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Mr P

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The value of a house with a low EPC rating would be lower than one with a good EPC rating as it would most likely be an unmodernised house and priced to represent the cost of the work required to modernise it! Linking mortgage interest rates to EPC ratings is never going to happen and if it did then happy days as cash buyers would clean up!

From: Mr P 05 January 2022 08:30 AM

A VERY small price to pay and a brilliant way to put off the nosy neighbours, tyre kickers and time wasters. Give the £5 back if they buy the property and put the rest towards the sellers commission bill and you are on to a winner. Not sure cash only is going to be easy to account for but overall not a bad idea....

From: Mr P 10 June 2021 15:58 PM

Interesting article. Information is key to decision making but what the inexperienced buyers generally don’t understand is that to get accurate lease terms, service charge details, rising ground rent info etc essentially anything ACCURATE that can be relied upon you need a management pack from the freeholder/managing agent and a solicitor would need to report on the lease, conditions etc. Info like service charges can fluctuate over time so if it takes 6 months to sell the second round of management info and charges can easily have changed and so the original info is misleading?. It’s all well and good trying to streamline these processes but it’s never that simple. The issue with buying and selling isn’t the miss information it’s the buyers/sellers/agents ability to communicate and understand the process. In addition the time it takes for information to be obtained (searches,surveys, management info). The time it takes solicitors to process a sale is one of the greatest challenges and should be addressed. For example we buy properties using cash and can generally exchange within 7 days. Introduce a buyer in a chain needing a mortgage and it takes months, throw in a lease and it takes even longer! Why? Because solicitors act for lenders not buyers and offer appoint their own solicitor to second check the files, management companies won’t provide info until they are paid and take forever to turn info around, search providers are hit and miss but essentially are churning out repetitive info that probably could be streamlined and solicitors who always seem to like to have the final say are more mindful of covering the ***** than giving a buyer good advice. Paperwork well that’s another topic sending a contract to a buyer to sign and insisting they have the original back before exchanging, well we never sign the contract our solicitor does it for us this saves days alongside many other things that can be done to save time and money that most people don’t know about. So comes back to education and the need an experienced agent )perhaps qualified) holding the hand of buyers and sellers through a difficult process. How does everyone feel about the online agents who take an upfront fee, don’t do the viewings never see the property or meet the buyers or seller and essentially just take a few and leave everything to chance?

From: Mr P 21 April 2021 09:15 AM

Absolutely right....“One major problem with the stamp duty holiday is that it has created an artificial bubble that has seen house prices rise by 8.5 per cent." This is the major problem, its created a false market and in addition the surge has encouraged other buyers to join the masses for fear of not being able to afford to buy. The SDLT holiday should end on the 31st March and that should be the end of it, the market will slow immediately after the holiday, prices will level off and are likely to start to fall and everyone who has purchased in the last 12 months will be in negative equity and may find themselves struggling to refinance in the next few years, especially those on 2 year fixed rates. In addition the cost of this holiday will be increase taxes, GCT, Corp tax etc so no benefit to anyone in the long term.

From: Mr P 25 February 2021 10:02 AM

£7226 spent on shares as an employee. I had hoped the share price would improve and one day and at least realise some of the cash spent. Today’s value £101.76! Thanks Alison Platt not only did you screw up business when you were there but 5 years on your still screwing us!

From: Mr P 15 February 2021 17:13 PM

Probably for the best. Staff should be reassured that they will finally have a management team who know what they are doing leading them.

From: Mr P 31 December 2020 08:53 AM

Interesting how countrywide are only focusing on promoting the Hamptons brand. What about all their other brands, aren’t they good enough? Is this a case of investing in the brand that operates within the market with the highest property values. Surely they would be better advertising the brand ‘Countrywide’ so all offices benefit whilst at the same time increasing brand awareness? After all how many potential punters out there know that despite closing a ton of offices Countrywide still have offices on pretty much every major city and town in the Uk.

From: Mr P 24 December 2020 08:42 AM

How can anyone be surprised by this. How else do governments claw back the enormous cost of Covid? Tax rises are coming in every sector. We need to get used to it.

From: Mr P 21 December 2020 23:00 PM

The property market is out of sync with the rest of the economy. We are in the biggest recession in 300 years, the stamp duty holiday has created a false market for home owners and house movers who appear to be blind to the issues in the economy and will undoubtedly regret buying over the last 6-9 months when the market crashes. Extending the SDLT holiday creates false hope and the Gov are right not to extend it.

From: Mr P 17 December 2020 14:43 PM

This issue can be viewed from many angles. The majority of agents overvalue to win business and everyone knows that, but then unsuspecting buyers get caught up in what is often an emotional process agree to buy at the inflated price. In the eyes of the seller the agent has delivered. In the eyes of a professional (the surveyor) the buyer has overpaid and they down value to protect the buyer and the lender. In the instances where there are multiple buyers chasing a property, again the agent has delivered but the price isn’t market value having been pushed up by multiple bids and so the surveyor down values to protect buyer and lender. The issue where surveyors are down valuing properties because they are fearful of what may or may it happen in the future simply isn’t ethical and valuations need to be based on the current market conditions not future predictions. At the end of the day no one can predict the future so surveyors should not be liable for future price changes. This is only an issue where buyers buy with small deposits and short term mortgages. If after 2 years the value has dropped and they can’t refinance because they don’t have equity then the fault is with the lender for agreeing to give them a mortgage with a small deposit not the fault of the buyer or surveyors for not predicting what might happen! As a developer we have been enormously frustrated by down valuations this year. £30/40k drops per transaction adds up to huge sums and wipes out hard earned profit. The time to get sales through to completion this year has also been frustrating and in general once a surveyor has issued an incorrect valuation getting it turned around is like getting blood from a stone, after all they are the professionals and don’t want to admit getting it wrong. Also to put it out there, get a grumpy surveyor on a bad day and you know what’s going to happen! The phrase a property is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it simply isn’t true a property is worth at least what the last person paid for a similar property. If that comparable hasn’t completed the surveyors don’t consider it. I know agents work hard to show surveyors comparables of what they have under offer and at what price they have been agreed or even valued up but surveyors do not take the under offer stock into consideration and the big issue at the moment is that the land registry backlog means sold prices are slow to appear in the land registry and in turn the property portals that display house prices. I believe there is a lot of work that needs to be done to regulate agents who over value and/or drop fees to win business. I believe the ombudsman expects valuations to be carried out using comparables, if these were solid evidence used in the original valuation and buyers weren’t made to compete to secure properties the there would be no need for down valuations and maybe the agents valuation should be give to the surveyor? Needless to say, property valuations need to have a set format that is made clear to all parties. Surveyors and agents should use exactly the same format which must not include predicted conditions and be current. That way down valuations will be a thing of the past and agents will win instructions based on their merits rather than sellers decisions being based on price and fee and there will be no down valuations unless there are underlying issues with the property that are identified by the surveyor and can be justified.

From: Mr P 15 December 2020 10:54 AM

So Connells have upped their offer by 30%. Let them have it! Countrywide management team over the past 8 years has been a joke. I cannot comprehend why bringing directors in who have no understanding of the core business makes sense. Everyone complained about the likes of Alison Platt and look where they are now! The business has been driven into the ground and i feel sorry for the staff on the ground having to deal with this. I was an employee for 15 years and glad to be out and regret the time i wasted there and the wasted £5000 I invested in buying Countrywide shares over a 3 year period which are now worth a mere £81 or £85 if the deal goes through.

From: Mr P 09 December 2020 16:13 PM

This is wrong. An investor buying 2 properties whether £1m or 2m each would be subject to the surcharge on both properties (assuming that as an investor they already own propert if not the second one would be subject to the higher rate). For an existing property owner or investment company SDLT on £1M would be £73750 not £43750 and on £2M £213750 not £153,750.. granted there is a saving if buying 2 properties each at £1m but it is a lot more than covered in this article.

From: Mr P 04 March 2020 17:47 PM

Small price to pay to secure a property and prove your not a time waster.

From: Mr P 01 November 2019 08:58 AM

So the recent article posted a week or so ago on EAT said High Street agents have a massive 97.2 per cent market share. Purple bricks have 76% of the remaining 2.8% so scraping the barrel with around 2% market share. Refreshing that only 2.8% of the public are blinded by the thought of saving a few quid on fees. I thought it would be more so at least more people can see the value of agents (real agents that is), the true salesmen & women who proactively handle the sale, understand their buyers needs and can extract the best price for their clients rather than the onliners who just flop it online and waiting for the online viewing requests to come in.

From: Mr P 03 July 2019 18:25 PM

You're joking. When the sales staff agree a sale it's then passed over to a bunch of non estate agent admin staff who then track milestone events and essentially tick boxes. I know this because I'm involved with a number of transactions being dealt with this way. The sales staff aren't even allowed to call the sales progressors for updates its email only! so getting an update or a sale through to exchange is like pulling teeth. Sales staff should progress their own sales and it should be seen that the sales guys are the ONLY ones actually motivated to get the sales through to completion so they can earn their commissions.

From: Mr P 12 June 2019 10:45 AM

“The CMA is writing to companies across the sector – including developers, lenders and freeholders – requiring information to understand more about how leaseholds are sold and managed, and the terms their contracts contain”. Interesting it’s almost as if they believe that developers and freeholders write their own leases! This witch hunt should be directed at solicitors who write the leases and then advise buyers and lenders on the same leases. Seems like the CMA are barking up the wrong tree on this one!

From: Mr P 11 June 2019 14:25 PM

Up until recently I have been a staunch supporter of traditional estate agents, I was one for many years and had always been anti online agents, with the opinion that their cheap fees and low service levels ie sellers doing virtually everything them selves and the agents putting it online and then sitting back and waiting for enquires. However having been out of the EA business for a few years and now buying and selling as a developer I can see that there is very little difference between the high st and online models. Bearing in mind I’m registered with at least 500 high st agents across London and the Home Counties I get maybe 5 calls a week from agents, mostly about properties that don’t match my criteria, in addition I get 1000’s of emails from agents who are simple sending me everything on their books repeatedly. Therefore I might as well look online my self as at least I can filter the results. This approach drives me insane given my 15 years experience as an agent, it’s a scatter gun approach, devoid of all skill and makes the high st agents no better than the online agents with the exception that they are considerably more expensive than the onliners. In my opinion it’s nice to be able to walk into an office and speak to someone but at the end of the day it’s the agents ability to sell that counts, and I never thought I’d say it but high Street agents are no better than the online agents now and they should be the ones reducing their fees not the other way round.

From: Mr P 23 January 2019 07:48 AM

Buy a £2M property and pay £213k to HMRC! This is the problem. For a developer where is that money made up? Get the seller to drop £200k or add the cost to the new dwellings and make the first time buyers pay? Someone has to pay it somewhere along the line. So when everyone is scratching their heads wondering why the market is slowing and why buyers can’t get on the ladder all you have to do is look at the bigger picture. Here’s an idea change UK residents (who already pay enough tax when your alive and dead) a standard rate and charge ALL overseas buyers the higher rate. If you want more homes for more buyers then make it financially easier for all involved as ultimately it’s the sellers who suffer followed by the buyers while HMRC fill their pockets.

From: Mr P 19 October 2018 07:57 AM

Got to blame someone when it doesn’t work out! In my mind there’s only one is and that’s the way STAMP DUTY is set up.

From: Mr P 11 October 2018 08:57 AM

The statement of fact that everyone seems to forget-"So, sure, you save $27,000, but if you could have gotten an extra $50,000 on the sale of your house, you're losing money" he says, citing the argument that traditional agents may be able to secure a higher sale price than an online operator “. True in the UK, Canada, America, Australia and the rest of the world. Oh and the comment of helping negotiate is BS it’s all online, there’s no help the agents aren’t interested once the property has been listed and they don’t qualify offers. I offered on a property in 2016 had a call told them I was cash they said “okay but wouldn’t you like to talk to a mortgage advisor” no thanks I don’t need a mortgage”. 2 years later I’m offering on properties and haven’t heard from them.....Traditional agents are suffering globally because these guys have a business model revolved around undercutting to get the business. What’s the expression pay peanuts get Monkeys! Hey there’s an idea maybe someone should start a business called Purple Monkeys and charge 10% less that PB and take over the PB market share. Oh hang on isn’t there an agency that likes sheep that’s trying to do that! Ewe decide! I’ve said this before an I’ll say it again, if your an idiot and think that paying a cheap fee for a company to just stick it online and wait for a buyer to rock up to view who then has to deal with a seller with no sales skills or an agent who doesn’t care whether it sells or not as THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN PAID! Then good luck to you, but why agents moan about PB and don’t launch their own marketing campaigns and actually explain to the public what the differences are between traditional and online is beyond me! Have a great day 🥜🙈

From: Mr P 23 August 2018 08:57 AM

Countrywide has failed through poor bad management decisions (made mostly by non estate agent/ property professionals) which in turn were followed through by a leadership team (mostly estate agent/property professionals) who did not believe in the management decisions. Alison Platt left 2 years too late, branch staff have been let down massively and consequently left feeling insecure in their jobs, which is hardly the best way to treat your staff and certainly not the best environment to grow a business in. It also doesn't help with all the negative press.

From: Mr P 25 July 2018 11:16 AM

So here comes the rant......PROACTIVE vs REACTIVE. I viewed with a Purple Bricks local property expert a while back, first point to discuss was that he had no agency experience he'd gone from a golf pro to estate agent over night and also didn't live local to the property he was selling or know anything about property or the local area. The sellers had paid for the viewing service as the agent showed me round or at least opened the front door and let me have a look around. Viewed with another Purple Bricks agent a few weeks ago again no interest in the property and just followed me around. When I asked if he had anything similar to this on his books or coming up his response was "were not proactive mate you just need to check online for other properties and book a viewing if your interested". If customers knew about this service they wouldn't pay a penny for it and this is what "real" estate agents need to be highlight to potential customers. Once Purple Bricks have your money for listing the house the literally have no incentive or motivation to do anything at all other than sit back and wait for an email to come in (reactive). High St agents need to up their game, what happened to being called by an agent because a property that suit your requirements is coming up, now not all but most agents mass email properties to their clients regardless of whether the meet their criteria on the hope that they will get it right and get an email back to view. No calls and sometimes a text to call them about a random property (wheres the service). Arguably they are being proactive, but effective, I don't think so? So my view is (real) estate agents need to go back to basics and start selling houses the traditional way and show the potential vendors the value of what they can do. Really show them the difference between proactive and reactive and what impact that can have on the result and the price. Get the right price and the fee is irelevant, do a s**t job an they might as well have paid Purple Bricks for the same outcome.

From: Mr P 02 July 2018 14:07 PM

Unfortunately agents no longer understand the true value of a cash buyer and are to short sighted to see the true benefits. Most would rather over price a property sit on it for 3 months and then lose it to another agent rather than price it correctly and sell it to a cash buyer who can perform quickly exchange and complete in a few weeks. We buy cash and normally exchange in around 5/6 days, yes normally we drive a hard bargain on the purchase price, but at the end of the day the sellers get a fast and guaranteed sale without the need to waste 3-4 months finding a buyer and another 3-4 months for the sale to go through assuming there are no problems with the buyers mortgage or survey! I always find it interesting how we get repeat business from agents who see the benefit of selling to us but only after we have bought from them and they have seen how easy and quick it can be dealing with us!

From: Mr P 30 April 2018 12:29 PM

Cannot dispute the fact that Purple Bricks can save vendors £000’ in fees same applies for other online agents. The bigger picture is being missed as there are no facts to show that they can sell a property for more money or quicker than a “normal” estate agent. The fact remains that if you save £5k on fees but sell for £10k less than you could of using a “normal” estate agent then your worse off selling with Purple Bricks! Having offered on properties marketed through Purple Bricks there is no involvement from the agent it’s left to the seller to decide what to accept, it’s all done online so no personal interaction either, no sales skills so essentially Purple Bricks are not earning their fee in any other way other than to stick it online and the rest is left to you! Furthermore how long does it take them to find a buyer? For most sellers every month a sale takes to complete it costs them a mortgage payment. So when save money on fees you can throw that back on mortgage payments when it takes take longer to sell!

From: Mr P 16 April 2018 15:04 PM

Their recent trading statement states EBITDA for 2017 is expected to be around £65m (2016: £83.5m). If you can pay Platt £675k to leave and still make £65m you can pay your staff bonuses! Yet another example showing how badly this business is run!

From: Mr P 01 February 2018 09:55 AM

I don't normally comment on here but as an ex countrywide manager of 12 years I resigned along with 100's of other senior staff as a result of the changes that were bought in by Platt and her team. The changes she implemented lead to drops in business levels. New policies took decisions out of the hands of experienced managers. The mass office closures & mass redundancies have left staff unhappy and constantly in fear of losing the jobs. The share price and profit warnings say it all. Such a shame, as from day one I loved working for Countrywide, I felt a sense of purpose and was proud to work there, yet in the end I couldn't get out of there fast enough and could never imagine going back. All that remains is the question of what to do with my shares as the value has decreased substantially. Do I get rid of them or buy more on the basis that this company could not get any worse and confidence should return with the departure of Alison Platt.

From: Mr P 23 January 2018 11:39 AM

So many ways to speed up the process- solicitors, surveyors and lenders are all too slow to act. Too many estate agents fail to progress their sales effectively and frankly I’m not surprised given the decline in fees since online agents came about so they probably not motivated either buy the lower commissions. We should adopt the French way where you have 7 days to change your mind after offer is accepted after which point sale is legally binding nd you complete on the agreed date. Standardise fees so that vendors chose n agent on their merits rather than how cheap they are and ensure that agents are qualified to practice. If a legal pack was prepared prior to marketing sellers would be more committed to selling and the solicitors could exchange contracts on receipt of a mortgage offer. That’s how to streamline if you want to make the process cheaper get rid of stamp duty!

From: Mr P 22 October 2017 17:36 PM

Interesting.....Also interesting that so many agents don’t respond to web enquiries through major portals like Zoopla and Rightmove or return calls to view properties. If the information in this article is correct then surely agents would be doing everything they could to make and maintain contact with serious buyers, get properties sold and earn their commission! Unfortunately once you have the agents attention you just get bombarded with emails about unsuitable properties. You can always tell when the agent has nothing to do as they send you 50 emails one after the other with their entire property stock. I even had a text from a well know agent (C&W) asking me to call them about a property. Wtf! Why am I having to call you...in the time it takes to text me you could have called me. This just solidifies the fact that most agents are lazy and unless it’s handed to them on a silver platter then they simply cannot be bothered! I used to be an agent and I personally didn’t sell 10 plus properties a month sitting on my backside punting out random emails. Pick up the phone speak to buyers who want to buy, use your sales skills to encourage the other potential buyers to view, make some sales and articles like this will be a thing of the past.

From: Mr P 12 October 2017 08:59 AM

Not to difficult to work out who the unnamed agent is!

From: Mr P 11 September 2017 08:41 AM

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