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Written by rosalind renshaw

Asking prices for properties new to the market have bounced up 3.1% within the last month, Rightmove reported this morning.

The hike means that the average house price is now £230,000 and is at odds with two separate predictions - from the perenially gloomy Capital Ecoomics and from Fathom -  that the housing market is on the brink of a double dip recession. Capital Economics forecasts falls of 20% in house prices, and Fathrom predicts a slump of up to 30%.

Paul Diggle, property specialist at Capital Economics, said: "Prices are trending slowly downwards at the moment but our view is that this is really the start of the second leg of the correction and we expect prices to fall significantly further."

Rightmove also made it clear that many properties listed on its site are unlikely to sell in a hurry – at any price.

Rightmove said that last year it marketed 1.3m properties – against only 530,000 mortgages granted. It said that 2011 is set to be same and that there would be more people seeking ‘desperate housing solutions’, including limbo-landlords.

The site also warned that low transaction levels will be the norm for the foreseeable future, and that it was the middle tier of the market that is worst hit.

It added that a few ‘elite’ markets are moving, with new seller numbers up by 21% in London compared with this time a year ago. In London, a 4.2% jump in asking prices raises the average asking price to £413,259.

Director Miles Shipside said the traditional mass market was paralysed by lack of mortgage finance and insufficient equity to trade up.

He said that the ‘clear imbalance’ between the number of properties on the market and the number of mortgages lenders were willing to hand out showed no sign of resolution.

He said: “Any hopes that transaction volumes may be on the springboard preparing to return to historic norms will have been dashed by lenders’ predictions that 2011 lending volumes will match 2010’s dire levels. ‘Mr Average’ will be left out in the cold in the buying and selling game.”

Shipside added: “The mass market is unlikely to recover to former volumes without the return of healthier access to credit, so continuing falls in the percentage of owner-occupiers and a consequent growth of the rented sector is the realistic prospect.”

The jump in asking price widens the already yawning gap between what house sellers want and what they end up getting.

Nationwide is currently quoting £161,602 and Halifax £164,713 as national average selling prices.

Nick Hopkinson, director of PPR Estates, a company which buys up distressed properties, said: “With house sales volumes remaining on the floor, even estate agents acknowledge that current asking prices are more a reflection of home seller fantasy than what anyone else will really pay in 2011 for property across most of the UK.
 
“Only super-premium London properties are achieving anything like asking prices due to a very limited availability of multi-million pound property being sought by cash-rich foreign buyers. This does not apply anywhere else.  

“All the house price indices, therefore, need to be read with a high degree of caution at the moment as they are very likely to give a falsely optimistic reading of the market as transaction levels are so low.

“Many potential sellers may well look back and wish they’d accepted a more realistic sale price last year once interest rate rises inevitably start to kick in later this year.”

Comments

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    What are you supposed to do?

    Let them carry on! In 6 weeks time when the property has not sold , because you have notified all the applicants on your register that xxx property is overvalued by £25K, ask the vendor for multi agency instructions and knock it out to one of you informed applicants. Everyone is happy! apart from Rogue Agent and Co. Instead of being upset Mr and Mrs Greedy Vendor advise their friends to listen to you in the first place.

    Selling property is not just about winning the initial instruction, exchanging the sale is the profitable bit!

    A good agent knows how to control fees for their whole selling area. Mr 0.5% agent is bound to go down to 0.4% if you offer to match it. Do that on a regular basis and you peel all the profit out of Cheap fees & Co. A start up business making no profit isn't going to last very long, 2 years max. About the same as most Corporate forrays into agency.

    Before you tell me this doesn't work I haggled one partnership down to £250 on all their istructions, stuff I didn't want to sell. The partners don't talk to each other any more.

    As for this RM article, as its based on Properties available on Rightmove it only goes to show that it is the Middle- Upper market stuff that is being put up for sale The Lower- Middle stuff is not being offered for sale, hence the discrepancy in averages.
    The cost to go to the next property is where the problem lies. Who wants to take on an additional £200K mortgage when they have sub 20 years to work? With no forseeable chance of price inflation gains, Folk are sticking with the property they are happy to retire back to and keeping the £10k/ year interest back as savings or spendies.

    • 23 February 2011 14:33 PM
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    Burf: Quite happy to continue, mon ami...;0)

    Allow me to put into context what I understand from Mr Wadsworth - whose failure to respond is allowing all of this to fester...

    His first sentence read "When I sold our house a couple of years ago, I got three or four EAs to come round and value it..." then later in the post "I am confident that this was the highest price we could have sold it for because in the intervening period subsequent sales on that road have been for slightly lower prices"

    Read it how you want - but I would argue strongly that the "in the intervening period" means from a couple of years ago 'til now - especially as he said "...subsequent sales...". Subsequent events cannot happen within a given time frame; they happen AFTER it. I trust you agree with me there?

    I may want to defend sales values to the hilt; fight to keep them as high as physically possible, as that is my job - but even I cannot argue that in the past two years there has been a downward correction. Whether that correction has stopped or is still ongoing is work in progress as far as I am concerned. But I ain't gonna lie down and accept it - if I do that then I might as well leave the property industry, as I am no good to my employers.

    • 23 February 2011 11:41 AM
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    Burf,
    To be honest, this is all academic. Too many other factors are involved. We don’t know how many viewings needed to take place to get the job done. We don’t know the CTR of the advert. We don’t know what viewing feedback he had, we don’t even know how it was marketed. Without all the variables it’s hard to say whether he did get the best price. He clearly does so I assume all is ok. PeeBee is just pointing out that he couldn’t possibly be 100% sure.

    • 23 February 2011 11:25 AM
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    @ PeeBee
    Sorry to harp on, there was one final point at the end of Mark Wadsworth's post that said why he felt he got the best price and thus gave me the impression you felt he should have gone with one of the agents that OBVIOUSLY over valued it to try and win the instruction!
    It read
    'The EAs I chose duly found a buyer within about a month and that was the end of that. I am confident that this was the highest price we could have sold it for because in the intervening period subsequent sales on that road have been for slightly lower prices.'
    Its the last few lines they say it all for me, his agent definitely sold it at the right price at the right time, unless of course the other properties on his road are significantly different to his!

    • 23 February 2011 10:45 AM
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    Simon: I have tried re-reading my posts to see where I have brought you to the assumption that I condone overvaluing - and I am at a total loss. I would hope that others who post here regularly would attest that I am strongly against bad Agency practice.

    Okay - I'll have another go at what I was saying... and I apologise in advance for taking up so much space with this. In fact, a book could be written on the subject but I will endeavour to make this a simple novelette... ;0)

    Mr Wadsworth "got three or four EAs to come round and value it and... went with the one who recommended the lowest asking price." He then added "The EAs I chose duly found a buyer within about a month and that was the end of that. I am confident that this was the highest price we could have sold it for"

    In essence, there is NOTHING WRONG with the above. Except the alarm bells that ring "lowest asking price"... "sold within a month". I simply asked Mr Wadsworth whether there was a possibility that the property COULD have achieved a better result for him financially in a similar marketing period; also whether he had capitulated on what was, by the evidence provided, an already low price when accepting the offer that led to his property selling in such a short space of time. I felt these to be reasonable questions - which I may add have not been replied to yet.

    There are, as you know, three ways an Agent can go when appraising a property price. Over-pricing is the one which attracts the biggest cries of disgust, although in essence you can ask anything you want for a property - it is how much a buyer is prepared to pay that is the real 'value'. Sellers are free to ask what they want, as long as they have an Agent who is willing to expend time and money and risk it all when the truth sinks in and the seller withdraws - worse again they shift Agents and someone else claims the fee, and has the story to tell to other prospective sellers also!

    Then you have 'Getting it right' - the perfect balance. Suggesting a figure that should be attainable in a realistic timescale, then adding the usual thin layer of fat to allow negotiations to come back to near as darn it the attainable figure. I would love to say that this is the norm - but we all know better. Most Agents I know don't even have the cojones to bring the property's true 'worth' into discussions...

    Lastly - underpricing. The worst of the three in my opinion. Worst? Because not only is it in direct contradiction of the Estate Agents Act and all that Estate Agency stands for - but also that it artificially deflects the market downwards.

    Overpricing has two effects that make regular press. Firstly, it gives Agents a bad reputation which is in the main deserved, although vendors escape lightly in the blame stakes... secondly it simply gives Mr Shipside a monthly opportunity to publicly bite the hand of everybody who feeds him VERY WELL INDEED!! It will never, in this market, lead to people paying too much for the properties - the reverse is true. Properties stay on market past their shelf lives, leading to panic drops and what may well be lower accepted figures that would have been tabled months earlier if the asking price was more in line with reality.

    Arguments as to WHY Agents feel they need to overprice are manyfold. Arguments as to why they SHOULDN'T are singular. It is only THAT argument that holds any water.

    As an Agent, I gave what I believed to be the 'right price'. If a prospective vendor wished to try a figure within, say, 5% of my recommendation, then in most cases I ran with it. More than that - there were several Agents active in my patch that I was happy to see them go with...

    I hope that this now clarifies where I am coming from. OVERvaluing - NO! UNDERvaluing - ABSOLUTELY NOT!! Having the b@lls to tell the vendor as it is and then sell the property at its' true worth - PRICELESS!

    • 23 February 2011 10:14 AM
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    @ PeeBee
    I’m not on here to argue either I just get very frustrated with people who think they can justify over valuing in today’s market! It gives us hard working estate agents a bad name in the press!! And is doing the market more harm than good!!
    Sorry if that’s not what you meant!

    • 23 February 2011 09:41 AM
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    Thank you Burf, noted.
    the best bit of copy/paste so far.

    • 23 February 2011 09:35 AM
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    @ Wardy
    few   /fyu/ [fyoo]
    adjective, -er, -est, noun, pronoun
    –adjective
    1. not many but more than one: Few artists live luxuriously.
    –noun
    2. ( used with a plural verb ) a small number or amount: Send me a few.
    3. the few, a special, limited number; the minority: That music appeals to the few.

    • 23 February 2011 08:59 AM
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    passified me?
    sorry I don't remember it going up 8.33% either?

    • 22 February 2011 23:10 PM
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    Burf: Suggest you let Mr Wadsworth answer the questions I asked him and then we resume this line of discussion.

    I am not in this to argue with you. Mr Wadsworth made a statement that I query - "I am confident that this was the highest price we could have sold it for." I do not think that my questions are inappropriate. You, in the meantime, read into my answer what you want.

    Gerry: Glad you are amused. Can you honestly claim the same?

    • 22 February 2011 17:44 PM
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    Hang on...Asking prices rising yet gross mortgage lending plummets?

    • 22 February 2011 17:23 PM
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    @ wardy sorry I wasnt being specific maybe I should have said a few months would that have passified you?

    • 22 February 2011 17:10 PM
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    People are greedy, but in this case its not estate agents... it's vendors.

    • 22 February 2011 17:08 PM
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    So PeeBee despite your previous post you therfore agree with me that if a property is correctly prices it will sell quickly, not too fast or too cheaply as you implied in your previous post?
    ' So your Agent found one (possibly more than one - you don't give much away...) person who were happy to snap your hand off within a month of going to market. That is about three times quicker than the current norm, apparently. Great. Job done, eh? Made you a happy camper, obviously.

    I just have two questions that I woyuld be grateful if you would answer for me:
    1. Did you get full asking price or did you roll over on that also?
    2. If you HAD gone for one of the other agents' (by the way, stating 25% differential tells us nothing...) prices - say even another ten grand over - how do you know that the outcome would not have been exactly the same but you would be better off? '

    • 22 February 2011 17:07 PM
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    "The best in a 3 mile radius". Comedy gold.

    • 22 February 2011 16:58 PM
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    Burf: You didn't ASK a question! You made a comment...

    However, further to YOUR comment - did you perchance read the whole of my response?

    Allow me to draw to your attention the ONLY bit that is of any relevance -

    "You may (...or may not...) be interested to know that my 'batting average' was 97.2% of INITIAL Asking Price to Exchange Price."

    The "Good old days" as you so eloquently put it, Burf, were not my time. I am not, and never have been, a fair-weather golfer. The days to which I AM talking about are the early-mid '90s which you may or may not remember to be the LAST recessive market...! Then, a 2.8% average hit on asking to accepted was far and away the best result of any Agent in a three-mile radius of my office (including two other branches of the company I worked for...)! Don't forget, that included a small element of sellers who had already chanced their luck with Agents who told them what they wanted to hear, and I had agreed to pick up the pieces. These properties, although they came to the market with my company at realistic prices, were already somewhat tainted by the fact that they had been continuously marketed and it was therefore harder to achieve Asking Price offers...

    Less that 5% of my vendors EVER reduced their asking prices from my initial recommendations. They didn't need to. My commitment to them was to sell their property at the best price achievable, in the shortest time possible - which was exactly what happened if they followed my advice to start with. If they didn't, then they were free to go elsewhere and try their luck with those who simply wanted beans on shelves...

    I hope this has clarified what I read to be your misunderstanding of my post.

    • 22 February 2011 16:30 PM
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    Burf,
    When was it that property was going up in value to the tune of 12.5% per month?

    • 22 February 2011 16:29 PM
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    PeeBee you seem to have answered my only question!
    'I ain't an estate Agent! HOWEVER... if I was (...or should I say WHEN I was...)'
    The CURRENT market is a lot different to the GOOD OLD DAYS when you could over value a house and get a way with it, knowing the market would catch up with your 25% extra given a couple of months!!!
    Today’s savvy estate agent is the honest agent who can sell the house at the right price, charge a decent fee and thus prove he is the best agent in the area and not the I CAN GET YOU MORE AGENT who ties the vendor in for 6 months and still cant sell it!!
    Customer service is far easier if you’re honest with the vendor and get their property sold promptly!!!!

    • 22 February 2011 15:55 PM
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    Burf: You've got the wrong guy, pal. I ain't an estate Agent! HOWEVER... if I was (...or should I say WHEN I was...) then Mr Wadsworth would have been assured of me discussing with him a Marketing Figure that would have offered him the opportunity to seek the best possible price for his property in the timescale to suit his needs. I would have told him how much in my opinion the property WOULD achieve; and how much to market it for to achieve that figure. You may (...or may not...) be interested to know that my 'batting average' was 97.2% of INITIAL Asking Price to Exchange Price. Based upon an office with a turnover of approximately 110 units per annum. Not huge numbers - but enough to keep the P&L well into the 'P'... simply because I charged sensible Fees to my customers, which meant that we could devote them the time and effort that they deserved!

    • 22 February 2011 15:39 PM
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    I always make a judgement on which agent to use based on their reputation - whether I have had dealings with them before (as a buyer or seller) - whether I like what the person doing the valuation has to say and, of course, the price.

    That said, decent agents I have dealt with always seem to have done their homework and bring comparables with them and are remarkably consistent on pricing - even on very individual properties.

    The most sensible line (well it's one I like anyway) is when an agent says .... "Everyone worries about putting their property on too low - but if you do that the market will soon tell you - you'll get lots of interest and maybe bids over the asking price if you're really on too low. On the other hand, if you start off way too high, it won't sell and will stick on the market. Let's try it at £x and see what reaction we get."

    I've instructed agents a few times who have not offered the highest valuation. What I'm interested in is an agent who can sell the property.

    In my local town there are 4 agents - down from 7 a few years ago. When the credit crunch came one of them had only been there for about a year. He is now the No. 1 agent by a mile. I don't get any sense that he over values - I do get the feeling he is a mature and sensible businessman who knows how to talk to people and win their trust. At the end of the day surely it is all about trust. You have to trust the agent's judgement and trust that he will do a good job for you.

    I'm not convinced it's all about price. Agents who overvalue seem to soon get a local reputation for doing that.

    • 22 February 2011 15:05 PM
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    @ Richard! & PeeBee
    No it was me who sold it I defiantly remember them asking for a reduced fee because I sold it too quickly!! lol
    And when I said I wouldn’t reduce the fee they went to PeeBee who said he could get them 25% more then couldn't sell it!!!

    • 22 February 2011 14:41 PM
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    Wasn't it Capital who said in 2008 that prices would drop by 50%, then in 2009 by 30% - now 2011 20%? Clueless headline grabbing and not worthy of comment...oh I just did!

    • 22 February 2011 13:42 PM
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    Mark, I think I sold your house and you asked me to reduce my fee as it sold so quickly?

    • 22 February 2011 13:20 PM
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    Mark Wadsworth: So your Agent found one (possibly more than one - you don't give much away...) person who were happy to snap your hand off within a month of going to market. That is about three times quicker than the current norm, apparently. Great. Job done, eh? Made you a happy camper, obviously.

    I just have two questions that I woyuld be grateful if you would answer for me:
    1. Did you get full asking price or did you roll over on that also?
    2. If you HAD gone for one of the other agents' (by the way, stating 25% differential tells us nothing...) prices - say even another ten grand over - how do you know that the outcome would not have been exactly the same but you would be better off?

    I look forward to your response.

    • 22 February 2011 12:32 PM
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    When I sold our house a couple of years ago, I got three or four EAs to come round and value it and then I went with the one who recommended the lowest asking price.

    The gap between lowest and highest valuation was over 25%, so it struck me that some of them didn't have a clue what they were talking about.

    The EAs I chose duly found a buyer within about a month and that was the end of that. I am confident that this was the highest price we could have sold it for because in the intervening period subsequent sales on that road have been for slightly lower prices.

    • 22 February 2011 11:08 AM
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    FWIW: Thank you for at least part clarifying this for me. as I said in my post, it should be RM who provide their methodology in order to pre-answer queries like mine - but I sincerely appreciate you taking time to establish the actual situation. When I say 'part clarifying' I do not mean that you were lacking - simply that RM's answer to you is a tad confusing. "The methodology is actually quite robust and removes all the outliers." So - do they only look at instructions between, say, £200k and £300k?

    Like I said, your response is much appreciated, and I wouldn't ask you to answer for them. Perhaps someone from RM would be so kind as to come on and do the necessaries? As an 'End-User', I for one would like my 'end-user experience' to be improved by the sharing of this information - and as this is one of RMs main drivers, please improve the experience for me...

    Don't leave it to EAT to provide one, the way they have to for RICS etc - although I am certain that Ros and Nat's version would be more entertaining...

    • 22 February 2011 10:37 AM
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    As estate agents we are a load of collective wimps!

    It does not take a lot of backbone to tell a prospective client that their house has been grossly overvalued and that is why it has not sold, or to go on a market appraisal and tell them that the house should be placed on the market at or only fractionally above valuation because not everyone makes offers and buyers know what is good value and what isn't. Most people respect honest advice and will often instruct that agent or come back to him when the white socks seducer has had their way with them.

    Of course it doesn't always work. But if the majority of agents provided the valuation advice they were trained or qualified to give, without continually looking over their shoulders at their competitors, house sales would be far greater now (lending permitting) and everyone could move on.

    Richard Copus

    • 22 February 2011 10:31 AM
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    PeeBee,

    I have queried RM before on their house price index and as it happens it is NOT a simple mean average as you assume. The methodology is actually quite robust and removes all the outliers.

    I do agree with the other part of your statement that averages are largely irrelevant, but an index, which is based on a given point in the past does just indicate a movement up or down from that origin and is still a useful overall indicator of the market, not much use to Joe public, but then I've not seen this stat referenced in consumer press as they tend to use The Halifax.

    • 22 February 2011 09:15 AM
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    overvalue to win instructions......sounds fimiliar, i remember our area manager at Sequence telling us to do this it was madness, but try telling your corporate boss that. im pleased to say im out of there now. All it does is create a listing and unhappy vendor and a lost instruction 3 months down the line.

    • 22 February 2011 07:18 AM
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    Estate Agent Today, Unemployed Tomorrow

    • 21 February 2011 17:27 PM
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    Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, sounds like trouble int mill!

    I get the feeling this is all going to end in tears....

    • 21 February 2011 16:38 PM
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    Stone the crows, I knew estate agents were pretty dumb, but this has got to take the biscuit.

    • 21 February 2011 16:30 PM
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    Mr Realising Reality: You say in a response to AceofSpades "First its not my site. I have involvement but that's all."

    From the company website, under the FAQ section aptly entitled 'Things you need to know and some you might never have guessed!', this is how they describe your "involvement":

    "The people who've developed this web service are a team, led by a property surveyor (now retired) but with extensive sales experience."

    So it is YOUR TEAM who own/run the website. That's a pretty strong "involvement", isn't it?? ;0)

    • 21 February 2011 16:01 PM
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    Hmmm... I can't believe this - but I am actually going to concur with something that Mr Realising Reality has posted.

    "As Mark Twain said – "There are lies, damn lies and statistics." "

    I bet you were worried there for a nanosecond! ;0)

    Okay - so RM say that the AVERAGE value of property listed went up by what I work out to be £6900 during January. Well - a quick search on their site in LONDON ALONE and I see FIFTY properties (most appear to be multi-listings of the same one by the way...) at Asking Prices of £35,000,000 and above. A cumulative total of £5,097,499,990. FIVE POINT ONE BILLION POUNDS!! Now then - I don't know how many of these are listings that have been there forever, or just happened to jump on site last month. According to RM figures of 1.3 million properties listed in 2010, lets assume that similar numbers will be listed in 2011. That equates to 108333 per month. IF the biggies I have just mentioned ALL came to market in January, that would add £4604 PER PROPERTY to the entire month's average!! And that is levelling EVERY OTHER property at the 'average', which is just as highly unlikely.

    So - if RM want to quote figures, maybe, just MAYBE, they should put some more meat on the bone and give breakdowns.

    Otherwise, their figures just stir up the wrong crowd...

    I have long said that the 'average property' - let's call it 27 Acacia Avenue - can only be judged against 27 Acacia Avenue. When - and only when - the market price of that property goes up or down in a measurable way, can these statistics be a useful tool. Until then - they are just ammunition for the doom-mongers or boom-mongers!

    • 21 February 2011 15:15 PM
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    One good thing about Miles Shipside is that he does manage to retain some degree of credibility when commenting on the market. What is the point of some of the other industry "experts" trying to talk things up and finding some glimmer of futile hope hiding away in a corner? If they told the truth occasionally the public wouldn't get so confused. These people do no-one any good other than the cowboys who overvalue in a declining market. And by the way, how do Right Move manage to increase their charges? They provide the best service out there, because if they didn't Agents wouldn't pay the fees would they?

    • 21 February 2011 15:08 PM
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    Was in the property business in the 1980s,sold up in 1989 just in time. Bought again in 1996, without a mortgage have now sold up again and living in rented.
    This is going to be the big crash and last at least 10 years.Why the crash?Simple affordability and lack of mortgages.

    • 21 February 2011 13:40 PM
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    Bring back Hips or a new, better, voluntary sellers pack?

    • 21 February 2011 13:24 PM
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    AceofSpades:
    First its not my site. I have involvement but that's all.

    Second, please understand that the site you are referring to ALLOWS agents to advertise there, unlike RM for example.

    What you are probably seeing are agents' adverts.

    If you are mostly interested in house prices, I've just finished a research paper about how these should be determined and how to unblock the housing market. All of it is published in various articles on the Property Match Blog.

    I'm hoping members of the estate agency profession will read it and make considered comments for further publication.

    • 21 February 2011 12:52 PM
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    I thought the HIP was fantastic, not for what it did or did not have in it, but because every vendor had to pay it because it was too expensive for the agent to swallow.

    That meant that you got paid up front to put something on the market, and if you were clever managed to get floorplans and stuff included in it.

    But it also meant that the owner was 100% committed - because who would stump up £500 if they weren't.

    I was so annoyed when it went (as I am sure are a lot of HIP companies and DEAs - sorry I was being very selfish...).

    • 21 February 2011 12:52 PM
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    “Coward” is spot on, which is sad for the Industry, but it comprises many good negs that sadly think they can run a business, when they can't.

    What other industry does so much work with no promise of getting paid a penny? No Sale No fee, totally ridiculous
    “business model”

    The chance to charge Vendors to market property totally lost when poor business folk did not spot the opportunity HIPs provided to change a failing culture, too hung up on being negative.

    • 21 February 2011 12:42 PM
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    For years part of my patter as a valuer has included the following:

    "There are three ways for an estate agent to win your busines Mr & Mrs Vendor:
    1. To be a good agent, be honest truthful.
    2. To charge a cheap fee.
    3. To value your property for a little bit more."

    They ALWAYS agree with me that options 2 and 3 are probably not a good way to proceed - yet it doesn't stop them.

    Vendors NEED to hear the truth, but that is often exactly what they don't WANT to hear.

    I try to be a good boy, I really do, but I know that if I do not have the instruction, I will not earn the fee.

    I have just lost an instruction to a 0.5% merchant who has added £25k on top of the owners' already inflated expectations.

    She knows we sold the last 2 in the building, she knows that the market is poor, she knows that she will only get one chance to put the property on the market "for the first time" since it was built, she knows that the other agent doesn't accompany viewings, do nice photos, a floorplan or any of the other things that make the difference.

    She even agreed with me on my valuation patter.

    But I still lost the instruction.

    What are you supposed to do?

    Sometimes I put it down to experience, sometimes I get a bit annoyed!

    Baseball bats at dawn anyone?

    • 21 February 2011 12:19 PM
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    Monkey Tennis:

    I so not agree with you very often but I fully support your last post.

    I went through the 1973/4 downturn and almost left it too late to trim costs but learnt the lesson for 1989/90 and for 2008.....Trim all costs and only market the vendors properties who CAN accept a realistic appraisal (some are not in a positiion to do so - they should advised to stay put, if not be left to others).
    Do that and most well run independents should stand a good chance of survival

    • 21 February 2011 11:22 AM
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    Realisng Realty - why are the prices on your site in line with agency brackets and in some cases far higher?

    Sorry to keep asking you this, it appears you keep missing my messages.

    • 21 February 2011 10:57 AM
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    Unfortunately many EA's work on the stack em high, get long contracts, get the price down, numbers game. This is a strategy that works well in a booming/rising market as within 12 weeks the sale value has increased and any reductions in price are fairly insignificant. The problem with this strategy in the current market is that the real value is falling away during the contract period, it leads to very high stock levels that need to be serviced. i.e the agent has higher running costs (staff costs) servicing properties which are way over-valued thretening their own survival.. 80% of properties in my area simply aren't selling. A canny agent will trim staff costs to the bone, identify the most motivated vendors and retain a healthy conversion instruction/sale rate.

    • 21 February 2011 10:10 AM
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    There's just too many estate agents.

    If the Government hadn't allowed many agents to delay their VAT & corporation tax payments, they would have gone under long ago.

    Inteference in the free market means the well run agencies subsidise the badly run.

    • 21 February 2011 10:04 AM
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    Yes it bloody tough Miles. Thanks for the 20% rate increase! Really appropriate that one!!

    • 21 February 2011 10:03 AM
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    Prices should fall so that the market clears but house prices tend to be "sticky" - as house sellers will not readilly accept lower prices.

    People who think this is cost free, or that it can continue for ever, are very silly. The house simply doesn't sell, they can't move to their new job and so stick with their failing employer (thus landing in further trouble down the line), can't move to the new catchment area for their kids (thus condemning them to bunk beds and bad schools), can't move near their elderly parent, can't separate from their abusive partner.........They will happily make a hundred sub-optimal decisions rather than accept the reality of what their house is worth. In any case, their house price is decided by those nearby who do sell.

    • 21 February 2011 09:52 AM
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    Raising prices into a falling market. EA's must be the most stupid business people on the planet. With 1.3 million properties for sale but just 530,000 mortgages approved last year, this kind of behaviour is insanity.

    • 21 February 2011 09:48 AM
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    We are nothing but a bunch of lemmings, bidding up prices to get stock on the books while we rush towards the cliff.

    No wonder we are the butt of so many jokes, it really doesn't get more stupid than this.

    As a profession we ought to be engineering things downwards toward sustainability and a return to 'normal' volumes - have some people really forgotten it's volume that pays the salary, not the odd sale at a trophy price?

    Cloud cuckoo land.

    • 21 February 2011 09:46 AM
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    Madness!!!!!!!

    So instruction levels are low, but buyer levels are lower

    The upward pressure on house prices does not exist - onlt the insecurity of estate agents desparate for stock

    • 21 February 2011 09:42 AM
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    "All the house price indices, therefore, need to be read with a high degree of caution at the moment as they are very likely to give a falsely optimistic reading of the market as transaction levels are so low."

    As Mark Twain said – "There are lies, damn lies and statistics."

    • 21 February 2011 09:33 AM
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    Is there any other business out there currently shooting itself more in the foot that Estate Agents?

    • 21 February 2011 09:16 AM
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