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The beginning of the year is time for New Year resolutions – and ours is to give you two freebies, each of which will help you sell your home for the best possible price if you decide to in 2015. Firstly we’ll give you a free valuation with a local House Doctor (worth £120) which will ensure that you know how to present your home at its very best to potential buyers. The second is a Premium Listing on Rightmove (worth £125) which will make your home stand out from the competition on the UK’s biggest web site. All you have to do is instruct BigBlackHen.com before March 1st – so please call to book a free valuation and find out more about our fresh approach to selling homes.

Great news today from George Osbourne who has revised the dreadful stamp duty thresholds brought in by none other than Gordon Brown. The new rules mean that the percentage stamp duty does not apply to the whole sum as in the old system, but is progressive, so avoiding the huge jumps in stamp duty that used to occur at the £250,000 and £500,000 marks. The new levels are:

– Nothing up to £125,000.

– 2% on the additional sum from £125,001 up to £250,000. (So if the house is £250,000, you pay 2% of £125,000 – £2,500)

– 5% on the additional sum from £250,001 to £925,000. (So if the house is £350,000 you pay the £2,500 above plus 5% of the extra £100,000, which is £5,000. Add the two together and you pay £7,500 in total.)

– 10% on the extra sum from £925,001 to £1.5 million.

– 12 % on the extra sum…