estate agents
House Prices: London may continue to confound
For years it’s been said that what starts in London spreads out to the rest of the country. Whether that’s been true in the past or not those of us who live in London recognize now perhaps that there’s a disconnect between us and the rest. Resentment outside the Capital towards those of us that live and work here has always been rife, but having been convinced we were all in this together I’m beginning to think that the London housing market might just be different, and lucky, enough to avoid some of the larger slowdowns affecting those living elsewhere.
Photo by Diliff
The first thing that needs to be defined though is what constitutes a slowdown. It’s been increasingly easy over the last few years to be smug about London property and it’s been the smiles on faces of these London homeowners that have perhaps been in the crosshairs of those looking to have a pop at us. We’ve been lucky in Great Britain, a quirk of geographical fate has determined that not only are we an island but also on the Greenwich Meridian. This means, and has done for centuries, that we’ve been politically and economically stable, and has meant that whichever part of the world is doing well, and there’s usually at least one, those who’ve benefited financially tend to want to have a place somewhere in London. Over the last few years pretty much everyone has hence why values have gone beserk.
But a slow down, or a poor market, can de defined in two ways: prices and sales volumes. What has perhaps surprised many is the resilience of Greater London in the maintenance of those prices, but what’s bad for the economy as a whole is what’s maintaining those prices, low volumes. And it’s going to get worse, or better, depending on how you look at it. Some agents are reporting record numbers of sellers withdrawing from the market. It’s tempting to ask why, the recently deserting foreigners, having taken advantage over the last three years of a weak Pound, now appear to be coming back because they fear for the future of their currency and are wanting to buy whilst their exchange rate remains relatively, for them, advantageous.
Those of us who work in London are more likely to earn relatively well, have deposits and thus access to historically low mortgages, so it’s likely demand will remain relatively strong. So why are sellers abandoning ship when more buyers are chasing their properties. Taking off the market for Christmas always was a waste of time, and at the moment there’s an odd feel that’s unlikely to be as positive at the beginning of next year when perhaps more sellers will come to the market.
So, if you’re the kind of person who watches prices, London may well continue to confound. As someone who recognizes the importance of volumes to the wider economy I fear that this market is disappearing up it’s own b***side.
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Ed Mead is a regular contributor to The Big Property List blog. He has been an estate agent for over 30 years, and has been writing and commentating on the market for over half of that as the Sunday Times Property Expert and The Agent Provocateur for the Telegraph. He sits on the Board of The Property Ombudsman Ltd, has a regular LBC slot, and is happy to say it as it is.
Other places you can find Ed online are:
Douglas & Gordon blog
Ed Mead on Twitter
Ban Estate Agents boards in central London? Inspired, says Ed Mead
If there’s one thing snow does it’s make London look clean. Covers all sorts of grubbiness, is a great leveller and there’s nothing anybody can do to stop it. You could probably say all that about the inspired decision by someone to finally ban Estate Agents boards across large swathes of central London.
photo by Paul Mison
When I started in this business you couldn’t go into certain streets, like Ifield Road next to Chelsea’s football ground, without being blown away by the sheer number of agent’s boards. As an example, boards in that street were a major blight and no one wanted to live there, hence more tried to sell, hence more boards and so on. Some bright spark in the late 80s finally banned them in Conservation areas but left other big chunks of Victorian and Edwardian homes open to infection and abuse. Early this year ironically someone somewhere missed a deadline to renew the Conservation area regulations and for a ghastly moment boards were allowed anywhere. Luckily only the usual blaggers decided to risk the wrath of residents and erect signage in streets that had hitherto enjoyed decades of delicious virginity.
The venom with which said residents responded, and this is typical of the general behaviour of aforementioned blagging estate agents – they simply don’t give a sh*t, meant that the authorities actually decided not only to put things back as they were pre balls up, but to actually extend the ban throughout most of central London.
The result is likely to mean hordes of Japanese tourists can now take shots of our beautiful central London houses without their rellies back home wondering who the hell ***t*** or ****d are. It means that local residents have their streets back and are no longer as likely to be conned by the local agent who worries less about which local residents they piss off and more about putting up as many boards up as possible.
The ban IS policed which is good and it would be reassuring to think that this is a precursor of a wider decision to do away with them altogether.
In the meantime get out and enjoy unsullied streets for the first time in a generation and don’t be afraid to report the minority of agents who’ll continue to flout the new regulations. Feel like the school sneak there a bit, but actually the idea of sellers being persuaded that the placement of a few £6 boards denotes heavy market presence has, for years, allowed the real fringe of our industry to get a foothold, and this might just mean they’re walking on ice for a change.
Author Biography
Ed Mead is a regular contributor to The Big Property List blog. He has been an estate agent for over 30 years, and has been writing and commentating on the market for over half of that as the Sunday Times Property Expert and The Agent Provocateur for the Telegraph. He sits on the Board of The Property Ombudsman Ltd, has a regular LBC slot, and is happy to say it as it is.
Other places you can find Ed online are:
Douglas & Gordon blog
Ed Mead on Twitter
Buy to Let may be the investment of choice, says Ed Mead
For the first time since I’ve been at Douglas & Gordon we made more money last month from lettings than we did from sales.
Given that we are a medium sized company that’s not as trite as it sounds. Renting seems to have finally lost it’s stigma and even seems to be where sensible people reckon they should be when property values appear to be on the way down.
Those who work in lettings have often felt, because of the lack of crash bang months, that the drip drip [albeit constant] nature of their income means they’re the poor cousins.
But with buy to let borrowing on the agenda again and with all the publicity surrounding Council tenants suddenly they’re front page news. About time I reckon. Having rented for over 20 years and been dead pleased with it, many commentators were amazed and quick to point out how I was missing out on the market. I politely replied that I had been investing in something slightly old fashioned and possibly more rewarding. It’s called your own company.
Such is the obsession with property (thank heavens as I’m an estate agent after all) that investing in something that actually yields jobs AND a return seems to have become a lost art. With 70% of the world’s wealth now tied up with property it’s hardly surprising.
Perhaps with standard investments yielding derisory returns entrepreneurs might start to see the light of day again, but with residential rents looking set to rise sharply, capital values stagnant at best, and borrowing costs as low as they’ve ever been I would think buy to let might just become the investment of choice for a few years to come.
Author Biography
Ed Mead is a regular contributor to The Big Property List blog. He has been an estate agent for over 30 years, and has been writing and commentating on the market for over half of that as the Sunday Times Property Expert and The Agent Provocateur for the Telegraph. He sits on the Board of The Property Ombudsman Ltd, has a regular LBC slot, and is happy to say it as it is.
Other places you can find Ed online are:
Douglas & Gordon blog
Ed Mead on Twitter
The best Online Estate Agent?
Earlier in the year we published ‘How to choose an Estate Agent‘ advising home sellers what to look for in an Estate Agent, and it turned out to be a very popular article. A large part of this decision inevitably comes down to the personality and perceived ability of the Estate Agent – as we all know people generally buy from people they like – or so they say.
However, what about the new breed of Online Estate Agents? You don’t really get to meet them before you take your choice, and what exactly is an Online Estate Agent anyway? What makes them any different from any other Estate Agent?
We decided to do a bit of research, and so today published our Online Estate Agent Comparison from which we’ve taken the above league table of Online Estate Agents’ Websites based on a ‘WebsiteGrader’ score (this is explained in the full report).
This league table indicates the quality of the online estate agents’ websites based on a raft of factors explained in our report (Online Estate Agent Comparison 2010).
But what are the important factors for home sellers thinking about marketing their home online withan Online Estate Agent instead of a High Street Agent?
Our suggestions are:
- How established (proven) is the company behind the website?
- Are they a member of the industry Ombudsman scheme?
- Value for money – not just price, but what is included?
- How good is their website, how many clients do they have already?
- What level of service can you expect?
But the last question, and arguably most important, is the hardest to judge without meeting someone face to face and is one of the most difficult hurdles for online estate agents to overcome, in convincing customer that they are trustworthy, helpful and efficient – that there are real people – professionals behind the website.
Your property questions answered at The Big Property Forum
Want to know if you need planning permission for that new shed? Wondering if you should reduce the price of your house or simply redecorate to sell it quicker?
The answers to these questions and more can be found on our shiny new property forum!
The Big Property Forum is a place for you to ask and answer questions and share your experience and knowledge of all things related to property.
At the moment its like a big empty room, but don´t be shy – mark out a spot for yourself, ask a question and see what happens.
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Foxtons selling houses for 0% commission in SW London
London Estate Agency Foxtons have announced that they will charge 0% commission on house sales for people using their new South London branches in Streatham and Willesden Green reported Negotiator Magazine today.
The offer is open to the first 200 sellers in each of the branches and the houses for sale in Streatham must be sold before 4th December 2010.
Earlier this year the Guardian reported that the Agency best known for its branded Minis experienced a profit slump of 70% with debts of nearly £350m due to the housing market.
So does this bold move opening two new offices signify a confidence in the South London Housing market?
So, can you spot any foxtons houses for sale in Streatham at The Big Property List?
Footnote: You have to hand it to the online marketing department at Foxtons – whilst researching this article I Googled ‘Streatham’ and their website features at second position in Google Spain and page 1 for google.co.uk – just behind wikipedia! Good work boys!
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How do I upload my property adverts to The Big Property List?
Below are some Frequently Asked Questions that should answer this question, if it doesn’t or you have further questions then please get in touch.
How do I upload my properties to thebigpropertylist.co.uk?
The property adverts listed on The Big Property List come from Google Maps.
You may have heard that you can now see properties for sale and to rent on Google Maps – well, we take a feed from Google so if your adverts are displayed on Google Maps (and you opt in to ‘re-syndication), they will be displayed on The Big Property List too!
Search for property listings on Google Maps
How much does it cost to list my properties on The Big Property List?
Nothing, it’s free. Free to list and free to receive enquiries. We do ask that you link to our website and display our logo on your website to show that your customers that you are marketing their properties on The Big Property List. You can download our logo here. We will shortly be sending out marketing packs with window stickers too – so if you want one please send us your postal address.
Adding property adverts to Google Maps
This can be done manually or by setting up a regular ‘feed’ in the Google Merchant Centre – the file types accepted are tab delimited (text or Excel spreadsheet), RSS and Atom files – these feeds can work in a similar way to the Rightmove feed but are not the same. Your Estate Agent software provider or other partner portals may already be sending your feed to Google Maps, but it’s worth checking the quality of the information they are sending. It is free to submit property adverts to Google Maps.
I’m not very technical, how do I send a feed to Google Maps?
The simplest place to start is to talk to your existing IT support, software vendor or portal about sending your feed to Google Maps – this may be just a click of a button for them. If you do not have this support and would like us to help you set up and manage your feed then we can do this for a fee. If you would like to know more about our feed set-up and optimisation services please get in touch.
Which property portals and software providers already send a feed to Google Maps?
These providers already send a feed to google Maps:
Software Vendors
- Web Dadi
- PropertyADD
Property Portals
- Zoopla
- Zoomf
- Property Pal
- Vebra
- SmartNewHomes
- Ezylet
…and others
Why do my property adverts show incorrect prices/ have missing information/ few photos or lack detail?
The property adverts at The Big Property List contain information exactly as provided in the ‘feed’ sent to Google Maps. So if the feed lacks a price or contains only a one line description and no photos – this is what will appear in the property advert at The Big Property List.
This is why we recommend a full review of your feed – to get the most out of our free property portal and to maximise the number of enquiries you receive, include as much information in your feed as possible – this means a full description and lots of photos and an uploaded floor plan as a minimum!
If your feed does not contain enough information please get in touch with your IT support/ software provider to discuss it with them.
When I click ‘link to vendor’ on my adverts I don’t get taken to my website – why?
Whoever is submitting your feed to Google Maps (maybe an outside company such as your software provider or another portal) is not using your website address in the feed and may be using their own – so any enquiries and customers may be directed through their website instead of directly to you. You should get in touch with them and request that the links in the feed correspond to the relevant property advert page on your website and that your email address is used as the main contact.
If you have further questions please do not hesitate to ask – we have been overwhelmed with enquiries since our recent launch and I hope you will understand that we will try to respond to everyone as promptly as we can.
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Online Marketing for Estate Agents: Pay per Click
Estate Agency is changing. The world is changing. No matter what your stance or perspective you can’t disagree with this basic premise.
However for those at the forefront of the online migration the pace may seem faster than to those Estate Agents whose business model has remained more or less the same for the last 10 years. For those bringing up the rear the greatest changes will be the use of an online property portal to reach buyers – probably Rightmove and no other – and the use of email instead of fax and post.
I sat in an Estate Agent’s office a few months ago and asked what a secretary was doing – she was entering property details in triplicate – to three seperate systems. It doesn’t take A level maths to work out that a 66% time saving could be made by the introduction of a smarter system.
One of the simplest online advertising tools for an Estate Agent that doesn’t want to rely solely on Rightmove for it’s online marketing is Pay Per Click.
Essentially Pay Per Click (PPC) is a form of online advertising where you set a budget of say £20/day and your advert is displayed all over the internet – normally alongside search results (for example in Google) and on other websites that relate to your subject. When a user clicks on your advert and is redirected to your website, you pay for that click. Hence the name Pay Per Click.
Google Pay Per click advertising is displayed above and beside 'natural' search results in a Google search
The most favoured system is Google Adwords – a very clever system which a new user could set up and use in just a few hours, but that has the tools and features that an advanced user requires.
In our next article in this series we’ll show you how to set up a basic Google Adwords Pay Per Click online advertising campaign in a few simple steps.
Sign up below to recieve the next article by email.
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Direct marketing approach from Tesco Estate Agency business isold.com
Having sold a house recently it was interesting to see the kind of direct marketing that a For Sale sign attracts – having erected both a private For Sale sign and one from The Best Estate Agent in Reading.
Having displayed a mobile number on the Private Board, the first approach was by text message:
We would like to make you a FREE cash offer for your property. If you are interested please visit (website)
And there was me expecting to pay for offers from people who’d never been inside the house!
Most of the Estate Agents who valued the property but that I didn’t use wrote often to remind me that they were still there, should I need their assistance. A good bunch in general and I could have selected any one of 3 that I liked (see my previous article on how to choose the best estate agent) so I didn’t mind at all hearing from them.
The approach that intrigued me the most was a postcard from ‘isold.com’, the ‘Online Estate Agency’ (my words), set up as a partnership between Spicerhaart and Tesco this spring.
As you can see the card was posted and addressed to’The Homeowner’ and printed and signed with a handwriting font to give the personal touch.
This week, the house having been under offer for the past three, I found another letter on the mat, this time in an envelope but still addressed to the homeowner.
Actually this is quite a strong proposition from spicerhaart, and the approach gives us some insight into isold’s intentions. I’ve said for a while that I believe what I term ‘online estate agency’ will be the biggest growth area in Estate Agency and will take more business from ‘traditional’ high street agencies than the For Sale by Owner model offered by websites such as Sarah Beeny’s Tepilo. Not that the for Sale by Owner model is flawed, just that many people, in my experience, are not ready to fully ‘go it alone’ even if they question the traditional method.
The winning proposition that Online Estate Agency offers is the low fees, due to the lack of High Street office, but with the comfort of having a professional Valuer/ Negotiator to value the house, draw up floor plans and support you through the process. That and the ability to put your advert on the Estate Agent only portals like Rightmove and Primelocation – which do not accept listings from individuals or private property sales websites.
Looking at the isold.com website they have launched in only three UK cities, Reading, Bristol and York. Since the announcement in spring 2010 the business has received little media coverage however and most articles refer to Tesco’s last attempt at entering the property market (in 2007) which ended when Agents and Portals refused to list their adverts with the Supermarket and the business was challenged by the OFT on whether they had become an Estate Agent.
Consumer reactions to the latest offering (such as those posted under this York Press article) vary from a bit of estate agent bashing and hopes for reduced selling fees to concerns over Tesco’s apparant monopoly over everything.
The original Tesco proposition was sold to Spicerhaart in 2007, who now seem to be running the business (isold.com is registered at the spicerhaart HQ in Colchester) and despite the prominent Tesco branding on direct marketing and the isold.com website I challenge you to find the isold page on Tesco.com without using google.
So this does seem to be a softly softly approach this time around, perhaps looking to build franchises in areas that are void of a Spicerhaart office. One assumes that the Tesco involvement is mainly the use of the brand and direct marketing to Clubcard members. But we’ll see…
What do you think? Leave your comments below…
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We are officially a Top 100 Real Estate Blog – Technorati
We were really pleased this week to discover that we’ve made it in to Technorati’s top 100 Real Estate blogs – worldwide! As the name suggests Technorati is the Web’s leading authority for blogs and attaining the upper ranks is no mean feat in the today’s rich blogosphere.
Thebigpropertylist.co.uk blog started out on Blogger nearly two years ago and has gone from strength to strength, attracting guest writers from all over the property blogosphere such as Ollie Cornes, professional Landlord and owner of Landlord software company Juicy Property and Sharon Crossland, tenancy expert and blogger of Leasehold Life.
Visitor numbers and contributions have continued to rise on a weekly basis and we have been really pleased by the positive and supportive emails we’ve received from readers in that time.
Our aim is to continue to bring you the latest UK property news as well as property articles on a range of useful and entertaining subjects. We will shortly be moving the blog to the prettier design that we employ on the main website as the property portal is finally getting close to launch (horaah!). Originally planned to be a ‘For Sale by Owner’ property sales portal thebigpropertylist.co.uk will offer an altogether different type of property search. The website has been delayed whilst we surveyed the market (especially in the wake of the Tepilo launch and while we finished other projects) and planned our next move. So, you will just have to wait and see what the final site brings!
In celebration of making it to the top 100 Real Estate blogs and as a nod in the direction of our fellow property keyboard tappers, here’s a list of our favourite property blogs elesewhere on the web:
- Housing Dabble - Property Marketing, Brand Building and Social Media from Ben Harris
- Agent’s Diary The weary musings of a time-served estate agent (realtor) somewhere in the UK
- Modern Estate Agent - Brain food for the modern estate agent
- Facts Not Headlines - Kate Faulkner, author of Which? property books and consultant to the industry tells the REAL stories in the property market
- Landlord Law Blog – Tessa Shepperson, a solicitor and specialist in residential landlord and tenant law
Happy reading…
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