HappyNudist

Quality! And thank you for the laugh.

I don't have the time to read through all the pages on this, but I can guess there are a few posts of "if you can't afford 'em, don't have 'em" I am Chair of the Board of Governers of a Pre-School - if this were brought in tomorrow we would have no choice but to look at redundancy for some of our staff. Child Benefit mostly goes straight back into the economy from my experience.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lzhlc Funny, he looks a lot slimmer on his BBC page...

Nicely put! That's exactly right. Now a couple of years ago this level of blatant ramping would have got the massed hordes out snapping up property. Only problem now is that an awful lot of property on RM has been on for absolutely ages (1yr plus) for the simple reason that it's too pricey - but they won't drop the price because of greed and the EA's have lost their most effective bargaining tool in persuading them to do so. Given that mortgage lending is still hard to come by and expensive unless you have a good deposit (starting at 25%) then I don't see the market picking up. On the plus side - the banks are going to use this rise and the associated ramping to offload their repo's. Expect a flood coming on in the next 6 months.

Too much traffic on the site tonight so haven't had time to read all the posts. Apologies in advance if this has already been said. Look at your average EA. Fixed costs. Rates, Leccy Bill, staff, advertising etc. Ok, so advertising they can cut back on - small papers and such but big sites like Rightmove? No way. Ask yourself, how do you look for a house? It's rightmove. There are other players sure. I have no idea whether Globrix is free for EA's but I do know that I have never looked at it to search for property, nor does anyone I know. There are others of course. Some, if not all of them, will cost money. Rates - can't bugger about there Leccy Bill - Likewise Staff - well the basic is...well...basic. That's the whole point about commission. It bumps up a sh1t wage to something you can live on Now pick an EA in your area, click on the rightmove options and show ALL their properties, let's just assume for the moment that you have Prpoperty Bee installed - what do you see? A huge 'register' of properties for sale - but volume changing hands? No. And without volume there is no income stream. 1.5% to 2.5% on a sale sounds a lot, but you really do need quite a lot of them to make money. That volume isn't there. It won't be for some time. And the real problem now facing your average EA is how to get someone to drop the price in the face of positive headlines and positive figures. I know someone who turned down 8% below asking today as it was 'cheeky' in the light of the 'current market' 8% by the way is around 2005 prices for this property. So EA's are now fooked - how to get volume of sales with vendors who refuse to drop price? I speak as an ex EA. To my eternal shame... Let me illustrate further. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sa...ncludeSSTC%3Don Yours for a guide price of £175k http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sa...ncludeSSTC%3Don Yours for £175k - but has extra bedroom http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sa...ncludeSSTC%3Don Yours for £160k, still has 3 beds http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sa...ncludeSSTC%3Don Yours for £135k - same as the above Ok, they are all quite ghastly. But how do you convince the owner of property 1 to reduce the price? Given that others haven't sold for less?

Pure class

I couldn't get along to this - which is a shame as their were some interesting local plots for sale - did anyone pop along to be nosey?

If you were that academically gifted your punctuation should be better.

Now that's what I needed. I'm getting fed up of hearing talk of green shoots when the fundamentals haven't changed - lack of available and affordable credit still not there, manufacturing output down, consumer spending flatlining (despite record levels of discounting), Unemployment rising (still) and set to rise further...I could throw in the cost of oil and more importantly the price at the pumps rising, the price of food rising. All this sucks money from the average family, and it is only when the average family, on the average wage can afford to buy the average house (in their area) that things will return to any sense of normality.

The idle toad have won a seat

Captain I'm picking up unusually high levels of ordure Really Mr Spock, I would have thought it's totally reasonable to have a family rent out their spare room to any old nonce that comes along.... Captain, I'm picking up troll readings...

Oddly enough that's what happened when I was a kid - I came home from school to find bertie had gone, that bewilderment lasted only as long as supper - of course we had to wait a few days before we got bertie back in edible form so supper that night wasn't home grown but he wasn't missed that much. Made great eating though!

Quinoa is well worth a try - great stuff!

Not wanting to hijack the thread but I have been toying with the idea of buying a piglet to fatten up and then eat. My folks did it when we were kids! Only fly in the ointment is someone told me you now need a licence from Defra? Any thoughts? Is it viable?

Oh feck me! Here we go again...not another person you "went to school with" What or who are you? Highlander?

I have noticed an increasing use of "architect designed" - to imply it's a bespoke property and not just an ordinary one. And who else would design a house?

I know I've posted this before but do take a look at this stunning 3 bed Ex LA semi which is a premium listing. Additionally if anyone can offer any kind of explanation for what the agent is doing I'd be very grateful - need property bee though! http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sa...NG%26index%3D60

You've obviously never flown Air Egypt and sampled their catering - now that is really scary.

Brandon would be better, but then again I don't suppose anyone would notice...

I can think of quite a few areas of Norwich where, had the plane ploughed into the ground, it would have counted as 'urban re-generation' That said I still think it's a fine city.

Class! Made me laugh anyway

I'm buying

Repo house August last year - on for 170k, offered 165k and outbid. Decided to walk away. House came back on this week for 160k. Rang EA who originally had it on and was told "the mortgage company withdrew it from the market because they thought they could get more for it" Have done other research and this checks out. Has anyone else any experience of this? I've never heard of repo's being withdrawn from market - certainly not in a falling market.

Many apologies. I will remove your picture from my avatar immediately.

I thought the OP was spot on - this is exactly the sort of thing we need to be bringing to a wider audience! I'm tired of trying to bring the Ostrich heads out of the sand but to be honest - the proles need nice graphics and a bit of showmanship to bring it home. If we don't try to promote education then this whole site is just an infinite number of monkeys tapping away at an infinite number of keyboards.