Sam Turner’s buy Piercebridge garden centre
THE Carlbury Nurseries Garden Centre at Piercebridge, County Durham, has been sold to leading garden and agricultural suppliers Sam Turner & Sons, of Northallerton.
The 2.4-acre nursery, incorporating a showroom, glass houses and shop, has been sold on behalf of owner Mark Rennison, by North East Chartered Surveyors and Property Consultants Carver Commercial, of Darlington.
Carlbury Nurseries has been developed recently to incorporate the sale of garden furniture in addition to plants, pots and other garden centre retail products.
Julie Wallin, Director of Carver Commercial, said: “The business has been developed by the previous family owners over the past five years and offers terrific potential to Sam Turner’s, whose reputation for quality and service is unsurpassed.
“We were able to use our experience and knowledge of the commercial sector to bring together the vendor and buyer for a very successful outcome that guarantees the jobs of those employed in the garden centre and offers exciting prospects for further development.”
Mr Rennison, who also owns the security fencing company Rennyco, of Wessoe Road, Darlington, said: “We are very pleased to be selling on the garden centre to a highly reputable company that will be able to take it to the next stage. Carver Commercial did an excellent job in marketing the property and it was Julie Wallin herself who introduced Sam Turner’s to us.”
Charlie Turner, Director of Sam Turner & Sons, said: “Carlbury Nurseries occupies a super site between the towns of Darlington and Barnard Castle. It is also ideally placed to serve the rural villages and communities of South Durham and North Yorkshire.
“We plan to run the nursery very much as it is, pending some redevelopment. We will be expanding the range of products and introducing a larger range of water garden products, as well as developing the café. The existing staff will be retained, so it is very much business as usual.”
Sam Turner’s, which owns a large clothing, gardening and farming supplies centre at Darlington Road, Northallerton, also has an agricultural machinery outlet at Stokesley.
The firm celebrates its 80 anniversary this year, having been founded in 1931 by Sam Turner, who left the family firm of Charles Turner to set up his own business in Eston, near Middlesbrough. He relocated to Northallerton during the Second World War in order to base his agricultural business in a market town during petrol shortages. Today, the firm continues to be run by Sam Turner’s great grandsons, Charlie, Michael and John, and great great grandson, Sam.
Charlie said: “We are proud to have retained our family ownership of the business for 80 years and would like to pay tribute to the family who previously owned Carlbury Nurseries. They have created a very nice garden centre that already embraces our commitment to offering quality, excellent service and value for money.”
New discount mortgage launched in Darlington
Carver Financial Services has launched a new mortgage in conjunction with Darlington Building Society.
The discount mortgage is unique to Carver Financial Services, which is part of the Carver Group, based in Darlington.
The exclusive mortgage offers a rate of 2.99% up to July 31, 2013. It then reverts to the standard variable rate, which is currently 5.95%.
Nick Carver, Director of the Carver Group, which also encompasses Nick and Gordon Carver Residential Estate Agents, said: “We approached Darlington Building Society with the idea of developing a new mortgage product that would appeal to local people.
Gordon Carver, Director of the Carver Group, and Val Peacock, Darlington District Manager at Darlington Building Society, celebrate the launch of the Carver mortgage.
“We hope it will help to stimulate the property market by allowing house buyers to choose their new home through a leading local estate agent and have their mortgage provided by the local, independent building society. Both Carver Group and Darlington Building Society have excellent reputations for their levels of service and we share the same aims of working on behalf of the local community.”
The Carver Financial Services mortgage can be arranged on up to 78% of the loan value, with a fixed product fee of £199, completion fee of £75 and a free valuation for properties within County Durham, Tees Valley and parts of North Yorkshire.
Val Peacock, Darlington District Manager at Darlington Building Society, said: “As the region’s only local building society, we are keen to help make a material difference to the area’s housing market.
“Teaming up with a respected Darlington-based estate agent also dovetails in with the Society’s long-held philosophies of looking after local interests and extending and enhancing our service provision for the benefit of the local community.”
Nick Carver added: “We are already a major player in the mortgage business. Last year we secured £25 million of mortgage loans on behalf of our clients and we expect this to increase this year. Being Independent and not tied to any lending source we are able to secure very competitive mortgage deals for our clients and we
hope that our association with Darlington Building Society will offer buyers the chance of a unique and extremely competitive discount mortgage, sourced locally.
“We hope that clients will feel that they are working with two local companies they know and feel they can trust.”
For more information please click here
Job Opportunities at the Carver Group
Nick and Gordon Carver Residential, part of the Carver Group with offices in Darlington, Newton Aycliffe, Richmond and Northallerton, in their quest to continue as the area’s number one property agent are recruiting sales staff that will make a difference. Nick Carver, Group Director says “In the present and difficult market conditions it is important to employ the very best staff and provide our clients with the best possible service. Carver Group have already increased staff during the last twelve months by 10% and now employ over 30 full and part time staff, our aim is to increase staff by another 10% over the next twelve months. We feel we can provide opportunities for the right calibre of staff who want to be part of our ever growing presence”.
Valuers in the picture thanks to photography course
First impressions count for everything when you’re looking for a new house or business premises.
Decisions over whether to view are often made on the basis of the photograph in the newspaper advertisement or on the estate agent’s specification. So it is vitally important that every property is given the best possible chance to impress from the time the potential purchaser first sets eyes upon it.
We’ve recognised that the quality of the photograph in the advertisement or on the brochure can be critical so we’ve recently invested in putting our six valuers through a day’s photography course run by a leading professional.
All our valuers carry good quality digital cameras to photograph both the exterior and interior of houses and commercial premises we are instructed to market but sometimes the pictures produced by the cameras when set for automatic operation didn’t do the premises justice.
We brought in experienced location photographer Mark Carr, of IE Photography, based in Hawkshead, in Cumbria, to conduct a training day at our offices in Darlington to give our staff the skills required to produce excellent pictures in the most demanding situations.
Mark not only took the valuers through the basics of lighting and exposure, focussing and composition – the basic tools of photography – but also how to prepare and plan for the shoot, how to decide what to show and how best to capture it, and when to use accessories such as flash, a tripod and different lenses.
One of the most important lessons was to avoid using the ‘auto’ setting on the camera. Great pictures come from the photographer taking control of the settings to achieve the detail and composition they require.
They were also introduced in the capabilities of the software we use to process and store our photographs and how to ensure that they achieve the very best image for use in advertisements and brochures.
We didn’t think we were too bad at taking photographs before but, thanks to Mark’s advice and guidance, we can see how much better we can be at presenting our properties to potential purchasers. And, hopefully, their ‘first impressions’ in future will be favourable enough to generate in increase in requests details and viewings.
Carvers welcomes cut in planning red tape
Government plans to boost the residential property market by cutting through planning red tape have been welcomed by leading North East estate agents Carvers Commercial.
Chancellor George Osborne is expected to announce in his Budget tomorrow (Wednesday, March 23) that empty commercial property will be able to be converted for residential use without planning permission.
It is hoped that this will encourage developers to convert a swathe of empty commercial property into homes, particularly in town centres. The proposal includes offices and former licensed premise but excludes shops.
Julie Wallin, director of Carver Commercial, said: “This proposal is a good incentive in principle for developers to recycle redundant commercial buildings, which are in weaker commercial locations, and restore them to a good and needed use.
“It will create more residential communities, while preserving some good buildings which may be deteriorating and attracting vandalism, particularly redundant public houses.
“It will also help to relieve the rating burden for owners of empty properties.”
The residential property market last year recorded its lowest level of development in peacetime since 1923 and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has driven the decision to relax planning consent because he believes red tape is restraining developers.
While the number of premises licensed to sell alcohol stands at a record high of more than 160,000 across the UK, the traditional pub continues to decline, with an average of 30 per week closing down.
Former pubs, which usually already include living accommodation, are seen as ideal for conversion to houses or flats.
Exhausted Search for Right Property
Carver Commercial Chartered Surveyors of St Cuthberts Way, Darlington, have turned to matchmaking to help their clients. They have brought together an Exhaust company that needed bigger premises and a garage owner who wanted to retire and sell his property.
Julie Wallin, Commercial Director at Carver Commercial said “We were very pleased to be able to help two clients very quickly.
“Exhaust-a-fix, approached us early in 2010 and asked us to find them the perfect property. Brian Raine, proprietor of Bank Top garage on Neasham Rd Darlington, instructed us to sell his property in July. It was very easy to put these two clients together.”
Bank Top Garage on Neasham Road in Darlington, has been in Brian Raine’s family for over 40 years, Brian says, “It was a wrench to sell it, my dad had the garage before me, but I’m pleased it is going to be used for something car related.”
Exhaust-a-fix has been operating since 1996 from North Road Industrial Estate, however it changed proprietor in 2003 when it was bought by its current owner, Stephen Fairile. Since then Exhaust-a-fix has gone from strength to strength.
“We had been leasing premises on North Rd Industrial Estate, however due to the success of the business we were always looking to purchase our own place,” said Stephen Fairlie from his new Neasham Road premises.
Mr Fairile (pictured) was very pleased with Carver’s service, and enthused, “We just needed the right place and we asked Carvers to help.
“We have been actively looking for new premises for about three and a half years, but couldn’t find anything to suit our purposes, I asked to be registered on Carver’s mailing list to be updated with any suitable properties and they found me the perfect site, with main road frontage and plenty of parking, Carvers managed to give me everything I asked for”.
Carver Commercial is an independent firm of Chartered Surveyors and Commercial Property Consultants providing reputable, professional and personal services to clients throughout County Durham, Tees Valley and North Yorkshire. The Directors and staff provide a wealth of experience and take immense pride in supplying a complete service, which is second to none.
Snow Deal For Some Estate Agents
Some local estate agents have reported that last week was one of the worst weeks of the year for viewings and home sales. Many businesses closed early and some didn’t open at all, which is hardly surprising with 16 inches of snow and temperatures dropping to minus18 degrees in one of the worst Novembers on record.
However amongst all that snow there was a ray of sunshine and Nick and Gordon Carver Residential, part of the Carver Group, have another story to tell.
“Yes! viewings were understandably lower than normal due to the atrocious weather conditions, but we still managed to secure 15 property sales for the week, which is above average for this time of year and considering the snow, is quite remarkable” said a delighted Gordon Carver.
“All our offices remained open throughout and we have to thank all our 31 staff who all managed to brave the elements to help us to a successful week.
Carvers Invest Heavily In Training
Training Day
Whilst many businesses have made cuts or even erased their training budget, Nick and Gordan Carver estate agents have invested heavily into training with a new state of the art software package specifically designed for the estate agency sector and also a series of intensive sales training courses with staff.
After the ongoing success in 2010, Nick Carver, Director for Carvers estate agents, believes now is the time to invest and demonstrate absolute commitment to the development of employees.
He said, “Whilst we have always recognised the importance of training to give employees the skills and competencies they need to carry out their individual roles, this latest technology will also improve our efficiency and together with recent investment in staff training should help us keep ahead of the competition.”
The first series of sales training days are already underway. 20 staff from Carvers Residential took part in a full day intensive sales training, which was specifically designed by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA).
Enthusiastic Carvers staff
Pamela Robinson, Professional Development Coordinator of the NAEA said “all estate agents should meet standards of competence, and maintain their quality of service and professionalism through ongoing training activities. We are pleased that The Carver Group take their staff and their development seriously and know that this will have a positive impact on their business. They are to be congratulated on their commitment and their investment.
NAEA who have been commissioned to assist with the training of the sales team, are running bespoke workshops through November and December to develop the professional skills for the sales negotiators, all of which is aimed to provide Nick and Gordon Carvers clients with the best possible service.
Have you thought about a floor plan?
What do you want to know about the house you want to buy? is it how many bedrooms? how many bathrooms? yes probably but also how is the property laid out, is the living room at the back of the property or the front?
Henry Carver of Carver Residential has reported that more and more house buyers are requesting floor plans to be added as part of their property’s sales details. It’s become a vital tool in providing the potential purchaser with the necessary information before making the trip to see the property.
Do floor plans make a difference ? Well over the last two months over twenty existing clients have instructed us to add floor plans to their details and the majority of these properties are now under offer. The reason is that the floor plans cut down on unnecessary viewings and target more genuine interest.
For more information or if you would like a floor plan adding to your sales details please contact Henry Carver 01325 357807
So is the property market really that bad?
Almost on a daily basis we see national headlines such as ‘House prices decline for the third month‘ and ‘House prices set for prolonged downturn‘, and even local headlines have us believe that it is ‘Gloom on the North-east property market‘.
But is it really that bad? North-east Estate Agent, Nick and Gordon Carver, part of the Carver Group, based in Darlington, have reported very encouraging figures for the first ten months of the year with sale of property up by over £12m.
Sales and Marketing Director, Nick Carver, says the signs are very encouraging and shows there is an ever-growing confidence in the property market within the area.
“Competitive house pricing together with matching people with the right mortgage has been the key to our success. We are confident we will continue to see ongoing growth in 2011.
Nick and Gordon Carver have, between them, been actively involved in selling properties throughout North-East England for over 30 years.
