What a difference a year makes!

Happy birthday to us!

Today, July 1, Estate Agent Today is exactly one year old. Yesterday, we had 5,354 visitors to the site, reading over 20,000 pages – the monthly equivalent of over 150,000 visitors.

 And what a lot you (mostly) have to read about in our colourful new channels. Within the last year: Neil Patel turned up in Canada, the Tory party forgot to publish their incredibly important review of the way houses are bought and sold, the OFT launched yet another inquiry into estate agents (why?), and we are on our third housing minister in that time (but check, it might be the fourth by now).

HIPs didn’t go away and our most-read story was the changing-by-the-minute revelation last September that all houses, no matter how long they had been on the market, needed an EPC even if they didn’t need a HIP. A minor detail that the Government had somehow overlooked.

Our famous Rightmove survey revealed (apparently) that 75% of agents would leave the portal come last January. Where are you now? At a guess, still on Rightmove!

Meanwhile, Brightmove complained to the OFT that Rightmove had tried to pass itself off as Brightmove. This was funny but pointless and we suspect the joke was wasted on civil servants.

We also covered the SPLINTA poll of agents which asked them if they would march on Whitehall to have HIPs abolished. The survey, which was intended to run until next June, had to be abandoned after hackers wrecked it. Who could they have been?

It was Nick Salmon of SPLINTA who wrote one of the funniest of our stories, about changing the telephone answering protocols. ‘Press Seven if you simply want to shout at our staff for no good reason’, gives you the flavour.

The fabulous Trevor Kent became our guest columnist for a while, with Something for the Weekend. Addicts may remember how our Trevor allegedly shared Jacuzzis with luscious young models, and sold houses in Sandbanks for £10m a pop. Sadly, and very much as a sign of the times, he found it increasingly difficult to spot the humour in the housing market – which has undoubtedly been grim. We still miss you, Trevor.

We’re also indebted to the reader (step forward Stewart Anderson) who early on, suggested that what our site really needed was feedback from users, and your comments have well and truly made EAT the success it is.

Of course, it doesn’t do to be smug, so thanks for keeping us up to the mark. The comments, particularly querying the editor’s editorial judgment, have proved invaluable (but hurtful, obviously). And do I get things completely wrong? Yes, not too often, but you never hesitate to tell me when I do. And yes, you’re right, there was an instance only this week.

Anyway, here we are on another Wednesday and another issue for EAT. Swine flu is a bit too rampant for our liking and the recession has just deepened. But the good news is that Andy Murray is still at Wimbledon (as of 7am) and they haven’t changed housing ministers for at least a week. Well, there might be an announcement in five minutes time.

Here’s to another year of EAT! As you increasingly say in the property ads in my local paper – now why could that be? – Coming Soon…

Well, who knows. But we will endeavour to keep you informed.