Dare I Say “Green Shoots”

I hardly dare say this out loud let alone commit to print but, like this year's Snowdrops, the green shoots of activity are becoming apparent. January 2009 has seen increased activity, more viewings, more running around and, until, this the last week of the month when I thought it was all going to come to nothing, the offers started coming in and vendors were seizing the opportunity to secure a sale and move on.

Two Labour MP's were taken to task recently for daring to say positive things but I was contacted by the National Association of Estate Agents and asked to urgently complete an online survey as they had anecdotal evidence of a slight improvement in the market. The purpose was to get this 'news' to the media as soon as possible. Of course on Monday of this week The Independent managed about 2cm of text on left hand page 4 publicizing this information. Did anyone see anything better? I hope so!

Comments

House builders discuss 95% mortgages with lenders

So the house builders and the lenders have had a meeting to discuss how they can create 95% mortgages. Basically a good thing, as you would imagine most estate agents would say. But what proportion of the housing Market is represented by new homes sales to first time buyers? Also any first time buyer who purchases a new home is then a cost to the second hand Market of who knows how many sales! If I think back 30 years my wife and I as first time buyers were providing a deposit of 10%. To do this we sold her car, saved up by not going out as much and generally committed ourselves to the task of buying our first home together. Ah, you might say, but house prices were so much cheaper then. True but my salary was just under £2,000 per annum with the prospect of perhaps another £1,000 in commission from selling at lease 6 houses per month personally. The first 4 didn't count towards commission but were to cover my costs to my employer! I personally don't think 95% mortgages are ...

Coming soon...

The iPhone (iOS) and Android powered phones have been around for a while now and 1000's of 'apps' have been downloaded to enable users to go about their daily lives, hobbies etc. Developers were not slow to target estate agencies and convince them that their own App was a 'must have'. I have always been resistant to their charms and pleadings as I firmly believed an agent's app was n othing more than egotistical vanity! After all, I would rant, why does anyone want to use a search tool for just my listed properties? Homebuyers are looking for their next home and they really don't care who has it for sale - that's why Rightmove has been so successful. That was until I was introduced to Paul Fuggle (rhymes with Bugle) www.gobusinessapps.com . Paul is currently creating me an app that let's me communicate with everyone downloading it, via Push technology. I can reach out to people rather than passively waiting for them to search my website or use the ...

£10k refit competition ??

I have just returned from hospital having had a procedure carried out on my foot/ankle that involves repairing a damaged tendon and realigning my foot by breaking my heel! While waiting to be called down to theatre I sat in my room checking e-mails - as you do when you want to take your mind off things. There was an e-mail from Colin Clayton of Desk Centre Limited http://www.deskcentre.co.uk talking about a £10,000 office refit and all I had to do was create a blog post suggesting why my office should be the one to receive it! What an opportunity - here I am laid up for two weeks before I can mobilise on crutches and my office certainly would benefit from a revamp in 2013. Like most surviving, small, independent estate agents we have done this by cutting costs, reducing premises and regrettably letting staff go. Our address used to be 20-22 Market Place but is now 20 Market Place only. We originally moved to No.20 from our first premises in Newnham Street in 1993- my then bu...

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