Updating Estate Agents Blogs

I have to admit it's quite hard to produce regular, interesting and original content for the imove estate agents blog.  My email inbox is full of SEO email tips and advice, all of which keep telling me to post original content to the imove blog to attract visitors.  Easier said than done.

Anyway slightly off-topic but I thought I wouold let anyone who is interested know that if you do own a blogger template (this one is) then changing the design of the template is very easy.  I am not going to repeat 'how to change your blogger template' as there are thousands of free pages already available.  But did you know there are also hundreds, possibly thousands of completely free Blogger templates?

A quick Google search will find you tons of free Blogger templates.  I have changed ours today just to freshen it up a little.

Vendor’s Sell Houses Better Than Estate Agents

Is it really any surprise when you turn up to view your dream home that you will be given the grand tour by non other than the part-time chap who works in the factory mid-week and your friendly local estate agents at the weekends? 

I’m not having a dig at those people that have two jobs to make ends meet, let’s be honest he probably works a lot harder than most full-time estate agents, but really is he trained sufficiently to show buyers around properties?  I mean does he know ‘everything’ about your possible dream home, the biggest money spend of your life?  You’re not going to reach for your purse and blow £550,000 without knowing everything about a property, right?  Will the agent know how long it takes to get to the local school in rush hour traffic on a Monday morning?  What are the neighbours like?  And I don’t mean are they nice or potential terrorists, what are they really like?

It amazes me (and it will blow your mind for sure) when you realise that the vast majority of estate agents are almost completely untrained, totally lacking in any real knowledge of property transactions and void of any background information on the properties they are selling.

I remember turning up at my first day for work at a very well known firm of estate agents in one of the garden cities.  I was thinking, probably like you, that I would be enrolled on a two week intensive course of ‘property wisdom’, I would literally be stuffed with knowledge, I would boar my friends on a Friday night in the pub with my new property encyclopaedia style knowledge.  No, my Manager at the time, a middle aged northern chap called it ‘training-on-the-job’. 

There was some more formal training further down the line, but it was training on how to win more sales, how to sell more of this, how to sell more of that.  Almost nothing on the technical side of property law, nothing on marketing and defiantly nothing on customer service.

So my ‘on-the-job training’ consisted of doing the job mixed in with a lot of guess work.  My first ever viewing was a farce.  I showed a lovely couple from Wales a £250,000 detached house.  The owners had ‘entrusted’ the viewings to the estate agent (err that was me!).  Everything was going fine (when I say that what I really mean is I stood at the front door whilst the viewers wondered around the house on their own) up until the viewers first question.  It went something like this “Young man, the AGA in the kitchen, I assume it’s included in the price”?  I paused for about, well let’s call it a nano-second and said “I think so, yes I think so, yes I think it is”  (that’s a yes then).

I am sure reading this you can guess what happened next, I really don’t want to detail exactly what obscenities the owner shouted down the phone to me the next day when it kind of popped up midway through negotiating that buyers offer that the AGA was included in the sale.  How was I to know that an AGA costs £6,000?  It didn’t matter that much anyway because the buyer withdrew their offer the following weekend when my Manager was debating whether AGA’s can control the central heating with the very happy (prior to that phone call) buyer.  Of course AGA’s don’t control heating, or hot water, they are just very nice cookers

Was I completely at fault?  I was 18, born in a large inner city town, I had never even seen an AGA until that first viewing.  Doesn’t everyone leave their cooker?

Well I am going to say it was down to my lack of training.  Sure the estate agents course wouldn’t contain a half hour session on joys of owning an AGA, but any estate agents training course would have taught me what to say when asked a question to which I could not 100% say I knew the answer to.

You will be surprised to hear that my point is not that estate agents are not trained in how to actually conduct a good viewing of a property, but actually that estate agents should not be the one’s showing people a property, it should be the owner. 

Who knows a property best?  Who knows how the heating works and roughly what it costs to operate in the winter? Who knows the short cut to the school, and better still what is the local school like?  Who knows when the fences were last maintained? How does that shared driveway work with the neighbour?  I could go on (but I won’t).

The point is nobody knows the property like the owner.  So wherever possible the viewing should be done by the owner.  And anyway do any of your buyers out there want an estate agent to ‘sell’ you the property?  Let’s be honest there isn’t anything an agent could tell you that would make you fall in love with a property that you just didn’t like is there?  You either love it and want it now (the property that is), it ticks some of the boxes and you might come back once you have seen some potentially better properties or you don’t like it and it’s not an option.  Did you need a ‘trained’ estate agent to help you make that decision?

In fact what I have learnt over the past fifteen years is that quite often it’s the small tangible things that are important to many buyers.  I remember once back in my home town, showing a nice little three bedroom 1930’s house to a buyer.  At the end of the viewing they said they weren’t interested, I can’t remember they’re excuse, but they weren’t interested.  Just before they were about to leave the house the chap pointed at a door under the stairs and said “that’s just a small cupboard right”?  And with all my training brimming to the surface, ensuring that I gave a professional, honest answer, I replied “I am not sure how big the cupboard is sir, shall we open it and take a look”?

It turned out to be the largest under-stairs cupboard I have ever seen, it was huge.  Having been knocked through to an old coal shed that was part of the property, what was a standard run of the mill 1930’s under-stairs broom cupboard was now a very large walk-in cupboard.  Needless to say the couple made a full-asking price offer that same day.  All based on the fact that the property had this massive cupboard!

If the owner was present at the viewing, they would have discussed the cupboard with the buyer.

This article is starting to sound like a parody of my worst moments as an estate agent, but can we honestly expect every member of staff of an estate agents office to know the intimate details of every single property they have on the market?  Some agencies have in excess of 150 properties on the market at any one time, some firm’s employ 15-20 members of staff, some part-time and some full-time, can we expect each and every employ of the firm to know every single detail about each property?  No of course we can’t, it’s just not practical or realistic.

I know there will be some people reading this who will say this isn’t a problem and if an agent doesn’t know the answer to a question they just find out the answer and get back to the buyer.  And yes in the ideal world that should happen, but the reality is, it doesn’t.  Ask anyone who has been house-hunting, do estate agents call you back?  Do agents come back to you with answers to questions? 

I would however say that even the most experienced house seller should research what to say and what not to say before they launch themselves in to showing people around their property.  A quick Google search or even asking your friendly ‘experienced’ agent should do the trick.

Recommend someone with a house to sell or rent and get paid £100 CASH

imove estate agents Cornwall have this week launched an easy way to earn £100 cash.  Simply recommend someone who has a property they want to sell or rent and if they instruct imove to sell or let their property, we will pay you £100 cash.  It's that simple.  In addition we will donate £20.00 to Children's Hospice South West.

imove Cornwall is the UK's first and only not-for-profit estate agents.  We cover the whole of Cornwall and offer two fantastic packages that will save your friend, neighbour, family member thousands of pounds.  They can pay £399 upfront to sell or let their property, or pay £1000 no sale, no fee on completion.

All our profits are donated to local charities and good causes. 

We have in excess of 20 years experience, are open much longer than any other estate agent (from 8am to 8pm Monday to Sunday) and we advertise properties right across the Internet to thousands of potential buyers.

Recommend someone today and we will pay you £100 cash.  www.imovecornwall.org

Offer ends 7th August 2011 at 8pm. 

imove Cornwall launches online web chat feature

Not happy with just being the UK's first ever not-for-profit estate agents, imove Cornwall, based in Wadebridge and Truro, has today launched another first.  An online chat feature has been added to their website, www.imovecornwall.org .  Online chat let's customers ask quick questions to imove staff, without the need to pick up the phone!

David Gilmore, from imove explains "We realise the way in which customers use the Internet is changing.  Users tend to visit sites and click-away if they can't find what they are looking for and for many online house hunters the thought of picking up the phone to speak to an agent is the last thing they really want to do.  If the information they are looking for is not obvious they will move on"

 

"This is why we have implemented an online chat feature to our website.  Customers can ask quick questions directly to our staff through a simple chat window.  It's really easy to use and we hope that users find it helpful"

Website chat software has been around for a number of years and is very popular in the US.  Online chat enables web users to initiate conversations with sales or support staff without the need to pick up the telephone or send an e-mail.

New and improved website launched by imove Cornwall

Today we have launched an overhauled version of our website.  It's designed to be clearer and easy to navigate.

Designer, David Gilmore explains the changes.  "Following customer feedback we decided to make some alterations to the way in which the site is navigated.  Pages are now easier to navigate and load times have been significantly reduced".

The new site went live this morning and has already had some positive feedback from visitors.  "The look and feel of the site is modern and fresh" says Gilmore, "and with the addition of some additional information about how selling your property with imove is made so easy, we are sure customers will find the site easier, clearer and more informative".

The newly designed imove Cornwall website can be found at : www.imovecornwall.org

House prices remained stable in June

The latest Nationwide House Price Index shows that house prices were unchanged in June and the price of a typical home in June is just 1.1% lower than one year ago. Demand remains subdued, but so does supply. The average house price is now £168,205.

Commenting on the figures, Robert Gardner, Nationwide's Chief Economist, said: "Stability remained the theme in June, with house prices flat over the month. This left house prices 1.1% below the level prevailing in June 2010. At 0.3%, the three month on three month measure of house prices was slightly weaker than the 0.6% pace of increase recorded in May.

"The property market has moved sideways over the past six months, and June's data suggest that trend is being maintained through the summer months. Housing market demand has remained subdued of late, as evidenced by the still weak level of mortgage applications in recent months and the sluggish pace of new buyer enquiries reported by surveyors.

"There have been a few encouraging developments for households, but to date this hasn't been enough to reinvigorate the housing market. Employment has been edging up and consumer confidence surged in May - although the latter may have had more to do with unusually warm weather and extra bank holidays, rather than signalling the arrival of any recovery-related feel good factor.

"Ultimately, these positives have not been enough to make up for the ongoing squeeze on households. With debt levels still high, the need to repair household finances is undiminished. However, sluggish economic growth, and wages rising at less than half the rate of inflation, means that consumers are struggling to make progress in repairing their finances.

"Developments on the supply side of the housing market are also failing to drive the market one way or the other. The low rate of building in recent years has limited the flow of new properties available for sale, while low interest rates are helping to support mortgage affordability and reduce the number of distressed sales. This has meant that the market has not become over supplied, despite the weak state of buyer demand.

"It's hard to make the case for prices rising or falling sharply over the remainder of 2011 if the economy develops as we expect. Economic growth looks set to gather pace in the months ahead, but is likely to remain unspectacular. This in turn points to only modest gains in employment and sluggish wage increases, which will continue to keep many potential buyers on the sidelines.

"At the same time, the chances of a near term increase in interest rates appear to have diminished. Ultra-low interest rates should continue to support affordability for some time yet and keep a lid on forced sales. Overall, a combination of low transaction volumes, still tight housing supply and flattish house prices looks set to stay for the remainder of the year."

Mark Green from imove Cornwall, the UK’s first not-for-profit online estate agents based in Cornwall says “Those Vendor’s who do need to sell their property need to take caution in pricing their property.  It’s crucial to get your marketing price just right for the current market”

Imove provides a professional platform for sellers to sell their property and pay a one-off low fee of just £399 (with no VAT to pay).  www.imovecornwall.org

The cost of owning a home by the sea has more that doubled over the past decade

A Halifax report found that property prices in seven out of 10 seaside towns in England and Wales have seen greater increases than the national average since 2001.

Wadebridge in Cornwall, a few miles inland from the coast, saw the biggest rise in average house prices.
Prices in the town have risen from £100,406 to £370,902.

It is followed by Maryport in the Lake District, and Tenby in west Wales.

The Halifax found that six of the 10 seaside towns that have seen the biggest rise in prices since 2001 are in the north of England or Wales, with three in the south west of England, and one in East Anglia.

However, the 10 most expensive seaside towns remain in the south west of England, with property in Sandbanks in Dorset being the most expensive, followed by Padstow in Cornwall.

The average price of a house in Sandbanks is now £532,652, while in Padstow it is £381,916.

Outside of England, the Mumbles in Swansea has the highest average house prices, at £263,494.

Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Halifax, said: "Seaside towns have always been popular places to live, but they have perhaps become even more so in recent years.

"This is certainly true if we take house prices as an indicator of desirability."

Yet not all seaside towns have high house prices.
At Withernsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, the average cost of a home is £99,153.
Rhyl on the north Wales coast has the lowest seaside house prices in Wales, with an average of £121,838

Wadebridge

http://www.imovecornwall.org/