Oh Give Me A Home
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Levels of scale I suppose. It's a small shop, so the number of curtain sales needed to keep it going is lower - they were certainly never going to keep Montgomery alive if they weren't selling enough units across the whole country. It's sad, because people haven't been buying much for a couple of years, and it just looked over the last few months like things were picking up to more reasonable levels. The shop does have other suppliers, but Montgomery were the largest. It isn't just a case of swapping one out and another one in - you have to buy samples, sometimes display units that they want you to have, and those can be a large overhead for a small business.
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The level of joy that some of you lot seem to exhibit at people losing their jobs is disgusting. As it happens, my partner runs a shop selling curtains from this firm, and up to now was doing very well. Now we don't know what the future of the shop is going to be with the loss of their major supplier. But you carry on with your jokes eh?
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One of our local agents does this: they have 'Summer Sales', 'Autumn Sales', 'Half term sales'... As you found, having Property Bee shows this to be utter rubbish when you can see the house has been on the market for months, with the price steadily falling. Even so, I do wonder about the mentality - are we supposed to believe that after two weeks, if the house hasn't sold, they're going to put the price back up again? How would that make sense??? Mind you, I've noticed a few of houses have had their prices put up in the last week or so - we're out of recession you know, so obviously the market is going to really take off...
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Finally, A Reason To Buy...
Oh Give Me A Home replied to Nomadd's topic in House prices and the economy
Looking at the Property Bee history, two of the four reductions it had have been by 100 quid... I can't imagine why knocking 0.02% off the price didn't have them flocking in! -
Holy crap on a cracker... Maybe actor and heartthrob Rob Lowe was shocked that the video had drawn criticism, what with it being a (rather crass and stupid, admittedly) joke and all? Of course, the Daily Wail are never going to let something so trivial and silly as confirming their facts get in the way of a good bit of sensationalism.
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The Norton Canes services are weird. No matter how empty the toll road is, the services are always absolutely packed. Where the hell do all of those people come from? Do they run special day trips just to visit the services? Are they making the most of the toll fee by spending several hours buying ridiculously expensive Costa coffee?
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No, pay for it myself. I only use it if I'm driving past Birmingham at peak times - I prefer to pay than sit on the M6 for an hour or more to cover the same distance. If I'm doing the journey late at night, I don't use it, but it still takes longer at midnight on the M6 than at rush hour on the toll road.
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I use the M6 toll every week. Whilst it's really nice to have the entire road to myself, I always wonder how on earth they make any money on it. The answer is obviously.... they don't! I've been using it for three years, and the price has gone up a ridiculous amount in that time. You can almost hear the planning meetings: "We're not making enough money on the toll, because not enough people use it. What should we do?" "How about putting the prices up?" "Good idea! 10% should do it." Six months later... "We're not making enough money on the toll, because even less people use it. What should we do?" "How about putting the prices up?" "Excellent idea! I think 15% should cover it." They must have a calculator: required income = number of cars x price per car. If the first part goes down, just raise the second part.
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Had It Up To Here With Idiot Estate Agents
Oh Give Me A Home replied to montesquieu's topic in House prices and the economy
This. My brother-in-law is an estate agent, and not one of the fly-by-nights who came in when any idiot could sell a house - he's been doing it for 30+ years. He knows the market is buggered, as we've discussed it many times, but he also knows that most people are still deluded about what their house is 'worth'. Initially, he said that he would give realistic valuations, and reasons for doing so. Some vendors listened and went with him, others gave the typical 'but my house is different' reaction and went elsewhere. He got so fed up of it, that he has now changed tack. He asks them what they think it's worth, and then pitches just under that to see if he can get a bite. If he does, then once they're on the books, he works at them to try to get the price down, and if sellers make genuine offers at a discount, tries to persuade them that it's reasonable. Of course, he still gets the odd one who refuses to budge, and they just stay on the books for as long as it takes, but generally he said the tactic is working. He's selling enough to get by, and is slowly spreading some sense. -
My landlord has just put my house on the market. Purchased in 2008, for what I think was already an overinflated price, marketed two years ago for a slight increase over what they paid, and didn't sell, now on the market for 10% more than they paid. If they find an idiot willing to pay that much, I'd be amazed. If the market is full of so many deluded sellers, and equally deluded agents who are willing to market at the prices they want, then we'll just stagnate for the indefinite future.
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Bloke I work with has just very proudly told me that he's made an offer on a house he saw last night. He only started looking in the last couple of weeks, and this is the first one he viewed. He asked me yesterday if I thought now was a good time to buy, and I said no. Fair enough, his choice, so I said "hope the offer you made was well under the asking price". He assured me it was.... £20k off the asking of £300k... Still trying to be positive, I asked if he'd checked the Land Registry to see what it last sold for. Oh yes, he has. Last sold for £230k in 2004, but "they've done loads to it since - new kitchen, new bathroom, and they've decorated". I feel very depressed now. It's muppets like this that are keeping this bloody market afloat. You'd think he'd at least have tried to push it down to the stamp duty threshold. I think his only hope now is that the offer is rejected, or that the survey comes back and says it's worth a lot less.
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Your Funniest Viewing
Oh Give Me A Home replied to SarahBell's topic in House prices and the economy
Don't think so. They were gits though - I can't remember the exact numbers, but we did put in an offer at the asking price, which was something like £200k. They declined and took it off the market, then back on again about a month later at about £250k. EA said they'd had so many offers it had obviously been undervalued. Bloody thing sold as well...