Online agent eMoov has claimed that high street agents are putting homes on the market over-priced to the tune of £74,000.
It claims this is the gap between the average “sold” price in the UK with Rightmove’s average listing price.
However, its maths could be considered slightly unusual.
It says the average sale price is £207,000. It took this by averaging the Land Registry, ONS, Halifax and Nationwide house price surveys for the final quarter of last year, so the end result could be bristling with the usual seasonal adjustments.
According to eMoov, the average Rightmove listing price is £281,000 – although in fact this was the listing price only of properties new on the market as measured in March.
The company also did research among 2,018 adults in England and Wales in February.
It found that 30% of those selling a property placed getting the highest price as the most important factor in the selling process. This is in contrast to the 8% of those surveyed who valued a quick sale as the most important factor.
The research also found that 56% of those surveyed would list their property at a price recommended by their agent, regardless of the market value of that property. A further 36% would list at a higher price than recommended by their agent, rising to 41% in the capital, where 31% of Londoners stated that getting the highest price was of the greatest importance.
Only 4% of all those asked said that they would list lower than the price quoted by the agent.
Russell Quirk, eMoov’s founder, said: “Unfortunately it’s a commonplace practice in the high street sector. The agent is driven by a percentage fee so they will overprice a property to try their luck, win the business and increase their profit margins.
“Understandably the seller opts for the agent that claims they can get the highest price, as we are all motivated, to some extent, by money. Then, as regular as clockwork, the agent will ring them a few weeks down the line and ‘advise’ on a lower asking price in order to sell.
“Yes, it is in part down to the seller. If someone has it in their head they should achieve x amount, they will list at this regardless of what advice they receive. However ,as the professional hired to aid the sale, the agent should always provide a realistic, truthful valuation based on what the market at the time dictates.”
I wonder if Mr Quirk realises just how daft he has made himself appear and why he just picked at a scab he should have left well alone?
Right here is the heart and soul of the advantage traditional Agency both High Street and Online (local) has over central office/area rep agencies. It is also at the root of why the online random number generator valuation models are fundamentally flawed.
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How would emoove even know how to value a property? They have so few comparables!
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Comparables data is far too freely available, Rightmove, Zoopla and land registry seem to distribute Agents’ data with little regard for it’s commercial value or who actually owns it. Emoov, Purplebricks, Hatched, Optimhome and Easy and their likes certainly could not trade at all without piggy backing such data, but that isn’t the differentiator; there is an unobtainable, on any practical level, little bit of agency that will always elude central office/ area rep online agencies that make them simply unable to compete by service.
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These listing companies do have access to land registry and can look on RM etc for comparable properties but they do not know the area or what buyers i the area look for or what else has been seen or coming to the market. I would be very cautious as most are of accepting a valuation from one of these listing companies. Heck even a number of them ask vendors to get a valuation from a local agent!
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It isn’t right that data aggregators are distributing information that ought to be confidential and there certainly isn’t any public benefit that I can fathom in the land registry being quite so cavalier with what ought to be the most personal of data.
However with such a thin spread covering across the country the very basics of setting a price on any product in any market place is absent. Localised to the central office a firm might believe it can operate nationally with the same model but it is the illusion of national online masking what is online local agency that is really being played out. Step a few miles down the road to not quite so local and the absence of supply/demand knowledge and understanding takes over and even with a life support system from Rightmove, Zoopla and a local rep the market view is so narrow it is useless.
I have to admit when these stories come up I have to wonder if traditional agency is missing the opportunity to compete effectively with internet listing/ passive intermediary firms and if so I can’t work out is if that is a confidence thing, a knowledge thing or even whether it is just down to the fact that at best such firms are your competitors’ competition more than they are yours and therefore aren’t really a realistic threat worth worrying about.
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Robert i think i am having a thick moment! – I understand the first part but unfortuantley nothing we as agents can do about it.
As for the rest of your comment you have lost me i’m afraid! – Are you agreeing with me that onliners are poor at valuing property?
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As an agent it is your data and have every right to ask Rightmove and Zoopla not to use your data for their own purposes and prevent them from using your data as a revenue stream or pass it on to third parties. Same with your software suppliers. You ought to check exactly what is in your terms especially if you are using a cloud system that is hosted away from your office. Without your data no one else could or should benefit. If RM and Zoopla disagree you then have a choice; does the value of leads generated outweigh the business lost to the competition you are inadvertently facilitating?. Your software supplier should not be accessing your data, your software supplier certainly shouldn’t be passing on your data and your software supplier shouldn’t be profiting from your data simply because they have access to it.
Sorry about losing you on the second bit it is me over thinking things, I can’t work out why agents are not hitting the central office firms clean out of the water. I can’t work out whether it is because they are cautious about the obvious way to deal with the short term threat,- price match/ undercut them on a like for like basis. Whether Agents hadn’t understood that is what they could do or whether the 2% threat from central office online agencies is such a small percentage of their overall competition it is hardly worth worrying about.
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They are are not poor at valuing property they are not valueing property and can not value property- they are guessing or being guided by the online random number generators your data is fuelling.
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smile please – sorry to sound like Robert’s BDM… but I REALLY think that you and he need to talk!
Trust me… I’m an Estate Agent! ;o)
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Talk about own goal! Use a high street agent and they have the motivation to get you the best price! Why Err thanks Russell.
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Talking dribble is one thing. Only a few people hear it and laugh. Putting it in print nationally I suppose has the upside that even more people can have a laugh!
Mr Quirk should spend a few days behind the desk of a “real”estate agent. I am sure he would be impressed with all we do! And it might help him stop talking and writing dribble
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Typhoon – whilst I understand fully where you’re coming from and agree in the main part I think it only fair to point out that Mr Quirk HAS walked in our moccasins – many times I believe – and ran a “traditional” Estate Agency.
Funny, innit, that he now has so much negativity to spout in regard to a career that in past clearly made him very comfortable.
Certainly makes me wonder what he will be ranting about in five years…
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We have come across vendors asking us for a valuation along with another agent and then using the information we give to put it with one of these vendor direct websites.
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Cant believe I missed this little chestnut when I read the other drivvel from simplehouse…….here we are, Quirky boy getting all revved up, nice to see he’s changed his title to ‘founder’ and has at least nodded towards the fact is not the boss anymore since he sold his buns to Faisal Butt, anyway, in other news where facts are used, only a tiny percentage of the house selling public use budget agents and here is our resident gob on a stick showing us why – Jonnie
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A property is worth what someone who can get the funding is willing to pay.
Online, off line, traditional and budget. There are good and bad agents in all the boxes.
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As property typical achieves around 95/96% of asking price then the real difference is around £11,000. What a load of utter tosh. I would be embarrassed to even have supported that methodology.
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Mr Quirk
May I presume we have your attention today? The ‘Dislike’ which will appear within minutes will confirm one way or another that SOMEONE from your company is reading – but to be frank I’d like YOU to respond rather than leaving it to one of your Marketing Minions who don’t know a bargeboard from a Bison beam, which as a practicing Estate Agent I would expect you to be well able to differentiate. After all – it is YOUR company that is behind this “press release” and YOUR comments that allegedly support it, so YOU should be best placed to handle reasonable questioning.
1. The report quotes “averages”. In particular, “average” asking price and “average” sale price. Please therefore confirm
* eMoov’s CURRENT average ASKING price
* eMoov’s CURRENT average SALE price
2. As this is all about the alleged practice of High Street Agents ‘listing’ properties at prices that subsequently require adjustment – by some 35.7% (average) according to the inference of your “statistics” – perhaps you could shed some light upon why, when I check the listings of eMoov using Zoopla’s wonderful “Most Reduced” facility (even I can find ONE occasional use for the otherwise awful website…), I find properties have been reduced by as much as 46.2%%? In fact, over TWO HUNDRED properties (in excess of 13%) on your register have had price reductions of 5% or more – so could you please explain why, when the Agent in question allegedly has no motive or reason to “overvalue on purpose to win the business”, the above scenario is the reality?
3. Needless to say I am intrigued by the result of the second graph, and crave to know what could possibly constitute “Other”. Whatever it (…or they…) is, some 80 people apparently plumped for it – but a fourth response to a three-answer question is one that only you and your skewed statistical gymnastics could possibly make appear from within the smoke and mirrors that this entire “report” emanates from.
I’ll leave you with those three for now. I’m sure you’ve already made a start on next week’s billshuttery so don’t want to distract your attention from the job in hand – but I look forward to your responses, Mr Quirk.
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I would reply to your questions, however I am merely a “Marketing Minion”
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I like a person who knows their place and limitations. Tell your boss, then – you shouldn’t be trying to justify his claims.
UNLESS, of course, they are not his claims… then feel free to knock yourself out.
Where’s my “Dislike”? You’re slow off the mark today…
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Still …erm… “working on the figures”, Mr Quirk?
No problem – I’ve got all the time in the world… and every minute that goes by doesn’t make ME look like I’m ignoring perfectly reasonable questions in the slightest…
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