Friday, May 16, 2008

'Selling house is all about fear ' {from Sold the ITV comedy series}

The Guardian: Ghost sales deception comes back to haunt estate agent

From Tuesday 13th May
An estate agent's novel way of coping with the property slowdown cost him rather more than he expected, a court heard yesterday. Mark Halls put up "sold" signs on carefully chosen empty properties which had nothing to do with him and had never been on the market, to give the impression that his firm was the one to watch.

Posted by rental john @ 03:07 PM (597 views) Add Comment

8 Comments

1. growler said...

... and all he gets is a £7500 fine. About one houses comission.

Friday, May 16, 2008 03:19PM Report Comment
 

2. Jayk said...

Romans were prosecuted for something similar a few years back. They put "SOLD" signs outside the houses of their own employees. Can't remember what their fine was but I think it was quite big.

Friday, May 16, 2008 03:26PM Report Comment
 

3. Jayk said...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/3536100.stm

Looks like my memory is failing. Roman's got a pathetic 5k fine. They must have laughed their asses off.

Friday, May 16, 2008 03:28PM Report Comment
 

4. rickyb said...

I can't believe how much the housing market has stagnated in my area. In March 2008 there were only 3 house sales, compared with 46 in March 2007. There seems to be a proliferation of for sale boards, and more and more with multiple agents.

Friday, May 16, 2008 03:53PM Report Comment
 

5. doomwatch said...

Maybe this guy had previously worked for Poxtons and thought this was just standard prcatice ?

Friday, May 16, 2008 04:47PM Report Comment
 

6. Rental John said...

Sh@T, and I thought all EA's were honest professionals.....just shows you can't always believe someone in a sharp suit....!

Friday, May 16, 2008 05:04PM Report Comment
 

7. sosoon said...

Profession of disrepute, who would of thought.

Friday, May 16, 2008 05:21PM Report Comment
 

8. malct said...

would it help to take some pressure off this evolving website if admin created at system whereby posters could communicate one 2 one but still annon?

just a thought.

Friday, May 16, 2008 08:25PM Report Comment
 

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