According to sky news estate agents will die out.

Full article here. (http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13523739,00.html)

There's hope for humanity yet.:} :}

They will all go en masse into something else that charges commission, is totally opaque to examination about charges, requires no qualifications, and gives them the chance to put themselves above their customers and make a killing, and use mobile phones very ostentatiously. Don't know what, but they'll find it.

requires no qualificationsnot in Texas.


In any event I have no sympathy for people that use them. It only exists as a profession because people are too ignorant and lazy to do it themselves. It's a very simple process...in Texas at least.

Hopefully, as slowly and painfully as possible ! :mad: :E --along with their close relatives recruitment "consultants" aka human vermin / sewage. :mad:

An interesting piece on R2 yesterday about the species as it happens. Some guy defending the --coughs--"profession" :yuk: and saying how vital it was that all estate agents register to the Code of Practice---which, like any Code of Practice is simply BS and not, as far as I am aware, binding in legal terms as the Code simply suggests "best practice" :hmm: and that the members have conformed to a certain number of criteria for membership.


Various means of their demise welcomed----and no need to be concerned with the HRA being deemed applicable the above named either ! :E

The most expensive purchase, or asset sale most of us will ever undertake yet we entrust all this to people with no required qualifications.

Couple this to solicitors who charge us for every letter, telephone call
and contractual delay, and it is no wonder that in England house buying
and selling is the second most stressful experience. The first being the
death of a loved one.

Why estate agents have never been required to adopt professional standards and liabilities, the same as banks and financial consultants, is beyond me.

A qualified and accredited valuation is all that is needed, then with today's
internet is should be possible to market your property and in the process
save the 3% of the value that would otherwise be paid to amateur agents.

Perhaps it's time to take control!! :ok:

I'm sure I have mentioned this in another thread, but the last ‘do-upper' that I sold in the UK cost me 10p to advertise. One call to Loot is all it took.

The folk here in Texas do have to have qualifications, and they do work very hard on one's behalf, but 6%!!!!!; not if I can help it. Last but one house sold here was done by a guy who put a flyer through my door. Cost about $1,200, well worth what he did in return.

Comfree is becoming very popular here in Canada. You pay a couple of hundred dollars for a kit that containsjust about everything you need to sell you house yourself. They also provide advertising on their website until sold sort of thing.

The estate agents round here are more than a little scared and have tried to "smear" them with bullsh*t adverts saying "you're only truely protected if you use a realtor" and alike. We nearly purchased a home just before Christmas through them.........until the house failed the building inspection.

IMHO - The two things an estate agent bring to the table that are of value in the UK:

Firstly advertising the house in the local property rags - sure you can do it yourself but a six / eight week run will cost you £1K and you will be in the back pages. Houses are still sold out of the papers - not off RightMove or clicksell < whose website is a waste of space by the way.

Secondly - chain building. Sure Buyer A wants your house but if they have to sell to buy it then they need a buyer and so on. Decent agents (and there are some but woefully few) will try and build chains and then stay in touch with all the other agents / solicitors to ensure that the process goes through, after all it's their money!

Proffessional qualifications etc... totaly agree but then their fees would go up asa percentage of value. Normal UK fee is between 1 and 2% - compare that to the US where it is 6%.

HIPS (or wahtever it's called) next year will be the real cull for Estate Agents. It will put off the not serious sellers and slow down gazumping - as the packs need to be re-done after three months. Should also make the vendors pricing of a house more relasitic. And your average white socked agent won't understand them so how are they going to sell them. The end is nigh!! :ok:

ASDA Takes on Estate Agents (http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages/article.html?in_article_id=408627&in_page_id=8) :cool:

YOU WANT IT WHEN?

Has it spot on... I worked as an estate agent when studying for my ATP... If an agent is a good one there's a lot of work involved . If it's the white socked d*ckhead that the week before was selling double glazing then he/she is a waste of space. If E/Agents disappear they'll have only themselves to blame. They should have got their house in order 50 years ago and intoduced professional exams involving basic knowledge of property law, surveying and a thorough understanding of acceptable codes of practise, this would have dissuaded the amateur salesman and given the public confidence in the advice they recieved.
If they do go, life will not be as simple as many would like to think.... yes, it's easy enough to sell your house to someone standing there with a suitcase full of cash and his surveyor looking over the property, in reality this almost never happens.... in a good agency, what goes on behind the scenes is a huge amount of work...

Anyway... some will never be convinced... What I will say is that selling / buying property brings out the worst in what otherwise might be the nicest of people... the lies I was told by the great British public would make Authur Daley blush