Review left by Bob Smailes

A high quality, fully integrated service for selling our property We now live in The Netherlands so selecting an agent to sell our property in Edinburgh “at a distance”, without us having to be physically present gave us a lot to think about. The choice to use Thornton’s as our agent to both sell and handle the legal side of the transaction proved to be as good as anticipated from my previous work with the firm. Having all parts of the activity in single organisation was highly beneficial. I was able to call on their combined expertise and the communication between the different elements was seamless. James Shipman was my initial contact and gave a very professional overview of what they could offer, of their approach and a detailed cost breakdown of the different elements. After a visit to the property, he gave me a frank estimate of the price I could expect and what would be required to do prior to sale. He left me confident that they would be an excellent and good value choice. Val Young was my main contact on the Estate Agency side. I found her very friendly and helpful in the suggestions made. She and the team rapidly put together the marketing package, including the placement on various websites and arranged for the external Home Report to be produced. They had several requests for immediate viewing concluding in a cash offer purchase within one week – quite impressive. Sandra Pettigrew was my principal contact for the conveyancing work. She impressed in the speed and accuracy of her work, continuously keeping myself and my wife in the picture. She was clear on what was to be done and the sequence of events. She demonstrated great initiative in smoothly resolving a last-minute issue that arose. A very accomplished lady indeed. As the Capital Gains Tax rules had changed a lot since we lived in the UK, we thought it advisable to take advantage of Thorntons tax advisors. Audrey Ford was a tremendous help in calculating and setting out the various options for us in a very clear manner and submitting the optimal one to HM Customs & Revenue. The saving between making the optimal choice and the worst of three scenarios was almost £30k I was pleased we took her advice! In summary we were extremely satisfied with the professionalism, efficiency and effectiveness of the whole team and would not hesitate to endorse them to any other potential sellers.