It's called Chaplin (after Charlie, who apparently lived in the Westminster Bridge area, and the founder's dog, who features in the logo), and it's the work of ex-Sequence agent Jason Lewis.They appear to have four properties for sale (ranging from £185,000 to £1.8m) and four to let. And they're recruiting.
Another good year for low-supply, high-demand, safe-haven, super-prime London property has left cash-rich Savills celebrating by signing a 20-year lease on 64,142 square feet of new office space in 33 Margaret Street, on the corner with Regent Street (better known as Marcol House). More here.
The story is... the tenants (who were in the process of being evicted) wouldn't clear up to make the property look decent in photos, they wouldn't get out of the way when the camera came out and one fo them wouldn't even get out of bed. Hence:
Apparently, though, the intention was to Photoshop the woman from the image (not an easy task), but the agents somehow "forgot".
What does this mean, exactly? That local agents just aren't cutting the mustard for top London agencies?
Deverell Smith, doing the recruiting, point out the perks.
The rewards can be high: agents typically charge vendors 2 per cent of the sale price. “If you sell a property worth £5 million , that’s £100,000 ,” says Deverell Smith.
There might not have been much cheer for estate agents recently but Knight Frank's partners - boosted by a booming top end - should be happy with the £73m bonus pool they'll be sharing, more than twice 2009's payout. Thank Mammon for foreign buyers.
Congratulations to Douglas & Gordon's Ed Mead for this fabulously risky and funny bit of work. Under Offer... a mockumentary following the exploits of the Hammersmith office of a leading London estate agents.
What's their secret? With transactions down 25% on last year and at a two-year low in August (RICS figures), Foxtons - after a good year - continue their march. This time, a new branch in Stratford, their eighth new office since 2010 and their 32nd in total, due to open its doors on October 1.
No sooner were we talking about Foxtons under the gun, suspiciously late filing its accounts and - according to some sources - struggling to stay above water than - and several branch openings later - it's posting record profits of £35.4m in the year to December 31, 2010, beating even its top-of-the-market 2007 figures. More here.
According to Estate Agent Today it's not just Greene & Co agents who've been using addresses of properties on their books to apply fraudulently for residents' parking permits, it's possibly a scam that's widespread throughout London. In case you missed it, six out of seven agents at Greene & Co's Maida Vale branch have had court time and have been fined for the practise. It's been a bit of a blow for G&C who work particularly hard at their public image. I wonder whether this will qualify for a Mistake of the Month award? I'm also surprised it's so easy. I've always had to come up with all kinds of proof of identity, address, car ownership before being granted a permit.
Apparently, "letting is the new sales", the Government missed a trick in 08 by failing to create "a more interesting bank" and the public need to get used to the idea of selling for less (and buying for less, too). Kicking off this year's Rat and Mouse interview series, somebody we've quoted many a time in the past but never before had the chance to chat with, so… so we've been exited about this. Douglas & Gordon's Ed Mead is one of the country's most outspoken and interesting estate agents, an expert on the London market, he's on the board of the Property Ombudsman and he's the man I'd want overseeing the sale of my house.
I love this, from your blog’s “About me” page: “I've been an agent for over 30 years now and have gained a good reputation for saying things as they are. This can occasionally commercially disadvantage me, but really I don't give a t*** as at least I can sleep at night.” The suggestion is that you’re a bit of a lone voice. Critics of the market have long accused journalists and agents of being co-conspirators in propping up the market. Any truth in that?
I know some journalists and some estate agents are arrogant but in the same way King Canute thought he could stop the tide anyone that seriously thinks they can affect the market is mad. Everyone is tired (and it’s partly why people think all estate agents are thick) of hearing agents talking the market up. What’s wrong with giving accurate up-to-date info?
What led you into estate agency?
I got chucked out of Bristol Uni and didn’t have a huge number of options. Luckily I have a brain so have done okay.
Is it a tough job if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like to toe the line? Or are there circumstances in which standing out a little can be an advantage?
In other words hoover your home, price it at a discount and employ an estate agent who knows what they're doing. The campaign follows figures showing that 70% of properties brought to the market in the first half of the year are still unsold. Here's a little film:
The Office of Fair Trading action on rip-off credit card charges (in the news yesterday and today with the emphasis on the travel sector) has an estate agent component we weren't aware of.
The first, deliberate non-profit making estate agency, anyway. It's in Cornwall, and it's got that community, co-op, West Country feel about it. There's a flat fee of £399 to list, you get an online listing but you have to arrange your viewings/negotiations by yourself, and profits (remember, this is after "general expenses, transport and cost of staff and tax etc") go to charities and local good causes. Don't expect beards and sandals, the website looks fairly slick, if you don't dig in too deeply. There are only a couple of properties listed so far, but it's early days. IMoveCornwall will be more of a local force if they can arrange listings on the larger property portals.
Irish agency Sherry FitzGerald is to sell its 72% share in London agency Marsh & Parsons. Talk is of something like £60m... they paid a tenth of that for their stake in 2005. More here.
That's according to MPL Interiors who - reported here - have seen increasing numbers of estate agents choosing the colour for their interiors. Other popular hues are purple, burnt orange, gold, black and who gives a toss.
According to data from insurer Swift Cover, the Mini One is high in a list (topped by the Lexus IS) of the UK's most oft-vandalised cars. It's decidedly "un-premium" to attract so much attention. But Autoblog has a theory:
SOLD is beautifully written by Suzie Miller, who must have been an agent at some stage in her history, so true to life are the characters and storylines...
Profits are up at the high-end estate agency by a more than healthy 88%, thanks to overseas (largely Chinese) buyers and a prime London market that doesn't seem to have been affected the general market slump. More here.
Complaints against estate agents have apparently risen to their highest levels since records began 20 years ago. Property Ombudsman Christopher Hamer has described the phenomenon as "baffling". Certainly, one would have thought that with transaction levels so low vendors would have every opportunity to pick the agent they want and match that with the deal they want. Is this about frustration with the market, or a real lowering of standards amongst agents?
Search for Foxtons on Twitter and you might notice the hundreds, if not thousands, of exclamation mark-peppered headlines accompanied by a series of links to press releases that are being tweeted by people right across the world. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to suggest that there's at least one post a minute, and there has been for several days. What's going on? Either there's been a simultaneous outpouring of international (particularly Indonesian) love and enthusiasm for London's much-admired estate agency, or Foxtons have become unwitting victims of some Twitter spammer, who's using a global network of accounts to express his/her sick obsession with the agency. Someone really ought to tell them.
Cutler & Bond is London's first estate agency specialising in lower ground floor apartments. We know about the problems of lower ground living... lack of light... occasional damp issues... occasional security problems. What about the advantages? According to C&B's enthusiastic Tim Day, lower service charges, the possibility of a little outdoor space and competitive prices.
A few big ticket sales are turning London vendors heads, he argues, with the result that agents who urge realistic pricing (wives) are losing out to the big chested braggadocio agents who promise a whirlwind romance (mistresses). Some interesting words of warning:
Here's a new Twitter account demonstrating the dangerous negative power of anonymous online micro-blogging. @hatefoxtons began tweeting a few days ago, and is already stirring up the kind of negative commentary no brand needs. Ignoring, for the time being, whether Foxtons deserves to be singled out like this, it's a good demonstration of how anonymity, unaccountability and the power of reach can spell trouble for a brand.
Interesting, and a common error... the assumption that the estate agent is somehow there to serve the buyer. The vendor, of course, pays the agent, and while it's in the vendor's best interests to ensure his agent isn't pissing buyers off, you can't expect silver service from an agent every time you take a casual interest in a property.
There's some debate about whether the agency featured - London's well-established Martyn Gerrard - came away well or badly. Some might think they were crazy to even contemplate getting. Greene & Co did well out of a reality TV show a few (quite a few) years ago (anyone remember that?). But Portas's shows are different... they're set up around a premise that something's badly wrong. What do you think?
The Modern Estate Agent has an interesting perspective here.
Government plans to limit work visas to graduate level foreign workers means that estate agency is on the official banned list. Estate Agent Today asks, when did you last come across a non-EU estate agent? However, I wonder about those Chinese and Hindi speakers, understandably valued by some central London agents.
A north west London estate agency has put its own slant on customer service with an extraordinary email sent to a buyer who complained at his treatment after purchasing a property. According to the Standard, the buyer - a BBC journalist - received a long email from the agency's director, in which he was called "obnoxious", and told that his "arrogance" was "laughable". And in response to a claim from the buyer that he regretted the purchase:
Given the current market, that's probably an exaggeration, but in other respects the situation looks a little complex. The buyer appears to be complaining to the agent about a mattress and storage heater left behind in the property... remarking that he hurt his toe moving the latter. It's a strange story, even stranger that it's considered "news" by the Standard. Is it really the agent's job to prepare the property for the buyer? No matter, the agency seems to be getting a bit of a kicking in the comments section. It's the buyer who mentions the possibility of taking legal action; if I was the Standard, I'd be more wary of the agents.
Seven days to remove all Let By, Managed By and Sold By signs... that's the message in Tower Hamlets Council's latest missive to estate agents. Over at Estate Agent Today, Jamie Blake of the council is quoted thus:
Bushells boss Eric Walker goes on to outline a busy Christmas (despite the weather and unusually long holiday) and continuing strong demand. The London rental market, in particular, he says, is characterised by a shortage of property.
It was a little before our time (2002/3), but there's an interesting story - resurrected here - suggesting Wayne Rooney and Alan Stubbs were ejected from a Chelsea KFH (that's KFH, not KFC) by staff who mistook them for a couple of yobs up casing London properties. If you think you were there and might have "witnessed" the incident, please come forward...
There's a piece about estate agents' tricks of the trade every few months in one broadsheet or another, but this is a good one. Skip over the euphemisms bit and head straight for the discussion of technology, to read about the magic of Photoshop (double yellow lines removed and panoramas stitched from views out of several windows). Interestingly, too, there's advice for buyers on how to use technology to their own advantage (Google StreetView is your friend). Read it here.
He's Dixit Shah, a busy man who had time to set up over 200 companies, including "Hilton Properties" of Harrow, which he used to help with fraudulent applications to buy-to-let lenders. He's said to have conned companies and people out of £20m, and "invested" the proceeds in his longed-for Bollywood film career. You couldn't make this up. He's been jailed for five-and-a-half years (more than enough time to work on the book and sell the rights for the movie). His accomplice is still on the run. Read the full story here.
It's being marketed as estate agency software ("brand-new, unused, unopened and undamaged item"), with the ability to feed your properties to the major portals, but a closer look reveals it's actually "cloud based", in other words an online service. Ninety-nine pence (unless you're dumb enough to get into a bidding war) pays for the first three-months of hosting, after that it's £10 a month. It's called EAS (which I assume stands for "estate agency software"), and I think it's here. Unorthodox ebay listing here.
Following news that Sotheby's was opening a London lettings division, the story here is that they're also planning a big presence in new London developments... a division headed by ex-Savills and DTZ Russell Taylor. The idea - again - is to leverage their international presence to place London property in front of foreign buyers.
The National Association of Estate Agents has launched its own voluntary licensing scheme today, open to any member who is qualified, insured, properly audited and takes 12 hours of training annually. Cynics point to the relatively clean bill of health given the industry in the recent Office of Fair Trading report and suggest the NAEA appetite for regulation is more about its own position in the industry. More here.
"Best Estate Agency London", "Best Lettings Agency London" and "Best Estate Agency Website UK", no less, at the UK Property Awards all go to Foxtons. This follows their "Outstanding Real Estate Website" win at the 2010 Web Awards.
Yeah I get that a lot. Don't tell me... she's calling to say the lawyer's drawing up a cease-and-desist?
... an estate agent who had just taken on a house she thought I might be interested in. You might think that is of no interest whatsoever – after all until a few months ago we were in the market for a house. But it is interesting simply because when we where looking no one ever called us with a house. Not only did estate agents not bother to call us after a viewing to see what we thought, they didn't bother to call us when something new came on the market. They waited until we saw it on the property websites or in the paper and called them.
Right.
Merryn Somerset Webb discusses the repercussions of supply outstripping demand, in MoneyWeek.
The fifth new London office this year, no less. It's due to open in Clerkenwell on November 6, and expect the usual 0% commission deal to new clients, to help them stock their windows.
I've checked and checked... but no, this isn't an old April Fools story accidentally re-published six months later. It's genuine and heartfelt in its profound, astonishing, copper-bottomed stupidity. The idea's published in Introducer Today, and it's courtesy of RICS member and experienced estate agent Peter Hendry, who appears to have first gone public with his brain-wave a few days ago, on his blog:
WTF doesn't come close to doing this justice. His argument is that the system would be a test of the agent's confidence in his pricing. If he's got it right, he's nothing to worry about, because he should be able to sell the property on shortly, anyway. Commission from previous transactions (traditionally used to, er, pay for offices, expenses, wages etc) would cover the cost of temporarily forking out for properties that aren't shifting. He doesn't seem unduly concerned by the idea of property prices or transaction levels drifting downwards for economic reasons (unemployment, credit availability, interest rates) other than valuation game-play. Nor that this might mean an orgy of under-valuation. Or that it turns the business of estate agency into arguably the most risky and unattractive profession ever. Ah... maybe he has thought of that. Following the links from his blog, I notice that his current business is in agent-free house sales.
My favourite part of the blog post:
I’m doing a Tim Berners-Lee by putting these ideas into the public domain without wanting to gain from them financially, even if they are taken up Universally.
With so much in common, you and Tim ought to get together... shoot the breeze.
Despite economic indicators, estate agents are replicating. Somebody told me, yesterday, that Spicerhaart is expanding (although I find no corroboration in the press), Foxtons is spreading like a cold, and now Carter Jonas is hiring.
Anyone intrigued by the new look Douglas & Gordon space on Harrington Road? It's been given over to contemporary art for some time... the new installation is a series of metallic discs spelling out a forthright, if slightly sinister message...
In case you can't quite make that out, it's "Kill All Negative People". Apparently, it's not a direct reference to the property press tracking the approaching Credit Crunch 2.0:
Ivor Dickinson, Douglas & Gordon’s Managing Director, states: “At this year’s D&G Spring Conference, our guest speaker was Tim Smit OBE who masterminded the Eden Project. Tim’s talk was incredibly inspiring but there were four words which all of us at D&G really took to our hearts and that is when Tim said that his mantra at the Eden Project was “Kill All Negative People”. I so empathised with this statement because let’s face it, there is no room for negativity in this world that we live in, that I decided to adopt it at D&G."
Enjoy it while you can. The office will return to normal business - lettings, actually - in the New Year.
He's Jamie Lester, an overseas property developer and former London estate agent, and he's into "dogs, cars and water sports". I don't want to cast aspersions, but it's probably safe to say he's no Alain de Botton. Nor is he the only representative from the property industry competing on this year's The Apprentice. Meet Christopher Farrell, ex-Marine, mortgage broker... except (and the BBC aren't promoting this on his biography page) he's apparently on bail for mortgage fraud, and has previous for possession of an offensive weapon. Already fired... from Mortgages4Plymouth... classy. The Apprentice starts Wednesday.
Willesden Green will be the latest target in the Foxtons expansion programme. Previously, the area was serviced by the Notting Hill branch. As per usual, first branch customers will be able to sign a 0% commission contract, and then - once they've helped encourage other vendors fill the Foxtons shop window - continually wonder whether the agents are working as hard to sell their home.
Timothy Hassell is a former senior director, who now runs Draker Lettings, with his partner Christopher Andrew. According to Foxtons, Hassell ran off with their database... a giant collection of property, landlord, tenant and tenancy information, which must have come in handy when setting up a new London lettings agency. Print outs were seized from the Draker office. According to this, Hassell's seeking an out-of-court settlement. Foxtons want £300,000.
Hammersmith & Fulham Council and Kensington & Chelsea Council have managed announced a ban on estate agent boards in 23 conservation areas, starting next month, creating the biggest board-free zone in the country. In Kensington & Chelsea, half the borough will be covered by the ban. More here.
The Marsh & Parsons agent showed prospective viewers around the nice Treadgold Street property while the owner lay dead on the sofa in the lounge. He assumed she was sleeping, and apparently left the lounge until last in the hope she'd wake up. Which didn't happen. He did notice her unusual "yellow-colour" after the viewing, though, and called an ambulance. More here and here.
So what's Jon Hunt - the founder of Foxtons, who cashed out at the top of the market bagging £350m - up to these days? This. It's a residential development company specialising in providing homes to areas in the south east with the greatest shortages.
The market be damned... Foxtons reveals today that it's set to double its high street presence with 20 new branches over the next three years. Interestingly, the plan - according to this - is to use the weak market to grab share (presumably, by getting a foothold in a new neighbourhood by offering its traditional zero-commission deal to its first clients and getting some boards up while the opposition twiddles its thumbs).
The Information Commissioner's Office has warned that many estate agents and letting agents are failing to register with them... something that they need to do, according to the Data Protection Act, if they are to continue handling personal information. Currently, less than 4,000 estate agents and 1,500 lettings agents are registered. The rest, presumably, are breaking the law. More here.
It's called Fabric Property (is that weird? I think that's a bit weird... but it's named after Fabric magazine, which you'll know if you live in a favoured postcode) and it's run by a consortium of London agents, including some big names... Savills, Winkworth, Chesterton, Hamptons, and high-end boutiques Beauchamp Estates, Glentree Estate and a host of others you can see by heading to the site and watching the flash window on the front page. The emphasis here will be luxury property, lifestyle, video particulars.
Two more days of Streatham as a Foxtons-free zone, and then it's F-Day, Saturday, and the High Street's old Jack Stamps pub will open its doors to the joyous, welcoming public. If it helps any, the first 200 locals to market their homes with Foxtons can enjoy 0% commission. In other words, they'll be able to quickly fill up the front window, encouraging other properties onto the books, which Foxtons staff will try much harder to sell.
In other news, the extraordinarily named Sunny Brar has announced she's giving up her job as a Foxtons estate agent to focus on the 2012 Olympics, in which the country's No. 2 in weightlifting (140lb class) intends to go for gold. We wish her luck.
"There are no buyers," says the grim-faced estate agent. "Transaction levels are going through the floor." "Well at least you have the lettings side to see you through," I say cheerfully. "Ah yes, lettings", he says. "That's kept us afloat the past few years. But no more, I fear." "But aren't rents going up, and aren't we increasingly becoming a renting society?" I ask. "Hmm, yes… theoretically. I'm advising landlords to raise rents 8%. But I've got nothing to rent out. All the tenants who used to move out to buy, can't, so are staying put. The tenants who moved out to better places are staying put because there's nothing else out there."
"Not only that," he continues, "but over the last few years the market has been replenished by all those amateur buy-to-let landlords. It drove down rents but it kept a constant new stock supply. They've gone." He continues sombrely, "I make my money when tenancies change, be it new stock or old. So things for the business, sales and lettings, are pretty dire. The only real winners in this market are the landlords. They're starting to hit pay dirt." I throw him a sympathetic glance. "Oh don't worry about me," he says. "Got myself a nice little portfolio in 2008… when all those amateur buy-to-let landlords panicked."
Tracy Kellett runs leading buying agents BDI Homefinders. Follow her on Twitter, here.
An interesting piece in Bloomberg, about how UK buyers are evening up the score by employing their own representatives... the buying agents. According to Savills' Noel de Keyzer, buying agents have quadrupled over the last five years, led by the prime market, but not exclusive to it. Earning hefty commissions on top deals, many - apparently - are going solo, realising just a handful of deals a year are enough. The piece also points to the possible conflicts of interest arising when large estate agency chains run buying as well as selling agents. Read it here.
"It's such a worry," says the up-market central London estate agent today. "I am in an office of young commission-driven sharks. With this lack of stock, even when I've agreed a sale, they are showing it to their applicants. Every deal I do, I am waiting to be gazumped by my own office." But surely, I say, you mark it "under offer" on the web etc? "Nope, management won't allow until exchange. They were successfully sued by a gazumped buyer who had in writing it was off market, but the vendor then sold to a friend." Caveat Emptor. The agent you deal with may be a smiley dolphin but beware the shark-filled sea in which he swims...
Tracy Kellett runs leading buying agents BDI Homefinders. Follow her on Twitter, here.
Hats off to estate agents Marsh & Parsons for this innovative marketing initiative. Downloadable from the M&P website: three walking tours in the SWs (Balham, Clapham and Battersea), PDFs combing a map with interesting historical facts and illustrations, designed to take about an hour each. Drop into a the local branch to pick-up a free frisbee, and into partner cafes for a free cuppa. The tours are designed for potential buyers interested in the area... but probably work best for families looking for something to do at the weekend. Either way, Marsh & Parsons come away looking cool. "Love the area," they say. "We do." Download them here.
According to the National Association of Estate Agents, the budget's put the scares on potential buyers, with the average number of property sold per agent dropping from eight to six during June. Vendors, too, are putting off decisions... with stock falling very slightly, from an average of 62 properties to 59.
Second viewing with the kids on a house in the country my clients are dying to buy. I am not hopeful. It came on eight weeks ago at £3m, has been dropped to £2.85m, but my clients' piggy bank "only" holds £2.5m. "So, how are you finding the market?" I ask the fairly mainstream estate agent, who I know quite well. "You doing many valuations? Is stuff coming on?" "Yes," she tells me, "loads of vals and stock levels are looking much better than they have been." "Great?" I say, but she's not looking at all upbeat. "Well it would be but buyers just don't want to make a decision. The buyers are sitting on their hands... Truth is," she tells me sotto voce, "we can't flaming sell anything." I shall start negotiations at £2.3m.
Tracy Kellett runs leading buying agents BDI Homefinders. Follow her on Twitter, here.
A 15-year ban on estate agents' boards in some posh west London conservation areas has come to an end, and the boards have begun to reappear. The results? "Fury." Heritage groups are now apparently seeking a total ban across London. Interestingly, Douglas & Gordon's Ed Mead appears to agree, describing the boards as a £6-a-pop anachronism in the Internet age. But I don't know... aren't there still some movers inspired to hit the market when they pass a house they've always admired and notice a board outside?
An interesting tale, here, from a vendor (with both large agency and private for-sale-by-owner boards outside the property) who has been targeted by iSold, the new(ish) joint venture by Spicerhaart and Tesco (here for more on that) with a fake handwritten note and then a more formal letter. If you're an agent with offices in Reading, you might be interested to see what's likely to follow your board.
They've been bought by Countrywide for an undisclosed sum. According to Estate Agent Today... almost everything's been hoovered up, including 80 branches and the rights to expand worldwide; however the Middle East and North Africa operations will continue to be run by the Dubai developers who bought the company back in 2006. Countrywide continues to head upmarket... presumably where the money is.
A reader writes in to the Telegraph for advice. Her daughter got close to exchange, and then the vendor's pulled out. Not unheard of, by any means. (Sounds like a gazump.) But here are the details:
As I said, this happens. But normally there's an agent aggressively pursuing the deal to secure their commission. In this instance, without a good working relationship between vendor's and buyer's solicitors (unlikely, given it took four months to get that far), the buyer's blowing in the wind. Click the link for the Telegraph's advice.
National Association of Estate Agents has a new president. He's Michael Jones, and he's been here before, back in 1992/93. Hello, Mr Jones. Please take the Rat to your people.
According to the Property Ombudsman, they're up 27.5% between the last quarter of 2009 and the first of 2010. Letting agents aren't off the hook either, with a rise of 14.7%. The Ombudsman admits he has no explanation for the rise, but is clearly concerned about his workload, should the trend continue.
A polling day dinner with an estate agent in Westminster wasn’t an upbeat affair, despite the scuttling of known political faces into the private dining room. This agent had no stock, been the same for two years. Nobody selling, tenants not giving notice, market paralysis. Coffee four days later was a different matter. An incredible Monday he tells me. Two landlords been in, they want to sell. Big local developer been sitting on empty properties for years, he wants to shift them. Vendors calling, "Let's talk price reductions." "What's going on?" I ask. "It’s simple," he says. "They’re scared."
Tracy Kellett runs leading buying agents BDI Homefinders. Follow her on Twitter, here.
According to the National Association of Estate Agents we're in for the traditional spring bounce. Vendors rose in March to the highest level for six months, buyers registering with agents rose 7%. Sales, too, have risen. From 6.8 per branch in March to eight. Clearly, there's time yet for political uncertainty to put a damper on things, but - no matter what they tell you - no-one is really certain of the effect of a hung parliament/coalition on vendor/buyer behaviour.
An agent representing estate agency SW19 has been ordered by a court to pay £15,000 in damages after being found guilty of "passing off" and "copyright infringement". He'd attacked a former friend and colleague by buying the domain name eddisonwhite.com (the actual estate agency owns the .co.uk version) and sending the address to a hardcore porn site. According to some accompanying interview with perp and victim over at Estate Agent Today, the guilty agent had begun by diverting to the address to some soft porn images. When he decided that wasn't nasty enough, he diverted the page to his own agency site. He finally upped the ante by diverting to God knows what...
Richard Eddison, joint owner of eddisonwhite, said: “I am relieved and happy this ordeal is over. It has been difficult for us and all of our customers and most importantly for those individuals who were subjected to some truly awful images thanks to Mr Bennett’s antics."
Eddison is said to have discovered the ruse after receiving complaints that it was hard to see the rooms properly, for the giant naked bodies in the way. A filthy business.
Not just visit, but reach it in nine days, 14 hours and 20 minutes, winning the 2010 Polar Challenge, no less, and raising almost £46,000 for Mencap. The agents are from Tates, in West Kensington. Rumours that they celebrated reaching the magnetic North Pole by erecting a For Sale sign have neither been confirmed nor denied. More here.
It's not enough for an outright majority. But it will mean a few more Minis. Foxtons is due to open its 26th office tomorrow, in North Finchley. Commission will, temporarily, be 0%.
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against a Spicerhaart ad claiming Breaking Up Is Easy To Do, and encouraging a vendor who's estate agent "isn't delivering" to "switch to haart without penalty". The complaint was focussed on the use of "without penalty", and pointed out that vendors switching to haart after signing a lock-in clause with another agent, might - in fact - be charged a penalty, only it would be covered by haart until the sale of the property... in other words "deferred". More here.
"Converting online traffic into sales" is the theme. It's American, but much of the content looks pretty UK-friendly. More to the point, it's free, and since it's scheduled for 10am (Pacific), it'll be after-hours, but not so late your partner will think you've skipped off to watch porn. It's scheduled for April 28th. More information, here.
Remember how PropertyLive came about? A group of National Association of Estate Agents members, close to throwing their toys out of the pram at Rightmove listings charges during the decimated property market, decided they indeed held the trump card... if they owned the listings, they owned the data upon Rightmove and co. relied, and so why not launch their own NAEA listings portal? PropertyLive eventually appeared under the management of umbrella organisation the National Federation of Property Professionals. But now - according to this - the NFoPP have realised running a big portal and advertising it costs money, and a letter is apparently circulating mooting charges, of around £840 a year per office. Imagine how well that's going down.
The FT has the scoop on a £4.5m five-year property fund, by the Black Katz agency, buying "undervalued" (good luck with that) property in London, redeveloping it and putting in professional tenants. The properties will be sold in the fifth year. More here.
Thanks to a Rat and Mouse reader for the tip, here. Is it us, or is there a complete and total absence of Foxtons properties on Rightmove right now, compared to a plethora on Primelocation? I have to admit, I haven't used Rightmove in a while, and so can't be sure how long this has been the case, but I notice that the Foxtons website (under "Online marketing") claims to advertise on Rightmove. What's the story?
The listing broker for a one-bedroom Upper East Side apartment that was on the market for a year learns that the buyers she was courting had decided to have me represent them. When speaking to me, her tone is icy. After I present the offer, she tells me that the seller had accepted an offer the previous day, a Friday, and that lawyers were already working on the contract, an unlikely development so swiftly. Then, she reports early the next week that the seller felt morally bound to stick with the buyer with the lower offer. Was she lying and collecting a commission for both sides of the transaction?
An interesting page, here, courtesy of the BBC, looking at the changing face of the business end of residential property sales.
Some traditional selling methods have gone for good. Simon [an agent] has just paid for his firm's last batch of adverts in his local papers. From now on, his advertising will be restricted to his own firm's website and those of the big property portals. "It is a sea change, 20 years ago we spent an absolute fortune on the local press," he says. "In the last two months we have pulled our last bits of advertising out of the local press because it is a luxury. The local press is not where you look - you look on the internet and that is where we advertise."
Foxtons might or might not be broke, but that's not going to stop them spending on nice new ride. The new Mini is designed by X-Ray artist Nick Veasey, and features his trademark touches, including an X-Rayed key fob "hanging" from the door, an X-Rayed chassis, and:
There is even the image of a skeletal driver, cast by a carefully placed radiography dummy.
I'll leave you to insert your own joke here.
Meanwhile, other agencies are cost-cutting when it comes to their motors. According to this in Estate Agent Today, a pay-as-you-go car club called Streetcar for Business is signing up estate agents hand over fist. Fans of the service - which provides cars-on-demand, bookable by mobile, include Knight Frank.
That's according to new figures from the National Association of Estate Agents. Offices received just 258 new buyer registrations in February, down from 291 in January, and the lowest number in a year. The average number of properties on an agency's books rose very slightly, from 55 to 56.
Last week of February: I find myself still be-moaning the lack of stock. Frustratingly little choice and really bullish vendors holding out for 2007 prices. First week of March: Blimey, that's good. A really marked increase in new properties and price reductions hitting the in-box. Agents calling and they all sound a bit relieved-as am I. Second week of March: Client calls: "I'm thinking about sitting back for a little while, watching what happens with the election." Another client: "I'm not sure if I want to continue with the purchase. I think there may be better opportunities after the election." And another: "My buyer has threatened to pull out. He wants to re-negotiate."
If election concerns are causing a trend towards buyer caution, I've a hunch it won't be a trend finishing on May 7th.
Tracy Kellett runs leading buying agents BDI Homefinders. Follow her on Twitter, here.
The new, cut-price estate agenting deal offered by Spicerhaart and Tesco has been creating waves within the industry, but Bushells boss, Eric Walker, quoted in Estate Agent Today, urges his colleagues to stay cool. The good guys, apparently, will win through in the end.
“So, sellers have a choice: iSold value a house at £350,000 and charge less commission than a Tesco value pizza, plus double Clubcard points, or Foxtons promise you £400,000 and enough waiting buyers to fill Wembley, all of whom they will accompany in their annoying little Minis and browbeat into submission. Not a tough call, really."
Hang on... your point is? And what about Bushells? Why use a different agency as an example?
Finally, he doesn't hold back on what he thinks of Spicerhaart.
Let Tesco join the market. And let Spiceraart support them, thus admitting their own business is a sham as they have produced a cheaper alternative which denigrates agents’ fees.
Tracy Kellett, of BDI Homefinders, takes the time to talk homesearch, the market and lighting up Twitter, and leaves us with our favourite estate agent joke yet.
So I hear you’ve bought and sold a few homes of your own in your time?
I’ve moved 26 times since leaving home at 18. Mainly around London and the south of England, but also a very Hicksville part of Southern Texas, the Amish part of Pennsylvania and Chicago. Let’s just say I have a low boredom threshold.
And your background is as an estate agent… what kind of an experience was that? Does it give you more or less “sympathy for the devil”?
I enjoyed the work but was never very good at taking orders, so I knew I was never going to pick up my pension. As a result, though, I strongly believe that a good etate agent can add enormous value, and not just monetary. On the other hand, it has also left me with very little tolerance for the bad eggs and I can be very vocal about that.
When did you start BDI Homefinders? What was the inspiration/impetus? What does the BDI stand for?
About seven years ago an estate agent colleague was selling a house to a very lovely couple who were placing a lot of trust in him. They were paying a good £200k more than they needed to. It left a bad taste. It dawned on me that there were many people like that and that it was a wholly unfair and one-sided market place. Being able to look after buyers’ interests, saving them money and advising them professionally, seemed like the perfect win-win business model. For them and me. BDI’s name came from two thoughts. One, I have no intention of sharing, far too rude. But the other is a pun on ‘beady eye’. At the time, I thought it was really witty. More fool me: no-one ever gets it.
More fun than being an agent?
Read the rest of the interview, including our favourite estate agent joke to date, after the jump.
The Office of Fair Trading report into UK estate agency has found that haggling over rates is to be recommended; estate agency laws discourage Tesco-style online competition; competition is weaker than it should be (although it didn't find any examples of local price-fixing); and the majority of buyers and sellers are happy with the service they've received. One would have thought that agents would be celebrating. Oh no. In response, Peter Bolton King of the National Association of Estate Agents is furious at the OFT for failing to take him and his profession to task; instead, sitting back and allowing every kind of shoddiness. Once again... a massive failure by the OFT. The last word, however, must go to Trevor Kent, a former NAEA president:
The embarrassment dates back to last Friday, when the Office of Fair Trading emailed over four hundred money laundering reporting officers (responsible for overseeing best practise at estate agencies and brokers) asking them to take part in a consultation. Unfortunately, OFT left everybody's email address in visible in the "To" field, and some recipients have already complained of receiving unsolicited mail, as well as expressed concern about being "outed". OFT have apologised, and asked everybody to delete the offending email. More here.
Our publisher looks at Foxtons latest (and final) move in its long-running legal chess game with the Office of Fair Trading, in his weekly guest column for Citywire.
It's a new (to us, anyway) and interesting web service for estate agents to keep a track on their market share and performance in a specific postcode, or to help the rest of us choose a dominant and high-performing agent. Register (free), stick a (full) postcode into PropertySleuth and you'll be rewarded with a colourful graph showing agent market share. The data can be drilled down to specific property types, and will show new instructions, price reductions, conversion rates and more. I've found a few teething troubles (plenty of "sorry, no data to display") and if you've a choice of Safari and Firefox on a Mac, I'd definitely point you toward Firefox (I'm not getting the buttons on the left to work on Safari)... but there's time for improvement. The idea's good, and the design's solid.
Because there are mixed messages in the press today. According to the National Association of Estate Agents, Santa never came, and sales per agent fell from 7.6 in November to 4.9 in December. Ah... says the tax man... sales agreed may have been down, but completions were at a two-year high, numbering 104,000, the first time the 100,000 mark has been surpassed since December 2007, and up from 41,000 at the January 2009 trough.
An estate agency in Dorset has spent more than a year defending themselves from an unfair dismissal case after asking an agency manager to leave because they'd discovered evidence of hours of porn-surfing and online gambling on his computer.
The NAEA is currently setting up a helpline for anyone who bought a house in the Lilliput area about two years ago and fear they might have shaken that hand.
Rumours of debt problems have been circulating for more than a year. Somewhere in the deal is a loan - directly from Jon Hunt - which will be written off. Hunt, of course, sold the estate agency right at the peak of the property market. The FT is first with the story. Read it here.
It's a £4,000 pound fine, courtesy of Highbury Magistrates' Court, after Foxtons apparently failed to tell a potential residential buyer that a Hackney property was designated work/live. The buyer only found out at a late stage, and was forced to pull out of the sale after spending £600. More here.
It was more than a year ago when the story first leaked out of Barry McKay's spat with Savills. They'd sold his Sunningdale home for £2.9m... something, you'd think, a client would be pleased about. But they'd sold it to the wrong person. The story's back in the news after Savills have settled out of court with McKay, apologising for hiding the identity of the buyer (who had "history" with McKay and wasn't on his suitable buyer list) and not revealing the fact that the buyer was close to getting planning permission to demolish and rebuild on the plot... raising the perceived value of the property to something closer to £10m. More here.
This Is Money sees Foxtons's overdue accounts as a cause for concern. Accounts were apparently due at the end of October, and haven't been filed. More here.
The Office of Fair Trading has published its Home Buying And Selling Market Study, a substantial project. Estate agents who took part in its questionnaire - or anybody about to move and wondering what to expect from the average UK agent - might like to go here and download the Estate Agency survey... an interesting snapshot of what they do and how.
Because the west London agency won the Supreme Negotiator Award last night, beating Marsh & Parsons and Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward into second and third place.
Ed Mead didn't cry while making an acceptance speech. The awards night took place at the Hilton, and guests were entertained by magician and comedian Paul Zenon, who made Foxtons disappear.
According to the National Association of Estate Agents, who only ever get it right and tell the truth, an average of five homebuyers were chasing each and every property on their books in October. But, and it's a big but, sales were down from 8.5 per agent in September to 7.7. Worryingly, too, the number of new buyers coming onto the market was slightly down. Agents need buyers. And buyers need lending. Could be worse though. In fact, it hasbeen.
For the long catch-up, including the spat with Rightmove and Brightsale, go here. The short version... Tesco managed to make a total, copper-bottomed cock-up of entering the property listings industry in 2007. In 2008, the man who said this:
... decided he hated the Tesco Property Market so much, he bought the company. And now - according to this - Tesco Property Market might do like Arnie and be back as soon as January, under the codename Indigo, perhaps because they've been feeling blue.
The Sun takes estate agents Geering & Colyer to task after a reader turned up to look at a fisherman's cottage in, err, Dungeness and was shocked to find two large nuclear power stations clearly within view. (I know... only a Sun reader would turn up in a place called Dungeness and be surprised to find a little nuclear industry activity.) What the reader/newspaper resents, it appears, is that G&C took photos that didn't show the power stations in the background. But just, for a moment, imagine if they had. Imagine being the vendor. It would feel like sabotage. Mocked if they do, mocked if they don't. Perhaps a discreet mention would have been wise. Within easy reach of...convenient for... or something. Read it, here. Particulars, here.
We'd be interested to hear from a spokesperson for Wow Property, whom we wrote about back here. They appear to have - er - vanished, although their listings remain on major portals. We're just wondering, because... well... this:
Mischief? Or what? Feel free to use us to put the record straight.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors disagreed, but didn't impose a fine. J-S&S had already paid the couple £5,000 in an out-of-court settlement, and given its staff a little "training" in how not to mock people for their sexual orientation (because, you know, that's really difficult, right?). We're just relieved J-S&S didn't try to argue that the whole things was an unfortunate coincidence, that lesbians just happened to be the random reference code.
EstateAgentToday draws our attention to Forsaken, writer Helen Davis' play at Particular Theatre Company in Exeter. The story... a nun, charged with selling the Abbey, attracts the attentions (and we're not talking about selling her a HIP) of her estate agent, who also happens to be gay. Saturday's the last night, tickets here.
"in principle", they want the Property Ombudsman to be more open, naming estate and letting agents who have had complaints upheld against them. He's careful - quoted here - to make it clear that Which? isn't demanding it, they'd merely support it were it proposed by the Ombudsman.
Remember this... the Which? report that condemned estate agents for charging too much for HIPs? It got a lot of press attention, and seemed to suggest agents were cynically ripping off the public, an idea that obviously shocked everybody. Now, the agents are hitting back. A piece in Estate Agency News gives voice to agents who claim that the Which? comparisons weren't like-for-like... that agents (who apparently share a legal responsibility to have a proper HIP in place before marketing a property... although I'm surprised the vendor-agent contract doesn't shift any repercussion to the vendor) provide a more thorough HIP apparently. Some of the cheaper HIPs come with expensive conveyancing attached, too. If you're an independent HIP provider, we'd love to hear your thoughts.
The apparent up-turn in - at least - interest in residential property seems to be feeding through to the portals. Or is it that old-fashioned foot traffic to estate agents has just, finally, ended?
"Funny" Somerset estate agent Jules Bending's apparently going into the obsolete light bulb business, and admits he's been stockpiling traditional hundred watters in a farmer's shed in the Mendip Hills, in readiness for the ban. Guardian readers are apparently furious. One property blogger feels slightly queasy. Ah... the West Country, where estate agent-sponsored mud wrestling is considered good publicity, and sticking light bulbs in a shed is entrepreneurship.
He's Jon Hunt, and his former company is, of course, Foxtons. He believes property prices in London have bottomed out. He denies speculation that he might be about to buy back Foxtons.
It all started here... a Time magazine article about the state of the country's number one casino town. The author meets Brooke Boemio, "a bouncy, sweet, recently remarried 31-year-old mom whom I met years ago when I was on another assignment. Boemio is doing great during this recession. In fact, she's never had a job that paid as well: she made more than $100,000 last year. Even better, she's willing to show me how messed up the real estate scene is."
How messed up? Messed up enough for this:
Basically, she finds clients who owe more on their house than the house is worth (and that's about 60% of homeowners in Las Vegas) and sells them a new house similar to the one they've been living in at half the price they paid for their old house. Then she tells them to stop paying the mortgage on their old place until the bank becomes so fed up that it's willing to let the owner sell the house at a huge loss rather than dragging everyone through foreclosure. Since that takes about nine months, many of the owners even rent out their old house in the interim, pocketing a profit.
Boemio even admits to doing it herself. And, before parting company with the journalist, shows him how to break into a random empty house... a scene which was, apparently, accompanied by a short piece of film (now removed). All-in-all... not, you'd think, a way of ingratiating yourself on your employers. And you'd think right. Boemio is now - according to this - without a job. What amazes me, though, is that somebody without the gumption to realise that advertising your breaking-and-entering and fraud skills in Time might get you into at least one kind of trouble still has enough gumption to defraud the US banking system. No wonder we're all where we are.
Mud's flying over here... a prospective buyer is accusing a Foxtons agent of bullying her by refusing to show her a Richmond property after she apparently refused mortgage advice from sister-company Alexander Hall. Foxtons have responded, claiming a misunderstanding... suggesting the agent was merely trying to ascertain whether the buyer really had finance in place. Obviously, without full details, it's impossible to know what actually happened, but there's clearly room for dysfunction. On the one hand, Foxtons (fairly or unfairly) has a reputation for aggressive tactics, and the aggressive selling of AH services in particular, so it's understandable that someone might become a little defensive when the whole subject comes even before a viewing. On the other, I wish more agents were a little more aggressive about vetting prospective buyers, rather than simply notching up viewings on a quantity, not quality, basis. With loan criteria tougher than ever, this aspect of an agent's job has never been more important.
Congrats to Douglas & Gordon, who apparently has just enjoyed its second most profitable month of business since the market's 2007 peak ("in terms of buyers registering and sales agreed"... we wonder, a little, about the first, but won't argue that it doesn't count for something). D&G (this D&G, not this one) apparently forged 100 deals last month... just 10% off July 2007 levels.
A couple of months ago we were the victim of an attempted knuckle-rapping by a Somerset estate agent who couldn't understand why we failed to laugh at his jokes. It must be because we're keeping our sponsors happy, he suggested. Comedy's in the ear of the beholder, we replied. According to Estate Agent Today, he's tried to be funny again, this time with a mailshot.
Apparently, recipients have been queuing up to complain. I suspect Bending's view is... bad publicity's better than no publicity. And it's certainly true, you've all heard of him now. I'm not sure the fart card would be the detail to inspire me to list a property with him, though; but - as I initially said - it's all in the ear of the beholder.
According to the National Association of Estate Agents, the difference between what vendors want and what they get was down to just 1.9% in June, down from 6.3% in May. Agents are still selling, on average, just ten homes a month... but it seems a lack of supply is supporting prices. However, what this suggests is that with unemployment still likely to rise and mortgages scarce, all it will take is a increase in homes for sale for prices to topple once again.
As some of you may know, this has been going on for some time. Foxtons and the Office of Fair Trading have been locking horns in the Court of Appeal regarding Foxton's T&Cs. Was it fair that they should charge landlords commissions when tenants decide to renew contracts, even though they've done no extra work? Was it fair they sales commission if a tenant decides to buy the property, even if they didn't formally introduce it as a potential sale? Other lettings agents have been watching the case closely, concerned that a precedent would cost them dearly in a renewal fees... because everybody does it. Finally... a judgement. No, Foxton's T&Cs weren't fair. But not due to their content, due to their wording. They simply weren't clear enough. Is charging commission on renewals unfair in itself? No. So there you have it. Everybody's a winnerloserwinnerloser whatever.
Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps met the National Association of Estate Agents' Peter Bolton King and Gary Smith and told them... yes, we'll ditch the HIP; no, we won't make the licensing of estate agents compulsory under current circumstances; should those circumstances change we'll consider only a "light touch" approach. The big question... after they'd shaken hands with Shapps, said goodbye and left the building, did King and Smith high five? Who knows... but when will Shapps learn about negotiating with estate agents? More here.
Actually, it makes for pretty grim reading... page upon page of "offences involving fraud and other dishonesty within the meaning of section 3(1)(a)(i) of the Estate Agents Act 1979 (the Act)"; one agent was even - grab your braces - "convicted on 22 March 1989 at Norwich Crown Court of Murder, this being an offence involving violence within the meaning of section 3(1) (a) (i) of the Estate Agents Act 1979 (the Act)". That's taking your job a bit seriously, isn't it?
It's compulsive reading, and it's yours, here. But rememer, do sleep well and don't have nightmares, the number of agents scarlet lettered by OFT is small in the context of the number working on a single high street near you. I think that's comforting.
It's always nice, watching the young fledglings learning to tie their big tie knots, steering their Minis into the big bad property world for the first time...
Isn't this one of the perks of being an estate agent? You've taken your exciting new girlfriend out to dinner, and just got the cheque (okay, in the current climate, you've split it), or you've been out on the razz with a few mates and the pub's kicked you out... where now? Back to your own flat? Or off to an expensive, nicely "staged" for selling, party pad, the owners abroad, the keys in your pocket? Hmmm. Joseph Young, of Vickery and Co estate agents (apparently, he had already handed in his notice), chose to party.
You can appreciate why he didn't want to bring his mates home. They went on to "borrow" the vendor's car, which they smashed into a tree, writing it off. The agency did - however - manage to sell the house two months later. Result.
More data by National Association of Estate Agents property portal PropertyLive... this time showing that almost seven in ten wannabe first-time buyers have given up hope about being able to afford to step onto the property ladder. Eagle-eyed readers (and sub-editors) will have spotted that if they've given up hope, they can't be wannabe ftbs... but we know what they mean. NAEA-sponsored... the data appears to be directed toward the Government... a disguised call for help in loosening lending criteria.
First it was the case of the impotent Mortgage Rescue Scheme, now - it seems - the Government's shared ownership project - MyChoiceHomeBuy - isn't living up to its promise. Estate Agent Today claims to have been receiving emails from estate agents unhappy (understatement) about collapsing chains... chains built on MyChoiceHomeBuy. The scheme was aimed at key worker first-time buyers, and promised up to 50% of purchase price. Except now, there's apparently no cash in the bank...
And this looks like an experience common across the country. Do the maths, factor in the chains, and it's a lot of unhappy potential movers, lost revenue for agents, wasted money for movers. Another case of the Government's unique definition of "help"?
According to Ombudsman data, complaints against estate agents are down 38% in the first quarter of 2009, compared to the last quarter of 2008. It's a sizable drop... but then, there's been a sizable drop in the number of estate agents, the the number of opportunities they have to get out and meet the public. Interestingly, that didn't stop them offending people last year, during the early days of the crash. 2008 saw a 60% drop in sales, but only a 3% drop on complaints, year-on-year.
Except, I suppose, you spotted the beams. Anyway, I'm not so sure the market's in a de-cluttering, house-staging, bread-baking place right now... it's surely all about price?
The Guardian blog admonishes the portals for sense of humour failure, but I'm not so sure this comedy car-crash offers much to laugh at. Stick to selling houses... leave the jokes to the professionals.
Congratulations to Colliers Wood-based Samuel Estates, who've been nominated in the best small business category in the ironically-named RBS South London Business Awards. They'll be battling out with a plastic tableware manufacturer and a corporate event light show company in the finals. More here. Meanwhile... not so hot... Executive Estates' Marcia Whyte has been struck off by the Office of Fair Trading, after it emerged that she'd failed to inform a client that the buyer was, in fact, ahem, her. She stood to make a £65,000 killing. More here. The ugly? The Apprentice's estate agent contender Philip Taylor is shaping up to be such a tosser that PropertyTalkLive are daring to ask: Does Apprentice star Philip give estate agents a bad name?
Yeah, like estate agents pay their license fees. (A joke... okay?!) Here's a link to the show... and notice that it's Axe The Agent?, rather than Axe The Agent. What a difference a question mark makes. Or doesn't.
Some of you may remember... Foxtons and the Office of Fair Trading are locked in dispute over a clause in the Foxtons letting contract (and - to be fair - just about every other lettings agents' contracts, too) demanding landlords pay a new commission to agents even when existing tenants simply renew. There's already been a little action, resulting in a Court of Appeal judgement that the final decision will apply to existing contracts as well as future ones. Now, we've a date for the final showdown... April 27. It will be interesting... a contentious issue with good arguments on both sides, and the potential to seriously affect agents all over London.
I know... to a lot of people, this is going to sound a bit like one of those "who lands first?" jokes. Or the discovery that traffic wardens really loathe tax inspectors. Nevertheless, according to the Times' legal editor:
Their complaint - which, let's face it, comes at a great time for estate agents - is that estate agents' fees "dwarf" solicitors' fees during a property transaction, and are out of proportion with what they actually achieve. The Law Society is taking the complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. Now, far be it for me to wade in here in defence of the Devil, but... lawyers get their fees in any circumstance. Estate agents ask more money when a sale is achieved, because largely they're working for free. No sale, no commission. And while the Law Society campaigns for greater transparency, I hope that includes a close look at exactly what the conveyancing process involves. You won't find it hard to find a a commercial lawyer who, after a few drinks, will explain to you where conveyancing rests in the professional hierarchy. I don't want to be rude or anything, but you don't need to be Petrocelli to perform a search. Are our conveyancers really worth what they're paid? Furthermore, recent customer satisfaction surveys conducted after property exchanges suggest we've an issue with the speed and competence of our solicitors, who regularly rank below agents.
Enquiries are on the rise, that's been shown statistically and there's anecdotal evidence from just about every estate agent I talk to. The problem is... they're not buying. According to this morning's Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors data, while enquiries rose in February at their fastest since the frenzy of August 2006, sales volume has hit a new record low... each agent agreeing 9.5 sales in the three months to the end of February. In London, the figure was worse... less than an exchange a fortnight. But is this the low point... after which those enquiries will start converting into sales? Does that depend on the lenders? Partly. It also depends on the jobs market. Watch this space.
Here's an interesting new franchise launch. The Homebuyers Agency is based on the belief that a purchase is far riskier than a sale, and yet buyers operate in the market without experts on their side. (I'm not sure I buy this, personally. Sure, the vendor gets the estate agent. But the buyer gets the surveyor and the solicitor.) It's also based on the belief that a buyer registered with an estate agent has access only to a small proportion of the homes on the market, whereas a professional homefinder can access the entire spread. (Again, apart from non-advertised properties - which are unlikely to be the type you can pick up at a discount - aren't most properties somewhereontheweb?) What the professional homebuyer can do, though, is hold your hand throughout the process and help you negotiate the best possible discount. The other interesting USP is this:
Should you require a mortgage, life insurance, home/contents insurance, conveyancing services, utilities, etc, your Homebuyers’ Agent will rebate 100% of any commissions received from the sale of these services directly to you, for life! This often amounts to thousands of pounds credited back to you.
That's nice. This is fairly radical, too:
Fees are charged as a proportion of the amount saved off the asking price, with a minimum 1.5% fee.
Homebuyers is looking for experienced estate agents in 400 areas to take on the business on a franchise basis, with franchisees getting 50% of commission. According to this, four have gone in a month. Presumably, the agents behind the Homebuyers Agency are using the downturn to recruit and get in on the ground, so that they'll be well-positioned when the market turns, and will be there to hold buyers hands as/if the sector heats up and the threat of gazumping returns.
It's perhaps not the response we were expecting to yesterday's rate cut. The agents aren't happy. In fact, according to Estate Agent Today, they feel cheapened:
So which bit of that don't we agree with? We agree with all of it. We're just impressed that such long-term common sense is coming from a profession so squeezed by a lack of volume. Click the link for plenty of comments.
I like the Marsh&Parsons web design. I like the way the area guides respond to a click. I like the red/brown colours. Now, they're offering video particulars, too. Here's the first; what do you think? I say... top marks for simplicity, and thank God... no Alan Partridge voiceover.
A report, today, by the E-Homebuying Forum suggests merging conveyancing lawyers and estate agents into one single concentrated disliked profession. Its "Blueprint for the Future of Homebuying" seeks "Faster Certainty" in the homebuying process, by a combination of "Greater Transparency", "Greater Efficiency" and "Greater Commitment". Other specific suggestions include estate agency regulation, wider use of automated and electronic systems across the process and legally-binding pre-contracts with financial penalties. We like the last bit, but we're worried about the first. Estate agents are employed by the vendor, and their job is to sell a property. Lawyers are employed by the buyer, and part of their job is to warn the buyer why - on occasion - he shouldn't buy the property. You can read the document here.
Moneywise investigates, and discovers you'd do well to find the 1% or 1.5% commission rate you might have found a couple of years ago. Now, think 2% or 3%. Also, they suggest there's a growing trend in which agents charge a fixed fee based on a percentage of asking price, and stick to it even if the property sells for considerably less. I wouldn't complain too much about the former. One and a half per cent is effectively a discounted rate, reflecting ease-of-sale... a gesture that the agent's prepared to play fair, and really wants your property because there's a shortage of stock. Remember, in America, you can expect to pay 6% in commission. The latter, though... that sounds like a case of seller beware.
And I think that's a fair compromise. For now. But - after Mervyn King's assessment of the economy yesterday - how long before it'll be a case of... bring back to rabbits and it's a work day?
But it's not for our money, it's for foreign money, which is worth so much more these days. The agent's Marsh & Parsons, the branch manager will be ex-Chesterton, ex-Foxtons Guy Major, who also wins the Most Masculine Name In London Property Award. More here.
Okay, give me one year's Groucho Club membership, tickets for Rigoletto and an hour with one of your fleet in the UK's most icy car park, and I'll take two.
UK estate agents are apparently averaging four shags a week, twice the national average, and more than any other profession. Okay, it's not like there's much else for them to do, but at least they're not sitting around moping.
Old habits die hard, and it's even harder to wean the British public off their property addiction. I'd heard, anecdotally, from a number of estate agents that January had been something of a good month, but I'd just assumed they were drunk or high or something. But here's the Halifax House Price Index telling us that January prices rose, yes that's rose, on the month, by a matter of 1.9%. A blip? Very possibly... people in the industry are only convinced of a change of direction once the three-month average moves from red to black or vice versa. But now here's the Guardian getting the same story I've been getting... not only that, but gazumping too.
An exhibition of art work by underground graffiti artist Banksy went on display yesterday at... drum roll please... Chesterton's new Sloane Avenue branch. Graffiti and west London estate agency? An odd combination? You bet... but also a clever and forward-thinking market positioning from an agency that dares to be different. The exhibition runs for a month.
It's traditional for Savills to do their MIPIM entertaining on board a well-equipped (read driving range, read cinema) yacht. Not this year, apparently, when credit crunch conditions will bring some of the UK's most upmarket agents ashore. Personally, I'd consider that the final straw. Expect to see the Rat and Mouse continuing to enjoy the life to which it's become accustomed.
She's back from Australia, she's £3m in her pocket, and a dad who's a partner at Behr and Butchoff in St Johns Wood. Dani's looking for a bargain, but her dad - sensibly - has started talking up local market.
Love it. Family's family but property, that's business.
But Dani - who's smarter than the average Behr - doesn't give up that easily. Click here to read more as she looks around one of her father's properties, then brands it "pokey and dated".
Story of the weekend... according to the Observer Foxtons owners BC Partners have been told by creditors to inject £50m into the firm or risk seeing the firm go into administration. It's been clear for some time that Foxtons wasn't going to meet its debt obligations, but - as far as we know - this is the first time anybody's called bust.
Meanwhile, suggestions here that Jon Hunt - who flogged the firm just before the market went tits up - is looking at piling back into property... commercial this time. Every experienced or senior estate agent I've discussed the Foxtons sale with has described Hunt's timing as lucky rather than skillful. But if you believe otherwise, watch commercial closely.
BC Partners paid £390m for the London and Home Counties estate agency chain not more than a slit second before the property market imploded. According to a BC partner - quoted by Bloomberg - they were anticipating a slowdown in volume in the London market... of 30%. No-one was anticipating 70%, and if they had, they might have let Jon Hunt keep the firm.
Connells, the last remaining shareholder of the original Rightmove founders, will be renewing its deal with the portal. Which is a vote of confidence for the troubled Rightmove, sine Connells is a giant collection of agents, including Fox & Sons, Barnard Marcus and Allen & Harris. Less of a vote of confidence is news that it's put its 17% stake in the portal up for auction. I guess liquidity's stretched with volume where it is and - well - £40m could come in handy.
First, it's Hamptons who, in a press release, claim a 22% increase in net sales from October to November. London saw a 12% increase, and a 2% increase on the same period last year. Meanwhile, KFHreport a significant pick-up in London sales in the last few weeks, particular - it appears - in south and south-west London.
Interestingly, Countrywide appears to come clean about motives. The "sale" has been planned for months, and it's apparently more about saving the company, which (according to S&P) was likely to run out of cash before the end of 2009, than the vendors. Still, a sale is a sale, and we're all grown-ups, aren't we?
Profits were up in the financial year to last April, from £64.9m to £67m. Of course, the key phrase, there, is to last April, which was before the credit crunch really began to hit the high end part of the market where KF do their deals. Still, there are bonuses. Forty-six partners, apparently, receiving an average of £780,000 each.
Salah Mussa, Chairman of the Mercantile Group comments: We see these difficult market conditions as an opportunity for the continued development of the Chesterton brand and we believe that Chesterton will thrive and enhance its position in this real estate market. I am very appreciative of all the value that Consensus has added to Chesterton over the years and I look forward to working with them on other endeavours in the future.”
How much? They're not saying. I wonder whether Chesterton still has its in-house historian?
Royal Bank of Scotland borrowers in arrears will now be allowed a six month head start, before the bank sends the repo-men in pursuit. As unemployment inevitably rises, it will be seen as good news by most, and is likely to become a common policy among the lenders. According to the BBC's Robert Peston, it will be seen as less than good news by the estate agents, who have apparently been relying on the disposal of repos as a revenue stream. It's not clear to me how (in reality) a month or two added to the normal period of grace is going to dry up the repo-market. More here.
Read the piece... it's about London agents learning new tricks, including open houses (I know... we saw a few of those during the boom) and stamp duty incentives. I'm sure there are more, though, and I've heard - on the vine - of one London agent who's turned half his office into a coffee shop. Any interesting examples near you? Drop me a line.
Estate agents are selling more homes: one more a week, in fact, at seven each in October. But they've more unsold properties on their books. More here.
It's peak? 80,000 boards a month. And just to show how bad things are, those figures include a 100% increase in demand for to let boards. It sounds like a mixture of estate agencies going down, and estate agents choosing to re-use tatty boards rather than order fresh ones. Good news for trees, though, I guess.
We're hearing - and from more than one source, now - that a leading UK estate agency is asking its partners to stump up a quarter of a million of personal money to keep things liquid. Big cheque, big problem. The name? We're just waiting for the Rat and Mouse legal department to give us clearance...
This, and a new report from the Centre for Economic and Business Research, that predicts as many as 50,000 estate agents could be without a job in the next nine months.
To put this into some kind of perspective, that's 300 a month from peak membership last year of 12,600, survivable – at that rate – for, realistically, how long? Three out of every four had either gone bust or removed because they hadn't kept up with fees. This suddenly makes a lot sense. And yet it seems like only yesterday.
The National Association of Estate Agents is calling on Alistair Darling to announce a complete suspension of stamp duty in his pre-budget report. Will that make more of a difference than cutting the base rate? When people still fear a significant further percentage fall in house prices, will a cut in the cost of moving encourage them to splash out?
It's an online agent known as TheDiscountPropertyShop and according to EstateAgentToday it's shifting properties at four times the national rate, by knocking 10% off the asking price and advertising super-wide.
The agency will deal with serious enquiries only... in other words: no mortgage, no solicitor, no conversation. So what does this mean? Are we 10% off a functioning property market? Or does a functioning estate agent need to be selling 10% below everybody else? It's certainly another win for the online model.
He's said to have nicked more than a million from people in Yorkshire, proving that people in Yorkshire had more than a million and Northern Rock had some serious data processing issues.
It's been around a full week and so far it's managed to find just seven signatures. Perhaps the strength of feeling among estate agents was exaggerated.
Innovative online estate agency Brightsale have announced a new partnership with north-west group Thornley Groves. How's it working? TG buys a 25% stake in Brightsale; Brightsale lists all its 650 properties, bringing its total listings to more than 900 (note that Brightsale isn't a search engine or portal... it's an agency that exists online).
It's an interesting development - you'd think hardly surprising at a time when agents are struggling to cover astronomical, 20th Century costs in a frail 21st Century market. But British estate agency is famously conservative. Watch this space.
A message from the National Association of Estate Agents' Peter Bolton King:
Propertylive.co.uk has already been inundated with enquiries and properties for listing; we anticipate a further upsurge in activity in the coming weeks. I would, however, like to ask that our members remain patient and allow Propertylive.co.uk a few weeks to get up and running. No other property portal has ever attempted to upload such a large number of listings in such a short space of time, therefore we will all see the site evolve substantially over the next few weeks and months.
Breaking early morning news... Rightmove is apparently waving goodbye to 20% of its workforce, as the housing slump bites, and agents get increasingly antsy with listings charges.
Do estate agents have a collective "bluff"? In any case, online agents Brightsale suspect it's being pulled, in a missive to members warning them that if they don't like current listings charges, they'll just have to, well, not like them. Meanwhile, the National Association of Estate Agents' own rival, PropertyLive, is finally available. So far (it's a beta), no mashups (other than a simple map), no fancies, just listings. Not many of those, either, but a pop-up tells us they're feverishly loading properties as we speak and, after all, you have to start somewhere.
A reader Rat and Mouse reader has just received this email from Lauristons in Wimbledon:
We are delighted to announce that for all instructions received before 31st December 2008 Lauristons are offering you the opportunity to sell your property for an unbeatable 0% selling fee. If you are interested or if you know anybody who may be interested in this unique offer please contact Danny Hicks, Sales Manager at your earliest convenience.
Our tipster adds:
What on earth is the thinking behind this? Maybe it's the old "yeah, we're losing money on each customer, but we'll make it up in volume!" approach....
I don't know... maybe it's a questions of dominating the area with boards in preparation of the upturn. Maybe it's about making sure that - if there is a sale - it's theirs.
A Rat and Mouse tipster has forwarded a new message from the NAEA to members. The new portal will, apparently, "be delivered on time at the end of this week". And if it isn't, it will presumably be delivered on time at the end of next week. Interestingly, it's the uptake that has apparently slowed things down, with "2,500 office applications to date". There's a reminder, too, that what we will see at the end of the week is, strictly, a beta. No mention of the pretender.
All our information suggested that today was the day when the National Association of Estate Agents' Rightmove-killer, PropertyLive.co.uk, was due to become functional. As yet - no sign of anything other than a static welcome page... and a bit of visible code on Google:
There is - however - a cheeky pretender, hovering above in the Google Sponsored Links banner - a PropertyLive.me, planning on catching a ride on the NAEA's coattails, perhaps?
It's an odd site... seemingly consisting of a handful of Knight Frank listings, and not much else. Where's the plan?
[thanks to the Rat and Mouse reader who alerted us to this]
you'll need to instruct a solicitor the same day your offer's accepted
your survey will need to happen in seven days
you'll need a written mortgage offer in 14 days
you've 21 days from receipt of contract papers to sign
even after the surveyor's report, don't expect to negotiate
The point, clearly, is to give the vendor a little more power and reduce - if you'll pardon the expression - some of the piss-taking and time-wasting currently in the system. We say... ambitious but laudable.
We don't know how popular PropertyADD is with London's agents, but its claims are impressive... a hosted solution that can be accessed anywhere, on any machine. It sends out automatic property updates to leads via email, SMS or MMS, tracks performance and exports data to the property portals. We're not making any recommendations, but equally we don't feel we'd be doing our duty in this time of need if we didn't let agents know... there's a new free version, a kind of PropertyADD lite, called Match. More here.
The days when estate agents told us everything was okay and the house price turn was merely a media invention are long over. You don't need to look far to find our agents telling it like is. In New York, however, it seems they play by more restrictive rules. Check the fall-out when one agent decides to throw a little skepticism at the idea of a $5m Park Avenue apartment achieving their asking price in the current climate.
Did I say open? Yes, I did. We have it on good authority that Humberts franchise Farleys will be opening a second office, at 60 Sloane Avenue, in November.
This is an extraordinary story in the Times's City Diary. Anybody else would be taking the Savills agents out for a well-earned slap-up lunch after sealing the £2.9m deal. Barry McKay is apparently less than delighted, and accuses Savills of misleading him over the identity of the buyer... a property developer called John Morris, who appears to have some history with Mr McKay.
McKay claims that he explicitly did not want his family home sold to Morris, who now has planning permission to build on it. He says that if he had known the identity of the ultimate owner, he would have demanded a higher price.
The house in question is in Sunningdale... a posh enclave of Berkshire, close to London.
A Savills estate agent has resigned after being discovered descending the stairs of a west country property in the middle of the night. An enquiry was cut short by his resignation, but there's talk of funny business between him and a female colleague.
You're so right, Paris, and the realness and not fakeness starts right here, baby. She says she's looking in St John's Wood. Who knows, perhaps she'll fall in love with a well-mannered, cute-accented St John's Wood estate agent, like James here, buy a house from him, get married, and scatter a little stardust on this havoc-blasted London property market.
The RICS have spoken, and it's bad. Nationally, estate agents made an average of 12.7 sales each in the three months to August. In London, the figure was worse... 9.4 transactions per agent or less than one a week. On the positive side, it's being reported that estate agents are getting really good at sudoku, and totally dominating a number of Nintendo DS titles. Perhaps cheered by this success, they've become (only) slightly less bearish in house price estimations... 81% more Chartered Surveyors reported a fall in house prices, but that's down from 83.1% in July, and it's the fourth consecutive move in the same direction. If you want to download the actual RICS report (in pdf format) click this.
Here's an interesting new service... moveBROKER helps agents squeeze revenue from every client, whether it ends in a sale or not. Through relationships with leading HIPs providers, solicitors, mortgage brokers, removals companies and utility switching services, it operates as a one-stop shop for agents to earn a range of commissions and rebates. There are two membership levels. One's free, the other costs £499, and includes higher rebates and monthly listings on Nestoria.
Energy Performance Certificates were due to be made compulsory on all marketed properties - including those that went on the market before the original HIPs introduction - from the start of October. Some estate agents have been predicting chaos... a swathe of homes without EPCs being withdrawn from the market at the last minute. Here's a Telegraph piece, dated last Saturday, claiming...
Hmm... if you read the piece carefully it's not at all clear that this is the case. It reads more like wishful-thinking combined with pressure on the part of EAT. The Department of Communities and Local Government's website is, as usual, clear, helpful and incisively written:
Over at Brand Republic, a "mystery caller" from the marketing department calls Foxtons and asks... do you think it's a good time to buy right now? To be fair, in the transcription, the Foxtons agent sounds pretty reasonable. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't want to put a potential buyer off, but he's not making grand claims or being particularly pushy, either. Ultimately, BR give him a five out of ten, not because he tries to mislead them, but because he sounds too cheery and optimistic. What do they want? Tears?
What's this? Madness? Inebriation? No, it's a press release. According to London estate agents Alex Neil, improving lending conditions are the first sign of the boom returning. While other offices are closing, AN continues to expand, "to meet high demand". What's more visits to the AN website are apparently up 218% in the last three months. They predict a 15% rise in London house prices. Which begs the question... what's everybody else doing wrong?
Meanwhile, according to the Halifax, university towns in southern England continue to do (comparatively) well. with properties selling at a premium of as much as 20%. More here.
South Audley Street's Blenheim Bishop is the latest estate agency to - according to this - wind up its sales division. Founder Jonathan Vandermolen is quoted as saying he simply can't make it work. The agency will, however, remain open for lettings business.
Accordiing to the Independent, Savills will reveal a 45% slump in business when it reports half-year results on Thursday, and all the talk will be about job cuts. Meanwhile Foxtons, just a year after a private equity buy-out, is apparently using NM Rothschild to restructure its debt. More here. Builders Bovis are also feeling the pain. The news here is that its profits have fallen by four-fifths in the first half of 2008... and that's being mirrored in the interim dividend payment, which will be 5p a share (from 17.5p last year).
That's according to figures from Debtwire, and they don't include agencies cutting down on staff. Debtwire estimate that as many as 4,000 offices could be closed by the end of the year, that's one in three UK estate agents. More here.
As the fallout from Rightmove's controversial insistence on charging agents higher re-joining fees continues, Globrix boss Daniel Lee tells EstateAgentToday that he thinks Rightmove's behaviour "reads like a suicide note". With so many hungry and ambitious recent start-ups snapping at Rightmove's heels, surely they couldn't have expected to get away with this without a few teeth marks. And this is interesting and potentially very significant:
However, Rightmove also faces another new challenge, in the form of Property Live, the National Association of Estate Agent’s new portal. This will be a free membership benefit and its launch is just weeks away.
That's according to research by the National Association of Estate Agents. Two-thirds of agents claim buyers have "expressed doubts" about going ahead; a quarter have actually seen deals fall through, overtly as a result of fears about buying before a Stamp Duty break. More here.
Yes, believe it or not someone at Jackson Stops & Staff was stupid enough to upload a property to Rightmove with the word 'lesbians' in the spot where the property reference number should have been. The gay couple who owned the £650,000 property were, understandably, horrified when they stumbled upon the advert a few days after it went live.
Although Jackson-Stops & Staff originally said they "fail to see how we have discriminated against you", they have now paid damages of £5,000 in an out-of-court settlement to avoid being sued. A spokesman at the estate agency’s head office has since described the incident as ‘a truly regrettable situation’. Quite. More here.
Oh joy of joys, if you're planning to sell your property in today's climate then you can now expect to pay more for the pleasure. According to The Telegraph, some estate agents are now upping their fees to 2.5% to boost their earnings as house prices fall.
Let's face it, traditional estate agency fees are always a sore point and many would argue that the typical 1-1.5% fee is cheeky anyway. So, should you walk away from an agent that now commands a 2.5% multiple agency fee? David Beakon, senior negotiator at Brighton-based Bonnets Estate agents doesn't care either way...
"If people walk away because the fee is too big then that is fine with us if it is something that we do not want to deal with."
With record low numbers of properties on agents' books, you'd think they'd be more inclined for the business, non?
Otherwise it's something of a low-key interview... a reserved but polite businessman, an enthusiast for Margaret Thatcher, proud of an estate agency empire and either unwilling to engage or unchallenged regarding Foxtons's controversial reputation. He does have a view on the market... a fast fall and a slow rise... give it five years, at least.
They sold an average of six properties each in June, which is bad... a 17% fall from May, and down from 13 properties by agent this time last year. More here.
The Rat and Mouse has been passed a remarkable document that's apparently dropping through London front-doors, purportedly courtesy of Knight Frank estate agency. Here's why Knight Frank agents greet you with a smile.
Sheeesh, I feel better now. That was like Prozac. Mixed with a very dry Martini. In fact, I can't even remember, now, why I felt so depressed before. Oh yeah...
Looks like it was my fault. Damn. To make amends, there's no way I'm going to bogart this Prozac-Martini stuff:
It's an actual, factual miracle. After reading Luke's words I turned to the stone effigy of the Rat and Mouse's own personal Madonna and found it crying wet tears of joy. It's a miracle put into perspective, though, by the fact it doesn't reflect on agreed prices, but does reflect a relatively unscathed top end of the market. Nevertheless, read it again and again, and enjoy.
One of the north east's biggest estate agencies, Sarah Mains, has apparently called in the police, after months on the receiving end of a damaging campaign of mischief and rumour-mongering. According to this, the MoneySavingExpert.com forum has been asked to remove a thread suggesting (falsely) that the agency is going into administration, a story apparently being promoted by unnamed sources, and even spread by rival agents. Asked to comment, Peter Bolton King (National Association of Estate Agents chief) reveals he's being sent hate mail. If any other agents have examples of being kicked while they're down?
In the Times, Hugo Rifkind draws comparisons between the shoe business on Frogstar B and estate agency in Camden. At some point, it became uneconomical to be in any business other than estate agency. Now everybody's a struggling estate agent. Nobody can afford anything. It's all over for Camden.
The incident occurred in Savernake Road, was photographed, and has resulted in some predictably righteous indignation from the Camden New Journal and a local Labour councillor. The errant agent is said to be from the Hampstead branch. Although he/she hasn't been named, they've reportedly been on the receiving end of a stern ticking off.
According to 61% of the estate agents surveyed, the slowdown will be over with in a year. Only 28% thought it would take more than a year, 7% more than three years. More here.
They've sold 45% less property in 2008's first six months compared to the same period last year, and in London they're reporting 7.5% off house prices (although, if they're selling that much less property their house price data isn't likely to mean so much). Above £5m, property remains "relatively immune". More here.
Could you tell me a little about the background to Property Stress Relief? How did the idea originate?
We were meeting lots of vendors who were very keen to sell through our property buying business, SecureASale.co.uk. However, many of them still wanted to hold out for the best possible offer and were having little luck on the open market. We ended up giving free advice on how to improve their chances of selling their property and one lady who lived 200 miles from her vacant flat, asked us to manage her sale for her, hence the birth of PropertySressRelief.co.uk
And your own background is in estate agency?
Yes - although for the first 6 years of my working life I was a professional pianist! I decided to join Foxtons in 2004 when I’d had enough of working long nights, and so went on to work long days AND nights!
When and why did you leave Foxtons?
I (we) left Foxtons in March this year. Speaking for myself, I had achieved everything I wanted to at the company from working up the ranks to running my own branch in Hampstead and increasing revenue by 70% in less than 2 years there. There’s a saying that you don’t earn where you learn and while Foxtons was an unbelievable organization to work for, it was time for me to create my own success.
What tangible solid skills are you bringing to the table with Property Stress Relief? What are you doing that the vendor couldn’t do him- or herself?
We are doing nothing that the vendor can’t do themselves – assuming they have unlimited time, are completely objective and unemotional about their property and have the confidence to manage their agent effectively. In truth, there’s a large dose of basic common sense in everything we do, but our record between the two of us is that of successfully selling 1500 properties in 4 years. We’ve dealt with every possible nightmare transaction, we know virtually every road in N and NW London as well as all the good solicitors, surveyors, reputable tradesmen etc. Our skill is that of re-energizing the marketing of a property, doggedly chasing agents for viewings and negotiating offers as well as possible for our client.
An odd time to launch an estate agency, you might think, but Simplyzigzag ("The People's Estate Agent") is a new and ambitious name combining DIY homesales with an online estate agency model. So which is it? Is it a DIY sales site or an estate agency? You decide. For £50, you get a three-month listing with five images, plus password protected access. For £500, Simplyzigzag act as a full agent, handling enquiries, organising viewings, and - most importantly - earning access to a number of portals that cater to agents-only, including Rightmove and PropertyFinder. For £1,500, your property's featured on the homepage, you get a dedicated account manager who'll oversee the entire process, from offer to closure, to liaising with the solicitor. Like other flat-fee agencies, they point out the money to be saved over the more conventional commission model. It's perhaps a more convincing argument at a time when property's selling easily. Right now, no-sale-no-fee might be more attractive than a £1,500 speculative punt. But £500 to put a property on Rightmove and PropertyFinder seems like a decent deal.
Estate agents aren't sleeping, according to a survey commissioned by Travelodge. They're apparently the most sleep-deprived British workers, managing just 5 hours and 50 minutes of shut-eye every night. Lorry and taxi drivers are next, with 6 hours and 16 minutes, followed by bankers with 6 hours and 23 minutes. The neat connection between these results and the credit crunch and fuel price crises made me - for a moment - doubt the veracity of the results. And I became more cynical after the claim that media professionals are sleeping the sleep of the just, with a survey-topping 7 hours and 12 minutes. Err... what about the parties? Presumably that's counting daytime desk-naps, too.
This has just arrived in our "comments" section. We can't publish the name of the agency at this stage...
Just heard through the grapevine that [a major high street estate agency] have been refused credit to lease new office equipment. They even couldn't get it agreed using backstreet lenders! Is this the start of things to come, no assets, huge debts and no income?
More - subject to the advice of our fifth floor legal department - later.
So what do you do when your boss "lets you go"? Accept that these are rough times for the sector, ask for a reference and seek employment with another estate agent? Perhaps leverage your experience to set up on your own... maybe online? Or perhaps you and a fellow employee invite your boss around to your home, tie him up, give him a sedative, stand on his head for a bit, pistol-whip him, threaten to execute his 13-year-old son if he doesn't give you £200,000, and finally phone his wife and accuse him of sexually assaulting you? Ambreen Gul, formerly of Sky Lord Properties in Ilford, apparently chose option three, in what sounds like a particularly nasty, violent and (considering the whole thing took place in her own home) stupid revenge attack. Waqas Malik, the victim, had hired her, fired her, so - although it seems unlikely at this point that he'd put her through a Myers-Briggs - he must have had some sense of her character. So what persuaded him to turn up to her flat? What do you think?
Gul had managed to entice her former boss - who spent four days in hospital after the ordeal - to her flat by pretending to be interested in... selling her home to him.
First, an astonishing claim in Sunday's Observer, that Jon Hunt might be considering buying back in. He sold Foxtons for £390m at just the right time. Now there's entirely unconfirmed chatter on the subject of him getting a foot back in the door cheap in order to help it meet its loan commitments.
In related - but different - news, the Rat and Mouse has had a number of emails from people claiming to be the driver of the Foxtons Mini filmed off-roading here. Obviously I wouldn't want to cast aspersions on the integrity of my readership... but there wouldn't be room in that car for all the people who've emailed. I demand proof. Would the real Foxtons rally driver please step forward?
Apparently, it's all over. According to the National Association of Estate Agents, first-time buyer sales are up, general sales are up, the time between instruction and sale is down. Now, it's all just a matter of confidence. Personally, I'm not confident. More here.
Former Director General of The Office of Fair Trading Sir Bryan Carsberg, after a low-profile roadshow on behalf of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in which he asked as what we thought about estate agents, published his findings today, with 30 recommendations. Ex-estate agent Henry Pryor is less than impressed:
The review that Sir Bryan undertook included a road show around the country where interested parties could contribute to an overdue debate. Unfortunately in at least one case it seems that the response was so poor that the event was cancelled. I managed to push my way past a dozen others who attended one consultation event in central London to find that even Sir Bryan didn't attend - leaving the evening to be compared by an RICS sponsor.
To the Mercantile Group, who bought 50% of Chesterton back during the troubles of 2005, for a reported £3.1m. The deal - we're told - involves 34 original offices plus another ten franchises. Fourteen branches not included in the deal are likely to be sold by the administrator. In recent months Humberts shares have suffered a 94% fall.
The Rat and Mouse is always interested to discover new and interesting ways in which estate agents are using social media (and I've long been urging agents to blog). Nor is this the first time we've come across houses for sale on Flickr. But we've really got to take our hats (bowler for the directors, R&M baseball caps for the interns) off to Barnet estate agents Alex Kale, who mixes homes for sale with pictures of his Staffordshire Bull Terrier and his Porsche 944 Turbo all on the same Flickr feed. Proving that, in a Web2.0 world, there is no separation between the private and the professional.
According to the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), 39% of agents are reporting tenant demand outstripping supply, and 77% of landlords are holding property with the intention of neither buying nor selling in the immediate future. A surplus of new-build two-bedroom flats is keeping rents stable in that particular area. In general, continuing demand looks likely, while it remains difficult to get a loan. More here. On the subject of loans, it's more difficult than it was to get one from Egg, the online bank owned by Citi, which - according to this - is pulling out of the mortgage market. It's also more expensive to get one from Busted & Broken, which is hiking rates across its offerings by as much as 0.55%. No doubt partly as a result, nobody's buying. According to figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) estate agents sold an average of 17.4 properties each in the three months to May. That's the lowest since records began in 1978. And they might be right to be wary. Data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) points to 23,000 potential negative equity cases in homeowners who took out 100% mortgages in the year to March 31. More on both those stories here. Finally, the other piece in the jigsaw, also supplied by the RICS, might surprise you. Sentiment - the estate agent/surveyor swellness quotient - improved marginally in May on less bad than expected sales figures. So, technically, what the figures reveal is marginally less rates of unswellness. More here.
Just some closing news and views before the Rat and Mouse puts on its Friday night shoes and heads out to dance the Fishstick... lenders are apparently interpreting yesterday's Bank of England decision to keep interest rates on hold by keeping interest rates on hold. And, er, raising them. Abbey and Broken and Busted have hiked rates, others - we suspect - to follow shortly. And in other news, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) predicts that 5% of estate agents will lose their jobs this year. That's 15,000 estate agents with even more time to send anonymous tips to the Rat and Mouse. But then they're also predicting there'll be 1% fewer people in work across the board. So - there you are, guys - it's not all bad news. Have a great weekend.
Wow - that's from Plebble.com... a website that dares to go places other websites' lawyers might have deemed off-limits. Plebble allows users to rate customer service and value-for-money, and provide rolling averages. Foxtons isn't doing great... in fact, they're even doing worse than the Government:
The problem - as with any social media - is the potential for mischief making, and we all know that Foxtons tends to carry the can for the public's generalised (and often irrational) distaste for estate agents. That said, the above allegation (about which we know absolutely nothing, other than it exists on the Pebble website, and so can't and won't comment on its reliability) is extraordinary. We'd love to know exactly how a viewing or valuation could possibly turn into a rumpus.
UPDATE 18.30PM - WE'VE JUST BEEN CONTACTED BY PLEBBLE.COM. THEY HAVE APPARENTLY TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED THE ABOVE COMMENT WHILE THEY DISCUSS IT WITH THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE.
Seems like an odd time to open a new branch, but that's exactly what Foxtons is doing. The Camden office - at 120 Parkway - opens its doors on Saturday, June 14, and will be celebrating their new premises with cappuccini and zero commission for the first 200 instructions. It's a courageous way of winning business from the rivals and getting a bunch of Foxtons boards about, but how will the zero percenters fair compared to the other clients when it comes to pushing homes?
I once convinced a gullible friend that I'd met a man who'd exchanged and completed on a new home, only to turn up there, put the key in the "door" and discover that the whole property was made of paper. It was basically a giant, 3D photograph of a house. I thought I'd been pretty smart, until I read this. Here's the (true) story of fake lettings agent Nuruazzaman Miah, who described luxury apartments so well to would-be tenants that they parted with money without even seeing any bricks and mortar. He apparently managed to collect £3,000 from one prospective tenant in a train station... which is arguably less believable than the whole paper house story.
Okay, Thurrock's beyond the M25 (actually, I had to look it up), but this kind of estate agency craziness can't go uncelebrated. Russell Quirk, of Quirk Deakin, is promising to pay the difference if any house he sells is worth less in five years. He's gambling on a regeneration of Thurrock (part of the Thames Gateway expansion) and that five years is enough time for values to pick up again. Brave? Misguided? Read more here.
Brightsale’s Andy Etches tells me that listings on his website have risen 25% a month since February and that viewing levels are higher than in August 2007. He believes that vendors who would have used Brightsale alongside a traditional agent last year are happier to use the website alone, and even more people are considering adding Brightsale’s services to their high street representation. With low overheads built into the business plan, the company’s well positioned to deal with the current downturn.
Halifax was one Rightmove's founding partners, along with Countrywide, Connells and Royal & Sun Alliance, but the news is that they've just bailed, selling their entire 13.1% holding. Rightmove's share price has dropped today, but not catastrophically. The sale follows bearish predictions by Rightmove, a company whose fortunes are linked closely with the fortunes of the housing market. More here.
Eighty offices, 700 staff and a suspension in trading "pending clarification of its financial position". Part owned by colourful private equity billionaire Vincent Tcheguiz, Humberts issued a profits warning in January, and fired some of its executive appointments. Two days ago the new chairman began to express doubt about the company's future... whether it could meet conditions that would enable a rescue package. The Rat and Mouse says... watch this space, closely.
According to research by Debtwire, there were 13,000 estate agents offices in January and now there are only 12,000, with each office employing on average four agents. (If you think you've seen the missing 4,000 estate agents, please let us know.) By extrapolating from the figures, there's talk of 600 estate agents handing over their clip boards and keys every single week. More here.
... where they're warning of a 25% house price crash, between now and the beginning of 2010. Savills' Yolande Barnes is, however, also pointing out that it's in the power of the lenders to turn this into a 6% dip, by lending money once again. If you're shopping in the £5m+ bracket (see below) you don't need to worry too much.
They apparently launched last month, but we somehow must have missed it. AgentQuote are an interesting online proposition... if you're a vendor, you register with them (for free), fill in a little information about the property you wish to sell, you sit back and wait for agents to "quote" for your business, letting you know how many potential viewers they've registered on their books and their rates of commission. Since commissions are pretty much similar across the board - and, in practice, open to last minute negotiation or matching - this probably isn't the most useful aspect. And I'd be very interested to know how AgentQuote intend to check up on an agent's "potential viewers" claims. AgentQuote say they'll be offering a comparison service, too - with agents rated by previous clients. Agents have to register, too, to receive leads... and this is the business bit of the business plan. AgentQuote will charge to add estate agents to their list... because, of course, agents have lots of spare money to throw around right now. We'll be watching this closely.
It was an expensive house - so we're talking about a considerable amount of commission, shifted to Hamptons in the Court of Appeal a couple of days ago. Why I am I writing about this? Because the story's interesting - in a technical kind of way - and might have repercussions for estate agents in the future. A Mrs Bicknall appointed Foxtons to sell her rather expensive house. When they didn't... she enlisted the help of Hamptons, and changed the Foxtons agreement from sole agency to multiple. While Foxtons were sole agents, they'd shown the house to a Mr and Mrs Low... but the Lows hadn't bitten. When Hamptons showed the Lows around, they did bite, and eventually exchanged. Foxtons caught wind of this later, and demanded their kickback commission, pointing to a clause in their contract that stated she'd be liable if she sold the house to "a purchaser introduced by them". Foxtons took her to court, and won. And it's that decision that was overturned a couple of days ago. The appeal judge based his decision on the definition of "purchaser". A purchase is apparently a purchaser when he decides to purchase. When Foxtons introduced the Lows, they weren't purchasers... they became purchasers afterwards. Interesting. You can read the full report - if you can be bothered - here.
I know some journalists and some estate agents are arrogant but in the same way King Canute thought he could stop the tide anyone that seriously thinks they can affect the market is mad. Everyone is tired (and it’s partly why people think all estate agents are thick) of hearing agents talking the market up. What’s wrong with giving accurate up-to-date info?
I’ve moved 26 times since leaving home at 18. Mainly around London and the south of England, but also a very Hicksville part of Southern Texas, the Amish part of Pennsylvania and Chicago. Let’s just say I have a low boredom threshold.
We were meeting lots of vendors who were very keen to sell through our property buying business, SecureASale.co.uk. However, many of them still wanted to hold out for the best possible offer and were having little luck on the open market. We ended up giving free advice on how to improve their chances of selling their property and one lady who lived 200 miles from her vacant flat, asked us to manage her sale for her, hence the birth of PropertySressRelief.co.uk
An odd time to launch an estate agency, you might think, but 
