[dogbox]

Just been to see a few E/As In Hertford.
Ive also telephoned 3 in Bishops Stortford.

HERE ARE THEIR QUOTES (all were very bearish in Novemeber / December btw);

"We've sold 7 at the weekend"

"We had literally hundreds of viewings at the weekend, its been our busiest January for a long time. Stock is fast dwindling".

"The market for 1 bed flats is very bouyant (sp), and we've sold the ones in Red Lion Court this weekend that wouldnt shift last year"

"Things are really busy again and selling across the board"

"Do you have a flat for sale Sir, we desperately need flats"

"Its really picking up, theres a lot more people out in the last couple of weeks. Yes, we're selling a lot of stuff now".

"I dont see prices dropping any further, I think things have stablised", "because things are selling and there are plenty of viewings".

Well well well.

[zzg113]

http://www.housepric...?showtopic=4265


DSFB's, your ptitful attempts to ramp property on here are beginning to get really rather tedious.

[ShirtyTheSlightlyAggresiveBear]

No credibility what so ever...

Quote

"Do you have a flat for sale Sir , we desperately need flats"

When was the last time an EA show that level of courtesy...




Why am i feeding a troll....

[Marina]

Just been to see a few E/As In Hertford.
Ive also telephoned 3 in Bishops Stortford.

HERE ARE THEIR QUOTES (all were very bearish in Novemeber / December btw);

"It's worse now than I have ever known it."

"We used to have literally hundreds of viewings at the weekend, but its been our quietest January ever. We have lots of unsold properties on the books".

"The market for 1 bed flats is completely dead and the developer of the Red Lion Court flats is taking offers from Property Investment Groups at 20% below asking price to get them shifted."

"Things are really quiet and very little is selling across the board"

"Do you have a flat for sale Sir? That's a shame we already have 40 on our books that won't shift. First Time Buyers just can't afford them and BTL investors cannot cover the rent."

"We hoped it would pick up in the New Year but it hasn't. Some days we have no-one in the office all day. The lads are playing computer games all day.

"I think prices will have to drop now - the market is stagnant and without people coming in at the bottom to start chains no-one can move"

"This is the worst I've ever seen it and I have been in business in this town for 35 years. You'll never hear an Estate Agent talk about prices falling but, in my opinion, if we don't have a sharp correction soon, half the agents in the town will be out of business by the end of the year."

"The good ship bargain has not sailed yet, in fact its embarkation has been put back indefinitely."

Well, well, well, well, well.

Dogbollox, apart from some slightly dodgy grammar and spelling (which I would be happy to tidy up for you), have you thought of a new career as a novelist? Children's fantasy stuff is much in vogue I believe.

[schadenfreude]

Dogbox
The bit of the puzzle I'm missing is where this rush of buyers got their money? Lending is way down so I guess a new breed of cash buyer is coming out of the woods.

[Time to raise the rents.]

schadenfreude, on Jan 31 2005, 02:01 PM, said:

Dogbox
The bit of the puzzle I'm missing is where this rush of buyers got their money? Lending is way down so I guess a new breed of cash buyer is coming out of the woods.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If the quotes are correct, they would preceed any change in lending numbers.

[patientFTB]

Marina, on Jan 31 2005, 01:52 PM, said:

Just been to see a few E/As In Hertford.
Ive also telephoned 3 in Bishops Stortford.

HERE ARE THEIR QUOTES (all were very bearish in Novemeber / December btw);

"It's worse now than I have ever known it."

"We used to have literally hundreds of viewings at the weekend, but its been our quietest January ever. We have lots of unsold properties on the books".

"The market for 1 bed flats is completely dead and the developer of the Red Lion Court flats is taking offers from Property Investment Groups at 20% below asking price to get them shifted."

"Things are really quiet and very little is selling across the board"

"Do you have a flat for sale Sir? That's a shame we already have 40 on our books that won't shift. First Time Buyers just can't afford them and BTL investors cannot cover the rent."

"We hoped it would pick up in the New Year but it hasn't. Some days we have no-one in the office all day. The lads are playing computer games all day.

"I think prices will have to drop now - the market is stagnant and without people coming in at the bottom to start chains no-one can move"

"This is the worst I've ever seen it and I have been in business in this town for 35 years. You'll never hear an Estate Agent talk about prices falling but, in my opinion, if we don't have a sharp correction soon, half the agents in the town will be out of business by the end of the year."

"The good ship bargain has not sailed yet, in fact its embarkation has been put back indefinitely."

Well, well, well, well, well.

Dogbollox, apart from some slightly dodgy grammar and spelling (which I would be happy to tidy up for you), have you thought of a new career as a novelist? Children's fantasy stuff is much in vogue I believe.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Marina
That's remarkably honest commentaries by EAs. Out of interest, how are you approaching them? As a seller/potential buyer etc etc
cheers

[yogibear]

Dogbox why don't you let us have the names of the EA's you phoned and we can then ring them up and find out if your statement is true.

[mercenarul]

There may well be lots of people wanting to move. All these "Sale agreed's" that you are reporting the agents are doing will fall through and the propertys will be back on the market in a couple of months when no FTB can be found to complete the chain.

Ask them how many of the 7 "sale agreed", because that is what they are, are sales to FTB's.

I bet they did not complete on 7 properties this weekend and I bet the FTB sale agreed's are close to 0.

That is what seems to be happening in Bedfordshire at the moment. Same properties keep going round and round every few months.

[yogibear]

Offers may well be put in before a mortgage has been agreed, but Dogbox talked about sales in some of his quotes eg. "we have sold 7..".

To have a sale the buyer must either have cash or a mortgage (and a sale is a competed sale once legal ownership has been transferred not an accepted offer which is only a potential sale).

You won't have an increase in sales until 2-3 months after the lending figures pick up.

[VacantPossession]

To be fair to the Bulls here, Bears as well as Bulls alike are regularly starting threads like "phoned a friend in a local EA", or, even less reliably "Walked past my local EA....not a single customer in sight/ place is buzzing / no activity etc etc".

In my humble view, none of these kinds of reports, over-reliant as they are on hearsay, third party gossip and shakey conclusions according to one's own prejudice, are of the slightest use.

Neither are the relentless reports on the market based solely on offer for sale prices. Not even the "agreed" prices are much use. As for "experts", we all have to decide which expert to believe. I tend to discount any expert who works in the financial industry because historically they tend to always talk the market up.

That leaves economists, but they all disagree with each other and economics as we know is more akin to astrology than science. I tend to believe the Bear economists on balance, because all the evidence points to an unsustainable bubble which historically always burst until prices reflected wages more realistically, but I concede that there could be an amount of wishful thinking influencing that view.

I think if we actually KNOW someone personally who is manifestly selling at a price substantially below what they might have expected or below that which they purchased, then that is useful information. But other hearsay stuff is really of little use.

For instance I just walked past a local agent early Monday morning, and it was empty apart from Staff. But on Friday afternoon last week it was full of people. Some of them could have been buyers, others could be sellers, others could be completely unrelated to either transactions. You just cannot tell.


The only reliable reports are therefore ACTUAL sale completion figures, which are always timed well behind the current speculative guesses and take time to filter through.


VacantPossession

[Red Baron]

Quote

"We've sold 7 at the weekend"

See my thread 'It's very bad everywhere"

[dogbox]

patientFTB, on Jan 31 2005, 01:08 PM, said:

That's remarkably honest commentaries by EAs. Out of interest, how are you approaching them? As a seller/potential buyer etc etc
cheers

This is my approach;

"Ive got a couple of flats Im thinking of selling, but Im wondering if its the right time. How are u finding things"?

[VacantPossession]

oops pressed wrong button.

[dogbox]

yogibear, on Jan 31 2005, 01:09 PM, said:

Dogbox why don't you let us have the names of the EA's you phoned and we can then ring them up and find out if your statement is true.

I was wondering how long it would be before someone asked this.
Can I ask that only Yogi rings so as not to deluge them with time - wasting and reports HONESTLY back please.

Heres the details Yogi;

Shepherds (Hertford) 01992 551955
Haart (Bishops Stortford) 01279 757575
Lednor (Bishops Stortford) 01279 505055