I live,” says Tessa. “It’s great that anyone living in the towns and villages surrounding Swindon can now take advantage of Perry Bishop and Chambers’ award-winning estate agency service.   If  a move is on the cards for 2020 – maybe an extra bedroom is now a necessity for your growing family or conversely you may no longer need so much space – that’s where I and the team at Perry Bishop can help. We implement a bespoke 11 Step Plan – based on proven results of selling hundreds of properties – which offers the perfect strategy for attracting the right buyer for your property and achieving the best price, typically an additional 2% more than the average sales price.

I look forward to helping you with your next move”

As part of our continued commitment to deliver value and the best quality of service, we are delighted to introduce our new online auction service to complement our existing traditional sales service.  By choosing to sell via online auction you benefit from a fast, certain and transparent method of sale designed to help you achieve the best possible price for your property.

Recent statistics indicate that the average time to complete a property transaction is now over 18 weeks. Whilst we have a much lower average across our business generally, with our online auction, you could exchange very swiftly from launching online.

Our online auction also boasts a 99% completion rate; this means that 99% of all properties that are sold in the online auction go on to exchange and complete. For our customers, this certainty provides added peace of mind.

We have two options to consider –  a traditional style auction, albeit online, that is legally binding once a successful bid is made. Alternatively, choose a conditional sale with a swift exchange of contracts soon after. The conditional sale route means that a wider range of buyers (including first time buyers and those who might need a mortgage to purchase) can participate and bid.

Selling a property via online auction offers you the flexibility to set your own timescales whilst keeping the competitive bidding nature of an auction sale.

We guide our client to the most suitable method depending on their situation and most importantly the type and style of property.

Benefits of our online auction:

Fast: 20 working days to exchange from the end of the auction
Certain: Committed buyers who have completed ID checks and paid a reservation fee
Transparent: Bidding activity available to view on property page

How it works:

We will work with you to agree on a reserve price that you are happy with – this is the minimum price that the property can be sold for. We will then market the property intensively to attract as many interested parties as possible. Competition between bidders helps the property find its best price.

At the end of the auction period (provided the reserve is met), the winning bidder is charged a reservation fee to confirm their interest in the property. A reservation agreement is automatically entered into between you and the winning buyer, with an obligation to exchange within 20 working days from the end of the auction.

For a more in-depth explanation of how our online auction process works take a look at our Seller Guide.

Landowners too can take advantage of our online auction service for the sale of plots.

If you would like to find out how we can help sell your property by online auction, please contact your local branch of Perry Bishop and Chambers.

 

To celebrate Festive Faringdon Lights On, we would be delighted if you could join us in branch for some festive cheer!

Our Faringdon team will be serving mulled wine, orange juice and mince pies.

When: Saturday 30th November, 2pm – 5pm

Where: Perry Bishop and Chambers, 16 Market Place, Faringdon

We look forward to seeing you then.

PS: Lights will be switched on at 5pm.