Sandersons

[Andrea]

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/search/39...perty_division/

AN estate agency which has been trading for 150 years has been forced to stop selling properties as the economic downturn continues to pressurise the sector, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Sandersons, based in Darlington, said it was devastating that it had been forced to apply to put its sales operation into administration, but the business would continue to trade from its “thriving”

lettings division.

It is believed to be the first estate agency in the region to take such action, as scores of such companies fight to stay in business as the property market continues to deteriorate.

All seven Sandersons Estate Agents offices – in Barnard Castle, Richmond, Catterick Garrison, Stokesley, Aske, near Richmond, and two in Darlington – will close, with the loss of 15 jobs. Although the firm has not ruled out reintroducing property sales when conditions are more favourable, it will not return to mass sales.

Its Sandersons Lettings business, which has been trading for ten years, will relocate to premises in Duke Street, Darlington, and will continue to employ seven staff.

The firm – which was founded in Newcastle in 1858 – is hopeful the changes will take effect before Christmas.

Gordon Catterick, director of Sandersons, told The Northern Echo it was a devastating decision to make, but stressed the Sandersons name would be retained through its lettings business.

“This is not a decision that has been taken lightly, and if I could see light at the end of the tunnel in the property sales market this wouldn’t have happened. Although we are the first to take this decision, I don’t think we will be the last.

“Maybe we have been braver by doing this first, but I think others will follow. Several estate agencies are cutting back, but we took the decision to bite the bullet.

“In all probability, we will not see an improvement in the property market for at least six to 12 months, and I think there will be more devastation to come.

“We are going to focus now on lettings and channel all our energies into that – but when the market changes, there may be a possibility of us reintroducing sales, but it would definitely not be on a mass market approach. We would only consider that on a much smaller scale.”

Mr Catterick said that while property sales have deteriorated significantly, lettings have shown a marked rise.

“The growth of lettings is indicative of how the whole property market has changed,” he said.

“The lettings side is doing very, very well, and we’ve had two very successful years, so we look forward to being able to take that forward and grow Sandersons Lettings.”

[refugee]

The spouse and I laughed for 10 minutes solid when we saw this in the D&S Times. As an agent they we a bunch of pricks especially the fat ginger git with the Lexus. If you went in as a buyer they would treat you contempt and if went in as a seller they can't even value accurately - that's a common problem though. When we were putting our last house on the markey their RICS tosser valued it way below what we knew it was worth - we were right and sold it through another agent in a few weeks for about 50k more then fat git in the Lexus said we'd get.

Had a similar story with a *anker from C***** J**** a few year earlier - my wife put him out the door and we sold for £125k more through a competent agent.

They call themselves professionals. At what, I ask.