Blue Skies, Nothing But Blue Skies…

They say that a picture speaks a thousand words and whether that is accurate or not, a good picture does stick in the mind. So when it comes to selling your house, you need to make sure that the pictures of your home are speaking those right words to potential buyers.

The world of internet property portals (i.e. Rightmove and Zoopla) has changed the nature of estate agency. It is now very easy to market a property to large numbers of people in a way that was unthinkable 20 years ago. But this has also changed the way in which a property needs to be marketed, as your home is now competing for attention along with lots of other properties in the local area, so every little thing counts.

In the light of this, we at SaleBoards are constantly amazed at the poor quality of photographs that some agents think are acceptable for marketing a property. We have found that, in our experience, a nice sunny day and a lovely blue sky behind a property really makes a difference, grabbing the attention of the people looking on the internet and making it stand out from the crowd. It’s not rocket science we’ll readily admit but a little bit of attention to detail goes a long way to make sure your property stands out from the crowd. Take a look at the examples below and you’ll see what we mean!

Before:

After:

Gazumping – Any chance of compensation?

With prices rising, it is inevitable that occurrences of gazumping will become more frequent.

In last years’ annual report, The Property Ombudsman highlighted a classic example of Gazumping which is clearly driven by the estate agent and leaves a seemingly good buyer high and dry.  In this example case, ‘A Festive Failing’, the buyer had agreed to delay exchanging contracts to help out the seller, only to find that they are subsequently gazumped.  From what I read, it appears that while the buyer waited patiently, the agent conducted a viewing and negotiated a sale with a new buyer.

Given that the original buyer would have gone through the whole legal process and probably shelled out for an expensive survey amongst other things, this probably cost them at least £1000.  If they were selling their own property and there was a chain below, then the damage is likely to be very much more and affect several families in the same way.   

In my opinion the agent involved should be severely reprimanded.  They have deliberately misled a good client and apart from leaving them out of pocket, would have undoubtedly caused significant distress and inconvenience.  In today’s world and with an industry ombudsman in place, one could be forgiven for thinking the buyers could expect some serious compensation. 

In this case the ombudsman’s decision is clear and they are quick to deliver a guilty verdict.  However, it is the amount of compensation which is a complete joke.  Making the assumption that the estate agent is likely to be making several thousand pounds from this deal, an award of £600 must seem like a complete insult to the gazumped buyers. 

So next time you hear a story about bad practise in estate agency, don’t be surprised.  With little danger of punishment when agents break the rules, it is hardly surprising that activities such as gazumping are still common. 

 

A Festive Failing             

Complaint

Mr and Mrs I (the prospective buyers and complainants) were due to exchange contracts on the property two days before Christmas but, on the day of the exchange, it was discovered that the sellers’ proposed onward purchase had suffered flood damage and was the subject of an insurance claim. Although Mr and Mrs I’s money was in place with their solicitor in readiness for exchange, given that the sellers were elderly, Mr and Mrs I did not wish for them to have to move into a water damaged property in the middle of winter. They agreed to postpone the exchange and completion until after Christmas. However, three weeks after the holidays the Agent contacted Mr and Mrs I to inform them that the sellers had accepted another offer and would not be proceeding with them. Mr and Mrs I immediately complained that the Agent had failed to keep them updated.

 

Investigation

The Agent’s file recorded that they had arranged a viewing for another prospective buyer during the

festive period who then offered more than Mr and Mrs I. The sellers rejected the offer however, after

the offer was increased and after taking a number of days to consider the position, the sellers decided

to proceed with the new buyer. During this time the Agent had monitored the negotiations and financially qualified the competing buyer. However, it was clear that not only had the Agent failed to inform Mr and Mrs I that they were continuing to market the property but they also failed to inform them that a competing offer had been received. The Agent simply continued to monitor Mr and Mrs I’s transaction as it proceeded in parallel with the new offer. It was only at the point that the sellers accepted the competing offer that the Agent informed Mr and Mrs I of the situation.

Outcome

I pointed out that, whilst it was the decision of the sellers to whom and at what price the property was

sold, the Agent was obliged (under Paragraphs 7d and 7e of the Code of Practice) to have advised Mr

and Mrs I, in writing, that the property continued to be marketed and to keep them informed of the

existence of any other offers. This they did not do and I had no doubt that the failure of the Agent caused Mr and Mrs I significant aggravation, distress and inconvenience. Indeed, this was particularly so given the fact that Mr and Mrs I had agreed to postpone the exchange date to facilitate the sellers’ wellbeing; that the delayed transaction was so close to exchange; that they were completely unaware of the viewing over the Christmas period or that the competing offer had been in existence since that viewing. I supported the complaint and made an award of £600.

Taken from The Property Ombudsman Annual Report 2012.  

When Complacency Takes Hold

One of the things that consistently amaze us here at SaleBoards is why people let agents make a mess of advertising their properties. The property websites are full of listings with blurred or poor-quality photos as well as misspelt or bizarre descriptions of houses. Now we’re not trying to say that we get everything right all the time, but these are schoolboy errors that are easily avoidable and simply show an agent that is taking absolutely no care over their work.

So when you are invited to sell a £3m country home just outside Exeter, you would think a simple read-through of the advert might be a good idea.  In this example, there are typographical errors all through the key features, which are also not exactly expansive in their details, given the size and nature of the property.   As this is the first thing people will read, it’s an immediate turn off for any prospective buyers and makes the agent look amateurish. 

Think about it more carefully; this type of error does more than damages a well-respected national agent’s reputation. If this were my house, I’d be the first off the mark to get down to the agent’s office with a letter cancelling my instruction.  Assuming estate agency rates of around 1.75%, the agent involved might be waving goodbye to a fee of more than £50,000!

If you’re looking to market your property with an agent, do look at some of the properties they have marketed; both what they look like on the internet or on their particulars. We at SaleBoards cannot promise to get it right 100% of the time, but we do take real pride in how we market our properties; doing everything we can to make sure that your property looks good on the internet and in printed media, as well as employing a professional proof-reader to make sure that mistakes like you see above don’t happen.

89% say they would not trust an estate agent in Which Magazine Survey

At last – Estate agents are deemed more trustworthy than politicians or bankers – but only just!

In 2004 Which Magazine compiled a survey of the least trusted professions.  Topping the list was the good old Tabloid Journalist, but in second place was the Estate Agent.  Seven years on, the survey has been repeated and, would you believe it, second and third are now taken by Bankers and Politicians.  Estate agents have gone from 2^nd to 4^th place in the latest survey.

Have there been any changes in the last 7 years that could have lead to this slight improvement in trustworthiness?  Well, in theory, yes there have.  Since the last survey was taken, compulsory membership of the Property Ombudsman Scheme has been introduced and tenants have greater protection with the new deposit protection scheme. 

In practise, however, it probably hasn’t made a blind bit of difference to the average estate agent.  Whilst the Ombudsman is supposed to protect the consumer, the annual report, aside from giving some very entertaining stories about what can go wrong for an estate agent, details numerous case studies where the agent has been found guilty of deception or incompetence.  In almost all of these examples, the agent has been forced to pay the most derisory compensation payments imaginable (I’ve written a separate article on this previously!(https://saleboards.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/the-property-ombudsman-a-help-or-hindrance/)).  In the last 7 years, the country has seen a banking crisis and numerous examples of bankers behaving badly or stupidly with our hard earned money; Politicians have fared little better with their own expenses scandal.  Don’t forget,  the number of housing transactions is running at an all-time low, meaning a much higher proportion of the population may not have used an estate agent than in the boom times of 7 years ago.  With only 11% of those surveyed saying they would trust an estate agent, and having only moved up the rankings because other professions are now perceived as being even worse, this is no cause for celebration within the industry.

Yet a quick skim of the customer reviews from our own agency paints a very different picture.  Founded on ethical values, customers who have bought or sold through the agency often comment on how they felt they could trust the staff and directors to be completely honest in this somewhat tarnished profession.

So if you’re looking for someone to trust to look after the sale of what is probably your most valuable asset, check out the growing website www.allagents.co.uk , where customers are invited to review their experiences of estate agents.  Furthermore, if an agent is making claims such as “We’ve definitely got buyers for your house” (which there is no way they can promise if the buyers haven’t already seen it) or they are prepared to value at a figure which is significantly higher than what you’d expect, then this is probably the first indication that you should stick with the 89% who don’t trust estate agents!

Primary School League Tables 2012 set to shake up schools admissions in Exeter

The Department for Education has issued the latest set of primary school league tables for the UK and it makes for some very interesting reading. These results rank their schools in three categories; what percent of children at that school will get the target level 4 in Maths and English, what percent of students are “high achievers” (the proportion of students likely to achieve significantly above the level 4), and the rather ambiguously titled “value added” score. This, put simply, rates the schools on how much they improve their pupils as they pass through the school.   For this reason, the “value added” score is generally regarded as the most indicative of the quality of a school, rather than schools who have smarter kids or more ambitious parents.

With all this in mind, let’s look at some of this week’s results in more detail.  Firstly, Broadclyst primary seems to be the best all-rounder.   97% of its students are expected to get Level 4’s at KS2 and their value added score is 102.9. It’s leading the way in the Exeter Area and is second in the whole of Devon. Running a close second on Value Added, St Sidwell’s Primary School is a surprise performer, which is all the more surprising when you consider that 41.5% of students don’t have English as their first language.   

The most interesting results for me are, however, the schools that aren’t doing so well.  Competition is fierce for places at St Leonard’s Primary School and at Ladysmith Junior School, yet neither of them are really capitalising on the students they’ve got, ranking 17^th and 28^th respectively in terms of the amount of value added to their students. Furthermore, neither of them are ranked in the top 10 schools for any of the categories.  As St Leonards is regarded as the ‘most professional parish’ in Exeter, one might expect more.  So while it may be that your child is socialising with the “right” kind of pupils and the school-gate experience is very much more in keeping with the parent’s desires, the children might not be capitalising on their education potential.

So what does all this mean for house buying then? Firstly, it means that buying a house in St Leonard’s Parish shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all of your school choices and there are many alternative options out there for your children, where you get more for your money. Properties in Broadclyst do command a premium on price, but then it’s the whole lifestyle you are paying for with a pretty, idyllic Devon village location with an excellent school.   It is likely that with the latest league table, prices are going to be on the up.

In Exeter, properties around St Sidwell’s are much more reasonably priced with plenty of four bedroom properties with a courtyard garden selling for the region of £225k. This area is a little bit of an oddity, as it was significantly influenced by investors snapping up the family size properties for student accommodation.  With the recent restrictions on converting houses to multiple occupancy, picking up a bargain around St Sidwells is become a possibility, as long as you don’t mind sharing your street with an ever-decreasing number of students.

Of the 30-odd schools in the Exeter area, there are lots of positives; there are plenty of good schools, the majority of which are doing well at getting the best out of their students, 82% of students will get the level 4 grade (the government standard level) in their year 6 assessments, and some 30% of students in the Exeter area will be classed as high achievers; working at the same level as the government would expect an average 14 year old to work.

Until now, when families moving to Exeter have asked the local agents where they should live to get their child into a good school, the answer would most likely have been St Leonards.  In light of the recent results, the advice could soon be changing. 

Our Picks:

• Top Overall School:  Broadclyst Community Primary School.

Achieving the highest Value Added score in the area, this village school is forward thinking and community based –  One of many good reasons to move to Broadclyst!

• Top Inner City School:  St Sidwells

A relatively small Church of England school with a definite multi-cultural feel.  Popular with Universtiy families and the local community.

• Top Small School:  Ide. 

Located in a village, just a few hundred yards from the outskirts of Exeter, this school has an intake of only around 15 children per year group.  This makes it a contender for those looking for a smaller school with a community feel. 

In order of Value Added Score the local league table looks like this:

1. Broadclyst Primary Academy Trust
2. St Sidwell’s Church of England Primary School
3. Exminster Community Primary
4. Dunsford Community Primary School
5. Redhills Community Primary School
6. Woodbury Church of England Primary School
7. Exwick Heights Primary School
8. Ide Primary School
9. Clyst St Mary Primary School
10. Kenton Primary School
11. Kenn Church of England Primary School
12. The Topsham School
13. Pinhoe Church of England Primary School
14. Stoke Canon Church of England Primary School
15. Newtown Primary School
16. St Leonard’s (CofE) Primary School (VC)
17. Bowhill Primary School
18. St Nicholas Catholic Primary School
19. Alphington Primary School
20. Newton St Cyres Primary School
21. St David’s Church of England Primary School
22. Brampford Speke Church of England Primary School
23. Stoke Hill Junior School
24. Clyst Heath Nursery and Community Primary School
25. Starcross Primary School
26. St Thomas Primary School
27. Countess Wear Community School
28. Ladysmith Junior School
29. St Michael’s Church of England VA Primary School
30. Walter Daw Primary School
31. Lympstone Church of England Primary School
32. Whipton Barton Junior School

The Property Ombudsman: A Help or Hindrance?

Why complaining about your Estate Agent might not be as straightforward as you might expect.

 

As one walks around and browses the windows of their local estate agents, they may feel confident with the observation of decals supporting the logo of the Office of Fair Trade.  With membership to The Property Ombudsman, one would assume the public are fairly well protected when something doesn’t go to plan.  It is not unreasonable to expect that in the event that they need to complain, all they have to do is pick up the phone and register their grievance with the all important ‘overseer’ of estate agents.

Taking Advantage of the Vulnerable.

Having been asked recently to advise an elderly lady who fell foul of an unscrupulous local estate agent (sorry, I’m not going to mention names!), I find myself firmly in the position of the consumer.  In this instance, she has not only received a poor level of service, but she has been put on a long sole agency agreement at an excessively high fee, charged almost twice the going rate for her energy assessment, charged for legal work which she didn’t want and charged extra for photographs.   She only chose the agent because they gave her the highest valuation – sadly far too high, so the whole relationship was kicked off with a lie.

Whilst I am no lawyer and made that clear to vendor, I was able to tell her about the Estate Agency Act (1979) and some of the rules that appeared to have been broken.  In particular, the fees charged for photography did not appear on the written agreement and the agent didn’t provide evidence of the valuation (The Estate Agency act has recently been modified so that agents have an obligation to record how they arrived at a valuation.  Clearly, over-valuing is becoming a well known problem!).

And when you need to complain.

So a quick call to the Ombudsman should sort things out nicely.  Sadly this is not the way the Ombudsman works.  Before you can complain to the Ombudsman, you must go through the individual company’s complaints procedure.  Simple?  No way! (Actually, one could be forgiven for thinking that some agents make it as difficult as possible for customers to make a complaint.)

Take a look at a typical complaints procedure from a well known national estate agency.  Please note that this is an example of a complaints procedure and it was not the agency involved in the case I mention above.  http://www.haart.co.uk/contact-us/compliants/ . 

Thumbs up to Haart for publishing their complaints procedure on-line, but take note that before the Ombudsman will get involved, you have to make a complaint in writing to the branch manager.  If he doesn’t deal with it to your satisfaction, you then have to write to the regional manager, and if you still haven’t got the answer you are looking for, then you have to write to the customer relations department.  Only then will the ombudsman get involved if they have not sorted it out.  So the agency get 3 opportunities to sort this out before they can be rebuked in any form at all.  This is going to take weeks or months and hours of the consumer’s time!  So how many complainants would fizzle out before getting their case heard by the Ombudsman?

The Ombudsman – a help or hinderance?

To comply with current legislation, estate agents are practically forced to be members of the scheme with a membership fee of £170 + VAT for a single branch.  With the knowledge that there are some 13,000 member branches registered for Sales activities, that equates to over £2M for which they dealt with 587 complaints in 2011.  Plugging this into my calculator, I work out that each complaint costs £3400 on average to investigate.  Is this good value, especially given that 294 of the 324 awards made were less than £500?

And when one looks at the 2011 Annual Report from The Property Ombudsman, the satisfaction level from consumers is fairly shocking.  In their own satisfaction survey, only 25% of complainants were satisfied with the level of the award made and 32% of complainants were satisfied with the decision made by the Ombudsman.  In my mind, this doesn’t paint a particularly good picture of the industry on the whole.  The annual report makes quite interesting reading. 

http://www.tpos.co.uk/downloads/reports/TPO%20Annual%20Report%202011.pdf

If you do get a chance to have a look at this document, take a look at the level of compensation paid.  The thought of being reprimanded by their Ombudsman should send a shiver down the spine of any business owner.  Take a read of some of the cases involved.  On page 30, an example is given where an agent has clearly done a pretty poor job.  The problems included failure to arrange viewings correctly, even with the knowledge that a large dog was resident and would be in significant danger if it got onto the busy road.  When the surveyor had to take cover from the owners’ Dog because the agents have slipped up again, the implications on the progression of the sale could have been huge.  (Our advice to vendors is to feed surveyors on chocolate biscuits, not feed them to your dog!  They have the power to make your sale fall through or be renegotiated by thousands of pounds.)

On top of the dog incident, the agents had clearly messed up on at least one viewing which had not been booked, could not find any evidence of sending out a memorandum of sale and had not followed up the transaction after the sale was agreed.  The Ombudsman awarded the vendors £350 compensation.  It doesn’t say in the report how much the agents had charged the client, but it is usual for estate agency fees to be in the region of several thousand pounds.

I know that if my own agency had let down a client in this way (and I really hope we never get close!), I would not feel it appropriate to make any charge at all.  The whole reason for instructing an estate agent is to make sure that you maximise on the price you achieve for your home and that any sale goes through smoothly, which in this instance was not likely to be the case.

I frequently hear of fairly significant complaints against agents locally.  Some are justified, some are unfair and others are quite serious.  I’ve heard of instances where offers have not been put forward to the vendors and many others like my first example, where vulnerable clients have been taken advantage of.  The problem in my mind is that the Ombudsman can only become involved in complaints after a serious amount of effort from the consumer.  Even after the agency has been found ‘guilty’ by the Ombudsman, the penalty is usually fairly insignificant and the repercussions are fairly small whilst the general public will almost certainly never find out.

Name and Shame

When an agent under-performs or breaks the rules, should they not be severely reprimanded?  Having survived 5 years without a single request to view the complaint procedure, my feeling is that any complaint that makes it as far as the ombudsman is likely to reflect poorly on an agency.  If the complaint is upheld, then surely consumers have a right to know.  Surely this makes for a fairly strong case for publication of the outcomes of such cases.

Perhaps to explain why the Ombudsman doesn’t come down particularly hard on its members, the whole set-up needs to be considered.  Since both the Chief Executive and the Chairman of the Ombudsman used to be estate agents themselves and the simple fact the ombudsman is funded by its estate agents and run by estate agents, is going to mean that they are never going to be too harsh on their membership.  Simply put, if they upset their members, then they are probably going lose members to rival organisations such as the RICS Ombudsman Scheme. 

In the meantime, we’ll continue to display our Office of Fair Trade sticker in the window, in the knowledge that if anyone ever has a case against us, we can rest assured in the knowledge that it probably won’t break the bank or even damage our unblemished reputation!

Be Careful What You Read In The Paper!

I was perusing the property section of the Telegraph today and I came across this little piece from their “property sleuth” on his pick of good student investments: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/propertypicturegalleries/9393045/Ten-of-the-best-buy-to-let-investment-properties-for-children-going-to-university.html#?frame=2274157 . Picture no. 10 is of a property in Exeter, on the market for £410,000 with Knight Frank. A short amount of searching brings this up on any decent property portal and shows its location as Friars Walk, in the very elegant and sought-after location of St Leonards. So far all well and good…

 

Apart from the fact that this is an ill-informed suggestion! I’d be very intrigued as to who told the folks at the Telegraph that this was a good student investment. They’re encouraging parents who might not know better to spend £150,000 more than they need to (plus any cost of changing the property around) to buy a house in an area that, while a very pleasant one to live in, is miles away from where their children will want to live. It will make a comparatively poor return on investment and, if used as a student property, it will then make it very hard to sell on in future.

 

Having spent some time looking at the Exeter Student Let market and having been a student in Exeter myself, the places to look for student properties are St James, Newtown and Mount Pleasant. There are a whole range of ready-to-go student properties priced anywhere between £200,000 and £350,000 which are much better situated and need no work doing to the property. We have some on the market ourselves and there are many others out there as well.

 

So what do we learn from this? It’s always best to check with a trustworthy local agent before buying in an area you don’t know. Recommendations are always the best way to go so ask around and see who gets recommended all the time. Don’t just trust the national newspaper analysts, they’re unlikely to know the ins and outs of any local market.

Is Housing at its most affordable level in 10 years?

There’s all sorts of conflicting information sloshing round the internet at the moment about the various strengths and weaknesses of the housing market, with different commentators prophesying either a sooner recovery than expected or imminent doom depending on which headline their aiming for. However, the piece of news that has caught my eye in recent days was the report from the Halifax, claiming that housing is at its most affordable level in 10 years. Given the current economic climate and the pessimism about mortgage lending, this prompted me to do some digging to see if our experiences on the front line backed this up.

 

Once you dig into the reports that the Halifax have been putting out, it does seem that the BBC (who brought the story to my attention (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18839255)) were guilty of a little bit of headline seeking – Housing is only really at its most affordable in Scotland. However it’s Halifax’s methodology, and overall subsequent findings, that seem most worth of attention. They worked on the premise that buyers would be looking to borrow up to four times their income and so multiplied the average earnings of a Local Authority area by the average house price in the same area. This showed that, of the areas surveyed, “54% were deemed to be affordable” which “was the highest figure since 2002.” So this all sounds very lovely but even more interesting was the news from the Halifax that “Mortgage payments for a new borrower remain significantly below the long-term average as a proportion of disposable earnings.” (http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media1/press_releases/2012_press_release_brands/halifax/0507_HPI.asp) Not only do houses seem to be more affordable but the proportional cost of paying for a mortgage seems to have dropped as well in real terms. When combined by news of rising rents (http://www.propertydrum.com/articles/20120415_4), it looks like we could be set for a return to a buoyant housing market.

 

But is this borne out in the open market? While we saw a rise in viewings and sales in March and April (probably attributable to the change in stamp duty), things have stayed fairly uninspiring. The total number of viewings we’ve conducted have stayed constant over the last few months and, while the percentage of viewings that lead to sales has increased, this isn’t very helpful as the number of viewings is down on what it should be at this time of year. So while Halifax’s news is probably good news, we’re not seeing the effects on the market yet.

The Estate Agent’s Dictionary

Like every area of life, estate agency has evolved its own particular specialist vocabulary and not just that “deceptively spacious” generally means small! There’s usually quite a lot of confusion about some of the terms so we thought we’d post a few explanations here to try and clear things up. Many of these are fairly self-explanatory but sometimes have a bit of nuance to them.

1. Cash Buyer: You are a cash buyer if you have all the money you need sitting in the bank waiting to be spent. However, if you’re buying with a mortgage and a cash deposit, but not selling a house, you’re not a cash buyer.
2. Proceedable/non-proceedable: A silly jargon word really, but if you’re not in a position to immediately proceed with the purchase of a house, you’re not proceedable, usually because your own house hasn’t sold.
3. Mortgage Agreed/Decision in Principle: When you apply for a mortgage nowadays, they will give you an agreement or a decision in principle as to how much you can borrow. This usually applies just to first time buyers but is quite a useful thing to have if your estate agent wants to know how proceedable you are or if you’re going to be able to afford the purchase.
4. Conveyancing: When you buy a property, there are quite a lot of legal documents that have to be filled in and completed, like the land registry documents and contracts. While you can do it yourself (which we definitely wouldn’t recommend!), normally you’d appoint a conveyancing solicitor, who specialise in this area, to “convey” you into the property, generally doing most of the legal stuff for you. Just a word of warning, their prices can vary wildly, so do shop around.
5. Chains: When you buy a home, the person you’re buying off may be buying another home, as will the next person and so on until someone who is selling a home doesn’t want to buy anything else. This is called a chain. Generally, they all complete on the same day as the money has to move gradually from one property to another. While they can be unwieldy, they’re not to be afraid of and chains of four or more are not uncommon.
6. Exchange and Completion: Generally the final two points of the sale; you “exchange” contracts with your buyer/seller legally tying you to buy their house. You “complete” when the money has been paid to the seller and you take possession of the home.

We hope this helps but do ask us about anything specific and maybe we’ll do a second entry for the dictionary in the future!

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Should I stay or should I go? That famous song by the Clash so succinctly expresses the problem many vendors experience about viewings; should I stay in during a viewing or should I go out? It’s something we can sympathise with at SaleBoards; we understand that we’re dealing with people’s homes, not just a well-arranged pile of bricks and mortar. People feel strongly about their homes and want to have them both well presented and any questions well answered. Furthermore, no one knows the quirks or cubbyholes of a property quite like the owner! However, the flip-side of this is that applicants can often feel quite pressured if they know the vendor of a home is in and so won’t always ask as many questions or voice so many opinions.

In our experience, it’s often about personalities as much as anything else. Both agents and vendors are able to put a client at ease, but it’s not something everyone is very comfortable with doing. Part of what we pride ourselves on at SaleBoards is having friendly, approachable staff that are able to make clients welcome and comfortable. While people sometimes do have questions, a good agent will answer as many as they can, note those they can’t and feed them back to the vendors; but often people just need time and space to process a property and develop some thoughts about it. However, we’re not the homeowner and don’t know the properties as well as someone who lives there.

But there is one aspect of viewings that people often overlook. Estate agency is not the safest profession in that we daily meet strangers at properties and this presents a potential hazard as we have no idea really who applicants are and what their background is. As a company, we have policies and steps in place to negate this risk but this should be an important consideration and one that we take very seriously. Needless to say please do be careful if you’re not using SaleBoards.

However, if a vendor is comfortable doing their own viewings, it’s worth remembering that people need space to think, time to work out if they could live in any given home, and that its very unlikely to be the first person who views a property who will buy it so try not to pressure them too much! One of the beauties of a traditional agency like SaleBoards is that we can work it both ways: we’ll not pressure you into conducting viewings if you don’t want to but will completely understand if you do!