HouseDog

These may be of interest: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4728950.stm 'Baby gap' as maternity delayed Parental leave should be paid for three months, the IPPR suggested There is an annual 90,000 "baby gap" between the number of children women say they want and the number they have, a study suggests. ----------------- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/if/3557741.stm House price fall as population ages? Property prices could fall as the UK population gets older and the birth rate drops over the next 20 years, warns government pensions adviser Adair Turner. ----------------

We all seem to be finding and posting here many erroneous listings and errors from the Rightmove directory. However, is this correcting the issue? I think we should send an individual email with each error we find to Rightmoves Stuart Chung stuart.chung@rightmove.co.uk as he produces the Rightmove stats. I'm sure after receiving a few thousand emails per month Rightmove will act to address some of the issues this thread has highligted. HD

http://finance.google.com/finance

Should I Rent or Buy? There's a debate and poll here: http://forums.gumtree.com/about1149.html Regards HD

There may be an option to link the spurious Rightmove asking price data with the whistle blower story? I'm sure media outlets will have picked up on the TV program and some may well use an additional strand. HD

Out of the ten estate agents I've viewed houses with in the last month or so .. I think I would trust two or maybe three. I'm sure not all estate agents are untrustworthy but some of the stunts they have tried to pull have been incredible! You can add comments to the BBC News article on the Whistle Blower Program here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4826444.stm

I'm sure like me you won't want to miss BBC One at 9pm tonight then .. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2095640,00.html Estate agent ‘lies’ caught on film By Devika Bhat TV investigators have exposed potentially illegal sales practices ESTATE agents have been exposed engaging in unethical and potentially illegal practices, including putting forward false offers to vendors, misleading surveyors and faking signatures on key documents. Footage in a BBC programme, due to be broadcast tonight, even shows one estate agent supplying an undercover reporter — posing as a potential buyer — with a false British passport in exchange for £750, in order to apply for a mortgage. The revelations come on the same day that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) sets up a code of practice for estate agents, aimed at ensuring that buyers and sellers get a fair deal and are less likely to be duped by maverick agencies. The programme, Whistleblower, shows two reporters who worked undercover in estate agents across London over a four-month period. During the investigation, they are shown to have witnessed unscrupulous activities, including agents lying to surveyors about the value of other properties that had sold in an area, so that buyers would potentially pay more than they should. In another instance, buyers are encouraged by an agency to sign up to a firm of financial advisers, who pass their apparently confidential financial details back to the agency so that they can see how much clients can be pushed to spend on properties. The agent who is shown providing a fake passport to an undercover reporter, is also filmed supplying other false documents to aid with the mortgage application, a service for which he accepts a separate cash payment. Employees also describe how sellers can be lured to sign up to an agency with the promise of a high asking price, only to be subsequently encouraged to lower their expectations following false low bids placed by the agents. Agents are also shown lying to vendors about real bids, initially lowering their value so that the seller is led to believe that they have gained a good deal when the true price of the bid is eventually quoted. In an illegal practice, an agent is shown acknowledging instances of flyboarding — putting up “For Sale” posters at properties not actually on the agency’s books. Elsewhere, an agent claims he can sell a property to a developer — one of the whistleblowers — at a price much lower than its actual value, in exchange for a personal payment of £10,000. Anna Adams, one of the reporters involved in the investigation, said: “I found the practices used by some estate agents really shocking. Clients are often paying them thousands of pounds in fees so this brings into question whether agents really are acting in their clients’ best interests.” An OFT spokeswoman said that unfair and unethical practice within the industry was prominent and well-known. “For many people it is the biggest transaction of their lives and if it goes wrong, it can go horribly wrong. There are plenty of horror stories that we have heard about,” she told The Times. Whistleblower will be shown on BBC One at 9pm.

Its possible the estate agent didn't pass on your offer of 300K in the first place. Go knock on the houses door and find out. Mind you... prices will come down further, so its not a bargain yet. HD

Most in our London office are on 16K5 (all graduates).

I doubt they will answer any questions about their methodology in the week of their float. But they will have to answer to shareholders in the end. Regards HD

It looks great well done .. thanks for putting in the time for us. What about some landing pages on the root for terms like: rightmove & house prices etc ? : (As you probably know) these are good places to look for terms: http://inventory.uk.overture.com/d/searchi...ory/suggestion/ https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox HD

Up to 5,000 university lecturers across Wales are joining a one-day UK-wide strike for higher wages http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4781384.stm

Wasn't there a fashion to call Brixton, Brixtonia and Clapham, Clarm or something .. in the late 80s ?

A New TV Program on a House Price Crash? I had a similar idea here a week or so ago: http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=24683 .... but it didn't seem to get much interest! The program makers will probably be looking for themes and stories so it may well be worth putting some sensible ones forward. HD

Rightmove will have to answer sooner or later .. I'm sure they know that shareholders have quite a few rights.

We used these guys once before in the office: http://www.tshirtstudio.com/ HD

Excellent work getting the issue into the FT. But if you came to HousePriceCrash its not that easy to find this thread as its three clicks into the website and you have to know where your going? HD

Google can be contacted on: adsense-support@google.com https://adwords.google.com/select/guidelines.html I thought I must have it somewhere: Google Ads Tel: 0845-358-0038 HD

There's a press release here: Rightmove Referred to OFT http://www.responsesource.com/releases/rel...d=24380&hilite=

Excellent Report I don't know much about shares etc .. but aren't there forums on motleyfool or bloomberg, yahoo finance where people discuss forthcoming IPOs? Maybe the data could be posted here as well to encourage some chatter? HD

Just a bit more fun here: http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/ho...1297453,00.html 'She was always a trier - the nicest maths report she ever got said, 'It's such a pity Kirstie won't pass her GCSE because she really has worked hard,'

Maybe not everyone will loose out? ... is Kirstie really The Hon. Kirstie Mary Allsopp http://www.thepeerage.com/p7974.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirstie_Allsopp

40 year old FTB Current deposit: £45K Target deposit: (end 2006 £65K) (end 2007 £95K) Amount I could borrow @3.5x: £157K Amount I am going to borrow: As little as possible - under 50K Looking to buy: 3 bedroom house Area: Northampton Strategy: Save more, Buy less. I won't buy until the market corrects by at least 20 - 25% Moved back in with parents at age 40! Yes it's terrible!!

Also Estate Agents must be on the site a lot - adding new properties etc.

My guess is that in the south and the midlands we might well see a stagnant market with slowly decreasing house prices in 2006 [maybe 2 - 4%]. For house prices to drop by any larger amount we need a change in public sentiment, media coverage, PM and a nudge upwards on interest rates. The tide is turning now but we need Scotland and Northern Ireland to complete their price hikes before the media will get interested. I'm going to keep saving. HD