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The oldest estate agent blog in the UK ? |
19 August 2008 09:39 |
Not often you get named in another blog but I think Isle of Wight Homes may be the oldest estate agent blog in the UK see below! |
Isle of Wight Homes blogging since ‘06
Posted: 18 Aug 2008 05:02 AM CDT
The current list of blogging estate agents has reached three. Blogging since March 2006, Simon Broadhead, director at Isle of Wight Homes is the rightful owner of the title of oldest UK agent blog.
( About ZOOMF – Zoomf is a lovely property search engine, working tirelessly around the clock to enable house-hunters to find their dream property. On Zoomf you can search for property by keywords such as 'patio garden' and you can simply draw where you want to search on a map)
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Gathering storm claims more agency victims |
18 August 2008 13:36 |
Interesting article from "estate agent today", I am just so glad that when I set up our company model it was based on one central office, no High Street premises, & the best staff. Since we set up in 2000 we have seen 12 Island agents go by the wayside, (as I type this we have just got an offer from a buyer at the full asking price!) |
Sunday 17th August 2008
Fears are mounting that more and more estate agents will go out of business between now and the end of this year.
Administrators to whom failed property businesses are being referred appear to be making no attempt to run the agencies or to find buyers, as some commentators now think that up to half of all high street agents will have left the sector by the end of December.
Last week, Halifax offices in Cardiff – run under licence by a franchisee – went into administration.
The three branches ceased trading with immediate effect and put notices on their doors advising clients.
A spokeswoman for Halifax confirmed the situation and said that banking facilities continued to operate from the premises concerned.
One local agent said: “The Cardiff estate agency market is experiences a massive shift with what seems an estate agency office closing every week.”
In London, flagship branches of well known agents have shut.
These include the Fulham office of Felicity J Lord – part of Spicerhaart – and the Knightsbridge office of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, one of London’s most successful and high profile agents.
Lettings business has been transferred to the Fulham branch, and sales to the Fulham and Mayfair offices.
Friend & Falcke has sold its premises in trendy King's Road, Chelsea, and closed its Fulham branch. Managing director Simon Albertini said: “For many estate agents, the market we are experiencing this year is the most difficult they have encountered.
'We have been established for 49 years and survived through good markets, bad markets and downright terrible markets – but none as bad as this.”
Further estate agency closures are expected across the country as transactions continue to nosedive.
Many agents are in debt to local and regional newspaper groups, with unpaid advertising bills, and a number have not been able to meet tax demands.
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Latest information from our Association (NAEA) |
18 August 2008 11:21 |
I thought you would be interested in parts of this weeks e-mail from our Association – The National Association of Estate Agents – especially those dodgy land companies! |
Stamp Duty Holiday & meeting with David CameronAs reported last week the media frenzy over the Chancellor’s remarks has continued this week with the Conservatives continuing a barrage of criticism.
Can I first thank the 1400 Members who responded to our electronic survey on this subject. This is probably the biggest response we have ever had and demonstrates the depth of feeling. 75% said that applicants had asked whether they should wait and 64% stated that they had had current purchasers wondering whether to back out. Indeed worryingly 26% have at least one sale fall through as a direct result of the Chancellors comments.
92% of respondents are convinced that the remarks have damaged the housing market even more and a similar number believe that the Chancellor cannot wait until an Autumn Statement
Bearing in mind that 97% wanted us to publicly continue to urge the Chancellor to take action now, we have continued to keep the pressure up. I sent another email to Alistair Darling and Housing Minister, Caroline Flint, with the survey results and again suggesting a meeting. Unfortunately our emails have not received any response.
Last Tuesday David Cameron in his press briefing mentioned that the NAEA had been sending notes to the Chancellor but that he had “refused to meet with them”. As I explained above, this is not true as he has just not responded and I have pointed this out to David Cameron’s Office. Unfortunately his incorrect quote was picked up by the press.
As I had been taking part in a Conservatives policy meeting into the current housing and lending problems, I was then asked to meet with David Cameron in private afterwards. This meeting was also attended by Philip Hammond, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Justine Greening, Shadow Minister to the Treasury. At this meeting David Cameron was keen to know the exact state of the market, the current feeling amongst members and our combined call for action about Stamp Duty both in the short and medium term. I also took the opportunity to talk about HIPs, the Buying and Selling Process along with a number of other matters that concern us. A longer meeting with Philip Hammond allowed me to expand on these topics. High Court Close land Companies I was pleased to see the High Court take action over the suspect selling of plots of land. This is something that David Oliver and his compliance team have previously taken a number of calls over.
Four companies operating from Cheltenham and selling plots of agricultural land have been closed down by the High Court following an investigation by the Companies Investigation Branch of the Insolvency Service.
The companies began trading in early 2004 by purchasing land in greenbelt areas across England, which were then sub-divided into plots of typically 400 - 500 square metres. In excess of 700 plots were sold in this way to the public. Potential investors in South East Asia were also targeted through Land International (Far East) Limited. The common directors for the four companies were Michael John Morris and Stephen Nicholas Meissner.
The investigation found that during the sales process, prospective investors were told by the companies sales agents that the selling company in question would be seeking to obtain planning permission on their behalf, with the accompanying sales literature disclosing that separate management companies would be set up to deal with planning permission on behalf of plot owners at each site. In reality there was no prospect of planning permission being obtained.
All four companies failed to maintain adequate accounting records. Land International Limited had failed to file any accounts since incorporation in 2003, missing statutory deadlines for filing accounts for its first three accounting periods. This failure to maintain adequate accounting records assisted in attempts to mask the extent of the companies' trading activities including to properly account for their corporation tax liabilities. Applying the average plot selling price to the plots sold suggested that the total revenue would have been in excess of £10million. HIP’s & commission Payments One of our Employer members has asked me to point out that he recently found that some HIP companies are perfectly happy to pay introductory commission to staff directly, perhaps without the employers knowing. (We at Isle of Wight Homes have never received any commission for HIP’s, we can give you a list of the cheapest HIP suppliers on the Island if you require – currently £240 with NO VAT – some agents charge £350 + Vat - so they get £100 kickback)
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Rightmove deny ‘unfair’ re-joining rates |
16 August 2008 09:45 |
We have been with Rightmove from when they started up, but with any monopoly they in the last couple of years they have flexed their muscles & bumped up all monthly fees (except the large multi-national agents – who pay a discounted fee!) this includes both rental listings & sales listings.
Bit of a cheek to take even further monies out of agents see the article below
Regards
Simon |
Rightmove deny ‘unfair’ re-joining rates
Thursday 14th August 2008
Cash-strapped agents wanting to take a break from Rightmove will be charged new joiners’ rates when they return.
Trevor Kent, of Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, issued the warning after finding out that it would cost him a £220 a month surcharge on re-joining.
He said: “I wonder just how many agents contemplating a brief money-saving holiday from Rightmove know it would cost them this when they re-joined. I certainly did not know, and more importantly the girl at Rightmove was ready to process my 'cancellation' without telling me of the re-join hike.”
Kent called it “disgraceful”.
He said he had called Rightmove to ask what the site could do to help him as a struggling agent.
“The young lady said immediately: ‘We can cancel your membership as soon as you like and send you the unused balance of your sub’.
“But when I pressed her as to rejoining costs when things got better and assuming my business had survived, she said: ‘Rentals alone will be £195 and with sales too, it will be £595 per month’.
A furious Kent asked Rightmove commercial director Miles Shipside if he felt that “hiking re-join costs is conducive to long-term good relations with your customers”.
But Shipside said that Rightmove had spent over £100 million in eight years in establishing a marketplace for agents, which allowed them to cut back on newspaper advertising: “Many agents chose not to do this until a few months ago. This is vital in this tougher market, though I fear some agents have left it too late.”
He added: “Coming off Rightmove at all is a final resort in most agents’ eyes, though from a business point of view we seek to reward loyalty and discourage those that may consider leaving for a couple of months (say July/August or November/December) and then come back.
“To reward those that stay month in and month out, they pay membership at a discounted loyalty rate to the new joiner rate. Those that leave and return at a later date do so at the new joiner rate.
“In terms of building long-term relations with our members, we believe they are best served by rewarding the loyalty of those that stay, which I think is a fair principle. It would not be fair to them to let some members leave for a period of time and re-join at the same rate.”
Article from the Estate Agent Today
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Isle of Wight Homes details are the best! |
11 August 2008 10:44 |
If you want to receive our e-mails as & when appropriate properties are loaded to our website, please click on our “Contact Us” button with your criteria (as the lady below did). |
Hi,
thanks for all of the details that you send us.
I have to say that your details are the best that I have ever seen, and we have really ploughed through hundreds of different details from other estate agents!
The amount of photos give a clear idea of what the property is like and it really helps to cut out on viewings on houses that are unsuitable. We hope to visit the island in the next few months with our shortlist to view. Thanks again, look forward to receiving any other details that you have for other properties that meet our criteria. L
August 2008
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