How long before estate agents start to go bust?
Discussion
Listenting to the radio, it said that the average number of sales per estate agency in the last quarter was one a week. Even given house prices averaging say £270K and commission at 2% that is only £5400 a week coming in. I am guessing the advertising costs in the local newspaper run to that alone and then they have all their building, staffing, IT etc costs.
I know they have had good times and probably expect feast and famine so will have reserves, but how long can they sustain a business on a few sales a week? I noticed last week that our biggest local company had no advert in the weekly rag when they usually have an 8 page insert but seem to have the places to sell ( they have 5 with their boards outside in our village of 105 houses) but they just are not selling. A neighbours son works for them and was saying 3 months ago that things were very, very tough. I have been half expecting an announcemnet that they have gone bust and no press ad last week stoked that local rumour. I have to say that they probably have reaped what they have sown to some degree as this company typically take 10-14 days to get a house on their web site and are renowned for sharp practices (but then they have been about for 150 years so that may be the nature of the beast). Even this week with such low sales two houses which came on the market here have not appeared on the web site in 10 days (come on , you know you all do it when aneighbours house comes on the market) unless they haven't paid the web man!
So how long will it be before our smart suited friends start to join the dole queue?
http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/2008/05/06/estate-...
Currently 150 branches closing a week (according to this report).
Currently 150 branches closing a week (according to this report).
andy400 said:
jezb said:
andy400 said:
Not soon enough.
That real nice isn't it. You may not like the job they do for some stupid reason, but these guys still have families to feed, bills to pay etc.A job does not make a man, but it does show some of his character...
TheCarpetCleaner said:
andy400 said:
jezb said:
andy400 said:
Not soon enough.
That real nice isn't it. You may not like the job they do for some stupid reason, but these guys still have families to feed, bills to pay etc.A job does not make a man, but it does show some of his character...
Lots of people have families to feed. Concentration camp guards, burglars, conmen, politicians - where do you draw the line? Metroarea said:
On the flip side of all this, a good friend of mine was a sales agent until about 6 months ago. He saw the downturn coming, moved in rentals and is now absolutely creaming it in. So it's not all bad for the one's with a bit more foresight.
Very true, if they didn't take action to change, then they deserve to go out of business.Well they didn't exactly help the situation did they. And now they appear to be reaping the rewards. Oh hum.
Do you think they'll be offended when I walk in on Sat and say "I'd like to look at these properties, but I'm only going to offer 20% less than your asking. Yes thats probably the 20% you've been falsely adding slowly to prices over the last 10 years. Well done."
Do you think they'll be offended when I walk in on Sat and say "I'd like to look at these properties, but I'm only going to offer 20% less than your asking. Yes thats probably the 20% you've been falsely adding slowly to prices over the last 10 years. Well done."
Munter said:
Well they didn't exactly help the situation did they. And now they appear to be reaping the rewards. Oh hum.
Do you think they'll be offended when I walk in on Sat and say "I'd like to look at these properties, but I'm only going to offer 20% less than your asking. Yes thats probably the 20% you've been falsely adding slowly to prices over the last 10 years. Well done."
You think it's estate agents rather than sellers who bump up the prices?Do you think they'll be offended when I walk in on Sat and say "I'd like to look at these properties, but I'm only going to offer 20% less than your asking. Yes thats probably the 20% you've been falsely adding slowly to prices over the last 10 years. Well done."
Fittster said:
Munter said:
Well they didn't exactly help the situation did they. And now they appear to be reaping the rewards. Oh hum.
Do you think they'll be offended when I walk in on Sat and say "I'd like to look at these properties, but I'm only going to offer 20% less than your asking. Yes thats probably the 20% you've been falsely adding slowly to prices over the last 10 years. Well done."
You think it's estate agents rather than sellers who bump up the prices?Do you think they'll be offended when I walk in on Sat and say "I'd like to look at these properties, but I'm only going to offer 20% less than your asking. Yes thats probably the 20% you've been falsely adding slowly to prices over the last 10 years. Well done."
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