Category: Estate Agents

Interesting ruling by ASA

The ads must not appear again in their current form. The ASA has told Express to ensure that, in all future ads, the prices listed are an accurate reflection of the price sought for the property and are capable of robust substantiation.

Article is on Estate Agent Today site and worth a read!

What would you want to see in the perfect property listing?

– good photos
– outside of house
– photo of every room
– photo of garden space
– photo of inside garage (plus dimensions, and details of whether it’s got electricity and lights)
– room sizes are essential as is a floor plan!
– energy performance certificate so you can see how much it’ll cost to heat the place!
– council tax banding
– link to streetview where it’s available

Anything else obvious I’ve missed? What’s the most essential thing in your opinion?

‘Mockumentary’ starring estate agents as sleazy, greedy liars goes viral… and it was made by top estate agent

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2041430/Film-starring-estate-agents-sleazy-greedy-liars–estate-agent.html#ixzz1YyNiyTr9

Another estate agent video:

Agents who deliberately overvalue in order to gain an instruction will be guilty of a breach of the law, new guidance has underlined.

OFT consults on draft guidance for estate agents and property developers. The OFT’s Home Buying and Selling study shows that there is need for more regulation.

The consultation closes on December 9.

Heard about this site recently and was fascinated to read some reviews of companies who operate locally.

AllAgents has some great estate agent reviews – well worth reading them if you’ve ever had trouble getting a veiwing from an estate agent!

Just reading about someone who’s had a survey done on a house with a ‘loft conversion’ that’s come back as not meeting any regulations.
This was already very obvious by the house description as the loft area was described as useful storage.
The potential buyer is wondering whether to believe the surveyor who has spoken to a structural surveyor about the possibility of making the loft conversion official and has suggested that it’s not only going to be expensive but also wasn’t feasibly on a practical level.
The estate agent however thinks it is.

So who should a buyer believe?

You have to remember who the estate agent works for – they work for the person selling the house. They only make money if someone buys it.

The surveor on the other hand has been paid to give an opinion. By all means get a second opinion but get it from someone qualified and independent.

An estate agent isn’t the person a buyer should take advice from!

Got to love his slightly honest listings…

2 bedroom apartment – There are approximately one gazillion flats on the market in Bournemouth. It’s actually a minor miracle you’ve had the fortune of stumbling across this jolly good one.

And I don’t think he liked this bungalow at all
Untamed bushes hide garden
Plastic corrugated car port
Mould growing inside the windows

Mr Green is in Dorset and you can browse all his amusing listings on rightmove here

I don’t think you wanted to do that. Looks like the estate agent went public with some information that buyers would have been very interested in.
It does show however the price optimism going on!

I’ve hidden the bits that might show which estate agent did this.

How easy is it to sell your house without an estate agent?

HouseWeb is one site that lets you sell your house without an estate agent. The biggest and first direct sales company! So what advantages are there? You will save massively on fees for starters! Even if you negotiate estate agent fees you could end up paying many thousands of pounds to the estate agent! With houseweb prices start at £47 so you can see the huge potential for saving there too.


So what does an estate agent do and can you do it instead?

You would want to provide the same information as an estate agent. That is room dimensions, information about the property and photos. The photos should be taken to make the property look good and clearly show the house. Decluttering is an essential first step before even thinking about getting a camera out! Something some estate agents don’t tell you – but when you’re in control you can re-take the photos if you decide you don’t like them, or declutter more! Sometimes it’s hard to be objective – we’d be happy to look at your photos or house listing and make suggestions on how you can improve the look!


There are three packagaes on houseweb. The cheapest allows only one photo, the next level up allows 6 and the most expensive allows up to 25.

You could decide which option to go for by making a list of all the rooms you think would be worth having a photo of.

Why exclude some rooms? If you can’t get a good photo of a room even though it looks fine, then it might be worth not including a photo of that room. Sometimes you need a wide angle lens on a camera to get a good photo of a smaller room. If the lighting is difficult then you can also find it easier to not include a photo!

For a house that needs a lot of work you might put some people off by showing every last room.


You can add extra photos, EPC (That’s an energy performance certificate), various other options, but the most important one we think is a for sale board! Whilst you could just stick a notice in your window or make your own, then the professional one you’d get from houseweb is worth the money.

You should take your time taking the photos and writing the listing. Get someone else to look it over first to give you a second opinion.
I’ve often seen photos selling a house that have been taken on a rainy day and it just makes me feel sad – 99% of houses and gardens look better when the sun is out! Wait another day to take a photo if it’s rained!

Houseweb is definitely worth a look if you want to avoid huge estate agent fees.