Moves to change the Estate Agents Act to allow more entrants into the market, who would be able to operate outside its scope, have been welcomed by a private sales site.
Nick Marr, CEO of the Little House Company, said that he had made a ‘significant’ contribution to the consultation process by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
In marked contrast, most traditional agents seem to have been in ignorance about the Government’s move to change the legislation and the consultation which ends today.
Marr said: “I would like to add to the debate from a different perspective.
“The Little House Company (operated by Marr International) is a private house sales site that site has made significant contribution to the consultation process in which it demonstrated that the Estate Agents Act has severely reduced the ability for consumers to carry out a DIY sale.
“We showed that several business models that we launched were potentially in breach of the law. Services such as offering to sell by social media, matching buyers and sellers, and erecting a For Sale board all breached the Act.
“We called for a relaxation of the laws which were designed to protect consumers from unscrupulous estate agents. The Act was keeping the status quo and not allowing innovation and creativity within the industry.
“We would like to see that private sellers are given the right to sell their own homes using services like ours in agent’s contracts. We would also like to see that OFT examine the restrictive practices that are stifling the growth of private sales websites.
“We evidenced restrictive practices by many UK property portals, citing the Property Misdescriptions Act as the main reason why they would not allow private seller advertising.
“Again like the Estate Agents Act, this law was designed to protect the consumer and now was being used to reduce the ability of home sellers to advertise their homes online effectively.
“The Little House Company is not anti agent and we intend to employ professionals to help our private sellers with certain aspects of a sale. We believe in greater consumer choice and think the proposed changes will give a more level playing field.”
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Comments
Let’s face it, the property market is 99% based on greed, greed of sellers and buyers, who ever sold something under-priced to please the buyer or paid too much tom please the seller? No one, just grow up, too many stupid comments from ignorant peolple, when you have an idea of the real world, come back and post.
Ok I take on board the comments below, and I am the first to admit that not all agents are the same. I'm not, and no, my volume of business is not low and my clients are very happy.
BUT . . . have you got some magic formula that values bang on accurate every time (guess you have no price reductions then) ? Is the content of your listings higher in quality ? are you doing something to improve your click rates better than the other guy ? what are you doing to optimize click through rates on each listing ? do you email, text and / or post out brochures ? can you prove a tangible benefit to a vendor in instructing you ?
Are you really negotiating or passing on offers ?
Sure, juggling all the balls after an offer has been accepted is necessary, but it is reactive, not proactive.
Think you are a big hitter ? what contingency plan have you put in place with regard to this likely change in legislation ? I've got mine rolling.
Too many agents believe their own hot air, it has worked up to now to an extent, but things are changing. I welcome the changes, bring them on.
"To be honest I'm not too worried about private sellers, they'll all be way over priced" Really so its not the agents overpricing to get instructions then that cause properties to be left on the market for ages.
Personally I can't wait, all the poor agents will go out of business and leave more pie for the rest of us pro-active ones.
FSBO hasn't killed agents off in the US, in fact they charge much higher fee's! I'm up for that, who's on board? 5% anyone? It may even lead to the rise of 'buyers agents' over here.
To be honest I'm not too worried about private sellers, they'll all be way over priced and won't sell anyway, the lucky one's that do will think it down to their ingenuity rather that pure luck!
They'll always be a need for the professionals, I could do my own accounts - but I'd rather pay my accountant, I could service my own car - but I'd rather pay my mechanic.
There will always be smart alec's who think they know better, leave them to it, they'll come back with cap in hand eventually!
Well Exposed you really can't be an agent at all, or at least I hope not. If that is all you provide then you probably do very little business if any at all. Negotiating a sale through problems with surveys,legal issues,chains and keeping everyone on board throughout is an art gained by experience let alone extracting offers and managing vendors expectations. A good agent is a lot more effective in getting deals completed as finding a buyer is often the easiest part. Go back to sleep!,
Ha, well said Chris Smiles. I would imagine any interaction or relationship in any form with Mr "Exposed" would be disappointing.
There is a massive point being missed here.
Good Estate Agents will actually establish IF a property CAN actually be sold before listing it.
I was recently asked to list a property that had been on the market with a competitor for over a year. When I questioned the vendor about their circumstances (I am also a Mortgage Broker) I found out they had bought the property at the top end of the market with a 95% LTV sub prime self cert mortgage!! they had zero savings negative equity and would never get another mortgage!!
Imagine how many of this type of client will sign up with virtual agents for an up front fee only to find out they cant move, and after their purchasers may have incurred survey, legal costs etc. This helps no-one.
There is a lot more to providing a value for money service than just a few photos, flowery descriptions, non accompanied viewings and hoping a surveyor doesn't down value a property and that the conveyancer is any good.
As we all know, in most instances, our fees are really earned AFTER agreeing a sale.
Exposed - agree with you that some agents fall into your description, but generalisations are the resort of the uneducated. My clients genuinely experience good service and value for money, I expect your clients experience disappointment.
Can we have comments and action from the RICS and NFoPP - NOW - today - together with a proper resume of their part in these "consultations"!
Good grief - what are we paying them for?
Lets face it we have had it good for a long time.
Much of what we do we shroud in professionalism but at the end of the day it's not brain surgery. Valuations, it is kind of educated guess work, hence so many are inaccurate. Marketing, most agents idea of marketing is a few snaps and a bunch of condescending text, anything remotely technical, creative or innovative is shunned. Negotiating, passing on offers and replying with rejections or acceptances, not really negotiating is it. Fees, charging more because your property is worth more, not because more work was involved in selling it, outrageous really. we have been lucky to get away with it for so long.
Misdescriptions, we have been protected by this one for a while now. Just because someone is not an estate agent does not mean that they will misdescribe their own property, at the end of the day a viewing,a survey and solicitor act as safety nets on this.
Inevitable that the market eventually gets opened up to more competition. The government are not interested in us, they are interested in the market as a whole and the public.