The Property Sales People

This week I heard about yet another professional suggesting to clients that buying a property now was a daft decision. He's entitled to his opinion but what worries me is that the only way any of us are able to look at the market is through the 'rear view mirror'. We can now accurately pinpoint the start of the current market problems as October of 2007 and the previous market 'blip' as August 1988. What we can't do is accurately forecast the bottom of the market and the beginning of the recovery – until we've already passed by it. My belief is that we are nearer the bottom of things than a lot of so-called experts predict. The 'media' is reporting prices falling back about 15% from the peak of the market. Any truthful agent will confirm that property is being sold at 25 -30% less now, which is about the level that prices have fallen by in previous market downturns (1988-1993). So, when prices start to go the other way they will do so rapidly. It is ...

  Extracted from the BBC web site reporting on today's reduction in Base Rate to 2%   'I am dead keen to buy a flat or house. This is all good news, surely? The interest rate on your prospective mortgage will probably be lower. But, frankly, paying your monthly repayments will not be your big problem, so long as you keep your job. The main way in which mortgages are being rationed is by lenders demanding large deposits. Most mortgage deals now require 15%, 20% or even 25% as a down payment. And the best deals require deposits of 40%. There is a good reason for this, by the way. House prices are still falling fast and some experts think they could fall another 20% this coming year. How happy will you be if our home has lost a fifth of its value in 12 months' time? Think before you buy. '   What I'd really like to know is who are the 'experts' and how do they calculate the 20%? Quoting it virtually makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy. Well this 'ex...

The Bank of England today announced 1.5% off base rate down to 3% and that's the lowest since before I was born in 1957!! I have never seen a graph of base rates that looks like this and I only hope that the High Street banks and Building Societies now feel able to pass on some of this cut, but it will depend on the rates at which they lend money to each other. Thinking out loud maybe people should think about investing in property now that borrowing is getting cheaper and houses are all such good value! Follow this link to see Hometracks latest stats http://www.hometrack.co.uk/commentary_survey_271008.aspx

In line with my philosophy of not being negative (realistic but not negative!) I have good news to report on the month of October 2008. We sold more homes in October 2008 than we did in October 2007. Now I don’t suppose that will make headlines in the national papers or the BBC but it is an encouraging sign and I think has been brought about by a number of factors: · Sellers becoming realistic about asking / selling prices. · Persistent, but not harassing, sales techniques. · First time buyers being encouraged to buy by attainable lower prices. · A mortgage service from Independent Financial Advisers, Bright Mortgage Advice that’s second to none. If anyone reading this would like to benefit from our approach to selling homes then please call us or call in at Market Place – we’d love to help you move!

Someone said the other day that they hadn't had anything new to read on my blog for a while. After I told them they should get out more I realised that I was just building up a head of steam!   This week has been exasperating. For estate agents all over the UK that is probably an understatement and I think even my favourites in Government might have something stronger to say about the way the country's lenders have responded to being bailed out by the tax payer i.e. you and me.   To step away from the 'Big Picture' for a moment my exasperation has been caused by so called fellow professionals at a local level.   We have sold a development of high specification 2 bedroom apartments in a very central location, all bar two plots. Our client told us to get them sold and I found a first time buyer prepared to pay £120,000. This offer was duly accepted on a property where similar apartments had sold between £184,950 and £190,000 in the last 9 months. I make that a reduction ...

Do we need to say more? Only Ely agent with a satisfaction score! (8.8/10) Printed from OEA website 8 September 2008

Today has made me certain, if it was ever in doubt, that there are only two 'professions' worse than estate agents. Media journalists and politicians.   That fumbling idiot today announced with great fanfare the abolition of Stamp Duty for 12 months up to the sum of £175,000. Just a few first time buyers may save themselves a few pounds but I suggest that in the main it's more of this government's 'Spin' – something it really does know how to do well.   By refusing to make a proper comment earlier in the summer he probably cost the jobs of thousands of people employed not just in the property industry but all those trades and manufacturers that follow on its train. A stalled property market was given another reason for buyers to wait and see what the great announcement would be.   So now we have the announcement only to find that hardly anyone in the UK will benefit so the delayed purchases, caused by the inept leak and fumbled comment, were all for next to not...

Over the last 14 days my office on Market Place has been going through a transformation and building works will continue for a little while yet.   About 5 years ago, when the market was starting to get warmed up and lots of money was sloshing about the banking system looking for a home, we decided to take on more staff and expand the premises into what was the launderette at No.22.   Well ,all good things come to an end and I have now reversed that expansion. This has been in response to a number of factors but in the main due to the severe downturn in the market , my landlord conducting a rent review (this means putting it up thousands of pounds) and also down to the place where estate agent meets buyers/sellers is increasingly 'on the web' these days, rather than face to face in an office situation.   There is a new tenant in No.22 from about the end of August and I won't steal their thunder by announcing who they are just yet! Pass by and they are actually trading now.  ...

This week I went to give some marketing and pricing advice on a two bedroom modern ‘cottage’ in Sutton which we had sold from new to the now owners when they were first time buyers. Nothing unusual in that you might say but, apart from the very well presented interior and the larger than average rear garden this excellent starter home concealed a secret! Our clients are accountants and are emigrating to Australia but unfortunately have to leave behind their pride and joy in the rear garden. Following a course at Hugh Fearley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage they returned to Sutton to build their clay oven. ( http://www.rivercottage.net/ and http://www.rivercottage.net/Events 37~16/BuildandBake.aspx ) They have enjoyed superb stone baked pizza from their wood-fired oven which has to be protected from the rain or it will dissolve back to it’s constituent parts! Equally it can be used for roasting meat and grilling fish. The Inghams intend to build another when they are settled in Austral...

I've been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who have said to me "...oh, yes, I read that on your blog"! There was me thinking that I was writing without an audience. One of the questions I get asked most often is how I lost the weight and subsequently lost the title of 'Ely's Chubbiest Estate Agent'. It is all down to the Cambridge Diet which you can find out about here http://www.cambridge-diet.com/newccinfo/19809.html Bev, the local councellor for Cambridge Diet, is a lady with a very positive and sunny personality who helped me get there. Anyway, enough about diets. The media is full to bursting with stuff about 'belt tightening', 'recession', 'price crashes', 'profits warnings' and 'redundancies'. This is not a market place for the faint hearted. The one area of the industry that is experiencing superb levels of growth is residential lettings as is our newly established lettings and management department. ...

In today’s challenging sales market it is more important than ever to make sure you price your home as accurately and competitively as possible. No doubt you will have had it’s marketing price appraised by more than one estate agent, but did you actually appraise how their figures were arrived at? Today’s agent has more tools available for arriving at an accurate figure than ever before but a recent statistic from the country’s leading property website, Rightmove, shocked me. Every agent advertising on the site has access to a tool called ‘Best Price Guide’ which enables agents to compare the property they are going out to look at with similar properties that are or have been advertised by themselves plus all other agents. The properties may be sold subject to contract, for sale or withdrawn. Another feature is the Land Registry recorded sale price. You would have thought that this section of the website would have been suffering from server overload in these difficult times but a Righ...

Thank goodness I've been able to remove that photo of me doing a hamster inpersonation! 18 stones to 14 stone 5lbs feels just brilliant.

If you want to know what’s really happening to house prices do you read the property press, watch the news on TV, ask the Nationwide Building Society, ask your mate down the road or ask an estate agent? I’d suggest that the latter is a good idea but you can’t get much more accurate than H M Land Registry. This is where all property transactions are recorded including the actual sale price. This information has been available in the public domain since 1st January 2005 so there are a number of websites that publish this for everyone to look up for free ( www.nethouseprices.com www.mouseprice.com ) If your someone who subscribes to the newspaper or TV media for finding out about the value of your biggest asset then of late you will have the impression that house prices are in free fall and seen figures of anything between 10% and 40% reductions bandied about to everyone’s horror. The latest Land Registry figures make interesting reading and, in my opinion, show an underlying trend tha...

David Moss of Vertical View called on us at exactly the right time as we were looking for a way to show off the last 3 remaining apartments at The Hoist off The Vineyards in Ely. The development of apartments by Freshwater Estates (UK) Ltd are within about 2 minutes walk of the Market Place and all that central Ely has to offer including the Cathedral. What we wanted was an image that would show this relationship with the central amenities without the slightly strange perspective of Google Earth or the extortionate costs of hiring a helicopter to take the pictures. David Clark was involved in the marketing of Freshwater’s development of ‘Barton Gate’ on Cambridge Road, Ely about 4 years ago and with Jeremy Nicholson, the MD of Freshwater, braved a platform on the front of a site teleporter to achieve a semi aerial view of this development. What has been achieved by David Moss with his specially adapted van is an infinitely variable viewing platform for the camera, at a height of up to ...

Oh bye the way that picture shows me at almost 18 stones. I'm now 14 stone 5 pounds so I need a new picture!

Are you a potential home buyer? Have you been scared to death by reports on the TV news and in the papers about the ‘Credit Crunch’? Or did you believe it was just a new biscuit or breakfast cereal? My view is that you should be concerned, but not paralysed with fear. Having read and listened to the same news reports I decided to conduct some research with our mortgage brokers, Bright mortgage advice. I asked them to tell me what percentage of the mortgages they arranged in 2006/2007 were for 125% of the purchase price. Answer : 2.5% I asked what percentage were 100%. Answer: 5% The balance were 95% mortgage or less. OK, I’ll admit that the Nationwide have announced that they’ll only offer 90% or less from May 2008 but this really isn’t the end of the world. Let’s assume that we have to use Nationwide and let’s also assume that we really wanted 95% mortgage on the average local first time buyer purchase price of £150,000. This means that 5% is £7,500; so we need to raise another £7,5...

The Market So Far in 2008 We are now virtually at the end of February 2008 and where are we in terms of the property market? Depending on whether you choose to read one newspaper or another you could be forgiven for believing that the market was 'up' so far this year or on the verge of total collapse and you should ready yourself for repossession within the next 6 months. In fact a recent TV programme took as it's title 'Repossession, Repossession, Repossession' – no doubt a play on the maxim 'Location, Location, Location'. Well I suppose I'm only qualified to voice an opinion on Ely and district and rightly so as that's the area I operate in. I believe that this is also the key to understanding what is actually going on and what you should believe about the fate of your property price. Some years back we had a Halifax agency within our business and we were once visited by a regional guy who talked about 'micro-markets'. What he was trying to...

There is something that I'd like to share with every reader of this blog article whether they are relatively young or very old: Make a will and 100% make sure you have created a lasting power of attorney (LPA). If you own a property and have even the smallest amount of savings you owe it to your nearest and dearest to organise things so that there is as little stress as possible. If you have a partner then each appointing the other is a good idea or your children may be the right people, or a brother or sister but you never know when you will be struck down in such a way that you are not capable of running your financial affairs and personal care. The national statistics for road accidents, heart attacks, strokes etc should serve as a pointer as to why this action is necessary. You may have guessed that I'm speaking from personal experience and indeed I am. My 83 year old mother finally ended up in hospital after worrying me for some time. Her condition was brought on by a seri...

Over the course of 2007 from June onwards HIPs (Home Information Packs) have been introduced to the UK property market and now every property marketed must have one. I have always been a supporter of HIPs (unlike a lot of estate agents) but in their original ‘pure’ form with compulsory Home Condition Reports as well as the domestic energy assessment and legal documentation. The purpose of this Blog entry is not to argue the rights and wrongs but to draw the public’s attention to the Tories’ ‘Home Buying Review’. They are anti-HIP but are looking at ways of improving the current process. This is an opportunity for everyone to have their personal say about the home buying and selling process. The review is being conducted by Grant Shapps, Kirstie Allsopp (from Channel 4’s ‘Location, Location, Location’) and Owen Inskip (a chartered surveyor and former estate agent) Among the areas where views are specifically sought are: · Professionalism of estate agents: should there be a requirement f...

I would hate to appear like HBOS, Nationwide and all the others making predictions about the house sales market in that they don’t agree and have conflicting views, but I do have my own opinion! I don’t believe we’re looking at a ‘crash’ in the same way that we had in the late 1980’s and early ‘90’s. I do believe that we will find it tougher than it has been and necessary to use every marketing tool available. Agents who have been used to just taking orders will need to relearn how to work at servicing those buyers that are out there to make sure they view and buy through them. Sellers will need to be kept closely in touch with how the market is reacting to their home and advised about how it is faring. Initial marketing price will be important and will need regular review as things develop. At David Clark and Company most of us have been through poor markets before and you can rely on our best advice. Happy New Year!