It’s been another hectic week for the industry, here is what has caught our eye.
First: Online agents
How do you know if an online agent has sold a property? Well usually it helps if a traditional agent doesn’t claim it.
Recently, the Mail reported that a buyer got a bargain when he paid £17m for a home originally marketed at £24m by a firm called My Online Estate Agent, while the vendor apparently saved a substantial six-figure sum by using an online agent.
The online agent, which charges sellers £495, was said by the Mail to have saved the seller £300,000 in fees by not going through a high street agent.
The Mail also reckoned that the £17m was the highest price ever achieved by an online agent.
But now the story – which EYE reported on, wondering if our readers saw a slightly different angle – has taken an unexpected twist.
The property in question was placed with a high street agent – who sold it.
Furthermore, that agent is no less than Knight Frank, and the price the property was being marketed at was not £24m but £17m.
There was plenty of praise for our investigations from readers.
Kites1664 said: “Oh Dear, not a call centre agent exaggerating about how much they have saved clients and the newspapers believing and promoting it, surely this cannot be true.
“Well done for following up on the story though.”
PeeBee said: “Thank you, Ros, for running with this one!
“It’s nice to see that a site which is primarily here to relate the news can actually show how news should actually be reported.
“Daily Mail – look carefully at how it’s done.”
Second: Rogue landlords
The fight against rogue landlords and lettings agents continued this week.
At least some were held accountable this week.
First a fraudster who posed as a letting agent and conned tenants out of over £25,000 was jailed.
Seven years ago, Adam Coote, 36, from Shoreditch London, was jailed for an identical scam, when he used a different name plus what was described as a string of pseudonyms.
Coote was sentenced for his latest scam by Judge Jeffrey Pegden at Southwark Crown Court and received 28 months in jail.
His accomplices Andrew Rickard, 51, and Sahila Kauser, 34, had been sentenced earlier – Rickard to 18 months in jail and Kauser to 18 months suspended for two years, so that she could look after the couple’s children.
Separately, the landlord of a flat is almost £18,000 worse off and has a criminal record after being punished in court for refusing to make vital renovations to his rental property.
Paul Fenton, of Hertfordshire village of Radlett, pleaded guilty at Willesden Magistrates Court to offences under the Housing Act 2006, having failed to explain how the flat that he was letting for £1,000 per month had fallen into such a bad state.
The property in Cricklewood, north London, had such severe damp and mould that the chairman of magistrates said it was not fit to live in. Among other problems, it also had a dilapidated, leaking boiler and a rotting front door.
Third: Target practice
Do targets help motivate agents? That is the latest debate on The Arena forum.
LocalAgent201625 said: “Targets are a necessity, as it gives the individual direction and focus, and when those targets a hit a sense of achievement is a very rewarding feeling. It’s just about what targets you set, the consequences of not hitting those targets and rewards for achieving/exceeding those targets is a key factor in motivating people.
“I usually worked off the basis of how much money per viewing, or per market appraisal a negotiator would make. Seems drastic but when converting into money you see a completely different more motivated side to people.”
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