"The Downswings of Property and Poker"

[Eso Kral]

ESSEX COUNTRYSIDE ESTATE AGENTS

The market has settled a little bit recently and it doesnt feel as hot as it was earlier this year on the outskirts of London although we are still doing good business, the slowing of the market is quite scary as we are about to launch a really edgy promotion that I pinched from another agent I used to work for who dont have any completing offices in this area and we will be the only agent locally to offer this service but it is a bit risque as some people (buyers) are probably going to hate us but hopefully will see that we are doing this because we are still in a low housing stock market that means we get multiple buyers for properties and as an agent who likes to give everyone a chance to buy our stock as opposed to selling to the "chosen buyer" or the best bid from one weekend of marketing.

Its called "SALE BY TENDER" and here are some of the key points I cut and pasted across from various letters we are prepapring along with £10k worth of window graphics, advertising in readiness to launch next Weds evening/Thursday Morning with the marketing coming in overnight so Thursday morning when all the local papers come out the branches are branded accordingly and we have taken an extra couple of pages than we normally do to really go to town on this and try and gain instructions for the summer. It has taken us 8 weeks to get to this point and in our opinion is key to be first to launch in the area and we have picked to our knowledge the lowest marketing fee of £99 in the UK so that other agents dont have the ability to undercut unless they do it for nothing plus as you will see from the marketing the £99 fits into our brand completely.

here is some of the info
 “SALE BY TENDER” is being launched by Essex Countryside on the 17th July and will be the cheapest way to sell your home as all we are going to charge you is a £99 registration fee and for this price you will receive an EPC, Floor plan, upgraded Rightmove marketing along with the same outstanding service we offer plus press advertising and be on major property websites as well as in the windows of our prominent local offices.
Your home will be offered under a guide price agreed by both of us and based on our current market assessment and the price you would like to achieve, even if that price is higher than our objective valuation and once the £99 registration fee is paid we will start the 30 day marketing period where you will be marketed with
•   Two open house viewing days – which focus attention on your home and you don’t even need to be there, but if you prefer the more traditional route on viewings we will arrange them via appointment directly with you.
•   Your property will be listed on the UK’s top property websites, advertised in the local press and promoted in our local offices.
•   During the agreed marketing period potential purchasers submit sealed bids which are left unopened until the end of the period when we invite you to the office to open any bids with us and you simply choose the tender that‘s best for you. Your choice can be based on the highest price offered or the overall position of the buyer the choice is entirely yours and you are under no obligation to accept any of the offers submitted meaning you remain in complete control at all times.
•   If a bid is acceptable to you then we inform the buyers within a 24 hour period and within their bid form they have already confirmed they will pay our introductory fee for purchasing the property meaning you could sell your home for as little as £99!

We sincerely hope this will be the biggest innovation in buying and selling property in this area in decades so if you think it is too good to be true then contact us today on ………….. and find out why it isn’t.

As we will be charging the buyers not the vendors for the priviledge of buying it effectively turns the traditional processon it's head but it is not about rinsing buyers in the area but about market conditions, lack of housing stock and above all gaining Instruction by being innovative, we have however had to think about what to do if it went pear shaped or got loads of bad PR but hopefully it will work out....


NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP
Is a charity that I think started in America and is primarily for parents who are either likely to have a baby that passes away within a few days of being born due to medical problems or sadly for parents of still born babies and Petra has been on a training course with them as she would like to give something back which in this case is "time" where on a phone call shewill attend a local hospital and provide a photo session in the hospital or home of the baby with the parents so they have an image professionally done as a keepsake.

Now Petra is quite an emotionally charged person naturally and I couldnt imagine doing what she is prepared to do in order to give back so I have to give her a great deal of Kudos but it seems to be something she wants to do so obv I wish her all the best.
Heres is the website https://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/

Finally in this part

HYPNOTHERAPY FOR ME
Due to the fact I am really busy and with the businesses and property side that I will come onto in a bit mean that there will be some chunks of extra £££ around and that when I do have access to money my previously well documented problem  (life degen for those that hae not followed since the start) I took the step of having an initial appointment with a Hynotherapist to see if he will be able to curb my desire to have a punt.  My problem is that if left to my own devices and have money around I am likely to do damage to me/ the family etc but when I am uber selective and bet with "bank of Dubai" then I am a winner as I am sure he would testify having in 2 -3 years of betting with him the most I have ever owed him is a couple of hundred and the swing the other way that he holds for me has been a couple of thousand before I would cash out for entris into tournies etc etc which is probably cos when I text him I know he will most likely punt what I have texted so put a great deal of though into it and only send him what I really fancy but even that may come to an end now.

My biggest concern about going for this kind of therapy was even though I am not a professional poker player and have no aspirations to be so (in before) I do not want to curb any competitive edge/nature I have when I sit down for a tournament in the future and definitely do not want whatever it is they may do stop me even thinking about playing which I gues makes me a difficuly case to handle but "George" as we shall call him due to it being his name believes he can take me back to whatever trigger moment it may be that set me on the downswing of my first 30 years hopefully he can set the variance clock in the right direction for the next 30 with the middle 10 being a stabilising time.....

[Eso Kral]

SEAFRONT VENTURE
I previously posted about a meeting with Dubai and Lil Dave where I showed them what in my opinion was an outstanding opportunity that was not on the open market but I had an in.  I subsequently had a phone call from the estranged Outrageous (Guy Johnson) who as some kind of surveyor said he would hook up with me when next in the area so 10 days ago we hooked up and he also took a look inside at the premises which is directly on the seafront and over 2000 sq feet of emptiness having had a lease that was granted but a tenant who fought the council over certain aspects and then sadly passed away whilst I was selling his house.

This is the premises


This is the view from the promenade itself with the building being the boarded up one and has been for 4 years plus, inside all the services are run in but the rest is a shell


This view is from the roof and at 1-3 seconds you can see the pier (longest in the world!!)
then views of Adventure Island (little Alton Towers on the seafront) with 2 entrances right opposite the premises
At 12 seconds you can see the lift that connects the high street to the seafront and is the next tower to the premises
20 seconds sees the Royals shopping centre and then it pans to the Park Palace Hotel which is soon to house the 3rd casino on the seafront.


I believe this place could be incredible under a variety of uses and personally submitted an offer to the council for the lease which far exceeded what they previously had it up for but it seems my offer has instigated that they will give me a nod before it goes to the open market and likely tender but I have already done loads of work on this due to Dave, Dave and Guy's input well mainly Lil Dave and Guy as Big Dave is "not your punter" so is only interested in the figures.

This if I did go for it and get it would be the biggest punt I have taken as it requires in the region of £200k of investment so if I was successful then I may be on the lookout for some sleeping business partners as the exposure is too big for me but a few people who's opinions I respect reckon if it is not turning over £750k per annum whoever gets it is doing something wrong so the upside is BIG!


10 YEARS OF PROPERTY DEVELOPING
After my Dad passed away I invested my inheritance in property which was a good thing as it was 2008 and now have a chunk of equity in my own home and also bought a couple of investments with my brother. Last year I fell out with him over one thing and another and we decided when the time was right we would sell all our joint investments and this house below is the final one as the tenancy expires at the end of this month with the other 2 properties balancing the books for what I owed him for the initial input to the properties and some benfit I had from my Dad during my degen times that he never benefitted from so we were even on that score.

Click to see full-size image.

This house is 3 beds and detached and is in Leigh on Sea and comes with a sad tale as 5 years ago I turned up with a bailiff and locksmith as is standard on a repossesion and we tried to gain access but being in a neighbourhood watch area soon found the police joining us and on gaining entry the young man who lived there alone and had not worked for 6 years but managed to amass 180k of unsecured debt along with his mortgage had decided to take his own life and we found him in the garage have turned the engine on to his kit car that morning knowing we would be there at midday.

I wont go into the details of how I came to have a share in the property but an investor was buying it but with the mortgage markets crashing around him found himself unable to raise finance and I had forged a very strong bond with thechaps mum and we ultimately stepped into the other buyers shoes and got her the deal through which was a deal to suit all parties.

It currently stands us at £160k of investment and when it goes on the market in one months time after a quick tidy up is expected to sell for £300k with my borther and myself owning 50% of the equity so it will be the end of our joint investments and the beginning of hopefully a 10 year period where myself and Ptera aim to develop and sell 3 properties every 2 years so 8 months per property from start to finish and endeavour to do 15 over the course of 10 years starting with our approx £60k of investment.  Now this could all go tits up dependant on the market but hopefully this will not be the case and we make some shrewd investments as I defintiely have an edge over some random attempting to buy a property in the area to turn around.

I am going to update in here how it goes and what we buy etc with photos of the work along the way as it should be an interesting read and maybe help to anyone else looking to do the same thing so as usual anyone needing advice on buying/selling/mortgages or anything about the whole process please feel free to post in here or pm me as many choose to do.

Finally it wont be long till Movember is here again and I am currently working on something to raise a few quid again but will post more over the next couple of months so thanks for reading if you did...

I came across this the other day which I found quite clever.

[vegaslover]

ESSEX COUNTRYSIDE ESTATE AGENTS

The market has settled a little bit recently and it doesnt feel as hot as it was earlier this year on the outskirts of London although we are still doing good business, the slowing of the market is quite scary as we are about to launch a really edgy promotion that I pinched from another agent I used to work for who dont have any completing offices in this area and we will be the only agent locally to offer this service but it is a bit risque as some people (buyers) are probably going to hate us but hopefully will see that we are doing this because we are still in a low housing stock market that means we get multiple buyers for properties and as an agent who likes to give everyone a chance to buy our stock as opposed to selling to the "chosen buyer" or the best bid from one weekend of marketing.

Its called "SALE BY TENDER" and here are some of the key points I cut and pasted across from various letters we are prepapring along with £10k worth of window graphics, advertising in readiness to launch next Weds evening/Thursday Morning with the marketing coming in overnight so Thursday morning when all the local papers come out the branches are branded accordingly and we have taken an extra couple of pages than we normally do to really go to town on this and try and gain instructions for the summer. It has taken us 8 weeks to get to this point and in our opinion is key to be first to launch in the area and we have picked to our knowledge the lowest marketing fee of £99 in the UK so that other agents dont have the ability to undercut unless they do it for nothing plus as you will see from the marketing the £99 fits into our brand completely.

here is some of the info
 “SALE BY TENDER” is being launched by Essex Countryside on the 17th July and will be the cheapest way to sell your home as all we are going to charge you is a £99 registration fee and for this price you will receive an EPC, Floor plan, upgraded Rightmove marketing along with the same outstanding service we offer plus press advertising and be on major property websites as well as in the windows of our prominent local offices.
Your home will be offered under a guide price agreed by both of us and based on our current market assessment and the price you would like to achieve, even if that price is higher than our objective valuation and once the £99 registration fee is paid we will start the 30 day marketing period where you will be marketed with
•   Two open house viewing days – which focus attention on your home and you don’t even need to be there, but if you prefer the more traditional route on viewings we will arrange them via appointment directly with you.
•   Your property will be listed on the UK’s top property websites, advertised in the local press and promoted in our local offices.
•   During the agreed marketing period potential purchasers submit sealed bids which are left unopened until the end of the period when we invite you to the office to open any bids with us and you simply choose the tender that‘s best for you. Your choice can be based on the highest price offered or the overall position of the buyer the choice is entirely yours and you are under no obligation to accept any of the offers submitted meaning you remain in complete control at all times.
•   If a bid is acceptable to you then we inform the buyers within a 24 hour period and within their bid form they have already confirmed they will pay our introductory fee for purchasing the property meaning you could sell your home for as little as £99!

We sincerely hope this will be the biggest innovation in buying and selling property in this area in decades so if you think it is too good to be true then contact us today on ………….. and find out why it isn’t.

As we will be charging the buyers not the vendors for the priviledge of buying it effectively turns the traditional processon it's head but it is not about rinsing buyers in the area but about market conditions, lack of housing stock and above all gaining Instruction by being innovative, we have however had to think about what to do if it went pear shaped or got loads of bad PR but hopefully it will work out....

Tsst, i used to like you, for an estate agent, but now you show your true colours with this Sale by Tender bollocks!!!

Market in my area is ridic hot atm, prices going up every month. Gotta snap up another property before they get too pricey

[Eso Kral]

ESSEX COUNTRYSIDE ESTATE AGENTS

The market has settled a little bit recently and it doesnt feel as hot as it was earlier this year on the outskirts of London although we are still doing good business, the slowing of the market is quite scary as we are about to launch a really edgy promotion that I pinched from another agent I used to work for who dont have any completing offices in this area and we will be the only agent locally to offer this service but it is a bit risque as some people (buyers) are probably going to hate us but hopefully will see that we are doing this because we are still in a low housing stock market that means we get multiple buyers for properties and as an agent who likes to give everyone a chance to buy our stock as opposed to selling to the "chosen buyer" or the best bid from one weekend of marketing.

Its called "SALE BY TENDER" and here are some of the key points I cut and pasted across from various letters we are prepapring along with £10k worth of window graphics, advertising in readiness to launch next Weds evening/Thursday Morning with the marketing coming in overnight so Thursday morning when all the local papers come out the branches are branded accordingly and we have taken an extra couple of pages than we normally do to really go to town on this and try and gain instructions for the summer. It has taken us 8 weeks to get to this point and in our opinion is key to be first to launch in the area and we have picked to our knowledge the lowest marketing fee of £99 in the UK so that other agents dont have the ability to undercut unless they do it for nothing plus as you will see from the marketing the £99 fits into our brand completely.

here is some of the info
 “SALE BY TENDER” is being launched by Essex Countryside on the 17th July and will be the cheapest way to sell your home as all we are going to charge you is a £99 registration fee and for this price you will receive an EPC, Floor plan, upgraded Rightmove marketing along with the same outstanding service we offer plus press advertising and be on major property websites as well as in the windows of our prominent local offices.
Your home will be offered under a guide price agreed by both of us and based on our current market assessment and the price you would like to achieve, even if that price is higher than our objective valuation and once the £99 registration fee is paid we will start the 30 day marketing period where you will be marketed with
•   Two open house viewing days – which focus attention on your home and you don’t even need to be there, but if you prefer the more traditional route on viewings we will arrange them via appointment directly with you.
•   Your property will be listed on the UK’s top property websites, advertised in the local press and promoted in our local offices.
•   During the agreed marketing period potential purchasers submit sealed bids which are left unopened until the end of the period when we invite you to the office to open any bids with us and you simply choose the tender that‘s best for you. Your choice can be based on the highest price offered or the overall position of the buyer the choice is entirely yours and you are under no obligation to accept any of the offers submitted meaning you remain in complete control at all times.
•   If a bid is acceptable to you then we inform the buyers within a 24 hour period and within their bid form they have already confirmed they will pay our introductory fee for purchasing the property meaning you could sell your home for as little as £99!

We sincerely hope this will be the biggest innovation in buying and selling property in this area in decades so if you think it is too good to be true then contact us today on ………….. and find out why it isn’t.

As we will be charging the buyers not the vendors for the priviledge of buying it effectively turns the traditional processon it's head but it is not about rinsing buyers in the area but about market conditions, lack of housing stock and above all gaining Instruction by being innovative, we have however had to think about what to do if it went pear shaped or got loads of bad PR but hopefully it will work out....

Tsst, i used to like you, for an estate agent, but now you show your true colours with this Sale by Tender bollocks!!!

Market in my area is ridic hot atm, prices going up every month. Gotta snap up another property before they get too pricey

Haha

It has taken us about 8 weeks to get to the point of launching this and on many occasions have we (myself and Anthony who owns the company) thought are we doing the right thing as will buyers hate us in 5 years time when they come to sell or will they remember it's about the current market conditions and there is always te danger with this practice that it will be receive exactly the kind of negative coveage that we as agents dont need and has already been spun as another example of greed and sharp practice.

As a company we are very innovative with a competitive edge and having done our due dilligence can see where we can steal a march on our competitors to gain Instructions to market in towns where many vendors wait until they have found, plus as we are in an ultra competitive market with other agents reducing fees constantly we think we can do a better job for the vendors.

Myself and Dubai had a conversation about agents in his town that told him "they will sell his house in 24 hours" and agreed that if that happened they have probably undersold the property so this scheme slows the whole process down and gives local buyers who might have a home to sell the chance to get on the market and be sold and therefore can bid before the end of the process which fits in with the ethos of our firm where we dont favour one buyer over another and adds complete transparency to the process.

We will even take the lions share of the marketing cost on the chin so have a 2% intorductory fee to buyers as we are taking a big gamble that at the end of the 4 week period the vendors dont leave us and market elsewhere so have to charge a touch more than we would a vendor if we were selling it traditionally plus buyers can always decide what they feel the property is worth to them ie £400k and therefore their offer should be £392k to take account of th efee but what that particular buyer should be aware of is that we are hoping to realise a few bids on that home and are hoping someone is prepared to pay the £400k and the into fee and if that is the case then client A probably would not have got the property anyway.  If at the end of the process client A's bid is the only one on the table but the vendor felt the offer was still a touch light we can still neg the deal either by getting buyer A to raise slightly or by if it really came to it reducing our fee slightly to help out as at the end of the day we are still sales people looking to tie up deals.

Whereabouts are you based out of interest?

[celtic]

Ring me back you clown.

Thanks.

Ps. At first glance this tender stuff looks terrible, slow for the buyers and vendors, expensive for the buyers, cheaper for the vendors. Even my small brain cell can work out that the agents seem to be the biggest winner here.

Anyway, don't forget to phone me back. Cheers x

[Eso Kral]

Ring me back you clown.

Thanks.

Ps. At first glance this tender stuff looks terrible, slow for the buyers and vendors, expensive for the buyers, cheaper for the vendors. Even my small brain cell can work out that the agents seem to be the biggest winner here.

Anyway, don't forget to phone me back. Cheers x

The whole process is actually about 2 weeks as for the first 2 weeks we get the floorplan and EPC done then get marketing for the first open day which apart from local own to sell buyers who are not on the market is the first viewing date.

Vendors wont worry if they get top dollar but dont need to pay a fee except the £99 and buyers in our area have a choice whether to buy the property or not as in most of our saleable towns the good properties sell and go to multiple bids anyway so buyers pay a premium for most SS postcodes and know that from the start.

The company that have been doing it successfully for a few months have over 100 branches across a few counties and we have lifted a lot of their text as we know their size means they wont have gone into it without doing much more work than we have.

Anyway you are getting your knickers in a twist over what is essentially a campaign to get the phone ringing and be the only agent going to value the house as why would you choose anyone else when we are offering to sell your home for £99, whether you feel your home is one that suits the promo is down to you and us.  As I keep telling my staff we could not sell a house on this promo and it will have worked or we could sell 4/10 houses on it like the other firm and it will have worked.

It's about being different and getting people talking....

[leethefish]

Good posts mate ....you are a busy boy !
Have been working in clacton on sea & Colchester lately was gonna pop over to see you but never got the chance in the end
Good to see you doing well mate.

[vegaslover]

ESSEX COUNTRYSIDE ESTATE AGENTS

The market has settled a little bit recently and it doesnt feel as hot as it was earlier this year on the outskirts of London although we are still doing good business, the slowing of the market is quite scary as we are about to launch a really edgy promotion that I pinched from another agent I used to work for who dont have any completing offices in this area and we will be the only agent locally to offer this service but it is a bit risque as some people (buyers) are probably going to hate us but hopefully will see that we are doing this because we are still in a low housing stock market that means we get multiple buyers for properties and as an agent who likes to give everyone a chance to buy our stock as opposed to selling to the "chosen buyer" or the best bid from one weekend of marketing.

Its called "SALE BY TENDER" and here are some of the key points I cut and pasted across from various letters we are prepapring along with £10k worth of window graphics, advertising in readiness to launch next Weds evening/Thursday Morning with the marketing coming in overnight so Thursday morning when all the local papers come out the branches are branded accordingly and we have taken an extra couple of pages than we normally do to really go to town on this and try and gain instructions for the summer. It has taken us 8 weeks to get to this point and in our opinion is key to be first to launch in the area and we have picked to our knowledge the lowest marketing fee of £99 in the UK so that other agents dont have the ability to undercut unless they do it for nothing plus as you will see from the marketing the £99 fits into our brand completely.

here is some of the info
 “SALE BY TENDER” is being launched by Essex Countryside on the 17th July and will be the cheapest way to sell your home as all we are going to charge you is a £99 registration fee and for this price you will receive an EPC, Floor plan, upgraded Rightmove marketing along with the same outstanding service we offer plus press advertising and be on major property websites as well as in the windows of our prominent local offices.
Your home will be offered under a guide price agreed by both of us and based on our current market assessment and the price you would like to achieve, even if that price is higher than our objective valuation and once the £99 registration fee is paid we will start the 30 day marketing period where you will be marketed with
•   Two open house viewing days – which focus attention on your home and you don’t even need to be there, but if you prefer the more traditional route on viewings we will arrange them via appointment directly with you.
•   Your property will be listed on the UK’s top property websites, advertised in the local press and promoted in our local offices.
•   During the agreed marketing period potential purchasers submit sealed bids which are left unopened until the end of the period when we invite you to the office to open any bids with us and you simply choose the tender that‘s best for you. Your choice can be based on the highest price offered or the overall position of the buyer the choice is entirely yours and you are under no obligation to accept any of the offers submitted meaning you remain in complete control at all times.
•   If a bid is acceptable to you then we inform the buyers within a 24 hour period and within their bid form they have already confirmed they will pay our introductory fee for purchasing the property meaning you could sell your home for as little as £99!

We sincerely hope this will be the biggest innovation in buying and selling property in this area in decades so if you think it is too good to be true then contact us today on ………….. and find out why it isn’t.

As we will be charging the buyers not the vendors for the priviledge of buying it effectively turns the traditional processon it's head but it is not about rinsing buyers in the area but about market conditions, lack of housing stock and above all gaining Instruction by being innovative, we have however had to think about what to do if it went pear shaped or got loads of bad PR but hopefully it will work out....

Tsst, i used to like you, for an estate agent, but now you show your true colours with this Sale by Tender bollocks!!!

Market in my area is ridic hot atm, prices going up every month. Gotta snap up another property before they get too pricey

Haha

It has taken us about 8 weeks to get to the point of launching this and on many occasions have we (myself and Anthony who owns the company) thought are we doing the right thing as will buyers hate us in 5 years time when they come to sell or will they remember it's about the current market conditions and there is always te danger with this practice that it will be receive exactly the kind of negative coveage that we as agents dont need and has already been spun as another example of greed and sharp practice.

As a company we are very innovative with a competitive edge and having done our due dilligence can see where we can steal a march on our competitors to gain Instructions to market in towns where many vendors wait until they have found, plus as we are in an ultra competitive market with other agents reducing fees constantly we think we can do a better job for the vendors.

Myself and Dubai had a conversation about agents in his town that told him "they will sell his house in 24 hours" and agreed that if that happened they have probably undersold the property so this scheme slows the whole process down and gives local buyers who might have a home to sell the chance to get on the market and be sold and therefore can bid before the end of the process which fits in with the ethos of our firm where we dont favour one buyer over another and adds complete transparency to the process.

We will even take the lions share of the marketing cost on the chin so have a 2% intorductory fee to buyers as we are taking a big gamble that at the end of the 4 week period the vendors dont leave us and market elsewhere so have to charge a touch more than we would a vendor if we were selling it traditionally plus buyers can always decide what they feel the property is worth to them ie £400k and therefore their offer should be £392k to take account of th efee but what that particular buyer should be aware of is that we are hoping to realise a few bids on that home and are hoping someone is prepared to pay the £400k and the into fee and if that is the case then client A probably would not have got the property anyway.  If at the end of the process client A's bid is the only one on the table but the vendor felt the offer was still a touch light we can still neg the deal either by getting buyer A to raise slightly or by if it really came to it reducing our fee slightly to help out as at the end of the day we are still sales people looking to tie up deals.

Whereabouts are you based out of interest?

Yeah from a business point of view I can see the benefits, same for the seller. It appears to becoming the norm in ever increasing areas to.
Not so good for the buyer though, having to stump up the fees on top of stamp etc but, as always, market forces will decide.

Unfortunately it still wont stop the dodgy agents out there as they can easily disregard or 'lose' the envelope from certain buyers.

Looked at a property last week, from an agent I bought my residential house from last year and first thing she wanted was proof of deposit available etc....lol like I m ever giving the estate agent all them details when they want to do a credit check and try to sell me their awful mortgages.  Whilst they need to prove identity etc it's pretty obv she knows who I am.

[Eso Kral]

Good posts mate ....you are a busy boy !
Have been working in clacton on sea & Colchester lately was gonna pop over to see you but never got the chance in the end
Good to see you doing well mate.

Cheers Lee

Yeah next time you are down this neck of the woods defo hook up with me!!

See you soon buddy

[Eso Kral]

ESSEX COUNTRYSIDE ESTATE AGENTS

The market has settled a little bit recently and it doesnt feel as hot as it was earlier this year on the outskirts of London although we are still doing good business, the slowing of the market is quite scary as we are about to launch a really edgy promotion that I pinched from another agent I used to work for who dont have any completing offices in this area and we will be the only agent locally to offer this service but it is a bit risque as some people (buyers) are probably going to hate us but hopefully will see that we are doing this because we are still in a low housing stock market that means we get multiple buyers for properties and as an agent who likes to give everyone a chance to buy our stock as opposed to selling to the "chosen buyer" or the best bid from one weekend of marketing.

Its called "SALE BY TENDER" and here are some of the key points I cut and pasted across from various letters we are prepapring along with £10k worth of window graphics, advertising in readiness to launch next Weds evening/Thursday Morning with the marketing coming in overnight so Thursday morning when all the local papers come out the branches are branded accordingly and we have taken an extra couple of pages than we normally do to really go to town on this and try and gain instructions for the summer. It has taken us 8 weeks to get to this point and in our opinion is key to be first to launch in the area and we have picked to our knowledge the lowest marketing fee of £99 in the UK so that other agents dont have the ability to undercut unless they do it for nothing plus as you will see from the marketing the £99 fits into our brand completely.

here is some of the info
 “SALE BY TENDER” is being launched by Essex Countryside on the 17th July and will be the cheapest way to sell your home as all we are going to charge you is a £99 registration fee and for this price you will receive an EPC, Floor plan, upgraded Rightmove marketing along with the same outstanding service we offer plus press advertising and be on major property websites as well as in the windows of our prominent local offices.
Your home will be offered under a guide price agreed by both of us and based on our current market assessment and the price you would like to achieve, even if that price is higher than our objective valuation and once the £99 registration fee is paid we will start the 30 day marketing period where you will be marketed with
•   Two open house viewing days – which focus attention on your home and you don’t even need to be there, but if you prefer the more traditional route on viewings we will arrange them via appointment directly with you.
•   Your property will be listed on the UK’s top property websites, advertised in the local press and promoted in our local offices.
•   During the agreed marketing period potential purchasers submit sealed bids which are left unopened until the end of the period when we invite you to the office to open any bids with us and you simply choose the tender that‘s best for you. Your choice can be based on the highest price offered or the overall position of the buyer the choice is entirely yours and you are under no obligation to accept any of the offers submitted meaning you remain in complete control at all times.
•   If a bid is acceptable to you then we inform the buyers within a 24 hour period and within their bid form they have already confirmed they will pay our introductory fee for purchasing the property meaning you could sell your home for as little as £99!

We sincerely hope this will be the biggest innovation in buying and selling property in this area in decades so if you think it is too good to be true then contact us today on ………….. and find out why it isn’t.

As we will be charging the buyers not the vendors for the priviledge of buying it effectively turns the traditional processon it's head but it is not about rinsing buyers in the area but about market conditions, lack of housing stock and above all gaining Instruction by being innovative, we have however had to think about what to do if it went pear shaped or got loads of bad PR but hopefully it will work out....

Tsst, i used to like you, for an estate agent, but now you show your true colours with this Sale by Tender bollocks!!!

Market in my area is ridic hot atm, prices going up every month. Gotta snap up another property before they get too pricey

Haha

It has taken us about 8 weeks to get to the point of launching this and on many occasions have we (myself and Anthony who owns the company) thought are we doing the right thing as will buyers hate us in 5 years time when they come to sell or will they remember it's about the current market conditions and there is always te danger with this practice that it will be receive exactly the kind of negative coveage that we as agents dont need and has already been spun as another example of greed and sharp practice.

As a company we are very innovative with a competitive edge and having done our due dilligence can see where we can steal a march on our competitors to gain Instructions to market in towns where many vendors wait until they have found, plus as we are in an ultra competitive market with other agents reducing fees constantly we think we can do a better job for the vendors.

Myself and Dubai had a conversation about agents in his town that told him "they will sell his house in 24 hours" and agreed that if that happened they have probably undersold the property so this scheme slows the whole process down and gives local buyers who might have a home to sell the chance to get on the market and be sold and therefore can bid before the end of the process which fits in with the ethos of our firm where we dont favour one buyer over another and adds complete transparency to the process.

We will even take the lions share of the marketing cost on the chin so have a 2% intorductory fee to buyers as we are taking a big gamble that at the end of the 4 week period the vendors dont leave us and market elsewhere so have to charge a touch more than we would a vendor if we were selling it traditionally plus buyers can always decide what they feel the property is worth to them ie £400k and therefore their offer should be £392k to take account of th efee but what that particular buyer should be aware of is that we are hoping to realise a few bids on that home and are hoping someone is prepared to pay the £400k and the into fee and if that is the case then client A probably would not have got the property anyway.  If at the end of the process client A's bid is the only one on the table but the vendor felt the offer was still a touch light we can still neg the deal either by getting buyer A to raise slightly or by if it really came to it reducing our fee slightly to help out as at the end of the day we are still sales people looking to tie up deals.

Whereabouts are you based out of interest?

Yeah from a business point of view I can see the benefits, same for the seller. It appears to becoming the norm in ever increasing areas to.
Not so good for the buyer though, having to stump up the fees on top of stamp etc but, as always, market forces will decide.

Unfortunately it still wont stop the dodgy agents out there as they can easily disregard or 'lose' the envelope from certain buyers.

Looked at a property last week, from an agent I bought my residential house from last year and first thing she wanted was proof of deposit available etc....lol like I m ever giving the estate agent all them details when they want to do a credit check and try to sell me their awful mortgages.  Whilst they need to prove identity etc it's pretty obv she knows who I am.

Thanks for the PM but seriously there is nothing wrong with living in Potters Bar!!

With regards the qualification aspect, due to the mortgage related changes agents have become even more aware than they were previously of ensuring a buyer has the ability to proceed but they will still obviously try to sell you a mortgage through their firm as the Procuration fee (the fee the lender pay the agent/broker) is worth as much as £1500 if you then take out insurances as well so if the average fee the agent charges is £3000-£4000 it's almost like adding half again which is all profit.

The bigger agents are more aware of how important financial services is but they should never discriminate against you if you dont use the financial services but some probably do as it's commercially the best line to take. In some offices and I used to work in oneour financial guy turned over £150k per year from his office which is like having 2/3 of an office in that town so you can see why the big boys push it so hard.

They cannot credit check you though unless you allow them to!

[pleno1]

When I grow up I want to be Eso.

[Eso Kral]

When I grow up I want to be Eso.

Not sure you could take the swings bud

[Eso Kral]

Over the weekend I spoke about this property that is one of our investment properties and currently tenanted down here in Leigh on Sea

Click to see full-size image.

As a landlord we have always tried to do right by our tenants and if anything ever went wrong or they had a problem there we always rectified the problem straight away.  We have never been shy of taking DSS or Housing Association tenants in any of our properties but sometimes it makes you wonder why you bother being nice.

This tenant has been in the house for 5 years and we have only increased the rent once in that time from £850 to £1000 after 3 years when it was clearly under rented and the tenant in question is a single mum with 3 children, we informed her on the 3rd June that we required possession of the property on the 3rd August at the end of her tenancy and served the relevant section 21 notice at the same time so legally we were covered however today we receive a phone call to say she still has not found alternative living accomodation so wont be in position to move out.

Despite having served the paperwork in the correct fashion and been totally upfront with her there is actually not a lot we can do and we are between a rock and a hard place as the council in this area advise tenants to stay put until the landlord wins a court eviction as they then move up the ladder of people in need of housing and at the moment she has a roof over her head.

We are now left with the option of starting off the court process if we dont get keys on the 3rd August which will take 10 weeks total before she would have to be out but in reality we wont receive rent in that time and inherit a poperty in poor condition or wait until the middle of September when a property comes free that she can rent but then psoes problems for us as we need to do 3-4 weeks of work to the house before marketing and then have a limited time to get it sold and turned round to have it completed by Christmas.

Plus all the time it's empty it costs ££ all because the local council give tenants advice to stay put!!

/rant

[arbboy]

Just think of the 20% increase in value (per the Daily Mail!) per annum of these properties in the SE and think 'it could be worse'!  You could own properties in Stoke!

[vegaslover]

Over the weekend I spoke about this property that is one of our investment properties and currently tenanted down here in Leigh on Sea

Click to see full-size image.

As a landlord we have always tried to do right by our tenants and if anything ever went wrong or they had a problem there we always rectified the problem straight away.  We have never been shy of taking DSS or Housing Association tenants in any of our properties but sometimes it makes you wonder why you bother being nice.

This tenant has been in the house for 5 years and we have only increased the rent once in that time from £850 to £1000 after 3 years when it was clearly under rented and the tenant in question is a single mum with 3 children, we informed her on the 3rd June that we required possession of the property on the 3rd August at the end of her tenancy and served the relevant section 21 notice at the same time so legally we were covered however today we receive a phone call to say she still has not found alternative living accomodation so wont be in position to move out.

Despite having served the paperwork in the correct fashion and been totally upfront with her there is actually not a lot we can do and we are between a rock and a hard place as the council in this area advise tenants to stay put until the landlord wins a court eviction as they then move up the ladder of people in need of housing and at the moment she has a roof over her head.

We are now left with the option of starting off the court process if we dont get keys on the 3rd August which will take 10 weeks total before she would have to be out but in reality we wont receive rent in that time and inherit a poperty in poor condition or wait until the middle of September when a property comes free that she can rent but then psoes problems for us as we need to do 3-4 weeks of work to the house before marketing and then have a limited time to get it sold and turned round to have it completed by Christmas.

Plus all the time it's empty it costs ££ all because the local council give tenants advice to stay put!!

/rant

The above is the reason why so many landlords are complete *****. You spend time and money to do the right thing and tenants still take the piss. You probs need to get on with the court action as come September she can just say she still hasn't found anywhere.