We’d be failing in our duty if we didn’t point Eye readers in the direction of national media coverage of industry matters.
First up is Jonathan Ely in the Financial Times (see link below) who has chosen to quote the ONS house price – which, as we have pointed out, is some £80,000 more than the Land Registry’s.
Based on the ONS, he reckons the average agent’s commission on a sale is nearly five grand. But what, he asks, do they do to earn it?
“Agents do a good line about how there’s more to it than you think,” he asserts.
Well, Eye would like once again to point out that agents don’t do nearly enough of a good line about how there’s more to it than Joe Public thinks.
In a million years, Eye could not negotiate the sale of our home (we’d take the first pathetic offer out of sheer terror and then gazunder ourselves in our eagerness to please). We couldn’t hold a chain together. We couldn’t close the deal. And of course, we wouldn’t have access to Rightmove, Zoopla and, from January, OnTheMarket.
We sold our last home, pre-internet days, in less than 24 hours to the couple who 38 years later still live there. Our estate agent – the great Duncan Vincent in person – came over on a Sunday morning to measure up. We agreed to sell next day, before the agent managed to print the details.
I can honestly say that we have never once queried the fee we paid or thought it was over the top. We would not have found the buyer without this agent.
The last property we sold, much more recently, was a sale in Norwich which sadly proved to be a probate one in the end. How many agents would visit an elderly aunt in a nursing home, speechless and paralysed after a stroke, to take the instruction? Howards did, and did so with respect and kindness. They showed the same courtesy in their weekly telephone feedbacks.
As the FT article points out, Rightmove and Zoopla are obviously forces to reckon with, and Ely is quite right to call Rightmove the “chief disrupter”.
But anyone who thinks that all an agent has to do is stick a property on the portals and the rest will take care of itself, is seriously mistaken.
Second up is a piece in the Telegraph on Estates Direct which has had some research commissioned, which apparently shows nearly 50% of people want to sell their homes themselves.
Interestingly, a top reason is that someone selling their own home would “deliberately hide any faults/issues with the house or area”.
Obviously, they don’t know that’s illegal.
But then wanting to sell your own home seems about as sensible as wanting to take your own tonsils out.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/19b8a1de-43fc-11e4-baa7-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=uk#axzz3EQ7bownp
Funny isn't it, for reasons beyond a stupid old timer like me it seems that to set up one of these highly cost effective non high street outfits you need 2 things, the first is millions of pounds of someone else's money and the second is a stick up your jacksie about the estate agent industry that often you've never worked a single day in but set your stall out on being better / disruptive / fill in your PR line here. Looking at current non high streeters getting your investment back is a slow burn as well, basic maths suggests some of the particularly shouty ones might have billed 500 or 600 grand at six hundred odd quid a pop, is that disrupting the market, who knows? – Jonnie
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I don't doubt that every decent agent has hundreds of testimonials to call upon. Eyes story above reminded me of this received at one of my offices earlier this year;
"On behalf of the six sellers of the property, I am writing to thank you and your team for the efficient way you set about selling the house for us.
On first visiting your office, we were made to feel that selling our house was important to you.
The follow-up visit, the same afternoon, to view the property and suggest a suitable price range based on properties already sold in Cedar Road and give us a clear statement of cost and the services you would provide, made us feel that we were dealing with professionals who understood both the business and the market. There were a number of early potential buyers who sought to purchase the house below your lower limit. I suspect that these were speculators hoping to get in early before the availability of the house was generally known. It was not long however before you found a first time buyer who made an offer within the price range that you had predicted. Progress was inevitably slow because of the number of documents that had to be signed by all six sellers with them living as far apart as the Medway Towns, the New Forest, Cornwall and Bulgaria. In spite of this, we were regularly kept informed on developments as the sale progressed. In fact we were told that contracts had been exchanged and the date of completion before we were informed by our own solicitor.
When I needed an energy efficiency report you produced one. When I needed a Corgi qualified Gas Engineer you were able to recommend one straight away. Buying or selling a house can be a stressful business and it is something that I have only done three or four times but you and your team took all the hassle out of the experience and made it as trouble free as possible.
Thank you for the efficient way you set about your task.
Thank you for your friendliness throughout the sale.
We would be pleased to use your services again and to recommend your company to a potential buyer or seller – Mr Taylor – January 2014"
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Well done and to every at phoenix. That vendors are precisely the point of what an estate agency is. It is not an advertising business as pushed by web only companies and lazy agents leading to the poor perception by many Joe Public. It is a SERVICE INDUSTRY.
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