Why leading agents love a tougher market

I booked a restaurant last week for my wife and I. Like all things nowadays I had the opportunity to book a table online and as I’d visited the restaurant before I knew the exact position and table I’d like. It wasn’t a special occasion like a birthday but was ‘special’, as like most people with children and a family, we were celebrating being able to actually do something on our own for a change!

I took the decision to phone and book. I got instant rapport with the waiter I spoke to and yes, on my arrival we were met by the same guy and shown to the table – he remembered our ‘you’ve managed to escape from the kids’ conversation. At the end of the meal he got my thanks and a modest but appreciative tip. 

This week whilst in the office I’ve been wondering about my choice of phoning versus booking online. I guess it’s a question over communication and connection with your potential customer. If I hadn’t spoken to anyone in the restaurant I may’ve got the same table but without making that personal connection it may’ve been given to someone else who did.

Making that ‘connection’ is just as important in estate agency. Over the last month or so I’ve seen more and more people visiting our two Plymouth branches. Some are Sold stc, yet many have not put their own properties onto the market – what they have in common however is that they all couldn’t find anything new that matches what they are looking for available online.

When the market gets a little tougher, simply thinking that placing your property onto the internet will get you moving is now not enough. You may get a buyer, but if you are buying onward and in the middle market (not a cheaper investment property with no chain or a much, much larger property where the owner is likely to have a second residence to move into), you’ll be like well over 80% of sellers who need to find a property to move into.

NOW is exactly when good high street agents earn their money. Putting a face and story to a name means that a good agent will start to chain build. Having a buyer in mind before you even visit a property to value and knowing that you also have a buyer in mind for their own. This comes with experience, knowledge of the industry and having the ability to be able to talk to people in a relaxed environment.

But what if I am going to go into rented? Unfortunately the rental market is just as lean as the sales market for quality property. You can see why some people stay put.

Like I’ve always said, marketing the property is the easy part but when the market gets a ‘little tougher’, that’s when your choice of agent could pay dividends or unfortunately leave you wanting.

It’s funny to think that being able to walk in to an office and speak to a professional and knowledgeable person is fast becoming a real point of difference when choosing who to market your home. But that is exactly what seems to be happening across the City.

This is and will continue to be a testing market, but likewise having been in the industry ourselves for over 4 decades, we have seen differing markets before. Good agency, chain building, clever and innovative ideas to sell houses and win instructions will be key. Being able to simply build rapport and a working relationship is just as important.

The upside for High Street agents like us here at Mansbridge Balment is exactly that…… buyers and sellers need a point of contact, a place to talk to an expert, discuss strategy and get an intelligent view from an Agent who thoroughly understands his or her patch.

Simply thinking that placing your property onto the internet will get you moving is now not enough. Talking to an agent face to face and explaining your requirements over a cup of tea could make all the difference.

Do you take sugar?

 

What does the future hold for house prices in Plymouth?

There have probably never been more factors at play in the UK property market than there are right now. The national market is pausing for breath as it reaches the end of the cycle which started with the credit crunch. 2016 saw stamp duty changes as well as the Brexit vote, and the impact is very much still being felt. The result of the election has added to the uncertainty surrounding the economy.

Now that Brexit negotiations are getting properly underway, it will be interesting to see if it has any further direct effect on the market. Since the original vote, interest rates were dropped to 0.25 per cent to support the economy. This has resulted in property prices rising nationally by 7.2 per cent – and we expect them to grow by a further 6.6 per cent over the next 12 months. Locally, prices in Plymouth have increased slightly too due to the lack of property available and buyers competing to gain a purchase. This is of course good for sellers but not so good for buyers – especially if you are in a chain – as often properties are being sale agreed to those without a chain, thus presenting a lesser risk to the seller.

So why are we so bullish about the market in Plymouth? Well the data shows us that in the second half of 2016, sales levels were 1.6 per cent higher than the first half, which is even more impressive when we account for the stamp duty rise in April of that year. Based on market trends, we expect the price of the average home here to reach £173,300 by the end of 2018.

Projecting future price trends is never straightforward. The construction of new homes impacts on this heavily; residential developments will often increase the value of other properties in the area due to the way valuers use ‘comparables’. Other important aspects they consider when determining the future value of property are upgrades to travel networks and new businesses opening in the area. With several developments ongoing in the City it is generally good news for many resale properties in those areas.

The future looks bright for the local property market; now is the time to think about getting on it if you’re not already, especially while interest rates remain so low.

If you would like to sell your property, pop into one of our two Plymouth offices 7 days a week for a friendly, professional chat with one of our local experts. We’d love to help.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. Even the Victorians knew that!

You can learn a lot from the past. Not far from my City Centre Office is a wealth of Victorian architecture and along with the common acceptance that the age created the foundations for ‘Modern Britain’, the Victorians seemed to have it ‘licked’ when it came to the meaning of ‘Value’.

For me, one of the most prominent social thinkers of the time, John Ruskin, captured it beautifully when he stated –

“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money – that’s all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

Don’t get me wrong, there will always be a place for ‘cheap’ in the world. Businesses like the Pound Shop or similarly named are successful because they offer what they promote – cheap goods. Buyers rarely visit to purchase something that has a long life, is of the highest quality or something that could be given as a special gift. Unfortunately in other business fields there is often a big difference in what you get, compared with what you expected to get – and it’s rarely positive.

A friend of mine recently chose a local garage to fix their car. Phoning around for quotes they went for the second cheapest. What should’ve been a simple job became a long and complicated one, where lack of expertise and knowledge ended up costing him far more money (and perhaps more importantly time). My friend is not a fool but ended up feeling like one. He’ll say it himself that he knew that it was a gamble and if the original garage had been capable of doing the work agreed, to the correct timescale and pricing, he would’ve saved some money. Unfortunately it very rarely works out this way of course.

The same could be said of selling your own property (usually your biggest asset) and making sure you get the right agent from the outset. With so many agents claiming to offer ‘everything’, often there isn’t a clear picture on perceived value for what you pay.

I’ve spoken about it in a previous post but both locally and nationally in the Estate Agency Industry it is something that perhaps needs greater clarification.

A low fee may initially be enticing but that’s usually because there are a smaller number of people (1 or 2?) to pay a wage to. Even the most capable people in the industry cannot answer the phone whilst undertaking a viewing, valuing a property, chasing solicitors, giving a vendor a marketing update, answering phone calls, replying to email and website leads, booking viewings, valuations, 7 days a week etc, etc – you get the picture.

“If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

You can learn a lot from the past.

I don’t want to market every property.

There, I’ve said it. It’s a bit of a statement I know – in a world where every estate agent will tell you that they ‘want’ your property (without even knowing about you, your property, your own needs and your own timescales).

Sometimes it takes experience to say, NO. Perhaps the prospective seller does not ‘value’ the extra services a company like Mansbridge Balment offers and simply wants the lowest fee, the vendors expectations on price are too high or on odd occasions we feel that we simply could not work together with the vendor – sometimes the right decision for both parties is to not get involved in a ‘partnership’ at all.

And that’s what selling a home is – a ‘partnership’ – one where the Seller does their part and the Estate Agent does theirs. A lot of people forget that.

When I first started out valuing property for a different company (many years ago) I was told about the 3 point triangle rule – (1) Great property at the right price 2) Realistic vendors 3) Good fee for the services the company offers). As a valuer if you could get two out of the three points ticked, then you took the instruction.

It seemed a simple premise to begin with but actually, my early days as a valuer came with it a lot of pressure to win a listing and I’ll be honest enough to say that I took on a few properties that I should’ve steered clear of. Hindsight and experience now shows that it would’ve been so much better and easier, to stay truer to those three points. I can blame some of my early mistakes on enthusiasm of course but those three key valuing points are perhaps more strongly relevant than ever.

As I write, the market is property scarce, meaning the possibility that properties try over optimistic prices just because there are more buyers out there. But buyers are not stupid. Many of these properties linger on the market jumping from one agent to the next until someone stands up and says what is wrong with the property or owner mindset.

It’s a massive generalisation of course, but the people who successfully achieve a sale on their own property to good timescales are those who are straightforward and easy to deal with, those that have honestly looked at pricing and made their own property competitive and those that know the difference between what they pay and what they get.

This is the same if the property is niche or difficult to sell because of its situation, design etc. Most negativity against estate agents is due to having the wrong advice from the outset and subsequently the ‘relationship’ turning sour. In many instances an individual / company have not delivered on what they promised. For myself and other Independent Full Service Estate Agents like us here at Mansbridge Balment, being truthful from the outset is the key to success. Sticking to your own knowledge, experience, comparable Sold properties and ‘common sense’ can mean ‘trust’ is built from the outset and we can get the right price, from the right buyer to the right timescales.

Experience shows that we don’t want every property and we don’t want to ‘help’ everyone. We can then use all our focus on those sellers who see value in what we do when we ‘go above and beyond’ selling their home.

It’s a selling ‘partnership’ with honesty from the outset. It’s Mansbridge Balment.

When is an ‘Estate Agent’ not an ‘Estate Agent’?

I’m going to perhaps surprise you. Being an ‘Estate Agent’ is not just about advertising your property and getting someone to offer the right price.

Just 2 years after we opened in Plymouth in 2004, 7500 Estate Agents sold 1.8 million houses nationally. In 2015, the number of agents had boomed to 18000 ‘Agents’ selling the lower figure of 1.2 million houses. Out of those properties Sold in 2015, statistically 95% of houses were sold by a ‘FULL SERVICE HIGH STREET ESTATE AGENT’ like ourselves.

I was speaking to a one such agent the other day about emails coming through on the internet from websites such as Rightmove.co.uk. He had actually been able to drill down information to such an extent that he could state that well over 75% of people that emailed about a specific property – ended up buying a different property with his company.

This is not only a testament to having the right amount of trained staff to be able to ‘sell’ a better suited alternative property, but for me, yet another key indicator of the INCREASINGLY WIDER GAP that is happening within the Industry itself.

You can’t seem to go a couple of weeks without seeing another ‘Agent’ opening up in the City these days. Being established in Plymouth ourselves for almost 15 years, we know how hard it is to be a successful independent business and I don’t have a problem with a new company opening. My irk however is often in the majority of those new companies using the words ‘ESTATE AGENT’, when clearly ‘Sales Agent’ or ‘Advertising Agent’ would be a far clearer reflection of what many offer?

Of course, if you are not offering the FULL SERVICE you should not be paying FULL PRICE – so I understand people choosing to go with low-fee agents. But when they purport to be the same as every other offering it is totally mis-leading. Many have no experienced staff to answer the phone, no knowledge of the local market, no after-sales team in-house you can speak to or visit, No financial and chain checking, no care, no attention, no customer service – no clue..

Whilst many sellers will be happy with what they’ve got for a seemingly low fee (and acceptance that the customer service bar was set at a low level to start off with) – classing differing levels of service etc under the same ‘ESTATE AGENCY’ banner, causes confusion to the general public and dare I say, is a threat against those agents offering the FULL ESTATE AGENCY SERVICE – career ‘ESTATE AGENTS’ like ourselves here at Mansbridge Balment and others in the City.

So, let’s be honest about this. Advertising your property for sale and gaining interest, even an acceptable offer, does not make you an Estate Agent. It is about so much more and all ‘ESTATE AGENTS’ are not the same.

If you are thinking of moving make sure you really delve into the detail of what an agent does for the fee you pay. You’ll find out that not only are there are some strikingly different offerings out there – you’ll also find out that you get what you pay for too.

Internet V Traditional Estate Agency and the rise of the machines

I was reading in an estate agency magazine last week about the ‘Rise of Machines’ and whether the internet estate agency model could really replace the high street agent. It reminded me of a conversation that I had with a vendor last week.

The conversation started off with me waxing lyrical about how we market property and why we do it in a certain way. I’d had two very similar conversations earlier on in the day but this time it went completely off track when the vendor asked me how I was going to vote in the EU referendum.

Personally, I’m undecided yet I see plenty of positives for sticking with the status quo. But what if it was better spreading our horizons a little bit further? For a business, there lies the eternal question. Stop a dozen people in the street and you won’t find a universal answer to the EU in / out question. But maybe that’s down to all this constant verbal diarriah we hear everyday about the pros and cons. Politicians who tell us made up figures based on what they think we want to hear? In business as in everyday life they’ll always be someone who prefers shop B to shop A. In business, we need variety, different options, constant innovation and a need to adapt to what the consumer wants.

I got back to reading through the article and amongst the words ‘online’, ‘fee saving’ and ‘modern’, I also read ‘trust’, ‘face to face’ and ‘service’. Whilst the ‘internet agents’ tailor their own offering by taking bits of traditional estate agency to suit their business model, the smarter traditional estate agents take parts of ‘internet estate agency’ to service their own perceived view of what the client really wants.

The trouble with all this is that rather than having distinct differences between businesses we run the risk of having estate agents who each have bits of what the others offer and there is a danger that a once clear gap of difference is further diminished. The choice for the vendor then has a danger of just coming down to who is the cheapest.

As my Gran used to say ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’ and whilst many lower fee agents seem attractive, what I’ve witnessed from those type of agents in the Plymouth area in the last few months are long tie-ins, with-drawl fees and properties selling at lower prices than they should have. I’ve also heard horror stories about the service that they have given (or lack of). Despite all this I still see properties on the market with these agents.

One box does not fit all and the Internet estate agency model will not replace the high street agent. Believe me, I place myself as an innovative agent and if having a high street office did not work for us, then we’d shut up shop tomorrow and trade from elsewhere. We are certainly not there yet and the benefit of having buyers and vendors able to visit us 7 days a week – without an appointment – still is a strong enough reason to continue doing what we do.

We are not a low fee agent. Our difference is in our service.

When ‘experts’ in magazines can’t agree on what is right for the customer – perhaps us as ‘agents’ simply have to speak to our customers and ask them ‘what they want’ in the future. Rather than telling them ‘what they need’?

Has owning a home become an unattainable dream for the 3,923 Plymouth 28 year olds?

My parents bought their first house in the 1970’s, they were in their early 20’s. Interestingly, looking at some research by the Post Office from a few years ago, in the 1960’s the average age people bought their first house was 23. By the early 1970s, it had reached 27, rising to 28 in the early 1980’s.

 

This year alone, 3,923 people in Plymouth will turn 28 and 4,475 in 2017 .. and dare I say 5,498 in 2018 .. year in year out the conveyor belt carries on .. where are the Plymouth youngsters going to live?

 

Ask a Plymouth ‘twenty something’ and they will say they do not expect to buy until they are in their mid thirties – seven years later than the 1980’s. Some people even say they will never be able to buy a property and the newspapers have labelled them ‘Generation Rent’ as they are people born in the 1980s who have no hope of getting on the property ladder. One of the major problems facing young Plymouth people is the large deposit needed to get a mortgage .. or is it?

 

The average price paid for an apartment in Plymouth over the last 12 months has been £132,200 meaning our first time buyer would need to save £6,610 as a deposit (as 95% mortgages have been available to first time buyers since 2010) plus a couple of thousand for solicitors and survey costs. A lot of money, but people don’t think anything today of spending a couple of thousand pounds to go on holiday; the latest iPhone upgrade or the latest 4K HD television. That amount could soon be saved if these ‘luxuries’ were withheld over a couple of years but attitudes have changed.

 

Official figures, from the Office for National Statistics, show the average male in Plymouth with a full-time job earns £507.30 per week whilst the average female salary is £455.10 a week, meaning, even if one of them worked part time, they would still comfortably be able to get a mortgage for an apartment.

 

I was reading a report/survey commissioned by Paragon Mortgages from the autumn of last year. The thing that struck me was that when tenants were asked about their long term housing plans, some 35% of participating tenants intend to remain within the rental sector and 24% intended to buy a house in the future, with the proportion of respondents citing the “unaffordability” of housing as the reason for renting privately increasing from 69% to 74%.

 

However, time and time again, in the starter home category of property (ie apartments), nine times out of ten the mortgage payments to buy a Plymouth property are cheaper than having to rent in Plymouth. It is the tenant’s perception that they believe they can’t buy, so choose not to. Renting is now a choice. Tenants can upgrade to bigger and better properties and move up the property ladder quicker than their parents or grand parents (albeit they don’t own the property). Over the last decade, culturally in the UK, there has been a change in the attitude to renting so, unless that attitude changes, I expect that the private rental sector in Plymouth (and the UK as a whole) is likely to remain a popular choice for the next twenty plus years. With demand for Plymouth rental property unlikely to slow and newly formed households continuing to choose the rental market instead of purchasing a property. I also forecast that renting will continue to offer good value for money for tenants and recommend landlords pursue professional advice and adopt a realistic approach to rental increases to ensure that they are in line with inflation and any void periods are curtailed.

The difference is in the details… or lack of them!

It always amazes me how much information is put out there in the public domain incorrectly. In modern times there is no doubt that we have become information rich but this should be tempered with a large slice of ‘I’ll double check to see if that is correct’. We have so many media channels in which to garner information from but its accuracy comes from just the one place and is usually open to a degree of human error.

If you look at Rightmove.co.uk and other property websites, you’ll see many a mistake I’m sure – even this week I’ve seen the ‘River Taymar’ used by a local agent! The thing that most ‘erks’ me however is the fact that, when selling a property, information displayed and the way the property is described can be critical in whether or not the property gains the correct level of interest.


Why an agent would not want to describe a property in its fullest glory (or in fullest honesty about its state of order) goes against the very nature of the job surely? After all, we can of course give guidance on how to present the home to the open market but we are effectively Marketeers. Our job as estate agents is to market the property to the general public in the best manner possible in order to gain the correct response. With many agents seemingly trying to make extra revenue from charging extra ‘up front’ fees for more than 5 photos or the inclusion of a floorplan, it seems ludicrous that many agents are merely cutting off their nose to spite their face.


Whether or not the price is accurate is of course another topic I have touched on already in the past, but if you are looking to put your house on the market and choosing an agent then simply asking how the agent would describe and market the property should not be overlooked.


Just yesterday our North Plymouth Branch Manager was going through example particulars from other agents. It’s an area that many are cutting back on, with some agencies seemingly moving towards no printed brochures at all! Whilst I see the cost savings as a business, for a seller this will alienate some buyers. Despite what those agents will tell you, there are some who want a quality printed brochure to browse, some that have an email address but not a quality printer to print out on and some who we register that do not want anything sent through via email.

For many agents the description is secondary but for me its paramount. Its part of the marketing package for your home. Even giving a prospective buyer particulars on a viewing could make the difference between them being reminded of all the good things about your home or simply not remembering and scrapping it from their ‘maybe’ list at the end of a long day viewing.

The particulars are a summary of all the good bits about the property, a reminder if you like, and its accuracy is covered in law by the Property Mis-descriptions Act which means you can’t of course misleadingly describe a property – likewise you can’t omit anything either.

So next time you are thinking about selling your home make sure you find out exactly how your home will be marketed. The difference in getting your home sold or not could all be about the details… or lack of them!

Tempted by OPEN DAYS?

OPEN DAYS – I’ve had a few occasions recently when I’ve been asked its merits. My own personal opinion is that I’m all for marketing initiatives but really not a fan of OPEN DAYS for a traditional house sale. To the seller it may seem that the agent is going to give them a special status, enhancing the chances of getting a sale by having all the viewers arrive on the same day, but in reality they rarely attract interest.

In my experience offering viewings 7 days a week at flexible times for the right applicant will always prove much more beneficial. If you put yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer, in an age where people are ‘time poor’, flexibility is the key. For many potential buyers however a one off, two hour OPEN DAY shows a lack of ‘motivation to sell’ by the vendor. This often back fires resulting in them simply viewing and offering on other property without such time restraints.

If a property is in need of modernisation and it is for sale by informal tender or auction, then of course there is a need to specify set timings for prospective purchasers. If your property needs a route to market other than the traditional private treaty then your experienced agent should offer that advice and if not – why not?

You’d hope to think that it is just a bit of naivety on behalf of the estate agent. The fact is however that many companies who offer an open day service simply do because it offers a set viewing time for each property, enabling them to run an office more profitably for themselves with less staff than they would need if they offered viewings ad hoc.

Food for thought the next time you come across an ‘Open Day’ offering. Is it the best route to market for your property or the best route to market for your estate agent?