An Eye reader who has sat through all three of the Sarah Beeny programmes, How to Sell Your Home, says he has yet to notice any mention of mandatory EPCs.
It is a good point: has he, or we (because Eye watches it too), been missing something?
We were, by the way, intrigued with Monday’s night’s programme where one property (a two-bedroom flat) was valued by the high street agent at £350,000 to which the seller acted in the obvious way – sticking it on at £425,000.
After counselling by Sarah, he reduced it to £415,000. It didn’t sell, of course, even when he reduced it to £395,000.
Perhaps it did not help either that he fat-fingered the price to £3.95m – but then as Eye readers may recall from a recent story about a three-bed semi on The Wirral priced at £1.45m, that is not without precedent.
Eye also liked the Essex couple whose four-bed arts and crafts house had been on with a high street agent at £750,000 for three months – so they decided to take matters into their own hands.
Having splashed out on a new bathroom plus other bits and pieces, they marketed it online at £725,000 and got an offer in the first week, thereby saving themselves £12,500 in estate agency fees, according to the programme – or as their local newspaper prefers to call it, a “whopping £13,500”. They also cancelled other viewings which they had lined up, to accept the first offer they received.
Er, as we constantly have to confess, maths is not our strong point. But surely, if the high street agent had got £740,000 for it, they’d have been better off.
And remember, they had spent around the same amount as the “saving” on their cosmetic improvements to the property.
Here’s how the Romford Recorder carried news of the couple’s wonderful saving.
Granny flat owner failed to mention he further reduced it to £375k. His decision to become a landlord interestingly coincideded with two identical flats in the road coming on at……wait for it…£350. Surrey1 escapes reputation in tact for another day 🙂
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Well done…..shame they didn't make more of the advice given on the programme…you did us proud.
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30 minutes filmed of sound advice edited to 10 seconds of "that's the price", much as I anticipated.
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Thanks Rosalind for a well constructed article. easy to read and hit the spot! I wonder what The Property Ombudsman would say about Mrs Beenys' failure to act in the vendors best interests and ensuring the best possible deal is achieved.
That said I can't really blame or for promoting her brand. Rightly or wrongly, she has achieved what she set out to achieve and that is get more exposure!
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I absolutely LOVE this programme – I am a high street estate agent and proud of it. What this programme shows me (and I hope the rest of the TV viewing public) is that a good estate agent is worth every single penny. I am more than happy for Mr Granny Flat to waste his own time rather than mine and take his smug attitude and place it where the sun don't shine. And the maths behind the £750k house was just glorious – "We spent the money anyway and took a lower price – aren't we clever!"
To be honest though I do wonder if the online estate agents might actually be doing the rest of us a favour… They can deal with the people who don't value an estate agent and we can deal with the ones that do, allowing us to give a better quality service to the people who deserve it rather than chase around after cheap fee customers who demand stupid things.
Every cloud has a silver lining!
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I would have liked to know how much the chap got to rent out his 'granny flat'.
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Precisely ……. "They can deal with the people who don't value an estate agent and we can deal with the ones that do, allowing us to give a better quality service to the people who deserve it rather than chase around after cheap fee customers who demand stupid things".
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Thank goodness for on line agnets, a natural home for granny flat man! However, the reality of the Essex house is that an estate agent failed to sell, and they succeeded online. Why didn't that agent recommend the improvements to help marketing. The granny flat man proves why online can help agents, keeps the dross out.
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Beresfords (the agent that had it before) are actually a really good estate agent (and no, I don't work for them). If you look at their presentation it was good, they actually had it on the market "offers in excess of £725,000" not £750,000. The market in that area was stronger when Housesimple took it on (after the timeframe of the work). The arial shot was good, but I do think that the previous agent would have got a better price after the work. It is also worth noting that they were actually signed up at 1% with the agent not, as the programme claimed, 1 and a half % which is very misleading for viewers. In fact I have only ever seen online agents basing their "savings quotes" on 1 and a half to 4% which, I'll bet is NOT the overall "norm" nowdays?
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It is a good headline that will 'prove' the value of the online agents if they are scaremongering over fees. Now here's a thought, Beresfords, a well established agent and if they were doing good presentation why were they only charging 1%? If a client will not pay a reasonable fee, and point blank refuse to, it means they don't value you or your advice and work and will be a bad client! QED, they were sacked and went to an online agent. In an easy market there will always be little vitories for new ideas, but there are up to 1.5m transactions over the whole country, work smarter at being better and being valued for your service. Natural selection and survival of the fittest!
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Well said, P-Daddy. I was wondering whether anyone was actually going to spot that the high street agents evidently failed to get the job done.
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Sarah Beeny does not appear to use any EPC details on her site ! Even though the regulations state: Advertising the EPC rating of a property
All sales or lettings advertisements for properties must show the A-G energy rating (EPC=C).
If the EPC has not been produced when the advert is placed the advert should state this, e.g.
awaiting EPC / EPC to follow.
It is acceptable to include the rating anywhere in the advert & print it in any font or size
providing it is readable & it is clear which property it applies to.
But obviously it is OK as she is a champion of the consumer.
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Well… on the subject of EPCs and Ms Beeny's "successful/established/insert adjective here – minimum 10 letters – online estate agency", here's what the site says (please note the stated date carefully…):
"What is an energy performance certificate?
By T****o on Wednesday, 14th August 2013 17:10
A required certificate that shows how energy efficient your house is…
These are required by law and are generally included in a HIP – they are a bit like a fridge sticker which shows how energy efficient your property is. They grade your property based on energy saving light bulbs but also on whether you have loft insulation and double glazing. At some point in the future there are likely to be financial incentives to carry out green improvements. These are great in theory, though personally I'm not convinced that, unless your windows require changing, it's that green to rip them out, chuck them away and buy double glazed ones."
Says it all, really…
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I wonder how the "traditional" agents advertising in the Romford Ragcorder are feeling about this story? Reminds me of the front page of the Brighton Argus a few years back: "Property market set to crash!". Mind you, a post the other day reminded us that income from estate agents is the "lifeblood" of the local newspaper industry…….
That said the property side of their website appears to be Zoopla (by any other name), so not long to wait for that to diminish in stature as well……….
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Here's my VERY recent (over the last 30 minutes…) experience with the interactive bit of the website:
"Sharon:
Hello,
I hope you can find what you are looking for.
Can I help you in any way?
Me: Oh… hi. How do I go about selling my house?
Hello… is anyone there?
HELLO… I'm getting bored and annoyed here!
Such a shame that you seemingly DON'T WANT to engage with me regarding the potential selling of my home. Your owner, Ms Beeny, is gobbing off all over Channel 4 about how 'online' is the way forward for homesellers like me – yet we can't even get someone to type us a simple response. I can therefore only assume that what I am currently getting – NOTHING – is an example of what I should expect from you… TERRIBLE service; TERRIBLE customer experience and no doubt TERRIBLE results. I'll stick with traditional estate agents, thanks – and I'll let Channel 4 know how I feel about your company. Bet it won't get featured on the programme, though…"
I was asked to rate my experience with "Sharon". She got a resounding 🙁 – I'm sure he or she will be rewarded appropriately… wherever in Mumbai they are currently sat ignoring potential customers…
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Dude compliance for an EPC is whittled out of flint but she’s selling us short with a feel good factor that’s got us shopping for sheets with a high thread count all the while behind her supermarket make up and ankle bracelets, suddenly she cant pick that g*d complex out of a police line up. Sure, I get high on how she makes me feel just the right amount of dirty, jeez who doesn’t but why waste the buzz when Vodka’s the only one who really knows how to love me so get off my back. Better we take a seat and see how this one plays out.
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Okay… I finally psyched myself up sufficiently and watched the programme last night. Simply put, it boils my water. HOW she and Channel 4 are getting away with this collusion beggars belief… but the watchdogs are currently debating that so let's see what happens. Bring back capital punishment, I say, for such antics. I'm not even going to make comment on the show – I would rant forever (nothing new there, I guess…). BUT I would like to point out a claim that Ms Beeny is making about her "online estate agency" on her RM as well as the site itself, which in my opinion is even worse than her TV waffle about it being "established" and/or "successful". According to the banner head on RM, T****o is "Sarah Beeny's Trusted Online Agent". SORRY?? It follows "Uk's most Trusted National Online Estate Agent"!! WHO, exactly, is verifying these claims? More's the point- WHAT will be done about these claims? Answers, on a postcard, please… but I know what SHOULD be done about them. You may be interested to read my account somewhere above of my "user experience" yesterday with Ms Beeny's "trusted" agency. The whole thing beggars chuffin' belief! Rant over. For now, anyway…
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I think this prog and the associated website are EPC free zones the EPC should be provided to the potential buyer at the earliest opportunity I.e typically at the viewing unless you have an office. In the episodes screened how many times were they mentioned/discussed/seen even when doing viewings? I see the prices displayed on the said website break the rules on including VAT which funny enough is the top story on PIE today. The breaking the law/ASA code aside the material on the website is poor but I guess the people who are bottom fishing on fees won't give a two penny toot. Matter of time before somebody raises this with ASA/trading standards
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