Real Estate and Mortgage
Russell Quirk
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Posts by Russell Quirk
Estate Agents and EPCs – Misdirected Energy?
Apr 18th
Here we go again – the Government are about to up the ante on EPCs (Energy Performance Certificates) and, like it did with HIPs, the property industry are starting to have kittens about it all. Visit any estate agency forum and you’ll read posting after posting going on about how worthless EPCs are. Nobody, they say, ever asks to see one … and even if they did they don’t follow its recommendations.
Like a government whose first duty is to remain in power, the estate agency industry is, once more, fighting progress in its own blinkered little way, and for what? To protect itself. – And it’s already got a reputation for doing just that. – Innovation? No thank you. – Evolution? You must be joking. – Pass the blinkers, please – we’re estate agents.
The Property Misdescriptions Act was lambasted when introduced in 1991. ‘There’s no point trying to encourage estate agents to write the truth in sales particulars’, many said. And they still haven’t started to yet, it seems, judging by the majority of write ups you will still see that exclaim ‘walking distance to the station’ or ‘quiet neighbours’.
A while back, at an Estate Agency Events seminar, the presenter wanted to know how many of us thought the internet would have little or no effect on the industry. A few naive people raised their hands. When it came to HIPs, pretty well everybody in – or around – the property industry objected. And, looking back on it, they were right. Exit HIPs, then. Sorely missed? Nah. Now, how about licensing estate agents? I said, how about … hello? Where’s everybody gone?
And now EPCs are the bug bear of the traditionalist. ‘Who cares about the bloody environment anyway?’ shout the cloned mass of Julians of Julian and Co’s across the UK. ‘No buyer even asks to see one, do they ‘ is their well rehearsed snipe. Well isn’t that just the point? It is up to the property industry to encourage public interest in progress, not to hinder it and, in the case of EPCs, to promote the environmental impact that they can assist in mitigating.
So here’s a better alternative to the whingeing and whining going on about EPCs: actually sitting down and explaining to buyers what they’re all about, and how they can help save a bit of energy – and the money it would otherwise cost – when it comes to moving into a new home. After all, if every one of the twenty-five million or so homes in the UK cut its energy bills by fifty pounds annually, if nothing else it’d be a free dinner from the local takeaway for the family to enjoy, for a start. And a bit of a bonus when it comes to matters environmental, too. But no. Hark – is that the sound of a nation looking through its EPS and hurrying to insulate their loft? Sorry, no. It’s the din of estate agents screaming blue murder because the Department of Communities and Local Government are beginning to tighten the rules.
They’re only tightening rules, though – not thumbscrews. All the Department is proposing is that come July 1st, when a home goes onto the market an EPC has to be in place within seven days. – Question: how much effort is that going to take? Even for an estate agent, a species renowned for its legendary conservation of energy – during business hours, at any rate? – Answer: somewhat less effort than they’re expending right now howling and shrieking and writing letters to MPs about the impact on their industry caused by having to do something new. And something different. And, let’s face it, something extra. Here’s a thought: if we’re all going to have to rate our homes for energy efficiency, why don’t we do the same for estate agents? Just an idea …
Home buyers don’t just go into estate agency offices these days. 90% of them search for property online. eMoov cover the whole of the UK but save money by not having hundreds of premises which you otherwise end up paying for in high estate agents fees. eMoov are online estate agents. They are a step up from private house sales and ten times cheaper than the High Street. Why pay more?
Keeping your local estate agent off the ‘Most Hated’ list
Apr 16th
A recent ‘Most Hated’ survey of 1000 people by Online Opinions resulted in the rare absence of estate agents. In previous surveys, the shiny suits have been right up there with traffic wardens, Katie Price and the phrase ‘blue sky thinking’.
But this year, we’ve got Manchester United, Ryanair, British Gas and all those w – sorry, bankers. Foxtons? No. Knight Frank? Not a trace. Reeds Rains? Nowhere to be seen on this year’s ‘Hate List’. All very odd. What happened? Have estate agents suddenly become the salt of the earth? Er, no. Man U, well, that’s a matter of opinion. Ryanair had it coming, and nobody’s going to be that popular dishing out bonuses like there’s no tomorrow, especially just after we’ve had to bail them all out.
So it may be that estate agents are still loathed, I mean why wouldn’t they be? But others are simply currently detested even more? One of the primary reasons that we love to hate the mini driving property shifters surrounds the commissions they charge. An average of nearly 4000.00 these days according to the Office of Fair Trading. Most house sellers perceive that estate agents do very little in exchange for their eye popping selling fees. Plus there’s their reputation for dishonesty, unreliability and smarm.
Now, let’s just imagine a world where there mere thought of an estate agent doesn’t make us see red. It’s going to be difficult, but just try and visualise a high street estate agent charging not thousands, but hundreds of pounds to sell a house. There – aren’t estate agents much nicer people now? You can stop now. Have a little rest – imagining things like that can be very hard work.
The benevolent lot at eMoov, the online estate agent, have begun a campaign to ‘Love Your Estate Agent’. They say that with their selling fees starting at just 99.00 for full on Rightmove representation including all of the things that an old fashioned estate agent does, you might, just might, be persuaded to put your grievances against Nigel, Julian and Co to one side in readiness for the 2012 ‘Most Hated’ poll?
Going to a High Street estate agents means paying high estate agents fees. Going to eMoov, the UK’s leading Internet estate agents instead, will get your property sold by proposing it to 170 million internet users each month. No extortionate commissions, no percentage fees, no sole agency tie ins. Just a lot of fixed, low cost estate agents fees which might make you start to like estate agents again.
