Our Video Resources

Buying your first home is one of life’s biggest milestones — and it can feel both exciting and daunting. Here are our essential tips for buying your first home — brought to you by the team that helps hundreds of buyers make informed decisions every day.

Property Searches Direct help home movers to get information sooner, speed up their transactions and make more informed decisions along the way. Providing direct access to reports and a search expert to help answer any questions that people may have.

Property Searches Direct was born out of a very real frustration with the way property is bought and sold in England & Wales. We created the company to make a difference and to help make the moving process more transparent, friendlier and more collaborative. We believe that the most important element in each and every transaction is the home mover themselves and that their experience is invariably less than positive. Why is that? Quite simply there are too many parties that work in silos that often fail to communicate effectively and are highly resistant to change, leaving you, the home mover, completely in the dark. Our national obsession with property is ancient, feudal even, creating a process driven clunky experience that has only been modernised slightly in recent decades. OK, granted, we have electronic identification, source of funds and online mapping of title, but transactions now take upwards of 15 weeks to complete. Roughly a third of transactions fail, costing home movers and the industry itself staggering sums on wasted fees and time, significantly affecting the transaction timescales for those that do complete. So what can be done? We believe fundamentally that when information is obtained at the beginning of a transaction, both buyers and sellers are empowered to make better decisions. Expecting property professionals to take full responsibility, is a recipe for disaster in our view. Our search reports are shared with home movers and their conveyancers at the same time, and Property Searches Direct is on hand to answer any questions. We made our Hazard Checker publicly available so that a simple postcode search indicates what issues might affect the enjoyment of the area. It is the same information that a conveyancer sees if they place a search order, but we offer these valuable insights to home movers themselves, so that conversations about these risks can take place even before a purchase is agreed. We make all property searches available to home movers to satisfy themselves whether they want to proceed or not, particularly if the results are not to their liking. Many buyers have told us that Searches revealed facts that led them to look for something more suitable, why would you wait until the end of a transaction to see that information. Pulling out of a transaction is unpleasant for all concerned. Upfront data empowers home movers and reduces stress and wasted effort for everyone. Whether you are buying or selling a property, or are a property professional yourself, we ask you to reconsider the well trodden path and explore a more efficient way to do things. Why not help us to improve the way in which property is bought and sold, by engaging with the upfront information revolution. Why not obtain and share information earlier and help speed up transaction timescales with Property-Searches Direct.

An introduction to the Martello CON29M. Why you might need one and how this is a market leading product in the sector.

An introduction to the founder behind DevAssist, Paul Addison, and a deeper dive into the products and why home buyers should be considering using their products to make informed decisions. This is when Paul met with our CEO and Founder, Dan.

A quick look at the DevAssess Premium Residential Report, available to buy at Property Searches Direct to check the planning risks that could affect your future home.

An introduction to Title Guardian and why Property Searches Direct are giving these away to its customers.

A quick look at the Planda report, available to buy at Property Searches Direct to check the planning potential of your home.

A look at the Homebuyers Environmental report from Groundsure that is available to buy at Property Searches Direct and is included in the majority of our Search Pack Bundles for Residential Property Transactions as standard. Welcome to our quick look at our popular Groundsure Environmental report, The Homebuyers, which is included as standard in the majority of our Search Bundles for Residential Property Transactions. Homebuyers is a leading residential environmental risk report that reviews contaminated land, flood, ground stability, radon, planning, energy & transportation to provide a comprehensive environmental analysis for a residential property. In addition, you can identify potential forward climate risk impacts to the property using the 'ClimateIndex forward climate risk module' that is included. By using Land Registry polygons and Groundsure's intelligent filtering tool, this report makes sure that relevant results are returned, together with clear and practical next steps and recommendations in plain English with jargon-free explanations. The key features of this report include a comprehensive contaminated land assessment (with Professional Opinion), utilising the most comprehensive data available including, environmental permits, active and historic landfill & waste sites and current industrial sites. It also includes the ClimateIndex, which is a forward climate scenario modelling for potential flood, subsidence & coastal erosion impacts. This also includes transition risk analysis with Energy Performance (EPC) rating, unique comparable property insight and tailored guidance on energy improvement measures, as well as flood risk mitigation.In terms of Flood data, there is Full flood information covering risks from rivers, the sea, surface water and groundwater. This looks at historical flood areas and identifies areas that benefit from flood defences. It also provides an Ambient Flood-score Insurance Rating giving an indication of how insurance premiums might be affected by any of the findings identified in the report. The report then looks at Natural and non-natural ground stability assessment including ground subsidence, cavities and non-coal mining risks. This is really important to help you to identify what type of survey you may wish to commission for your purchase. As you would expect from any quality environmental report, Radon is considered in its findings.The report presents a clear indication of the levels of Radon at the property and what, if any, further considerations should be made. There is then an Energy Summary that covers Oil & Gas, Wind & Solar and Energy. Any findings highlighted are then presented on mapping to help you to identify the proximity of the projects to your prospective home. This first one focuses on Energy from Wind & Solar Projects. The next one looks at Energy from Infrastructure such as Power Stations, Nuclear and Gas Sites, Electricity Substations, Energy development projects, gas pipelines, electricity lines cables transmission lines-and pylons. It then looks at Transportation to cover the subjects of HS2, Crossrail and other railways. The summary overview is then followed by a series of maps to indicate the location of any projects in relation to the subject property. The next section is planning. This covers Planning Applications of large developments within 250 meters of the property, small developments within 75 meters, and house extensions or new builds within 50 meters.It also covers any planning constraints within 50 meters, and Telecoms applications within 250 meters helping to identify proposed mobile phone mast installations. This report is for residential transactions when requiring a Professional Opinion assessment of contaminated land & flooding as well as considerations of other environmental risks. This overview helps determine if more in-depth analysis is necessary and whether any supplementary reporting is needed. If you have any questions about the Homebuyers report or any of the other reports that we make available, please get in touch with us by phone, email, or web chat. #buyingproperty #conveyancing #buyingahome #floodrisk