An online estate agent has strongly denied under-selling a property.
At a round table debate on online versus traditional estate agents, reported on Eye, high street agent Jamie Lester, of Haus in Fulham, west London, produced a print-out from the eMoov site showing a property listed at £565,000 and showing as sold subject to contract.
Lester said he knew the road well and he would have valued the property at £889,200.
Lester gave the example as proof of the value to a vendor of a high street agent’s local knowledge.
But after the debate, Quirk said the property in question was listed 18 months ago, when property values were lower. He said it had sold quickly, and for above its asking price.
Quirk also produced Rightmove evidence of prices in Chaldon Road, including two very similar properties, sold by Chestertons at about the same time and which had both been listed at just under £500,000.
Lester, however, confirmed to Eye that he had taken the print-out only 24 hours before the round table on Wednesday last week.
Quirk said: “It could have been displayed temporarily as our new site was only published ten days ago. We are still migrating content over and some old stock could possibly have slipped through for a short period whilst the developers sorted the new structure.
“I have no doubt that Jamie was acting in good faith, but we need to be very careful in attempting to highlight any ‘disparity’ which may be entirely false.
“There is no difference in agent ability or approach here. I do hope that the online versus traditional debate can stay honest.”
However, this morning Lester said that the property in question had actually completed on July 12 last year for £550,000, working out at £561 per sq ft.
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/46-chaldon-road/london/sw6-7nj/27654945
By contrast, a house in the same road completed just two months later after being sold by Chestertons for £1.15,000, working out at £913 per sq ft.
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/55-chaldon-road/london/sw6-7nh/30573499
Lester said: “That particular road will not vary much in price per sq ft, and houses and flats will value at similar prices.”
Comments (14)
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Oh, dear – the usually quick-on-the-draw Quirk is keeping his peashooter firmly in his holster on this article comment thread, isn't he?
Don't tell me – you're simply too busy to post, aren't you?
What about your PR Minion, then – he's usually good for a laugh? Or how about Mr Bee You Tee Tee – can't even he afford a few minutes to tell the world how fantastic you all are?
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Oh dear – I smell a spammer…
Okay…
"…after the debate, Quirk said the property in question was listed 18 months ago, when property values were lower. He said it had sold quickly, and for above its asking price."
According to Zoopla, the property was listed on 23 January 2013, at a price of £565,000.
According to Land Reg figures, it sold on 12 July 2013, for £555,000.
So – does a completion FIVE MONTHS after Listing qualify as it having "sold quickly"?
And since WHEN did a sale being agreed at £10,000 BELOW quoted price qualify as being "above its asking price"?
Like you said, Mr Quirk –
"I do hope that the online versus traditional debate can stay honest.”
BUT, in order for it to STAY honest, there needs to be honesty at the start.
Doesn't there?
Empathy. Get some ! it's good for business.
Mr Vendor attains 5 "valuations" from 5 uber experienced, oozing local knowledge, customer orientated, expert agents (who all r e a l l y listen), and he gets 5 different figures. Huh !
"But, it's a people business" ! yeh ? as opposed to what ?
It's not a product business, for one reason. The products are all the same. Identical. That, is where Mr Quirk gets to stick his muddy boot in your door, and those agents who fail to differentiate themselves, leave the door open for him.
The shelf stackers are his target, 'cos his beans are cheaper than your beans.
In this day and age, all agents are internet agents – it's just that some of us have offices too.
However, a firm which suggests is it at the forefront of online business has no excuse for such a basic error – unless there was another reason.
This is one overlooked advantage of having an office window; the little red corner flash that shouts SOLD to the passing world. With no window the online agencies have to run a system that announces success even if it is very rapidly out of date.
The quandary for online passive intermediary listers whose business model dictates that more money is taken for the listing part of the model than the selling part is how to shout success when that isn't what they are all about.
We are not troubled by PI agencies down here but the obvious answer is to track all properties listed, all properties sold and simply present the statistics provided. At present about 2% of property is sold through online agencies. It is fair to say that 2 people in 100 are saving themselves money ( although how much is saved can’t really be individually quantified) however it is equally fair to say that 98 people in 100 hand over up to £1000 (Adam Day figure from Autumn 2013) but never sell their property as a result.
The more telling part is probably that 'Solds' from 18 months is still floating around.
In a fast moving market like London having to rely on sales from 18 months ago to show they can sell property probably says more about their 'success' than any competitior ever could.
I can fully understand why Jamie would point out the out- datedness of the sale price but stuff like that is far more effective sat there out of date and shouting either "Look at us we are behind the ball on valuations" or "Look at us we last sold something like this 18 months ago"
It is only very rarely benfeficial to tell the competition what they are doing wrong.
Everyone and their dog knows why that property was there, it hasn't helped Mr Quirk's credibility to blame the developers.
Come on……we could all find "evidence" that any agent had "undersold" a property………….the agent could equally then find "evidence" that they didn't… such is the vast ammount of property info (much innacurate) that is swimming around in RM plus archives……Interesting to note that Rm have started to take off alot of archive stuff from RM plus…..no doubt going to start to sell their archives to agents in the near future.
£889,200 wow that sounds a precise valuation!
Yeah – I chuckled at that when I read the original story last week!
"I do hope that the online versus traditional debate can stay honest.”
YOU lead, Mr Quirk.
I'm sure everyone will follow your lead.
As a so called 'agent' the lease Mr Quirk can do is get the figures right…£300k off is a lot by anyone's money!