Tuesday, Dec 09, 2008
Estate agencies closing at a rate of 150 per month.
Citywire: Estate agents face another investigation
Estate agents will come under scrutiny as part of a sweeping investigation into the house buying and selling process announced by the Office of Fair Trading. The body will consider the competition between price and quality between estate agents and the extent of consumer protection. It will also scrutinise the relationships between estate agents, mortgage brokers, surveyors and solicitors. The news comes as estate agents fight for survival. The housing downturn has seen business slow to a trickle – some are said to be shifting just one house a week – with recent stats suggesting estate agencies closing at a rate of 150 a month.
Posted by jack c @ 10:04 AM (390 views) Add Comment
5 Comments
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1. bystander said...
stable door and horses jump to mind.
2. paul said...
First aired in 2006. And still one of the best parodies of what has been wrong with estate agents for at least the last five years.
3. jack c said...
If the OFT carries out a genuine "sweeping investigation" the one thing that they will find is that there is a conflict of interest where the EA acts for the vendor and then elects to act on behalf of the buyer by providing Mortgage and associated advice (often including legal services) - they should outlaw this and the whole system would become much better for both buyers and sellers (to the detriment of the EA of course)
4. luckyjim said...
I wonder how many more estate agants there are now compared to the last crash. I know the market square in my town used to have two of them and now has six - only one has closed so far.
Their business model has contributed to the house price inflation and is now slowing down the correction. Sellers tend to overvalue their own properties and therefore go with the agent with the highest valuation. It is like an auction - which agent dares to go with the most unrealistic price.
There are dozens of properties in my area which are still on for silly prices. Some have sat on the market for over a year with no change in price. The EAs need to tell them - "your house is now worth 'X' - lower the price or we will take you off our books." However, the first agent to do that in isolation will soon find themeselves with no properties to market.
5. Hip Hater said...
Don't forget the referral fee paid to the EA by some conveyancers. In our town it's £100 per instruction and the client pays an inflated fee to the conveyancer. It's legal, but that doesn't mean it's right