Isle of Wight Homes "First's"

1. We were the first Island agent to show lots of pictures on our site – when we started in the year 2000 we had an average of six pictures whilst other agents had usually had one. On average we have twenty pictures per home (the most we have shown for a property was 45 pictures).
   
   
2. We also were the first agent to have “Full screen” pictures, usually available our larger properties, or those with large gardens, paddocks etc.
   
   
3. Also the first Island agent to have a “Slide Show” facility – where all the pictures taken revolve so you see around the whole property before you visit.
   
   
4. The first agent to have the GOOGLE aerial map integrated within our website allowing buyers to "zoom down to the actual front door" on all our properties.
   
   
5. In addition, Isle of Wight Homes were the first to have large A4 size floorplans, these can be clearly seen & easily printed out.
   
   
6. The first & currently the only agent we have seen in the UK to have a GOOGLE explorer map for each property showing the location of the home within the Island &  the location of the local Schools, Transport, Medical Centre’s etc within the area
   
7. The first Island agent website that provides an RSS feed - allowing immediate contact to potential buyers once a new property is loaded
   
8. Again we are currently the first & only Island agent with a mobile phone website. All our property details are accessible via a mobile phone on this site specifically built for a mobile phones www.iowh.mobi . You can view all the room sizes & pictures wherever you are, whether be it on a train, ferry, or outside one of our properties.
   
9.  We are currently the only agent on the Island who has a twitter account (a social networking & micro blogging service) developing useful links primarily within the Island, UK & the USA. We also "Twitter" all our properties & will be an important future marketing tool.
         You can follow us by searching for Simon Broadhead
   
10. We are also currently the only agent on Facebook. You can also see our presence within Facebook by searching under Isle of Wight Homes or Simon Broadhead.

Letters & e-mails from our clients

Many thanks for all your help with the sale of our property and the way you kept chasing,
if it were not for you, we would still be here waiting!

Thankyou

 

Mr & Mrs W

Card recd June 2010

Hi Georgina & Simon,

Thanks for all your help & as always we have no reservations what so ever about recommending you to any of our friends & family.

Good luck to you in the future. I'm sure our paths will cross again!

Kind regards

D & K.

February 2010

 

 

Hello Georgina,

Thank you so much for all your help and patience. Your optimism has been a beacon through all this, especially for X. It is her first time selling and buying a house (my fifth) and she didn't believe me when we first set out . Well she does now!!

Thank you for dealing with Mr X……… but left everything else to you, including the other viewing …... Thanks again.

I am hoping that we will have packed and left with the removal company before Mr X arrives on the scene.

Thanks again for everything.

Kind regards,

TW

January 2010

To Georgina & Simon,
Thankyou a million for all your help & extreme professionalism!
We really appreciate it! Love J,N & K
Card recd August 2009

Dear Pat, Georgina & all the gang at Isle of Wight Homes,

Thank you so much for your great service & tenacity in helping this difficult sale go through. C & I are very grateful to you for keeping it going. If we return we will visit you first.

All the best

D & C M

To Georgina Pat & Team

Thankyou for everything, you’ve been absolutely brilliant!
N & E J

To all at Isle of Wight Homes Ltd

Thank you for all your hard work, dedication and sense of humour in bringing our move to a close.
We certainly picked the right estate agent – we say no more!!

Regards & Thanks

S & C
Dear ….,

Thank you for selling our property. If friend or relatives ask us in the future to recommend an estate agent we will certainly recommend you

Best Wishes

Yours Sincerely,

M & P D

Just had a Thankyou card in the post today on a particularly difficult sale/purchase, its always great to be appreciated.

“Many thanks for all your hard work and kindness”

Mr & Mrs P

Just received another card

Dear Georgina, Simon Pat & Jill,

Thank you ever so much for all the hard work you put in over the selling of my flat. Of everyone who was involved, you were the ones who kept me informed about what was going on. In addition, you gave me help & advice when I required it.
Thank you again,
S
 

Just received a card through today from a grateful client

"Thanks so much to all of you at Isle of Wight Homes I was so impressed & pleased with all you did for me & have passed your number onto several people.

Thanks again”

KM

Hi to everyone at Isle of Wight Homes...

Its taken a while to settle in and get myself sorted out but I am

getting there at last...The home I purchased without actually seeing

beforehand hasn't been a disappointment at all. (phew). Although for

some reason I had the idea that the traffic might be a bit less up here

than on the Island but I was sure wrong about that....I won't be going

into Scarborough town very often, it's a traffic nightmare. worse than

Newport.

Anyway I am just writing to thank you all..with a special thanks to

Jill & Pat.... who were always so pleasant to talk to on the Phone and

did their best to keep me up to date and informed and who both have a

very genuine caring attitude.

All the best to you ...and you can be sure that if I should ever return

to the Island I will be coming to you.

Sincerely ......P J

Hi Georgina,

Yes of course I would be more than happy for you to use my comments.
I would certainly recommend you to anyone.. the only

problem with selling my bungalow was that the buyers were spoilt for

choice with so many bungalows for sale on the Island!! The truth is that

you guys did very well to find me a buyer at all.

all the best wishes

P J

Hi,
Just to let you know I have found a spare key for the post box now, so you can pick the keys up at anytime.
Also, we would both like to thank you all for all your hard work and effort involved in selling our house,
it really is appreciated.(we know we weren't the easiest of customers!)
It`s been a pleasure to deal with Honest Estate Agents, also thanks for recommending the Solicitor.
Thank You.
A W & P K

To Simon, Georgina, Pat & Jill,

Just wanted to say a huge thank you for all your help, advice & moral support through the sale of my home – not to mention the professional service!

You all made the process much easier for me & its much appreciated.

With kind regards
N.E.

Billingham,

Newport,

Isle of Wight

Hello Georgina

Thank you for taking the time to appraise  xx  …………….

Thank you also, to you and your colleagues for the work you did in the sale of Forest Way, I can't express enough my gratitude and thanks at having such a high level of professionalism from yourselves all throughout the entire process. Also, I'm pleased to have been able to pass on our old home to such a lovely couple as the xx’s.

Thanks again, and I look forward to dealing with you again in the near future.

Best wishes,  
R.F.

Winford,

Sandown,

Isle of Wight.

To :- Isle of Wight Homes Ltd

Dear Simon and Georgina
Thanks for your letter - it arrived today. We are delighted to have sold our house and thank you so much for taking it on and doing the business! The best man (and woman) won!
It is a relief to finally be rid of one house so we can concentrate on buying another. We have……………
Many thanks again for your wonderful service and dedicated hard work. I would not hesitate in recommending you to any one who is thinking of trying to sell their house!!
Yours
J
Dear Georgina & Simon,  

We are very pleased with the way you handled the sale, you cannot be faulted in any aspect of it you are truly experts in the property sales field.

The details and many pictures on your website are the best we have ever come across, and we visit many sites every week. We believe our property was sold to our purchases by your web site pictures and they only needed to visit to place their offer.
We will certainly use “Isle of Wight Homes “ when we move again, and recommend you whole heartedly to any one seeking to sell their property. Your fees are also very reasonable.
Yours Sincerely
JT & BR

Hello Georgina & Simon
We finally have a computer and are able to look at your website, its fab you can see why you managed to sell our cottage for us. Ross and I wanted to say a very big thankyou for all you have done for us not only did you sell our cottage but you also sold us our current beautiful home, I call that excellent work especially as we could not see either homes as we did not have a computer.
You both worked so hard to achieve our sale and purchase and you were always of good humour throughout some trying times.
We have recommended you to many of our friends and acquaintances and I note that one of the properties you have sale agreed on we spoke to the owners about how good you guys were, so well done!
We will certainly use your service again thanks
R & DH
Carisbrooke

Dear Georgina & Simon

We would like to thank you both very much indeed for selling xx Steyne Road for us.

As you know, I have worked in Estate Agency/Lettings for the last 20 years, and have been most impressed with your service. It has been most refreshing dealing with your company as your enthusiasm really shines through. We both have a passion for property and to be able to deal with like-minded persons in the buying and selling of property is a real bonus. I think that many Agents, particularly on the Island, have lost sight of their aim and this is a real pity. We will certainly continue to recommend your company to anyone wishing to buy or sell on the Isle of Wight. I wish that there was a company (with people like you to deal with) like yours in Brighton.
Thank you once again for all your help
Kind regards
Mr & Mrs S

E- mail feedback from buyers / potential buyers 

Dear Isle of Wight Homes,

I have not contacted you before, and I'm not in the habit of praising estate agents (who is?) but having visited your website a number of times recently I feel I must tell you how good it is.

I'm sure you already know that, though I don't expect you'll mind hearing it from a potential customer.

My wife and I are moving to the Island next spring; we ……………………..,  like most people these days who are looking for information on property to buy, my first port of call was the internet.

I have trawled the websites of, I think, all the agents on the Island.

Some are awful, some quite good, but isleofwighthomes is absolutely in a class of its own; a joy to use.

Your photographs are many and superb (as a keen amateur photographer I'm tempted to ask what camera/lens you use - though I'm sure it's as much down to the skill of your photographer) and this is backed up by comprehensive information about the property even down to the measurements of the gardens -important to me as I'm also a gardener!

This info, and the links you give to maps and aerial photos give an excellent impression of what a home looks like and where it is. I can't get this from any other agent.

It's really useful to folks like us who live the other side of the water (as, apparently, do about 40% of buyers - according to IoW radio) and who want to know that what we travel to view, will pretty well meet our expectations. We don't want to devote time and ferry fares to see properties that turn out to be unsuitable.

 My guess is that because of the quality of the information you give, you will have a higher percentage of viewings translating to sales than most other agents  -and I say this with some experience of marketing property, having managed ……..  County Council's property department for many years.

I can't understand why they aren't all copying your lead !

When we are in a position to buy - probably in about 3 to 4 months' time, we shall certainly be registering our details with you.

Many thanks for helping to make looking for a property such a pleasurable experience.

Yours sincerely,

 Mr & Mrs S H

Dear Mr Broadhead.

I would like to thank you for your excellent website and comprehensive

coverage of your properties with both good photos,Floorplan and aerial

views.

My wife and I enjoy looking at your offerings and could almost decide on a

purchase with just your details.

We will most certainly use your company for our choice.

Our situation is at the moment we …….

We are looking for …… a countryside location would be an advantage.

Please keep up with your contact emails as we look with some excitement each

time you send us a new offering, although we do browse your site each day to

see if there is anything new and we have seen four or so properties that had

we been ready at the time we would have made an offer.

Thank you once again.

Sincerely

Mr L

Letter from someone who bought one of our homes last week

I wish Isle of Wight Homes every success and would compliment you on the presentation of the web & paper details, which is way ahead of your rivals. This is particularly helpful when one is not local and are therefore unable to simply “pop” past the premises prior to a formal viewing.

Kind Regards

Yours Sincerely
F

Dear All,
Just a quick note to say ‘thank you very much’ for all your help (Pat & Georgina especially) in the purchase of the property at S……. Road. 
We found that you were always very helpful and professional when we required to contact you and with your help the purchase when through smoothly.
We would definitely recommend you to other people.
Thanks again

Best regards,

K H & M B

HI!
Now that we are settled into our island home we want to take the opportunity of thanking you for helping us find it.  An internet search led us to your site - the only one which gave any real details of the island properties on offer.  We saw the one we liked and the website presentation was so clear that viewing was almost a formality.  One visit to the island, one property viewed, one sale - job done (even if it did take us 10 months to finalise!).  One day all estate agents will be like this ...
Keep up the good work!
D&J

Dear Team,
A short note to thank you for all your hard work in securing our new home for us.  Over the past 7 months we have renovated the ground floor and it is definitely turning into our 'dream home'. We have never been so happy and are actually looking forward to the cold nights when we can snuggle up in front of our newly fitted open fire!! We cannot thank you enough - Thank you - thank you - thank you.
Keep up the good work
C & D M.

Georgina and Simon.
Just to say, we have now been on the island a week. And we absolutely love it. Thank you very much for your help in our purchase. We personally feel, that if it wasn’t for your brilliant website. We would never of got a house to suit our needs, as all the high street agents seem to of sent us details of houses that had been sold, by the time we got the brochures.  We would definitely recommend you to anyone, as we found you totally upfront, honest and professional, as well as very polite. 

ps.  we still keep looking at your site, as for the last 6 months we practically lived on it, hard to break a habit.
yours sincerely 
john + karen g

Thank you for your message. We have now found a property and are moving in very soon. I would like to say how good we found your site and the service provided. We viewed one property and found that unlike so much estate agent "trick photography" the impression given by your pictures was very accurate.
We wish you all the best with your business.
F and P G

Dear Georgina,
Having just returned from our first week in our new home, I'd like to thank you f or the great service you offer.
An excellent website backed up by a very professional and honest approach – this is a rare find in the world of estate agency.
Wishing you continued success.
Regards,
Mrs J W

This is probably unusual feedback!
I am actually thinking of going into the estate agent market and have trawled and surfed many an agent website for ideas.
I looked at all the websites as a prospective buyer to check if they had everything I would want from both an agent and an internet site.
Yours is the only one I have come across so far (out of an estimated 50+) that has so much detail and so many fantastic photos.
When I want to buy a property, and as a busy full time working Mum, I don't want to waste time and the comprehensive interior shots help to quickly decide which houses to go and see.
Well done for providing a wonderful web site - by the way I'm based many miles away in South Yorkshire and visited the island recently for the first time because of your website!
Best wishes for the future
Mrs A A

  I found your website almost a year ago because I was hoping to move house either to Devon or the island.  I still hope to move someday.  I regularly visit your site because it's fast, easy to use, and has houses to tempt me with sufficient detail for me to know whether or not I want to come visit the house.  I really hope that you keep going and lead the way for other property agents, or indeed, spread your own wings.
Thanks for a wonderful site.
OH

Thank you for your reply. We think that your website is marvelous and I do assure you that we shall keep our eye on it. We are now retired and determined eventually to move to the IOW but firstly we must sell our large bungalow on the North coast of xxxxxxx. We have now found that we have a legal problem in connection with our property and have instructed solicitors to take action for negligence against the ones who acted for us originally so it will probably be September before we can consider moving, but we shall be back!
Regards .........K & D A

Great website - still haven't found THE home yet though.  Plenty of pics and details about property - eg leasehold/freehold etc  a really good feature. Saves asking about unsuitable properties.
Mr M

My partner who was born on the Island and myself are one day looking to return. Your wonderful site gives us much inspiration, we view your site on a regular basis knowing that one day we will return. Congratulation on what is a truly award winning site. Miss L and Mr G 

 Background

·         The two founding Directors used to work within Barclays Bank PLC for a total of over 40 years. They have a wide and varied training with all aspects of property, having taken legal mortgages over land & houses, bought and sold homes personally.
Also for seven years Simon was a mortgage specialist, ensuring sales went through smoothly by making regular contact with all the Island Solicitors & Island Surveyors.

This background knowledge has been invaluable when advising customers on a variety matters.

·         The whole company has been set up with the idea of treating people as they would like - i.e. being friendly & honest at all times & willing to give that little extra bit of time to give real customer service.  

·         The founders of the firm Simon & Georgina (both Islanders) moved off the Island for 5 years & then decided to move back to the Island & commute to their jobs on the mainland. They had a number of problems with mainland estate agents  (they can clearly remember the stresses & strains & sleepless nights encountered when selling).
A brief resume is listed below
They employed three mainland agents one after the other
The agents tied them in with contracts -  (they didn’t know you could get agents without contracts).
The first agent gave the highest valuation – they fell for it & signed up.
"The agents employed staff so young they had obviously never bought a house themselves".
"Our home appeared in the local press within the first few weeks of signing up & never appeared again".
"Some viewers that were shown around appeared to be “professional viewers”, viewing houses as a hobby".
"We were never told if the potential buyer had their own house on the market".
"We rarely received any feedback about the viewings".

Isle of Wight Homes are the only agents on the Island that was specifically set up to help mainland & abroad buyers to buy on this lovely Island & share the better standard of living.
So if you see a multi agency home on this site first - please do contact us first  - We get no money at all if you go to the other agent.