A Foxton's Estate Agent Said To Me Yesterday....

[lozwills]

I'm not going to moan too much as I'm one of the lucky ones who's not trying to get on the first rung of the ladder (STR'd July 2004 and happily renting) but still snffing round the odd house to see if we can pick up a property for a good price - kids are nearing school age and want them to be settled wherever we're living.

Spoke to a Foxton's estate agent yesterday who had obviously just been to his local weekly brainwashing meeting up in the West End.

On seeing a house that was priced £75k more than any other house had sold for in the road (thank you nethouseprices.com) I said that "prices next year were going to fall, at best stay level next year - I don't see why I should be paying the highest price in the road in a falling market" to which he said:

"After SIPPS get introduced, it's going to go completely nuts - to be honest, if anyone's looking to enter the market at any level after 2008, they're going to need £1 million to do so - this house has been priced to reflect that".

Just fantastic - and he was actually straight faced - he actually really did believe it. The house was on the market for £525K (next door identical house sold for £450K August 2005).

My horrible worry is that this sort of nonsense seems to be working on supposedly sensible people with £500k - I know another well known agent pulled one over of my new neighbour next door who paid £580k (it also needs renovation) where any previous identical one had not achieved more than £515k.

These are the sort of stats that the building societies are cherry picking for their house price index scams to keep the ship afloat.

Losing the will to live now, why can't people open their eyes?

[Time to raise the rents.]

If I were you I'd thank him for the comments and buy the house.....

Edited November 20, 2005 by Time to raise the rents.

[CrashedOutAndBurned]

As I've said before, of the kamikaze buyers we've known over the last year, ALL have mentioned estate agensts using the SIPPs card. During the boom EAs have generally used fear to bludgeon people into overstretching themseles for dismal properties - 'you'll miss the boat', 'they'll be even more next year', 'they can't come down in this area'... SIPPs is perfect for this technique, as it's ill-defined int he minds of most buyers, so you can claim all sorts of things about it.

Edited November 20, 2005 by CrashedOutAndBurned

[geranium]

"After SIPPS get introduced, it's going to go completely nuts - to be honest, if anyone's looking to enter the market at any level after 2008, they're going to need £1 million to do so - this house has been priced to reflect that".

This explains a lot. Personally I can't wait until A-day/SIPPS is behind us... hopefully then the EA's will run out of excuses and blind optimism.

Foxtons has priced a house we would be interested in viewing at £45k over the ceiling price in the street (achieved July 2005). Moreover, that ceiling price is particularly high - and I remember it is a relatively smart looking house with a south-facing garden. Previously, houses in that street and very similar streets nearby sold in the range of £50k to £100k below the ceiling price over the last couple of years.

The agent won't even show us the house because that current ceiling price (45k below his asking price) represents the absolute top of our budget. In other words, we could match the highest price ever achieved in that street. It's not as if we are complete time-wasters. He said a few months ago, when it came onto the market, sorry, but there is so much genuine interest in this property I'm not prepared to show it to you. Funnily enough, it is still on the market ... but the agent is still not returning our calls requesting a viewing.

He only calls us when he wants us to traipse through houses that they have just put on the market, to make the vendor think Foxtons is doing a good job and has lots of potential buyers. These houses are almost always priced at or above the one he refuses to show us. If you're not there at the start, or willing to pay the asking price, you don't get a look-in!

It's one thing to price too high and encourage reasonable offers. Quite another to bully buyers into paying the asking price.

I hasten to add that most EAs seem professional, helpful and realistic. Sensibly, they are focused on transactions rather than absolute prices. It is only Foxtons that seem to make life difficult ... for sellers (who can't sell at their high valuations in this market) for buyers (who can't pay these prices or get anywhere near the properties) and for themselves. In a flat or declining market, their business model simply doesn't work.

I wonder what their financial year end is and whether their accounts are easily available from companies house....?

Edited November 20, 2005 by geranium

[Nomadd]

If I were you I'd thank him for the comments and buy the house.....

Exactly - anyone on average wage can easily afford £525k for a house. Peanuts, really. Mind you, like the man at Foxtons said, by 2008 (only a couple of years away), these same normal houses will be at least £1 million, which again just isn't a problem for the man in the street.

I'd say just sit it out and enter the market when you are ready - I mean, within the space of 2 years the average man would easily be able to save up enough to buy even a £1 million house for cash. No problem.

Like you said, TtRTR, no problem at all. Houses overpriced? They must be crazy...

Nomadd

[ftbSean]

If I were you I'd thank him for the comments and buy the house.....

HaHaHa:lol:

TtRtR, Your irony is always spot on. I look forward to the comic gems in your posts. Not everybody gets it though...

[apom]

would people pay attention to sipps..

Its not about housing.. its about investing in anything...

and all the sipps investors in the world are not going to protect against raising interest rates..

and not raising interest rates is not going to protect the pound from the strengthening dollar...

In a selfish moment.. right now.. this second..

I don't want IR's to rise.. I want the Americans to hit their promised 5%

with us still at 4.5%

Now that should be funny..

[Guest Riser]

If I were you I'd thank him for the comments and buy the house.....

One of the features of this bubble is a detachment between the price of houses and the amount people are actually able to save each month after paying bills, let alone interest on a massive mortgage and factoring in future interest rates.

Are you seriously suggesting Lozwills should consider advice from a jumped up salesman who suggests people will be prepared to pay £1 million next year for a house that would probably cost around £100k to build.

Many of those in the enviable position of having £500k in a SIPP are likely to be smart enough to realise UK housing is at the peak of one of the biggest bubbles in history. Your views are a joke

Edited November 20, 2005 by Riser

[Marina]

This explains a lot. Personally I can't wait until A-day/SIPPS is behind us... hopefully then the EA's will run out of excuses and blind optimism.

Foxtons has priced a house we would be interested in viewing at £45k over the ceiling price in the street (achieved July 2005). Moreover, that ceiling price is particularly high - and I remember it is a relatively smart looking house with a south-facing garden. Previously, houses in that street and very similar streets nearby sold in the range of £50k to £100k below the ceiling price over the last couple of years.

The agent won't even show us the house because that current ceiling price (45k below his asking price) represents the absolute top of our budget. In other words, we could match the highest price ever achieved in that street. It's not as if we are complete time-wasters. He said a few months ago, when it came onto the market, sorry, but there is so much genuine interest in this property I'm not prepared to show it to you. Funnily enough, it is still on the market ... but the agent is still not returning our calls requesting a viewing.

He only calls us when he wants us to traipse through houses that they have just put on the market, to make the vendor think Foxtons is doing a good job and has lots of potential buyers. These houses are almost always priced at or above the one he refuses to show us. If you're not there at the start, or willing to pay the asking price, you don't get a look-in!

It's one thing to price too high and encourage reasonable offers. Quite another to bully buyers into paying the asking price.

I hasten to add that most EAs seem professional, helpful and realistic. Sensibly, they are focused on transactions rather than absolute prices. It is only Foxtons that seem to make life difficult ... for sellers (who can't sell at their high valuations in this market) for buyers (who can't pay these prices or get anywhere near the properties) and for themselves. In a flat or declining market, their business model simply doesn't work.

I wonder what their financial year end is and whether their accounts are easily available from companies house....?

You really ought to write directly to the vendor. If you explain your rationale re previous prices etc and that the estate agent won't let you see the house. If I were the vendor I would explode at the estate agent and probably sue them.

The agent should ring them up and say 'got a guy here who can't go above £x - would you like to show him the house? Maybe if he really likes it we can squeeze him up a bit more.'

It's funny really, the estate agency profession is digging a hole and is going to jump in it.

If they keep giving financial advice about SIPPs - without any financial qualifications - they are simply hastening the day when, to be an estate agent, you will have to regulated by the FSA.

Lots of people have already demanded this. Amazing isn't it? Some snotty nosed 21 year old kid, living with his Mum and Dad, with a big contract hire payment on his Audi TT - give people financial advice.

It's priceless.

Wonder when the NAEA is going to jump in and start talking about the need for a sustainable market.

[Time to raise the rents.]

HaHaHa:lol:

TtRtR, Your irony is always spot on. I look forward to the comic gems in your posts. Not everybody gets it though...

Nice to see someone notices when I'm joking. Thanks.

[fatfreddie]

I'm not going to moan too much as I'm one of the lucky ones who's not trying to get on the first rung of the ladder (STR'd July 2004 and happily renting) but still snffing round the odd house to see if we can pick up a property for a good price - kids are nearing school age and want them to be settled wherever we're living.

Spoke to a Foxton's estate agent yesterday who had obviously just been to his local weekly brainwashing meeting up in the West End.

On seeing a house that was priced £75k more than any other house had sold for in the road (thank you nethouseprices.com) I said that "prices next year were going to fall, at best stay level next year - I don't see why I should be paying the highest price in the road in a falling market" to which he said:

"After SIPPS get introduced, it's going to go completely nuts - to be honest, if anyone's looking to enter the market at any level after 2008, they're going to need £1 million to do so - this house has been priced to reflect that".

Just fantastic - and he was actually straight faced - he actually really did believe it. The house was on the market for £525K (next door identical house sold for £450K August 2005).

My horrible worry is that this sort of nonsense seems to be working on supposedly sensible people with £500k - I know another well known agent pulled one over of my new neighbour next door who paid £580k (it also needs renovation) where any previous identical one had not achieved more than £515k.

These are the sort of stats that the building societies are cherry picking for their house price index scams to keep the ship afloat.

Losing the will to live now, why can't people open their eyes?

There will always suckers who buy into it, but thankfully not the buyers in to stabilise the market. I am interesting to find out how much much houses will be actually worth when the Dow crashes from 10,600 to 2,000 thereabouts. Learn how to short the stock market as well as some option strategies. Make killing and buy property at the lowest prices seen in years. When the stock market crash occurs it will have a knock on 1929 effect. High unemployment, bankrupcies. I a sad to say it create soem entrepeurnial opportunities if you have a few bucks in your pocket during this tiem you will pick up gifts and bargains. The USA has never been in so much debt and if you look at the Dow look at the top resistance level and then look at its bottom it will give you some. I am just being realistic we can talk roperty up and down as much as we want but we ae going to hit some hard times soon so be prepared. Learn how to short the market as well as using some option PUT stratagies you will make a killing as things crash.

[VacantPossession]

The agent won't even show us the house because that current ceiling price (45k below his asking price) represents the absolute top of our budget. In other words, we could match the highest price ever achieved in that street. It's not as if we are complete time-wasters. He said a few months ago, when it came onto the market, sorry, but there is so much genuine interest in this property I'm not prepared to show it to you. Funnily enough, it is still on the market ... but the agent is still not returning our calls requesting a viewing.

This well known but transparent technique of selling houses seems to have become the unique calling card of Foxtons. It is of course outrageous. It attempts to use fear, intimidation, jealousy, panic, exaggeration, paranoia and of course lies to get you to part with your cash. Don't forget that part of the excessive hike over other less outrageously priced houses in exactly the same street is the "premium" extorted from you as your contribution to the agent's ghastly multi-coloured mini, and the pseudo-corpo-dynamo image of Foxton's ludicrous selling technique.

This sort of nonsense is only sustainable because London appears to be festooned with thousands of complete idiots who are prepared to believe all this tripe, and are unwilling or too lazy to actually investigate what is really happening in a market which Foxton's attempts to by-pass with their heavy pressure marketing technique.

It is said we deserve the governments we vote for. We even more deserve the sheister EA's we are prepared to tolerate. The quicker this appalling excuse for an agent "acting on your behalf" goes down the pan the better. However it will only go down the pan when people wake up to the utter bull which Foxton's are peddling.

Foxtons represents the pinnacle of ultra-hype marketing and is indicative of the high-expectation, low critical faculties of pea-brained gullibles who cumulatively enable this joke of an organisation to exist.

VP

[The Masked Tulip]

My horrible worry is that this sort of nonsense seems to be working on supposedly sensible people with £500k - I know another well known agent pulled one over of my new neighbour next door who paid £580k (it also needs renovation) where any previous identical one had not achieved more than £515k.

At the height of tulipmania in the 17th Century people were paying small fortunes for the sweeping ups from the auction rooms floors.

It's not as if we are complete time-wasters. He said a few months ago, when it came onto the market, sorry, but there is so much genuine interest in this property I'm not prepared to show it to you. Funnily enough, it is still on the market ... but the agent is still not returning our calls requesting a viewing.

You get a similar ting with IT contract roles. Companies farm finding people out to agents, agents advertise the role and when you ring up they refuse to talk to you, givey ou some bull about being inundated with CVs. For weeks afterwards you see the same agent advertising the same job.

I think it is part of ******** selling training that all sharks, I mean, agents, go through. They get so caught up in the ******** that they effectively end up bullshitting themselves.

[oracle]

I'm not going to moan too much as I'm one of the lucky ones who's not trying to get on the first rung of the ladder (STR'd July 2004 and happily renting) but still snffing round the odd house to see if we can pick up a property for a good price - kids are nearing school age and want them to be settled wherever we're living.

Spoke to a Foxton's estate agent yesterday who had obviously just been to his local weekly brainwashing meeting up in the West End.

On seeing a house that was priced £75k more than any other house had sold for in the road (thank you nethouseprices.com) I said that "prices next year were going to fall, at best stay level next year - I don't see why I should be paying the highest price in the road in a falling market" to which he said:

"After SIPPS get introduced, it's going to go completely nuts - to be honest, if anyone's looking to enter the market at any level after 2008, they're going to need £1 million to do so - this house has been priced to reflect that".

Just fantastic - and he was actually straight faced - he actually really did believe it. The house was on the market for £525K (next door identical house sold for £450K August 2005).

My horrible worry is that this sort of nonsense seems to be working on supposedly sensible people with £500k - I know another well known agent pulled one over of my new neighbour next door who paid £580k (it also needs renovation) where any previous identical one had not achieved more than £515k.

...it fits perfectly!!!!...I love it.

...Joe public really is going to feel shafted once april comes and goes,without a murmur of prices spiralling into the stratosphere.

BIG disappointment ahead,and BIG price drops as they all try and sell up due to the disappointment.

[London Landlady]

The issue with SIPPS is that the Govt has made it possible to increase the size of your pension pot by simply putting in money & churning it round to claim back tax. Also, to allow you to buy properties - for many in the SouthEast this is an attractive investment proposition. As April is the first time people can do it, there is an anticipation that this will drive the market up. We will just have to wait & see if it happens.

[Guest consa]

The issue with SIPPS is that the Govt has made it possible to increase the size of your pension pot by simply putting in money & churning it round to claim back tax. Also, to allow you to buy properties - for many in the SouthEast this is an attractive investment proposition. As April is the first time people can do it, there is an anticipation that this will drive the market up. We will just have to wait & see if it happens.

I think you may find it has the opposite effect by driving the market down through reductions

[London Landlady]

Spoken like a true troll...

At last - some honesty.

TROLL = BULL

Just as I suspected.

[red]

...

Spoke to a Foxton's estate agent yesterday who had obviously just been to his local weekly brainwashing meeting up in the West End.

...

"After SIPPS get introduced, it's going to go completely nuts - to be honest, if anyone's looking to enter the market at any level after 2008, they're going to need £1 million to do so - this house has been priced to reflect that".

Just fantastic - and he was actually straight faced - he actually really did believe it. The house was on the market for £525K (next door identical house sold for £450K August 2005).

...

A million quid for entry level property in 2 years time?! He actually believed that? There's hardly anyone around to prop the market up NOW, never mind 2008! Actually, there's no point in trying to reason with people who say things like that; it's like taking a flat-earther into outer space, showing them planet earth and having them turn around and say: "No, it's flat...it's flat, I tell you!"