Do you love to hear a good ghost story on cold, dark nights when the power is out and the house is silent? If the answer is ‘yes’, then you’ve come to the right place! This week we’re going to delve into the mysterious realms of the other side and learn about some of the UK’s most haunted properties! Many of these are based in the very heart of the country, the West Midlands, but look out for future terrifying tales from around the country.

Have you ever heard the tale of the Grey Lady of Bosworth Hall? Bosworth Hall, Leicestershire, was home to a poor young woman who fell in love with the gardener. He would visit her every night, but when her devious father discovered their nighttime trysts, he couldn’t accept it! Setting dangerous traps in the garden for his next visit, the Lady Grey ended up trapped instead. Dragging herself back to her room, she bled to death, doomed to forever walk the house and grounds of Bosworth Hall…

The famous Dudley castle is also a renowned haunted building in the West Midlands, home to a ghost couple said to haunt the ruins late at night. Every year a ghost tour is organised for those daring enough to try and spot the eerie revenants around the West Midlands at various spooky locations. According to staff who have to do late checks around the zoo, hurried footsteps can be heard along the corridors and unusual sounds in the dead of night….

John Wentworth of the White Swan Pub, Birmingham apparently went mad with grief when his love fell victim to a terrible coach crash. After shooting his loyal dog, he turned the gun on himself and is said to still haunt the building now,  heard moving around the building and known to tap people on the shoulder.

These are just a few of the haunted properties to be found in the historic West Midlands

Anyone who’s ever house-hunted, read a property’s particulars or viewed a house or flat escorted by an estate agent will know about the amusing yet infuriating phenomenon of estate agent speak.  But for the uninitiated, let me explain: estate agent speak is the ancient art of exaggerating a house’s features or stretching the truth to fool us into thinking that a dilapidated, run-down old house is actually a fantastic property that we should snap up right away.  Of course, we understand that anyone who’s ever sold anything will talk up their item to increase the chances of a sale, but estate agent speak can sometimes be verging on the ridiculous!  Take a look at some of our favourite terms used by estate agents, and the handy adflyer translation provided…

• ‘In need of some modernisation’ = the décor wouldn’t look out of place in a period drama!
• ‘Period property’ = at least ten years old.
• ‘Bijou’ = minuscule.
• ‘Studio’ = glorified broom cupboard.
• ‘Would suit a DIY enthusiast’ = have the scaffolding at the ready!
• ‘Deceptively spacious’ = looks bigger if you squint a bit.
• ‘Fully enclosed private garden’ = square of grass with fence around it.
• ‘Internal inspection recommended’ = keep your eyes closed until you get inside.
• ‘Ideal for busy professionals’ = the less time you spend here the better!

Well, we hope that’s helped to decode the mysterious language that is estate agent speak!  But, if you’re fed up of having to translate every single sentence of a property listing, then the adflyer property section can help.  You’ll find an incredibly wide range of property for sale including houses, flats, overseas property and land with simple listings that are easy to understand.  Plus, our handy ‘contact the seller’ button means that you can find out exactly what you want to know without the headache-inducing jargon!

If you have any tales of ridiculous estate agent speak, leave us a comment and let us know!

At the moment everyone from news readers to T.V. presenters and even celebrity bloggers seem incapable of talking about anything other than the upcoming general election and this can get a bit much at times.  But, the issues being raised on the campaign trail are very important to us all and all this political malarkey can have a serious impact on every aspect of our lives, including the properties we buy and sell.  The most recent example of this is the news from some of the country’s top property know-it-alls that there has been a surge in the number of properties for sale across the UK thanks to the imminent general election.

But why would the election affect the number of properties on the market?  Well, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) reckon that the current climate of political uncertainty is prompting would-be property vendors to take the leap and put their houses up for sale before any possible radical changes to the property market happen.  In fact, Rics have reported that estate agents saw an average 6% increase in the number of properties on their books in the last month, which is apparently a level of activity not seen since early 2007.

If you’ve been thinking about looking for a new house recently but haven’t known when to take the leap, now could well be a great time to act.  There are many more houses now on the market, but the demand for properties has not yet caught up with this, so experts are predicting that prices will fall in some areas.  So, adflyer’s property section could be a great place to get ahead of the trend and find the perfect deal before everyone else gets in on the act!  We have new listings for houses and flats for sale as well as premises and overseas property added every day by our trusted sellers, so get searching now to take advantage of the current property situation.