Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 July 2005 10:56:49
HERE, with thanks, is the column I wrote with the help of Maddie and Dave's thoughts on the wild world of estate agents. I'm very grateful.
If the recent heatwave caused you to lose sleep, spare a thought for your poor local estate agents. Many seem to have been driven to the brink of insanity by the onset of something resembling summer.
I'm judging this by the number of begging letters coming through the door at the moment. They are lavishly illustrated with pictures of our neighbours' houses, all proudly displaying Sold signs. The text reads something like this. "We could sell your home. We advertise in 1,600 local papers and all over the Internet. And we're really nice. Give us five minutes, just try us out, pretty, pretty please."
Too many estate agents, not enough action, is the conclusion I have uncharitably drawn - but it certainly hasn't made me want to put our property on the market.
Outside our fair capital, desperate estate agents are going even further, with one enterprising chap taking pictures of every house in a village and sending out personalised flyers to the owners, with a picture of their homes on them. It is not surprising that some residents have found this rather alarming, especially because, under the picture, the estate agent has added the message: "We want your home." "So you want to make me homeless now," grumbles one unfortunate recipient. "Why, thank you."
A more softly-softly - but no less irritating - approach has been unearthed by a friend who was sent a tea bag through the post by her local estate agents, followed, not long afterwards, by a sachet of sugar. "I can't remember what the point of it was," she says, "except that the sugar came a few weeks later with a note saying something along the lines of 'we sent you a tea bag a few weeks ago but you still haven't put your house on the market, perhaps if we give you a packet of sugar that will persuade you'.
"I really can't think what they were trying to do - I cannot believe that they thought sending me a tea bag was going to make me sell a house that I have been in for less than a year."
Since she seems unable to remove herself from the estate agents' mailing list, despite her best efforts, I'm looking forward to hearing what arrives through the letterbox next. Maybe the agents will go upmarket and send caviar and truffles?
If our own local agents are reading this and would like a tip - I'm more likely to sell my house through you if you send me a bottle of Champagne than if you stick a tea bag through the door. But I probably won't - so perhaps you should consider taking up selling ice cream until the summer is over.
Having just discovered eBay, I like to think of myself as someone with an eye for a bargain, but I rarely discover that I've saved £25,000 in one fell swoop.
According to the nice people at Abbey, though, that's exactly what I have managed to do by buying a flat in London instead of renting one. I'm encouraged to find that, despite the chores that homeowning brings, it does have its advantages, even though they are much less apparent than they used to be. With rental income remaining steady, and house prices creeping upward, however, the difference between renting and buying is closing.
In London, if you own that elusive "average house", there is only a 4 per cent difference over a 25-year period, which isn't much to shout about.
Elsewhere, homeowners can be more encouraged, as it is 11 per cent cheaper to buy than it is to rent. That has dropped from 16 per cent in 2004, which suggests that renters are doing pretty well out of the nicely appointed buy-to-let flats that have flooded the market.
Those of us in London will just have to be content with our 4 per cent saving. Looked at this way, is buying really worth all the hassle that goes with it? At least the owners of small flats can comfort themselves with the fact that they save (proportionally) far more by buying than the owners of larger houses. It's not often, in the property world, that small is beautiful.