If you think it's expensive to hire an estate agent...

The Government has issued a response to it's rather rapidly conducted 'consultation' on the Estate Agents Act and Property Misdescriptions Act. The full detail is available here (PDF), but the upshot is that they are going to do away with PMA and relax the rules for 'intermediaries' who offer an alternative way for sellers to market their properties without the expertise or expense of a traditional estate agent. 

Cue industry furore on a scale not seen since the basket case of Tesco Property Market. The comments section of Estate Agent Today will be full of vitriolic criticism of the Government's ill intentions towards the reassuringly expensive, hard working, high street agent by the time you read this. But, please! Calm down dears...

You only need look at Quantative Easing to see how effective Government backed policy makers are at artificially stimulating growth in anything. And they're not going to chuck £375bn at estate agency alternatives!

Moreover, our Home Moving Trends Survey has consistently shown that fees are not the issue for most vendors. The percentages of people who appointed an agent who offered the cheapest fee have never got out of single figures in the survey's four year history.

For the past two years, we have qualified the above question by asking it in isolation in case there was no difference in the fees offered and the answer has still been below 15% for choosing the cheapest agent. It has been a similar story in our Landlord Survey. Fees are not the issue that everyone believes they are. It is the easiest thing for a vendor to tell an agent or indeed an agent to tell their boss that they have chosen a competitor because they offered to do it cheaper. It's nicer than saying "I didn't really trust you" which is what is at the heart of many people's choice of which agent to use.

Our survey has further revealed an estate agency market which remains hugely competitive with fees and service levels driven by local market competition. The figures for the average fee paid show this variety graphically.

In America, there have been no legal restrictions on self-sale (or FSBO as they call it) for years and yet only a small percentage of property is sold in this way. These changes to legislation may encourage a few more people to attempt selling their own house and most will fail, then they will call you and you can do what you've always done whilst happily quoting Red Adair as they agree an appropriate fee for hiring you as a professional.

If you'd like to receive a free info pack on the 2011 Home Moving Trends Survey along with details of how you can get your vendors involved in the 2012 survey, please fill out your details below...

 

Home Moving Trends 2012   For further details about the Property Academy's Home Moving Trends Survey, please let us know how to get in touch.   First Name * Last Name * Company * Email *   Submit

Comments

[Robert Magda]

Such a nice Post Really Good Information and content..
nice images

Thanks

[Rose@bluepromocode]

Trust is vital issue when people are selling their homes or any other property that they own. No one wants to do business with an intermediary that they feel may rob them in some way down the road. Most people are unfamiliar with the process of putting a house on the market and they prefer to know that they are backed by a reliable team or individual.

If this service is offered by a professional who is a little more expensive then others, they are often willing to pay the difference because the risk of losing on their investment is too great.