Posted Date: Wednesday 15th September 2010
I would love it here. We have one very dominant agent who is also a bit a 'naughty' with his boards too. I'm not whinging about him being dominant - he's a really good agent - but not seeing his boards all over the town would be great for me. Of course I can also see it from his perspective...
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Posted Date: Wednesday 22nd September 2010
I think that the one thing that everyone forgets is that there is a huge difference between National and Local. When you take an average of property transactions across the country then you will find property prices falling because most of the sales will be at the average price where the effects of falling income multiples and rising deposit requirements have the most impact. The average buyer of the average £750,000 house has WAY more cash behind them and is barely notices the problems raising mortgage finance that others have. This is a purely local matter as F&C only deal with the top quartile.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 3rd November 2010
Property prices will fall in the UK (the South East in particular) only when the repossessions start. I remember the early 90's when for a period of a month I worked for an ordinary high street agent and attended at least 1 repossession per day in North & East London. Interest rates will rise, probably in 2012, and then we may see the repo's start and prices really fall, none of this namby pamby 0.2% price drop that we see at the moment, but real whole percentage points.
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Posted Date: Friday 12th November 2010
As Baldrick once said: "DOOM! DOOOM! DOOOOM! DOOOOOM!". That said though, prices will slowly correct downwards over the next couple of years by 3%-5%. Inflation (that's RPI not the other crap) is 4-5% which gives a real world annual price drop of about 10%. 2 to 3 years of that is a REAL WORLD drop in property prices of about 25%. No big crash, no horrible pain. It happened in the 70s, again in the 80s and even in the 90s.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 9th February 2011
There are SOOO many times I would have loved to have responded to a whinging, whining, halfwit of a purchaser who has had unrealistic "TV" expectations of buying a property. It is rare that property transactions are simple - the mark of a good agent is to make it LOOK like it is. But sometimes things go wrong, particularly with leasehold flats like this one. All you can do is pick yourself up and move on, putting it down to experience.
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Posted Date: Friday 18th February 2011
U-turn if you want to...
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Posted Date: Monday 21st February 2011
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?
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Posted Date: Wednesday 23rd February 2011
The one question I have for vendors when ALL the agents are online and charge £250 to sell your house is: "Whose going to value your house for you?" Coz you won't get "free market appraisals" any more. The REAL skill of an agent is to get better than market price - even if that better is just a few pounds. Then they help the sale go through (a good agent that is). I work in a high street where the two major players will do it for free if they have to, to stop the other one getting the instruction. I know this is true, because I used to be the valuer for one of them. Mental? The owner didn't think so. I disagreed which is why I now own the agency across the road that does far less volume but at much, much higher fees. I take home more money now...
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Posted Date: Wednesday 23rd February 2011
Forgive me - I couldn't resist... Why dont you all just..... No - sorry; I just couldn't do it. Love & kisses
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Posted Date: Monday 7th March 2011
To be honest, I am surprised it is that high. The whole HIP debacle was based around John Prescott's idea to get an energy rating for every building in every member state of the EU (Kyoto Protocol 1997 enforced 2005 - Housing Act 2004). When the government realised how much it would cost for them to do it, they hid it inside the Home Information Pack. It has NOTHING to do with buyers or sellers, it never did
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Posted Date: Wednesday 9th March 2011
For goodness' sake! Forgive me, I know I am going to sound a bit elitist, but... WTF? £11k on a £1m+ transaction - I don't think that anyone that CARES to spend that kind of money in this kind of market is going to be in the slightest bit bothered. Certainly not to the extent of committing mortgage fraud... Sounds like a PR story about nothing to me.
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Posted Date: Friday 18th March 2011
An average of 7 viewings per day (assuming Sundays worked too) . Assuming agreed price exchanges (£2.2m) and they are charging 1.5% they get a fee of £33k - or there abouts. Which means that each viewing was worth £227. Do you know what? I would prefer to do 10 viewings on a house for £350,000 charging 1%... But there's me being grumpy again.
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Posted Date: Friday 18th March 2011
And all those Victorian terraces that people in London fall over themselves to buy is what then... Inspired, individually architect crafted unique one off homes? New build is new build - wherever in the world you are, unless you go and buy a single plot newbuild...
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Posted Date: Wednesday 30th March 2011
I agree with rantnrave FFS and BA make very valid points. I have spoken to some local colleagues in Surrey and we are all seeing more come on the market with no buyers to take them. There are several agent near me who seem to be trying as hard as possible to commit commercial suicide by over pricing and under feeing - that's just crazy. We now charge 50% more than the local average and ask for a £600+VAT non refundable up front fee. Do you think I'm crazy? I don't - it scares away the numpties and really commits the serious ones. We have not lost one property that was worth losing by doing this. If it doesn't sell then all I have lost is a bit of time that I would have been staring out of the window. It will never make me a profit, but at least I am not paying for vendors' unrealistic expectations. I thoroughly recommend it to you all. Oh how I miss HIPs
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Posted Date: Wednesday 30th March 2011
My god, does that mean that I won't be able to buy myself a new Mercedes/ BMW/ Jag (delete as applicable)? Have to say better to take less money home than no money home.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 13th April 2011
Oh god - just get on with it already. It is important to know for environmental reasons - but for god's sake we are wasting so much ENERGY on it.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 13th April 2011
I want a survey of surveys - maybe that'll sort it out. There are lies, damned lies & statistics
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Posted Date: Monday 18th April 2011
Don't just blame estate agents - vendors are perfectly complicit in the process of over pricing. The number of times that an owner has agreed with me about how good my service is, that they want to instruct me but they want to ask my price +£20k / +£50k, etc. The worst case recently I turned round to him to say no, but we could perhaps do a guide price of £1.5m he said ok and then proceeded to propose a commission structure based on performance - which I am happy with, but the commission was only worthwhile if I achieved £200k above asking. I think the house is worth £1.4m - if he is lucky, but £100k negotiating room is the same as £10k at £150k so not an outrageous OOT asking, but his expectations are mental.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 27th April 2011
I think that the current government (without admitting to it because the just can't) will allow the affects of inflation at 4 point something percent coupled with a modest fall in house prices of a couple of percent per year to "sort out" the housing market. It will take 5-7 years as Mark suggests. It's a bit like ripping a plaster off a particularly hairy leg one hair at a time. The alternative is a return to the early 90's where in one, three week period I presided over the repossession of at least one house per day. Which is better...?
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Posted Date: Wednesday 27th April 2011
Cut the blue wire, not the red wire...
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Posted Date: Wednesday 4th May 2011
So in 2010 there were 7,185 houses sold for more than £1m. That is 54% more than in 2009, which means that 4,666 house were sold for more than £1m that year. Cool. Except that 7,185 out of 184,000 is 3.9% of the stock levels. That's really, really low.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 4th May 2011
Tumbleweed down the high street was our experience, we opened on the Saturdays but were otherwise closed. Oh, and the weather was fab, so sitting in the garden was much better than sitting in a hot office playing solitaire.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 11th May 2011
Dear Trevor Not to self - read a post before replying to it. Thanks in advance Trevor
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Posted Date: Wednesday 11th May 2011
I am an estate agent - thought I would get that out of the way first. I own my own home with a mortgage that is larger than I would like (the mortgage, not the house). To me, at this moment in time, renting looks to be a very sensible option compared to buying. Where I work, rental prices are static, sale prices are dropping. Looks to me as though NOT owning a property could be quite a good idea. Scary, huh? Lending criteria make property prices 20-30% overpriced. I remember in the early 90's when the banks & BSocs stopped lending on flats above shops - which meant that prices dropped hard for that sector in particular. The only reason prices in some areas have not fallen is because there are very few repossessions. I cannot explain why London prices are going up - it seems like madness to me.
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Posted Date: Friday 13th May 2011
I've been saying this for ages. It's great that someone finally agrees with me. Scary thought... The MPC might actually raise interest rates and then all those people in arrears will be proper f**ked (I like the film Snatch - sorry!). Then of course we end up with the 25% fall in prices that the HPCers want. Sticking plaster - slow or fast?
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Posted Date: Friday 13th May 2011
Oh well and there was me getting the distinct impression he was good for nothing. The Apprentice - yawn!
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Posted Date: Monday 16th May 2011
As I have said before I like RM, particularly because of the tools they provide. I have just done a quick survey (by postcode) of properties on the market in my area for more than 10 weeks (use best price guide and set the date for the end of February). The surprising thing is how many properties have changed agents and NOT sold. Even more surprising is how many have stayed with the same agent and sold from a reduced asking price. Whatever way you look at it - it is not fair, it is not right, BUT overpricing WORKS (if you do it properly). You need to be able to organise viewings that generate low offers (real offers or "well they suggested they might pay X - a tactic used by a lot of corporates where when a buyer says didn't like it they ask "ok, but if you were going to make an offer how much would it be and why?"). After 2 weeks you review progress and generate a price reduction. Continue until under offer. If you are set up to do this, IT WORKS. Bit horrid though.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 18th May 2011
I weep for the passing of HIPs, not because they made the sale process any easier but because they were a brilliant filter to make sure that a vendor was serious. It also meant that which ever agent you went on with you had to pay up front. I charge to put your house on the market (mad you say? It works for me) and HIPs made the conversation a lot easier. Oh well...
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Posted Date: Friday 20th May 2011
ALL "supply and demand" open markets are subject to boom and bust cycles. ALL of them. WITHOUT EXCEPTION and BY DEFINITION. Otherwise it is not an Open Market. Open markets are subject to irrational behaviour by the people occupying the marketplace. Not only that, the "herd mentality" is entirely rational until about 5 minutes after the peak of the market where it becomes stupid, but then becomes rational again to try and minimise your losses. What do we do about it? Sensible lending criteria and proven cash deposit levels are probably the easiest to implement and will make sure that the majority of buyers are protected. Consider, if the market falls by 10% and you have a 20% deposit, you are not wiped out. But this is then a control on the banking industry who will be restricted in the ways they can compete for business and although they have lost money this time round have been bailed out so don't care and will complain bitterly.
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Posted Date: Monday 23rd May 2011
Still don't know the name of that idiot footballer, and still don't care. I do care that the number of calls to my office was noticebly lower than normal. Tumbleweed down the high street? Everywhere was quiet - a quick walk down the road on Saturday showed me that. Usually you have to fight through the crowds, not this last month or two.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 25th May 2011
[Just getting my zimmer frame out...] I remember back in the early 90's a whole load of surveyors getting caught by this kind of thing. They had valued a property in 1987 or 88, the market had crashed and the property had been repossessed after the owners had lived in it penniless for months. The properties were trashed and prices were at rock bottom. The surveyors were blamed for over-valuing or just doing a drive-by or missing structural movement or whatever. As a surveyor, you can only value for the moment, for that day and what happens in 6 months or 6 years is of no consequence. But of course, you have your notes and comparables handy to prove your due diligence, so in the end, if you did your job right, it is not a problem.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 8th June 2011
Refused an instruction today. Did my comparables, worked out that the owners price "But I got that as my asking price in 2007 and prices haven't dropped round here". I reckon the owners' price is a good 30% above reality. So I thought "I'll save myself some money and time" and refused to take it on the market. The funny thing is that I don't think prices have dropeed that much, just that he was lucky to get the offer last time and unlucky not to exchange contracts. Knowing the type of person he is too, I reckon the reason the sale fell through was because of him, not his buyer. "Life? Don't talk to me about life!" - Marvin the paranoid android
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Posted Date: Wednesday 15th June 2011
Touting for me, when I count the hours, petrol, paper, postage & effort, has I think not made me a penny. Yes I have got instruction that have sold. Yes, I have been quite successful at it. BUT, it costs a fortune (50p per 2nd class letter or £1 for a brochure). Or 40p per mile AND a letter or brochure. Surely the only UNETHICAL thing is persuading the owner to break a sole agency agreement... I work in a town where everyone signs up on a 12 week contract (sort of, ish). The only benefit of touting before week 9 is persuading the owner that the price reduction that their current agent has just asked for is justified. Therefore, wait for the last two weeks (use Rightmove Best Price Guide - put in the postcode and it will tell you when it cam on the market) or have a huge database of instructions noted when they come on. THEN tout them, professionally and honestly. Personally though, in all the years I have been doing it, I would say I have probably spent more money and time on doing it than I have ever got out of it. And I have worked for (or owned) several different types of agent including corporates (with their letters 1-7). Got to say, that if they didn't even call you in for a valuation in the first place (so you don't have their number) then it is going to be an uphill struggle. Sometimes I just wonder if it is "make-work".
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Posted Date: Wednesday 15th June 2011
@rantnrave has a great point - 6th up from the bottom. Prices go up, prices go down. When they go down, the rungs in the ladder get closer together. 20% of £250,000 is £50,000. 20% of £500,000 is £100,00. So, and this is the important bit: if you have enough equity and you save in between purchases then it doesn't matter and when the price goes down you can jump up. The problem is that the banks persuaded us to borrow too much money. Me, I blame one man and his name is Gordon Brown. I really do think he should be sent to jail for his complicit "light touch" approach to banking that allowed for the trade of the CDOs (collateralised debt obligations) that got us where we are today. Now that's a proper RANT and RAVE... (smiles) ;->
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Posted Date: Monday 20th June 2011
As a great philosopher once said: "D'Oh!"
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Posted Date: Wednesday 22nd June 2011
I just can't get the image of Vic Reeves rubbing his thighs out of my head whilst drooling over a female guest... Property Porn indeed. As an agent, I am guilty of doing it where I live and where I work.... ;->
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Posted Date: Friday 24th June 2011
I've said it before, happy to repeat it... I am a BIG rightmove fan for several reasons: 1. The user experience is EXCELLENT (auto updates, drawn maps, you name it). 2. The agent experience is EXCELLENT (best price guide, client reports, you name it). 3. Market penetration is EXCELLENT (what percentage of all all property searches done on RM? it is well over 50%). I am an agent, and I think that Zoopla have overtaken FAP & PrimeLo in quality, but they are still in a very distant 2nd place. Considering that my monthly RM bill is half my newspaper bill (1 page per week) it is a bargain. And yes, we could debate the whole why bother in the paper, but it is still the cheapest and most effective way of getting my logo in front of VENDORS. RM will end up costing agents £1,000 in a few years - be prepared. Why? Because, in the end, it is worth it. I suppose you could almost say that a good analogy is the price of petrol. £1.40 a litre - no one could ever afford to pay that!!! But we are, aren't we? Why? Because we have to and there is no cheaper alternative.
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Posted Date: Friday 24th June 2011
The housing market in the UK is currently undergoing a period of stagflation. On purpose. Organised by the government. We need a reduction in real terms value of property in the UK. Rather than a short sharp shock, the government have gone down the road of a 5-10 year decline by keeping house prices the same and letting inflation do the hard work. It is actually quite clever, because the man in the street is already under enough pressure. In that time we will also pay down our personal debts too. The alternative is a 30% reduction over 18 months, hundreds of thousands of repossessions, a new UK banking crisis as all of those repos go on the books of the banks, mass unemployment (way worse than we have at the moment) and huge social unrest. Shades of The Specials, Ghost Town. Some people (HPCers - I pointing my finger at you) are calling for it - I think they are mad because the elephant in the room is a thousand times bigger than in 1989. Coupled together with the global nature of the banking system and the fact that UK banks are at the very heart of it all (more fool us) I have a feeling it would be the start of a new global meltdown,
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Posted Date: Wednesday 29th June 2011
Round 3,652 DING DING!!! And the independent feints to the left while the corporate dodges neatly to the right. Bobbing and weaving, ducking and diving. It'll never change unless homeowners stop falling for it. They WANT to be lied to. I've seen it a million times. AND posted about it on EAT a thousand times (never one to exaggerate!) I've just seen a house in my area change agent after a sale fell through. Despite the house being on the market with the 1st agent for months, reducing the price several times, it has now gone back on the market after a downvaluation made the sale fall through at a higher asking price than it was on the market for originally. Please, somebody explain to me how that could possibly make sense?
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Posted Date: Friday 1st July 2011
The article seems filled with a bit of vitriol and he might be coming at it from the wrong angle and arrive at the right conclusion but for the wrong reason. BUT (and please don't all shout at me at once) I think that unless we are all very careful his vision might come true faster than we all think. Don't start throwing rocks just yet! Consider: No sale - no fee means that the 1 in 5 properties that you value/ list/ sell that actually pay you a fee on completeion cover the cost of the 4 that do not. From the sucessful sellers' point of view, that is a bit of a crap deal. But it is "No Sale, No Fee" I hear you cry. Do you think they care, when having sold they know they have paid a huge bill, which on an hourly rate basis is massive. The problem is with our business model, not with the world. "No sale, no fee" from our point of view is just plain crazy. From the sellers' point of view it looks sensible, until they realise that they are subsidizing all those people who overprice their house or just dip their toe in the water or who change their mind. And an online agency with a branch network charging a listing fee to cover basic costs and a success fee will come along soon and take all of our businesses away from us. And the £500 HIP proves that sellers WILL pay up front if they have to or they can see the benefit. This is what eBay, Amazon, Rightmove, etcetera have done to us because your average homeowner is now happy to use the internet to buy and sell. From my point of view, if I could make £500 per instruction and another £1000 per completion, I could run a profitable business. The volume is there in my town, even now. BUT (and you can start throwing rocks now) a couple of agents would have to go out of business!
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Posted Date: Monday 4th July 2011
London figures are interesting. Bubble bursting?
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Posted Date: Monday 4th July 2011
Anti bribery law has just come in to force. Those little brown envelopes that estate agents get donated by property developers definitely fall into that category. The SFO will probably be watching us all quite hard. Apparently even £50 as a facilitation payment qualifies! A grand in £20 notes is a 10 year sentence. And as a boss, you are liable for those little miscreants you employ. Each one you sell now you would be wise to document that the buyer could not bribe you because ... When they say Kermit you say "JUMP!"
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Posted Date: Wednesday 6th July 2011
I for one welcome our new LSL overlords.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 6th July 2011
I am happy that a business is doing well in these hard times. Can I have a job?
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Posted Date: Monday 18th July 2011
Testing the market (at the moment) usually means putting a property on the market for WAY too much money which means that a sale is never agreed and solicitors are never involved. I loved HIPs for putting a stop to that. That was fab. But not having them has nothing to do with SALES falling thru.
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Posted Date: Monday 18th July 2011
@vossy So far (touch wood) I have not lost any commission when a house has gone on the market with another agent for way more money. Actually, I have, when I called up a lost valuation to try and get them on the market with me. In the process I reminded the owner what the correct price was , so they gave their existing agent a price reduction and they sold it. There's a word for that, best not use it here.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 20th July 2011
And cue the HPCers
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Posted Date: Wednesday 20th July 2011
@wardy Shhh - don't give the game away. There is an agent in my town that starts EVERY property description with "XXX agents are pleased to bring this house to the market". There is another that starts EVERY description with "A chance to acquire". You would think they would get bored of writing it, or that their secretary would go crazy ape bonkers and assasinate them for making them type the same mindless drivel on every set of details. But it does me no harm at all - carry on chaps! PS: apologies to any secretaries that might be offended by my comments - we love you
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Posted Date: Friday 22nd July 2011
@catch22 And that is the fallacy of just talking about pound notes I'm afraid. With CPI running at 5.1% and property prices dropping at 1-2% the value of your home IN REAL TERMS is dropping by up to 7.5% per annum. Plus you are paying an exhorbitant rate of interest, probably 2.5% above what you should. Blame who you like, but to keep your house it is costing you 10% of it's value every year. It is actually better at the moment to liquidate your assets and go into rented. Finally, the landlord is subsidising the tenant! This is the difference between an economist and a normal man in the street. Which one is right? Well, the economist is right of course, but we would all prefer it if she/ he wasn't.
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Posted Date: Monday 25th July 2011
Interest rates are linked to risk. The riskier the loan, the higher the interest rate. As Brit1234 says it is a scam, but not perpetrated by the lenders. They have been forced into it and are behaving in a way that covers them. Avoid.
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Posted Date: Monday 25th July 2011
That few? Surely it should be closer to 100%? As Vossy says right at the start... Most vendors are buyers, but the number of properties where my owner demands asking and then goes off to offer 20% below asking on the next one is ridiculous. And they feel perfectly justified in doing so. I just don't get it. Are they completely schizophrenic or something?
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Posted Date: Wednesday 27th July 2011
I have a solution, little box in the corner filled with 4pt text that is just about readable, takes up less space than the current EPC graph. Sorted that one for you ;->
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Posted Date: Wednesday 3rd August 2011
I will say it again. I don't work for RM, but I do really like the service. I think they are great value for money. Applicant generation is brilliant. User experience is amazing. For us agents Rightmove PLUS is really bloody useful if you use it properly. And the cost? Yes it costs, but I spend at least twice as much on the local paper.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 3rd August 2011
Deep breath. He is right. Attention seeking, maybe, but it is true. People are getting used to buying EVERYTHING online. More and more people are getting used to selling things online (eBay). We (generally) trust our daily banking needs to the internet. So.... Mr & Mrs Average Vendor, who don't trust us, not really, and think we charge WAY too much will be looking for alternatives. All of a sudden there will be a really good, viable way for them to sell their property without the likes of you and me. People have been predicting the end of estate agents since the mid 90's. After 15 years, the technology and data is available to everyone. And (this is the important bit) the general population are ready for it. That is why Hamptons & Southebys are now owned by Countrywide, why Fine is owned by Haart, why Arun Estates are buying into Fine & Country and so on. The market for agents will split in 3: Online/ budget agents Local high street agents High end agents If you are still in the middle group in 5 years you will find that your business will struggle until your high street has 1 or 2 "local" agents left instead of the 8 or 9 now. Think about it, Haart are doing iSold.com through Tescos and that is growing exponentially. They will kick your ass, unless you kick theirs first.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 3rd August 2011
So Countrywide buy Hamptons. Start closing down Mann & Co.s and other cheaply branded offices in favour of GPees or equivalents. Then expands high end brand name. I refer you all to a comment I made on the story about Mr Bending.
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Posted Date: Friday 5th August 2011
There once was an agent in Southall Who was unable to sell houses at all "I know," said he "With poetry you'll see Miss the apostrophes and it'll end well" Ta-da!
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Posted Date: Friday 5th August 2011
@SGHI Actually, FTB Dan is right, but for all the wrong reasons. The scheme was dreamt up by a member of our government at the time - John Prescott. Read this Wikipedia article for clarification: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prescott However, it is definitely not an eco-fascist bureaucracy, more of a communist nanny state bureaucracy. KIDDING! It is important to do. The government came up with a neat idea - lets get home owners to do it and cover the costs. And so was born the lie that lead eventually to the HIP. Don't start ranting now!
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Posted Date: Monday 15th August 2011
First let me say that I am sorry for her predicament - I don't want you all thinking I am heartless. I used to work in an office less than 300 yards from there and lived up the road when the Broadwater Farm riots happened. But I have to be missing something here. The buiding freehold is owned by an RSL or Housing Association if you prefer. She is on a part buy/ part rent scheme. It therefore is insured. No ifs, no buts. Unless the insurance company refuse to rebuild the entire building - which is not going to happen - they will cover mortgage payments and rehousing costs for the time being. This is not just a rubbish story, but simple common sense means that it shouldn't even be a story at all. Silly season I suppose
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Posted Date: Wednesday 17th August 2011
I'm not surprised. In Haringey, a business permit costs £240pA and only allows you to park next to your office, not outside someone's house. They started in 1996 by charging £18 per car per year. 2 cars now cost £230. That is an increase of 538% in 15 years - very profitable indeeed. So an estate agent in Haringey doesn't save a huge amount of money by faking it, but they do get the right to park outside their customers' houses. Now in Surrey, but I worked there from 1992 - 2003. It is quite simple, if you make stupid rules and laws, people will try to find a loophole.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 17th August 2011
Good luck with that one. I think it was Foxtons that went to court a couple of years ago against Hamptons (???) and got their asses whipped on the matter of what constituted a "valid introduction". 6 months and you are out. Now development land will be considered slightly differently no doubt, but that's 15 years. Then of course you have the fact that he was employed (directly or indirectly) means that while at work anything that he generates automatically belongs to his employers - that is standard across the board. If I am employed to create widgets and make a successful one, it belongs to my employer, not to me. That's why you get paid a salary - that is what you get and that is what your employer gets. Oh, and as a final note I wonder if the 7 year limit on bringing a claim would apply to this.
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Posted Date: Monday 22nd August 2011
The litigation costs alone are probably enough to crush this guy. The Human Rights Act states that the right to work is considered a basic human right and therefore Foxtons cannot stop him. The onus will be on Foxtons to prove he stole the data from them and then used it to contact the clients. Tough but not impossible to do - you only need 3 loyal customers who say "I got an email..."
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Posted Date: Monday 22nd August 2011
Lucky buggers - can I have some please?
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Posted Date: Wednesday 24th August 2011
Prices are too high. No ifs, no buts. Consider the fact that over the last 100 years, the investment value of property has outstripped every other investment class by a huge margin. That is an asset bubble, but it has slowly built up to huge proportions. The reasons are quite complex and include (please don't hate me for saying it) female equality - there are now 2 proper salaries coming in to a household, rather than one or one and a bit. The problem is not equality, but with the affordability calculations that drove the lending boom. We have all borrowed WAY too much money (me included) and the solution is to STOP. Not borrow more. The world governments are trying gentle price reduction and stagnation together with high inflation to gently pop the house price bubble in the EuroZone. The US has had a MASSIVE price drop. But, against everything an HPCer will tell you, they are no better off. Unfortunately it would appear that we have 20 years of quiet stagnation ahead of us.
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Posted Date: Friday 26th August 2011
So, with a 30% deposit and 4 times joint salary which appears to be par for the course the family needs to be bringing in over £250k per year or £21k per month. That is nearly footballer money.
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Posted Date: Monday 5th September 2011
'scuse the french... But did I just here that Bastard Thieves are now a bunch of C**ters?
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Posted Date: Wednesday 7th September 2011
Lies, damned lies and statistics... But EVERYBODY knows that Fitch is right. Supply and demand arguement is currently invalid as there are external influences affecting it. London has an international property investment bubble because the exchange rate is SOOO favourable. At the moment, even if property prices fall hard, most international buyers would still be in profit. London is also skewing the national average figures as most property transactions in the UK are happening there. In my area completions appear to be running at about 20-25% of normal. The statistics show an increase in the price of detached properties of 12% over the last 6 months. That's because only a few houses have sold and they are bigger than the ones sold in the previous 6 months. It is comparing Apples and Oranges. When you factor in "SENSIBLE LENDING" then prices are indeed 25% over the top. And sensible lending is what we need.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 7th September 2011
'Och aye the noo. No surprise there then.
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Posted Date: Monday 19th September 2011
A snapshot way to look at the figures. Take a photo of a ball bouncing at the bottom of its bounce and guess what? It looks like it is sitting still on the ground. The same principle applies to these stats. Required deposits are much higher than normal due to the current economic climate - this will settle down in due course. Property prices are relatively too high because of irresponsible lending - this will also settle down in due course (price reductions or inflation - take your pick). In 5 years time it will all be back to normal. Lies Damned Lies And Statistics
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Posted Date: Wednesday 21st September 2011
The NAEA (from personal experience) is bloody useless. I got a reprimand withouth them even talking to me for choosing the buyer who offered the most money. I was fair to everyone and looked after the vendor - which I believe is my job. Not once did they phone me. I quit. I am trying to join the RICS but that is proving to be harder than I expected. Way harder than the NAEA. Of course, so it should be as it is a much more professional organisation. And that in the end is my point. If we are going to go for a professional registration/ licensing scheme I would very much prefer it to be with a hard to get in to top flight group like the RICS than the NAEA. The NAEA brand is strong but it has obviously been horrendously mismanaged in the last decade or so.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 21st September 2011
What Tony says has a lot of merit. People worry about the sustainabilty at point of purchase and then never give it a thought after. The point about the boiler is particularly important. How many of you have a simple thermostat in your hallway? Most of you I'd guess. The simplest way of saving money on gas bills without paying out for a supposedly efficient new boiler is to get a fully programmable stat that will take a temperature target for 6 different points of the day and run the boiler to meet those temperatures, rather than off for hours, then at full power to catch up, then back off again. The stat will cost you £100 and pay for itself in 3-4 months during the winter. And your house is always just right, rather than too cold, too hot, too cold, too hot and then finally just right. My friend, a gas man, says that people always go for the lowest quote and trying to explain that to them up front means he will nearly always looses the job. It's the same as telling a vendor that you can save them money in the long run by paying a higher fee - they just don't believe you...
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Posted Date: Monday 26th September 2011
Hi Brian Sorry, I was trying to be a bit sarcastic and ironic at the same time - looks like I failed. I am one of those BTL landlord estate agents that everyone thinks is holding valuations high to protect my investment. However, I have owned the portfolio since well before this current bubble started and would dearly love to buy some more, but there is no value in it. Inflation nearly 5% Rental yields only 5% Net return on investment = 0% With the worry that the value of my new investment could drop off a cliff. The cheapest property "Purchase" that I have is a little one bedroom flat in Stoke Newington that was left over from a pub conversion I did in the mid 90's. I couldn't sell it then because the market wasn't good enough. I only wanted £40k for it. It was the profit margin from the deal and "cost" me £9,000 when I bought it off myself. It has to be worth £250k now and I get £1k per month in rent. I was cursing my bad luck at the time, but think how lucky I am now. The interesting thing is the rental yield. I first rented it out for £450pcm or a 13.5% yield. Now it is worth(???) £250k and gets £950pcm or 4.56%. Admittedly you have the relative change in base rates over the time (ignoring current 0.5% which is an anomoly) but even so... The ROI on property in London is very, very poor. And consider, however genteel Hackney is supposed to be getting, it is still Hackney. Either property prices have to come down or rents have to go up. Or a bit of both. But the nature of a bubble is that it keeps going until it goes POP!
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Posted Date: Wednesday 28th September 2011
There is a huge disconnect between what agents are and what the general public think/ want us to be. We are NOT considered to be professionals. None of us. The general public view us as a (un?)necessary evil. That is why some of the non-agency comments her can be so vitriolic. Sometimes I feel like Jack Nicholson in "A Few Good Men". Me: You want answers? Owner: I want the truth! Me: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be sold by men with mobile phones. Who's gonna do it? You? Your solicitor? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Rightmove and you curse Findaproperty. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that the NAEAs death, while tragic, probably saved sales. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves sales...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me selling property. You need me selling property. We use words like valuation, contract, sole agency... we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up phone and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to! Owner: Did you order the exchange? Me: (quietly) I did the job you sent me to do. Owner: Did you order the exchange? Me: You're goddamn right I did!!
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Posted Date: Wednesday 5th October 2011
99 times out of 100 it is a d*ckhead vendor (who is often a buyer as well). I was recently involved in a chain of 6 properties which started with a flat in a posh bit of London for £450k, had a mid-sized house worth £700k, me at £950k, a house at £1.1m and then back down in two steps to £500k. Initially all of the owners were ultra flexible. As we got to exchange the owner of the little flat said "This day and NO other, or I withdraw". I organised holiday cancellations, changed removal van arrivals (on a £950k house let me tell you that's not just one man & his van), etcetera, etcetera. Then, the day before exchange, the same person, in a two bedroom flat turn round and wanted it two days later. "If I don't get my date, the deal is off." There are words to describe people like this. The stress levels were off the chart. The worst thing is that they got their way, which just reinforces such horrendous behaviour. I just wish that someone had told them to just Eff Off. But then I got paid, so I suppose I mustn't grumble.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 5th October 2011
My name is Bond. Basildon Bond. Got to love it. Spooks is a great show and Bushells have managed to get themselves on TV without being interviewed as grubby estate agents. Can I be in the next episode? I could be the out of work drunken bum sitting on a street corner...
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Posted Date: Wednesday 5th October 2011
We use PPL who have been doing it for ages too. Move along, nothing to see here.
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Posted Date: Friday 7th October 2011
I haven't worked for Spicy Faart, but have a couple of friends that do or have. I know, shocking! An agent with friends...? Whatever next? But one gets on really well there, the other absolutely hated it. All the things that they are accused of appear to be commonplace as far as they tell me. I don't like them much because they have nicked half of my branch name by calling themselves "Fine" but no doubt the court will sort that out for me in February. All of a sudden Countrywide don't look so bad!
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Posted Date: Friday 7th October 2011
Resistance is futile. RM is a bit like The Borg - I actually watched an episode the other day Star Trek TNG - go Jean-Luc. It is inevitable that someone will come up with an eBay for properties. RM would be mad to let it be someone else. Think Sony Walkman and Apple iPod. Sony had a massive lead in personal entertainment and because they rested on their laurels an upstart nicked their whole market. If RM are clever, they have already designed the system and are just waiting for a launch date.
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Posted Date: Monday 10th October 2011
Made me snigger this one did. I think I understand the term "schadenfreude" now. Why any agent could get the price this wrong is beyond me. £1250 per square foot is a MASSIVE price, but if local prices were going up then he might have seen this price by now. But prices started to come down. I have sold a flat quite recently that is about the same size as this (different area though). It got £550k. A smaller house in the same development got £675k. Context is all important.
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Posted Date: Monday 10th October 2011
£26.66 per gnome. They probably cost less to buy. Vacant possession is exactly that though. And as a new house owner, why should he have to pay for them to be removed. That said of course, what a complete ass. I have dealt with people like this over 20 years of being an agent. My particular favorite was a vendor that demanded money for his 10 year old ratty carpets. The buyer said no thanks. The owner then said he'd leave them. The buyer said no thanks. On the day of completion the carpets were, of course, still there. The buyer refused to complete until they were gone. It cost the owner over £1500. That'll learn him to be greedy.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 12th October 2011
Yawn! Current completed transaction levels near me appear to be between a quarter and a third of normal. One house at a low or high price can really skew the figures.
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Posted Date: Friday 14th October 2011
The maths is simple and the outcome is inevitable. From the RICS an average branch has 68.9 properties on the market (a couple of days ago). That means that of your £500-£600 subscription (yes I know prices vary but I needed a figure so bear with me). RM earn £8.69 per property per month or just over £26 for a 3 month contract. Imagine if they could do the EPC directly, the conveyancing, the mortgage and the sale. They would then earn a HUGE amount more per vendor. Yes, their cost will go up, but not by that much. But they will put themselves (Countrywide) out of business I hear you say. No, it will evolve. And it is better to be in control of that evolution that have someone force it on you. Think Sony Walkman and Apple iPod. Spicerhaart & Tesco. Rightmove & Sainsburys? It will happen, make no mistake. 10 years from now there will 2-3 agents per high street and 2-3 major online players. Rightmove is the first point of contact for most buyers. Most buyers are also sellers. This is going to be VERY painful for most of us. And yes, RM will deny that they would ever let down their agents but PLCs lie, we all know that.
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Posted Date: Friday 14th October 2011
A cracking idea doomed to failure. The psychology of the average vendor / buyer will make this fail. They won't even pay for a good (I stress the word good) agent to do a good (ditto) job for them. The practicalities of the successful sellers paying the fees for all the unsuccessful ones means that any home owner that sells is paying 4 times as much as they should. We have a completely screwed up way of charging because of the "no sale, no fee" basis of agency. Putting a house on the market costs an agent about £250. Doing viewings about the same. Advertising - ditto. If all owners paid a chunk up front that would mean we could charge successful sellers MUCH less. But they don't want it. Likewise they won't want this either.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 30th November 2011
Marketing and PR spin. It had no effect at all on my local market, and will have no affect when it goes. Complete waste of time and money, as is this new bloody initiative. Will probably cost more to administrate than provide money to buyers.
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Posted Date: Monday 5th December 2011
See, it's not the agents' fault... Try and talk reality to vendors like these and they promptly instruct the next liar agent through their door. Ask a vendor "Do you want the truth?" and they will of course say yes. When you tell them the truth they promptly use the agent that works out what they want to hear... How I just love my job right now!
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Posted Date: Monday 5th December 2011
Guys, guys You do not need another review site. Do you really want to up your profile with customer reviews. Here is some SEO advice. 1. Google Places - don't know what it is? Type "places" into Google and have a look. Register your business, take ownership and fill in the details - apart from anything else when people use Android Sat Nav on their smartphones it will help. 2. Get Testimonials from clients. 3. Create page on website with the words "testimonial from Mrs Smith, SuchAndSuch Road, AnyTown". The search engines love that and look for it on purpose. 4. Get clients to put testimonials on review section of Google Places. 5. Ditto Facebook 6. Ditto Twitter Downsides - people can say some very nasty things for very little reason. Be prepared to deal with it promptly and make sure that you can turn every negative into a positive. This takes a lot of work and is almost worth hiring a specific member of staff... Yes, I know the cost is difficult to justify at the moment. Maybe outsource. These guys do it for us at the moment: www.xmkt.co.uk.
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Posted Date: Monday 5th December 2011
PeeBee, FBA & Trevor The "client" is the one who pays the bill, usually the vendor. Your duty is to the client. BUT, if the client is foolish with their expectations then an agent can reserve the right to refuse those instructions. The problem is that those targets keep forcing us to do things we shouldn't. An old boss of mine was very clever, the only target he set was banking. We knew the average sale value and fall through rate, but in the end the thing that mattered was CASH. No KPIs for telephone calls, mortgage leads, viewings etc. Kept it simple and achieved results. It also meant that I didn't waste hours per week collating figures (which I did at Sequence).
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Posted Date: Monday 5th December 2011
I think reviews are very important because the differential between agents is almost impossible to discern at valuation - all us agents offer the same things. If I want to buy a new TV, I go and look for reviews of that TV. If I am on Amazon, buying a new hard disk drive for my tired old PC, I will ALWAYS look at the reviews. I think that estate agents would gain hugely from reviews, but the damage that one bad review could do is enormous. Consider iSold.com and Tesco's - a very brave union if you ask me. if iSold irritate one of Tesco's customers then that customer will go to Sainsburys (or ALDI or LIDL or whatever) and go round bad-mouthing them to all and sundry. One sale worth £100 to Tescos is not worth losing years and years of weekly shops. So reviews listed publicly are definitely a double edged sword, but remember if you can convert that complaint into a satisfied customer you will often get an evangelical supporter. It depends on how you set it up and whether or not you pay the whole thing lip service (it will come back and bite you on the arse) or really commit to it (where it will pay dividends).
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Posted Date: Monday 5th December 2011
PeeBee - absolutely agree about income vs expenditure, but my point about targets stands quite well in an organisation that is "in touch" with itself. Forgive the arm waving terminology, but using targets to replace quality leadership is a route to disaster. If a member of staff needs training, then a good manager will know that because (s)he is taking notice of their daily behaviours, not looking at KPIs. I have had several bosses that hide behind KPIs rather than actually just get to know their staff. A poor manager can become an average manager using KPIs, but will never come close to a real, proper manager. I think that most corporate companies and a lot of independent agencies fall into this trap. The best thing about my old boss was that everyone wanted to work there and wanted to do their best. Not because of KPIs or because they were told to, but because he was an amazing boss. Everyone gave 100% all of the time. (Sounds a bit like a bromance...)
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Posted Date: Monday 5th December 2011
Darren - I agree, but the main problem I have with it is either they spend a fortune getting the public to know who they are or they take years at it instead. They will not be able to spend the money and I don't have years. I just think better routes to achieve the same thing are available. My other one at the moment is web designers trying to get me to have a website that I can change with news articles and stuff myself.Who is ever going to look at my website for specific content just from me that week. If you are going to do it, use Facebook or Twitter and then embed those into your site. Cheaper, achieves the same result and your customers are already using it for other things. It's like having your own app! A buyer is looking in my area - will they download the Rightmove app, or one from every single agent? Yet every agent in my area either has one or is considering it at huge cost - mental!
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Posted Date: Monday 5th December 2011
No it doesn't PeeBee, no it doesn't. I am sure that there are other bosses out there that are worth working for, but I have met very few over time. I would love to be that type of boss myself, but have a nasty feeling that I probably don't measure up. The problem is that I have never yet felt the urge to put any of my own money on the line to run my own business. The rewards are there for sure, but so are the pitfalls (like now for instance). Maybe I will wait till this is all over and think about being that inspirational business leader I have always wanted to be.
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Posted Date: Friday 9th December 2011
So, you are on the internet already and can see a QR code. Whatcha gonna do next? Whip out your iPhone and snap the QR code to look at it on a much smaller screen? Absolutely effing mental... As far as I can see they are useless, except perhaps on boards but Mr G from Kremer (who I know quite well) and his serious plug below is utterly shameless. Walking past a board and wanting to know more about that property is probably very handy, but the individual cost of personalising each board is massive. And I certainly wouldn't want my board man doing it in case he got the wrong QR code on the wrong flat - Property Mis-Description here we go...
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Posted Date: Wednesday 14th December 2011
Pride comes before the fall... Olympics over, the shine will fade from the Greater London market and prices will correct sharply. Central London will do well whilst the exchange rates are as favorable as they are and the UK remains as a general safe haven for foreign investors. I am an agent within the M25 by the way before the flame wars begin...
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Posted Date: Wednesday 14th December 2011
Like - derrr! No surprise there then. Stupid, ill conceived government led scheme results in unintended consequences... Who could ever have foreseen that?
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Posted Date: Friday 16th December 2011
No surprise there then. Do I hear "doom, doom" from the HPCers?
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Posted Date: Friday 16th December 2011
Since when has it been called the Christmas Pudding effect? I tend to find that Christmas Pudding makes me feel fat, uncomfortable and windy (or is that the sprouts...?). The "Christmas Slowdown" as I have always know it seemed to start in October this year, with a couple of random, unexpected but very welcome good weeks in late November. Oh well, not to worry, works Christmas do tonight - thick head in the morning
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Posted Date: Friday 16th December 2011
Good point Hants EA. I have been slated several times for pointing out: 1. Prices are falling 2. Prices should fall 3. Property "Values" are way off what they should be. A bit of common sense makes this obvious (to me at least) and for the world to return to normal (ie before 2003 when this property bubble began) real terms values have to fall. This will be a mix of inflation and price falls.
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Posted Date: Monday 19th December 2011
PoTW - you have a very good point. I don't think it will be PIP though. One day (probably sooner than most would guess) I think RM will decide that £100 per house is better than £450 per month per estate agent. They have the idea of linked sales down pat - they'll get you for the mortgage and the solicitors too. Need an EPC? What about photos and a floorplan? Posh house? How about virtual tours? Want someone to do the viewings for you? What about sales progression? All of a sudden, I think that the race to the bottom will have been won and the service will be brilliant (even though the price will be low). A bit like Tesco & Sainsbury. I would hazard a guess that 50% of all agents will go out of business. Think I am mad? Think I am wrong? Ask Sony (Walkman) what they think of Apple (iPod)... It is better to own the new business that kills your old business rather than let someone else do it and end up with nothing.
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Posted Date: Monday 19th December 2011
Spot on Chas, inflation will sort this out in a few years. Now, the next comment might sound both off topic and a bit weird, but stick with it... It is after all the way the Germans dealt with the cost of the 1st World War. After they lost, the Allies handed them the bill in German Marks. On purpose, the Germans went through a period of hyper-inflation and the bill essentially vanished. Naughty war mongering Germans = Dodgy bankers & stupid politicians? (BTW - I have nothing against Germans as such, it is just a good example of Harsh Economic Realities). Mind you it reminds me of that old football chant.....!
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Posted Date: Monday 19th December 2011
To EVERYONE It is too late - do you honestly think that with their enormous stock value and HUGE cash reserves that Rightmove would bat an eyelid if every single agent walked out tomorrow? Seriously...? All it would do is give them the perfect opportunity to launch their new online estate agency. Rightmove are a very clever organisation and they must be planning for this. I would, and I am only a little bit clever (I just don't have any money...) Resistance is futile - it is already too late - as Mr Grumpy says The writing has been on the wall big and large for some time, its just we are too stupid to read it.
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Posted Date: Monday 19th December 2011
To the man with no name Dave is right, although I understand he has an agenda. I am an agent. I have been stating for years that prices are too high. On holiday in Spain in 2007, about to open my very own estate agency I thought "Maybe not..." then the Northern Rock went. A very lucky escape if you ask me. Prices are too high, fueled by irresponsible lending. Unsustainably high - something has to change. That is undisputed by anyone who is not an agent as far as I can tell (and me of course). Prices have remained relatively static and the government appear to be playing instead with the VALUE of money, which has the same effect in the end. But we need wage increases, which for very obvious reasons are unlikely for the next few years.
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Posted Date: Monday 19th December 2011
Hi Tony I was going to give you a long technical lecture on the merits of house prices measured against earnings but ended up thinking "Why bother"... Yes you could pick another number, but that would be randomly picking a number. Yes each are of the country is different so some will be 15% and others 40%. In the end though it is REAL affordability that counts. If in town A the average salary is £25k and you get a new couple wanting to buy a little house then the should be looking to pay £150-£200k. I am in Epsom, so average wages are higher, but not that much higher. A one bed flat will cost you £180-190k. Three bed houses start at £275k for a pretty ropey specimen. 30% off would be about £75k off which would bring it all in line. Just experience and common sense in the end.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 18th January 2012
Might I suggest that this game is a little bit more fun: http://www.verydodgy.com/downloads/flash/pingu.html It involves polar bears, penguins and spiked baseball bats. It is not in the slightest bit PC and almost certainly will get you fired if your boss spots you playing. Maybe if we change the penguin to Harry Hill?
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Posted Date: Wednesday 18th January 2012
Oh, BTW.... They have one branch that turned in some good numbers as far as I can tell. The rest haemorrhaged money (also as far as I can tell). But since they are biggybacking on existing Haart offices I suppose their "20 offices" is more like "little corners and a couple of window cards of 20 offices" The idea of catering to the upper quartile is sensible, but it takes time and a lot of money.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 18th January 2012
BTW I have a surveyor friend who explained the whole panel deal to me. Bank or BSoc charges purchaser £600 for survey and take their cut. Panel charge £200 to "manage" it - i.e. send an email or two (seriously not kidding). Surveyor lucky to see £250 inc VAT, less that half of the total, and takes all of the risk, etcetera associated with it. Oh, of course he also has to pay an annual registration fee to be on the panel too and comply with their service level agreement too. I feel very sorry for both proper solicitors (not conveyancers) and surveyors at the moment
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Posted Date: Wednesday 25th January 2012
Compared to 2006 where it was 1,669,000. That's 53% of the 2006 figure, so you could say that just under half of the buying public either couldn't or wouldn't... The interesting thing about this stat is that in the South East, London is doing very well, in the North of England there are more forced sales that in the South and where I work it would appear that transaction levels are about a third of normal.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 25th January 2012
Sorry everyone, feeling a bit sarcastic this morning
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Posted Date: Friday 27th January 2012
@HD bit like petrol duty. We all complain about the cost at the pump, but for every £1 you pay HMRC get most of it. BP (or equivalent) have to find it, get it out of the ground, transport it, refine it, transport it again and pay for the forecourt, lighting insurance & wages. They make a profit on the 17pence the government leaves them after fuel duty and VAT. On a price of £1.42 per litre for diesel the petrol company will make about 2p profit per litre. That's why they all have expensive shops in them - that's how they actually make a profit - because you'll pay 20% more than you should for a Mars Bar. Bloody Government - let's string 'em up! ;-)
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Posted Date: Friday 27th January 2012
Probably to pay off all of those monstrous PayDay loans being charged at Several Million Percent. STOP BORROWING MONEY You would have thought by now that the penny might have dropped. For God's sake, just stop it. I'll admit that there is little point saving though.
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Posted Date: Friday 3rd February 2012
Yay! I'm soooo happy! :-D That's going to make ALL the difference. Wooo Hooo
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Posted Date: Friday 3rd February 2012
THE VERY BEST REVIEW SITES ARE: 1. Google Maps - get your business listed on Google Places and ask you (happy) customers to leave you a review - SERIOUSLY - this is MASSIVE - if you want to get to the top of the list on a Google Search........... 2. Facebook - nuff said, but still not sure that my customers are Facebook users, mind you their kids are... 3. Twitter - ditto 4. Testimonials Page - search engines love it Great Company called XMKT - the internet by designed is helping us with ours. www.xmkt.co.uk - their great
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Posted Date: Friday 3rd February 2012
Spell check for god's sake, spell check www.xmkt.co.uk they're great
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Posted Date: Monday 6th February 2012
It's actually worse than this. Very few sales last year fell through because of downvaluations as far as I can tell (in my area at least). What I did see was loads of houses coming on at mental prices, then reductions, then sales then withdrawn. Checking the land registry, the properties never sold. I am guessing that this is because at the correct price (ie non-wish price) it sold, but then left the owners with insufficient equity to get a mortgage on the next house. And of course there weren't enough next houses to buy either. One of my competitors works on the basis of high volume and low fees and from what I could see, at least 60-70% of all of the properties his company took on the market failed to complete. That must have cost him a fortune. Even worse though, loads of people must have spent fortunes on surveys and solicitors. Ouch all round
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Posted Date: Wednesday 8th February 2012
I would suggest either: 1. 3 x Single Salary 2. 2.5 x Joint Salary 10% minimum deposit. Just call me Prudence!
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Posted Date: Wednesday 8th February 2012
Isn't this the same that happened to surveyors? Starts with a panel company that stands between bank and surveyor. Ends up with bank using panels exclusively and the surveyor doing the job for tuppence ha-penny. In the end the client ends up with a survey that is legally unenforceable, the panel company ends up with the best profit margin and the bank is able to say "nothing to do with us". I feel very sorry for high street solicitors because their business model is disappearing rapidly.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 8th February 2012
BTW 3 is an arbitrary figure that I used from personal experience when I bought my first house in 1995. Any sensible figure could be placed her 2, 3, 4... As long as it is sensible for Mr & Mrs Average. And yes of course averages don't work countrywide, but it is certainly a good place to start.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 15th February 2012
Only have one sale myself where this is important. Agent friend of mine didn't even know anything about it in the first place... I suppose though it depends on the area you work in. Mind you average sale price round here over the last 5 years has been in the region of £325,000...
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Posted Date: Wednesday 15th February 2012
I LOVE a good flame war on EAT. I am in a good mood as I have just exchanged a house that I agreed the sale on exactly 366 days ago. Yaaaaay! As one Mr. "Neo" Anderson once said "The problem is choice..." Both @Anon and @IO have good points. As far as Mr & Mrs General Public are concerned, all estate agents ARE the same. Why? Because Rightmove & FAP makes us all look the same. Vendors all know that we take photos, write up a crap description, pop it on the interweb & cross our fingers. The difference is the staff who answer the phones when someone calls in. But how do I prove this to a vendor when I am doing a valuation. Worse still, they all agree with you but then still instruct the cheapest agent with the highest price. One local agent here even has a member of staff whose main job is to keep vendors happy with a weekly call which involves getting their price down. It works because he has nearly 200 properties on the market at any one time, many overpriced on purpose to snag the instruction. He is also the agent that will take it on at any fee regardless. That said he is also the number 1 agent in the town by miles and miles - in 2006/ 2007 he put well over £1million in the bank. It works ladies and gents, it WORKS. Mind you I think it is a horrid way to do business.
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Posted Date: Friday 17th February 2012
When is a sale not a sale? When it's some new fangled auction thingy? Is this helping anyone? I mean really helping them, as opposed to coating a fiddle in PR gloss.
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Posted Date: Friday 17th February 2012
I have always thought that complaining about stamp duty is the equivalent of owning a Rolls Royce and complaining about the cost of petrol... Apart from anything else, I do not know of one person who has decided to buy or not based on this temporary stamp duty holiday. I don't think it will make the slightest bit of difference considering that deposit requirements and mortgage application fees are as high as they are.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 22nd February 2012
Websites are protected from issues of libel as long as the comments made do not belong to them AND they do not edit them in any way. As soon as they edit or delete comments, they are potentially responsible for all comments made on the site and liable for libel charges. Consider EAT here and the fact that some comments do get removed, but only in extreme circumstances. SO... If a bad/ fake review is put up on AllAgents, it is unlikely to get removed without a court order, because their business model cannot afford to take the risk. Big Smile
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Posted Date: Wednesday 14th March 2012
In my town, every sales agent is now a lettings agent. In 2007 there were 3 agents doing lettings properly - now there are closer to 13... You cannot become a "good" lettings agent who has the depth of experience to deal with the trickier side of lettings in such a short time, especially when you are trying to prop up a loss making sales operation. Hiring someone who can put ARLA after their name or joining TPO, NALS or SAFEagent doesn't suddenly make you good. But you pays your fees and cross your fingers. Then everyone is competing and slashing fees because some business is better than no business. Then, all of a sudden, the landlords are rubbing their hands saying "Woo Hoo, we saved money" and then losing money or unprotected because of the ineptitude of the agent. Or the tenant who says "Woo Hoo, no referencing fees, we saved money" and then getting really bad service which leaves them out of pocket or unprotected. I did a valuation the other day and lost it to another agent for 4% let only on the first 6 months only with no second term fees. My average let only fee before 2009 was at least double that for the initial length of the tenancy agreement and we usually signed for at least a year. I believe the wolves are eating the canines out there.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 14th March 2012
I met some poor guy this morning who had bought in 2008 just before the market tanked. He bought with a shared ownership scheme and is now in negative equity on a £250,000 flat when he has a mortgage of just £100k. Shared ownership advisor told him when he bought it that the market could never ever go down! Is that Satan I hear, skating to work? Worse still, his mortgage and shared ownership rent is nearly 20% more than he would be paying to rent an identical flat in the same building because although his mortgage rate is cheap as chips, the Housing Association has put up his rent by over £300 per month, which is considerably more than private rental prices have gone up in the meantime. Poor guy and he is a keyworker, one of those that this type of scheme was set up to help.
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Posted Date: Friday 16th March 2012
Actually, the success rate on these things is quite low, but it is worth it for the scammers. If they get 1 positive response out of 1000 emails - which is about as good as we get from sending leaflets through doors (...... wow, thinking about it estate agents do just the same thing ......) then they get an opportunity to earn several thousand pounds. A computer sending out automated emails on a "calls included" telephone bill costs less than £100 to set up (that's a 2nd hand OLD computer - but it's good enough for this). Fantastic return on investment. Certainly a better yield than Buy To Let...
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Posted Date: Friday 16th March 2012
I know that there are lies, damned lies and statistics, but has ANYONE actually looked at the HPI index for their region on the Land Registry website? Surrey (where I am) peaked in 2008, dropped massively and recovered to about 4% below peak value. It bumbles along: up a bit, down a bit, up a bit, down a bit. The banks are STILL screwed, there's no change there, and there are huge numbers of people in arrears and/ or negative equity. When the Olympics have been and gone, the shine on the London market is likely to vanish (certainly all the survey reports I have seen in that area have mentioned the "Olympic Effect"). Europe is still screwed too. It goes to show that 60-65% of the UK population are deluded. Keep smiling ;-)
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Posted Date: Thursday 22nd March 2012
I think this coupled with the end of the Olympics might dull the London property market shine. But it will ripple out to affect the rest of the country. In the North, prices will come down even more. In the South, prices will start to come down. I know that there are a whole load of HPCers that read EAT, but for all your bleating about it being a good thing, I would say we are now too far down the road to suddenly rip the plaster off (mixed metaphors - sorry). If we had gone for immediate devaluation of property that would have been fine, but having struggled for 5 years using high inflation to devalue property, rather than real price falls, this could end up being disastrous. Keep Calm & Carry On - I love that saying.
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Posted Date: Friday 23rd March 2012
Let me be the first to wish @agents are crooks! the very best. Most agents are not crooks, some are good, some indifferent and some awful, but there are very few crooks. I have a feeling that you may also have added a few extra zeros into your figures there too.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 28th March 2012
@Psalm 4 - somehow I doubt that. Mind you, I do hope that Spicy Faart get a thorough kicking in court.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 11th April 2012
I have a feeling this AllAgents thing will probably catch on. Why? Because RM & FAP make us all seem the same. And because their is a (misplaced?) desire for transparency which in the end will mean that the winners are better are covering up bad press. The ONLY type of news is BAD news, people don't want to read about good quality, they just want to avoid bad quality. So if you are a good agent, pricing honestly with sensible fees you will nearly always lose the instruction to the overpricing, undercharging liar agent down the road. Unless they have bad reviews that the public can see, why would you go anywhere else?
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Posted Date: Monday 16th April 2012
@Ray - I wonder if we can persuade Ros to give profiles and posts an "interesting" score. A few websites have it. If it is an interesting post then it becomes bolder. If it is dull or vexatious then it becomes less bold or even hidden (but you can make it visible again by clicking a button).
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Posted Date: Tuesday 17th April 2012
Apparently, if you are clever, you can incorporate your own logo into a QR Code. The contain up to 30% error checking so you can make up to 30% of the "dots" incorrect and it still takes you to the right place. Advice from XMKTinternet http://www.xmkt.co.uk - we are working on it now.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 25th April 2012
I've been the one sorting this out for where I work. We have got a very simple solution, make it small (but big enough to read). Take the address off? Easy - my EPC guy sends me 3 versions: the full EPC as a PDF, the first page (no address) as a PDF, and the first page (no address) as a JPEG. Takes less than 5 minutes to prepare he tells me. Then I upload the JPEG into my computer software which uploads to the portals as one of the photos for the property and it gets automatically added to my printed details. Compliant on RM and FAP, compliant on paper... Very simple, very straightforward, takes me just a few extra clicks and my DEA just a couple of minutes. Why all this fuss for goodness sakes? Is it just another thing to whinge about because there isn't much else to do?
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Posted Date: Friday 4th May 2012
Properly off topic, but what can you do? In the meantime, Happy Star Wars Day! May the Fourth be with you. Slightly more on topic, I can see that transaction levels in Surrey bear this out. Prices have remained steady, transactions are somewhere between 25% and 33% of normal depending on area. London is buoying up the overall transaction figures. There is a fee war going on which is just MENTAL! Oh and every sales agent is now a letting agent. I cry DOOM, but only because this will probably continue for another 5 years... Happy Days
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Posted Date: Friday 4th May 2012
There is one major difference between a JPEG and a PDF. A computer can index a PDF file very easily and quickly. Whilst it is still possible with a JPEG it is far from simple. So, the nasty people who are checking that we are complying with their stupid laws can get a computer to see a PDF file and say "That agent is compliant" whereas if you use a JPEG they will have to read it for themselves. I say that everyone should stop using PDFs straight away because the workload would make the job impossible to cope with. VIVE LA REVOLUTION!
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Posted Date: Friday 4th May 2012
To Gordon Brown I assume that you are not The Gordon Brown, responsible for getting us in this mess in the first place? If you are I'd have you hung, drawn & quartered. And I'd have your mate Tony sent to the Hague for War Crimes. That said my definition of "normal" is average sales volume averaged between 2000 and 2006. By County, not UK wide. Some years were good, some poor, and sales volume remained remarkably constant...
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Posted Date: Friday 4th May 2012
Oooh, look at me, who's in a stroppy mood today.
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Posted Date: Friday 4th May 2012
Death and taxes? The only sure things in life... The big thing missing here is the VALUE of proerty. Prices schmices, they are relatively irrelevant (I quite like that...) The value of the average home has dropped by 9.9% as per article a couple of weeks back. Caused by the effects of inflation.
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Posted Date: Friday 11th May 2012
You know, I hadn't noticed them bowing IN... You can't miss what you never had. Hey ho!
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Posted Date: Monday 14th May 2012
They obviously owned some interesting and under or unused IP (intelectual property) that Zoopla worked out would help give it a boost against Rightmove. The users are important no doubt, but they were probably Zoopla or RM users too. It is possible that the historic data that UMS had is useful for the Zoopla "Values" bit.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 16th May 2012
@Chris Holmes BTW I am assuming from your attitude that you have never, EVER broken even a tiny law. You have never broken the speed limit. You have never allowed you dog to poo on the pavement. You have never been caught short and taken a pee in a bush. You have never been drunk in a pub. You have never broken an egg at the sharp end. You have never eaten a mince pie on Christmas Day. All of these things are currently illegal under British Law. Careful how you respond, you could end up at Her Majesty's pleasure. I have to say that that was a lot of fun!
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