Time To Get Proactive?

[cddiment]

I still want to hold out, but I need to move out by Jan, and there still isn't any suitable property to rent in my area which is getting on my... Anyway, I've seen a nice house for sale, asking is 123,995 according to the free house prices web site it was sold last Jan for 120K and a year or so before that for 94K, so what stupid offer should I put in, a) because thats what it should be worth and so that it has a chance of surviving a house price crash.

Also, if it was last bought at 120K and now on sale for 4K more, whats going on there?

[Mags]

The tricky bit of course is that we would need to get this in the media, flyer campaigns are too small scale. Is there anyone who knows how to penitrate the media bubble?

I work in the media. No reason why an incredibly well thought through press release shouldn't grab the attention of the likes of Evan Davis. After all, he does tend to rant on about the stupidity of people thinking that they are rich just because their property is valued highly.

I get sent huge numbers of press releases and tend to take more notice of the organisations that take every opportunity to offer a balanced, relevant response to news items that relate to their area of interest. I guess what I'm saying is that if this approach was taken, it would need to be consistent and really high quality to be taken seriously. Does that make sense?

[Once in a lifetime]

Not true - They must be removed 14 days after completion - not after 14 days.

Not really sure how that will help the cause.

Sod it. you're right, on completion.

Although I did look it up because you’re an estate agent. (noble profession)

Feb 2005 Spicerhaart was fined £9k after pleading guilty to six offences

under the trade description act. Fly boarding- removing ‘sold’ boards from rival agents and replacing with their own.

August 2004 Romans estate agents was fined £3k for putting up ‘sold’ signs

outside property that was not for sale.

Can estate agents put for sale or sold signs outside empty homes?

This is generally seen as an "undesirable practice" by the authorities, and estate agents can be prosecuted.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2946170.stm

The Ombudsman for estate agents doesn’t publish statistics on how many of its members

have broken the law or its own code. Neither does it proactively monitor companies through

mystery shopping or unannounced visits to agents.

Edited December 7, 2005 by burnt before

[coolaftershave]

I have thought about this before and am happy to see someone else suggest it.

The house prices level at the moment is defined only by the sales prices and while there are people still falling for the pyramid scheme the high prices are just continually confirmed… with a positive “vote”. Registering a negative vote is harder as you would have to convince people to sell at a lower price… this would take a long time to show in the asking price level.

So.. the solution really is to actively go out and target boroughs of London. We could act individually and give reasonable offers on housing.. say 5-8000 lower. Anything more and your going to get abuse from the EA. Hopefully the EAs call you back and agree on the price and this is when you hit them.

“Sorry, I have just been offered 15,000 off on a similar property in the area. Goodbye.”

Don’t give them details after this and refuse to take their calls and most importantly don’t talk/bost about your HPC knowledge. They must believe you are Joe public.

Individually done this may or may not cover the London area equally. If were going to meet up for beer we may as well also meet up for a purpose. Organise a timetable and a chart and teams targeting different EA areas. Possibly offer prizes for the teams that manage to influence prices in an area the most. Than after a hard days work we could all enjoy a beer and exchange stories of the work we have done. The next week… rotate teams and areas so EA’s wont twig.

Proactive. Definitely time to help push the market over the edge. This could work. We just need to organise a group as efficient as EA businesses.

Lets do it!

[fatfreddie]

The Gazumping stratagy. Getting back at Sellers from the Boom times.

If you like a place and have cased it out, get someone else to put in a low dummy offer. they pull out at the last minute. This is called raising expectations and lowering expectations. YOu come along and put in an even lower offer. I knew of people of doing this in the early 90s and getting upto 30% off asking price. They used to work as teams.

Or you could even do it yourself if they refuse your offer get the EA to call u when when they are interested.

FEAR does strange things and people act irrationally e.g remember the boom times buyers acting irrationally well now we will start to see the sellers acting irrationally. As the market is going down some sellers will not be sleeping at night, unpaid bills, job insecurity, low consumer confidence.....

It will come to a point "When they want out they have had enough" find these you will get your bargains

House Boom = Consumer Confidence High, More Buyers than Sellers, Scarcity people worrying about missing out, Spend Spend Spend, High Retail Spending, Employment Confidence.

House Crash = Consumer Confidence Low, More Sellers than Buyers, No rush to buy, Low Retail Spending,

People worrying about spending, Low Employment Confidence

I am playing the Song "What Goes Up Must Come Down"

[GCS15]

Ummm

What about

Stop House Inflation Tony (i suggest osser)

Help Every Ardent Demonstrator

Try Our Negative Yield

Edited December 9, 2005 by GCS15