Giggles from the offices of London Property Buyers Agents

What a fabulous story for a Friday blog.

It turns out that two weeks ago, Boris Johnson erected a weird wooden shed on the first floor roof of his Grade II listed home in Angel.  But yesterday, Islington planners instructed him to pull it down after a tip-off from a disgruntled neighbour.  Most people would be pretty fed up that NIMBY neighbours complained and for the planners involvement but according to many newspaper reports, Bojo is apparently ‘grateful for the advice’.  Isn’t that nice?

Maybe Boris has just realised that sticking an ugly shed on top of a roof has tarnished any pretensions he had to being a ‘classy bloke’.

Technorati Tags: Boris Johnson, Islington house, plannning permission, shed

Tags: Boris Johnson, Islington house, plannning permission, shed

Rantings from a group of London Property Search Agents

When will London homeowners get a grip?  We should be happy today: the Bank of England has chosen to hold interest rates at 0.5% AND add inject another £50 billion into the market place, the Council of Mortgage Lenders says lending is up 65% on last year and for the serious investors amongst you, the Association of Real Estate Funds has posted a net inflow of cash for the first time in a year.

Fabulous news, but we have spent all day looking at seriously over-priced property.  Not just a few percent, but a £1.8 million pound house which still wouldn’t be a bargain at £1.3 million – less than a million and it would probably be a good bet.  A £1.95 million pound house which is frankly, a mess and should be more like £1.4m and two £3 million pound houses which should be £2.5 million.

The most expensive houses were most likely to work, because they are only over-valued by 17%, but seriously, one of the £1.8 million houses was probably valued at almost half that amount by some of the other agents.  I will have some quiet words to check!

So a few words from this irratated Property Finder: if you want us to like your fabulous home and recommend our Clients see it, then advertise it with a sensible price tag.  The best way to sell property is to get more than one person interested enough to make offers.  You would be amazed how quickly budgets can grow if there is more than one buyer in the frame.  So if you don’t want to look like a greedy guts with a horrible house, put it on the market at a reasonable price in the first place!

Technorati Tags: London homeowners, London Property Buyers Agents, London property finders, over-priced property

Tags: London homeowners, London Property Buyers Agents, London property finders, over-priced property

Musings of a company of London Property Search Agents

Hurray!  This morning the BBC ran a report that the Property Ombudsman is advising would-be buyers that they are under no obligation to have an appointment with the Estate Agent’s Mortgage broker if they want to see a property through the Agent.

Not long ago, we were hunting for a buy-to-let in Camden for one of our Clients.  Most Estate Agents were helpful and courteous and keen to persuade us their flats were perfect for our buyers.  One agent was shirty, rude and seemed to go out of their way to make things difficult.

During our first conversation I was categorically told that they wouldn’t show me any properties unless their mortgage broker could interview my Clients.  When we explained that their stance was illegal and not the best practice for their buyers, who presumably don’t care who buyers have their mortgages with as long as the money arrives.  After much guff and posturing from the Manager of the Estate Agent, we  were able to show our Clients the properties concerned.  Given that it took a 20 minute conversation for us to secure normal access, I wondered how First-time buyers without Property Search Agents like ourselves, were managing.

For anyone considering buying property, it is absolutely in your interest to see a truly independent mortgage broker.  In no other field would a buyer share so much personal information with someone they may end up negotiating with at a later date.  The practice immediately puts the Buyer in a compromised position. 

And if every Estate Agent tried to push buyers into seeing their mortgage broker, making appointments to view property would take so long and be so dull, it would put everyone off buying property for life!

So if you’re going property shopping any time soon, don’t believe the excuse that the vendor only wants qualified buyers to look round and threaten to go directly to the buyers if you think you can identify the property on line.  Side-stepping the agent all together will make it difficult for them to earn their fee, depending on their contract.  And if they are behaving like bully boys with their own best interests at heart rather than that of their Clients, why should they earn a fee?

If you’ve decided that you hate all Estate Agents, you can use London Property Buyers Agents like us instead and you won’t have to deal with any Estate Agents, including the nice ones and the bad apples.

Technorati Tags: Buyers agents, London Property Buyers Agents, property buyers agents

Tags: Buyers agents, London Property Buyers Agents, property buyers agents