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50 Estate Agents Made Redundant From A Rightmove Franchise


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HOLA441

http://www.epost.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nod...tentPK=19995786

A Bristol estate agent franchise has collapsed with the loss of 50 jobs.

Oliver Scarlett, a franchise for the nationwide chain of estate agents Your Move, called in administrators yesterday.

Staff from its 10 branches across Bristol and Somerset were called to the Aztec Hotel in Aztec West yesterday morning to be told they were all being made redundant.

One staff member, who asked not to be named, said: "It wasn't a bolt from the blue. We have heard rumours that the firm was having trouble paying its debts and we knew something was up when we were called to the hotel and were asked to bring all the keys for the houses currently on our books.

"We were then told that the firm had called in administrators and that we were all being made redundant."

She added that the firm was dealing with an estimated 100 house sales across its branches at the time of its collapse.

Customer keys have been given to administrators for safekeeping as the firm's future is decided.

The Oliver Scarlett franchise, which was launched in Portishead in July 2004, has eight sites across the Bristol area.

These include Portishead, Henleaze, Filton, Knowle, Clifton, Wotton-under-Edge, Worle and Thornbury. It also has branches in Bridgwater and Taunton in Somerset.

Mark Jones, area manager for Oliver Scarlett, said: "We are arranging for all our branches' phones to be diverted to the Bridgwater branch, which will be kept open for the next few days for administration staff, who will deal with phone queries.

"Ongoing sales of properties with Oliver Scarlett will be given out to other agents by the administrators."

Tracy Jones, a spokeswoman for administrators Hazlewoods of Gloucester, said: "We can confirm that Philip Gorman of Hazlewoods has been appointed administrator for Oliver Scarlett Ltd by the High Court. We have no further comment to make at this stage."

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HOLA442
A Bristol estate agent franchise has collapsed with the loss of 50 jobs.

Staff from its 10 branches across Bristol and Somerset were called to the Aztec Hotel in Aztec West yesterday morning to be told they were all being made redundant.

Anyone want to organise a whip round for the now redundant staff of these 10 branches ??

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HOLA445
Well I hope redundancy doesn't happen to you - when the long-expected major deep recession that everybody here is so looking forward to happens.

I agree, redundancy isn't funny, but as its a franchise operation there is a chance it might be picked up. This happened to a franchised estate agents in Northampton recently.

Also there won't be a major deep recession, there will be another bubble, but not in housing.

Edited by rover2000
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HOLA446
Anyone want to organise a whip round for the now redundant staff of these 10 branches ??
Fantastic news !!!!!

This concurs with a report in France recently that half the country's EA's would close in the downturn. (from 34000 to 17000), which was the number before the housing bubble started.

Why should the UK be any different ?

This may be indicative of the state of the housing market but hardly reason to celebrate - fifty people redundant isn't exactly great news and laughing at their misfortune is pretty poor form.

Q

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Guest The_Oldie
This may be indicative of the state of the housing market but hardly reason to celebrate - fifty people redundant isn't exactly great news and laughing at their misfortune is pretty poor form.

Q

I agree.

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HOLA449

I think redundancy is always a sad thing - the banks, the government, the bank of england were responsible for the creation of these unsustainable froth jobs - but no doubt the elite will carry on as ever whilst the ordinary Joes - on low wages - be they estate agents or retail workers - will get belted in the gob by the downturn, and end up on the brew. And Bristol's a pretty depressed city in economic terms - not the easiest place to pick up a new full-time, permanent job.

Nothing but the same old story. Know thine enemy! :ph34r:

G

Edited by gruffydd
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HOLA4410
This may be indicative of the state of the housing market but hardly reason to celebrate - fifty people redundant isn't exactly great news and laughing at their misfortune is pretty poor form.

Q

Yes, I'll second that. During my life I have been an employee for a total of about 6 years our of a working life of, to date, 37 years.

One of the scumbag employers I worked for, in construction, made ME REDUNDANT in the last recession. Cheeky sods. At least they went broke a year or two later.

But, being made redundant is not nice. Not even when, as with me, it changes your career out of something you hate into something much more interesting and allows you to resume a happy state of self employment.

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but seeing as they're one of the responsible parties for this mess

That's like blaming Tesco for the high price of petrol. You don't really live on this planet, do you?

If an EA never put a house on the market for more than the previous one, what would be the point? We'd still be able to buy houses for £1,000 - the 1965 price, say. So you'd never be able to buy one as BTL investors would buy the lot of them.

Basic economics lessons on the laws of supply and demand needed.

Oh yes, and if house prices go up because EAs want them to, why aren't prices still going up? Bonkers!

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I won't laugh at them, but seeing as they're one of the responsible parties for this mess, I don't have a great deal of sympathy either.

THEY ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE. They don't lend the money for people to buy houses and they exist using a business model that means if they don't value properties higher than the next agent, they don't get any work.

The greed of property owners is what puts house prices up. 9 out of 10 instruct the agent who offers the highest valuation. 0 out of 10 instruct the agent with the lowest valuation. Estate agents get to know a lot about human nature, which is why they are all cynical.

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Generally, I think that redundancy is a very sad thing.... but only because I prefer to fire people through due process and not pay more than I have to.

I see too many organisations make people "redundant" because they've not had the guts to confront performance management issues. Weak management.

Anyway, these people are properly redundant; there's about 99% too many EAs in this country currently; it's the perfect job to replace by a well-run website backed up with good workflow software and solid contractual commitments.

HPC will see a contraction of EAs and their numbers will never recover.... and you know what? F*ck 'em all.

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Guest X-QUORK
Basic economics lessons on the laws of supply and demand needed.

Not by me.

EAs have fallen over themselves to win clients by flattering them with inflated valuations. Greedy vendors lapped it up and those EAs got the gig. Enter left, one sheeple with IO mortgage and a vague feeling that house prices only go up.

Result, EA, vendor and sheeple pushed up the prices in that street by another £10k.

I'm not saying that EAs were solely responsible for hyper-HPI, just one of the key players.

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This may be indicative of the state of the housing market but hardly reason to celebrate - fifty people redundant isn't exactly great news and laughing at their misfortune is pretty poor form.

Q

Sorry, that's where we tend to differ. I've had to put up with EA's for the last 7 yrs or so - from trying to get me out of a rental property so they could sell it asap (2 yrs ago, London), to trying to rip me off when I bought a house by tearing up the legal papers and saying I couldn't prove I'd signed. Lucky I had taken a copy from their offices 2 months before and told them I'd sue if it didn't go through.

Most of them use the term "professional" but are nothing more than glorified tea-boys or receptionists.

Look at the numbers who have piled into the market in this bubble with a desire to rip-off the public rather than provide a quality service for the large sums of money they receive.

Once a few more than 50 start hitting the dole queues, especially in London and the big cities, then maybe going out for dinner or a pint will become more tolerable than listening to these a**holes bragging about how much they ripped off some poor punter/pensioner whe they are at the table next to you.

I'd have 1000 times more sympathy if it had been 50 farmers/nurses/tesco workers etc.

Rant over !!! :angry:

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HOLA4421

This is always a tough one. No one wants to see people made redundant. Redundancy causes misery and heartache, however I have to admit that if it were to happen to some of the cocky, arrogant, greasy haired ESs I've encountered over the years I find myself feeling less sympathetic.

As a reflection of the housing market in general I can't help feeling that headlines like these are good news and not completely unexpected. The other way of looking at it is this: if these EAs have not been selling many houses recently then their salaries would not be looking too healthy. Most of the sharp ones would have probably jumped ship pretty soon anyway, and the others will find some form of gameful employment.

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Guest theboltonfury

I was just about to reply along the lines of 'what a horrible lot you are, these are people who will now possibly be really struggling'. I really was.

Then I cast my mind back to the sour faced, horrible little, middle aged trog that sarcastically smiled when she told me it would be £185 for the privilege of credit referencing me when I wanted to pay cash up front. She then told me during a viewing (just as a Boeing 747 flew directly overhead almost perforating both ear drums) that the noise from the airport was only audible when the wind was blowing from a given direction.

I'd give all 50 their jobs back if it would mean that this sack of amoebic dross never worked again, ever, ever

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EAs have fallen over themselves to win clients by flattering them with inflated valuations.

You don't flatter someone with an inflated valuation. You (might) win the business. If you don't win the business, you go out of business. It's very simple for estate agents. Offer a higher valuation than your peers or go out of business. The business model is insane and results in ongoing upward pressure on prices.

Greedy vendors lapped it up and those EAs got the gig.

Now you've got it. Greedy vendors is what it's all about.

Funny around here a few years ago one newish agent decided to be one of the big boys and aggresively took market share by over valuing. Before long everyone in the town knew that if this agent was marketing a house it was over priced and people didn't bother viewing them. It's a complicated market.

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Sorry, that's where we tend to differ. I've had to put up with EA's for the last 7 yrs or so - from trying to get me out of a rental property so they could sell it asap (2 yrs ago, London), to trying to rip me off when I bought a house by tearing up the legal papers and saying I couldn't prove I'd signed. Lucky I had taken a copy from their offices 2 months before and told them I'd sue if it didn't go through.

Most of them use the term "professional" but are nothing more than glorified tea-boys or receptionists.

Look at the numbers who have piled into the market in this bubble with a desire to rip-off the public rather than provide a quality service for the large sums of money they receive.

Once a few more than 50 start hitting the dole queues, especially in London and the big cities, then maybe going out for dinner or a pint will become more tolerable than listening to these a**holes bragging about how much they ripped off some poor punter/pensioner whe they are at the table next to you.

I'd have 1000 times more sympathy if it had been 50 farmers/nurses/tesco workers etc.

Rant over !!! :angry:

Agreed. Everytime I've ever used estate agents I've been shocked and dismayed at how unethical so many of them are. Naturally, there will be some good honest ones but in my experience these are a minority. The whole industry is staffed by dishonest salesmen and is rife with sharp practise.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for those made redundant, they've probably been involved in countless dodgy practises and caused much grief to prospective purchasers with their stupid games.

Not only should they be made redundant but they should also be pelted with rotten fruit and human turds as they leave the office :lol:.

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