The National Institute for Economic and Social Research, a respected independent economic forecasters, estimated that Britain had seen economic growth in the three months to August.

Its announcement coincided with figures showing that the manufacturing sector was enjoying its strongest growth for 18 months, that consumer confidence was recovering and that the jobs market was improving for the first time in almost a year and a half.

Many estate agents reported that house sales and inquiries were up by more than 50 per cent in August on the same month in 2008.

 The head of the International Monetary Fund also predicted that the world was likely to pull out from its economic slump earlier than expected.

 Economists said that the data and forecasts indicated that Britain’s economy was growing for the first time in more than a year and a half – and the recession was most likely over. A recession is officially defined as the economy shrinking for two or more successive quarters.

 The figures were a major boost for Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, who earlier this year insisted that the economy would be growing again before the end of the year.

 In a further tonic for Mr Darling and Gordon Brown, Ray Barrell, the chief forecaster at the institute, said that government policies, alongside the Bank of England’s decision to slash interest rates to nearly zero, were largely to thank for the recovery.

 Mr Barrell also gave warning that the coming months would be far from pleasant. “This is not going to be a V-shaped recovery,” he said. “This is going to be very tough. It will take until late 2012 for the economy to return to the size it was at the peak in 2008. This will be a long, painful recession.”

  “These data support other signs that the overall recession is ending,” said Michael Saunders, an economist at Citigroup. “We do not expect that recovery will be rapid, because of poor credit supply and the need for major fiscal restraint to get the public finances back on a sustainable path. Even so, as these data indicate, upside surprises in activity data continue to outweigh downside surprises.”

In December, the Nationwide’s consumer confidence index rose to its highest level since May 2008.

 Our view at Dreamspot  is “cautiously optimistic” for 2010 and beyond. We believe that there is an underlying positive current that now must be controlled in an orderly fashion that will allow the property market to recover and for the debts that the country owes to be gradually paid back whilst sustaining growth.

 The demand for property is certainly a major positive to aid this recovery as is the news that mortgages are becoming easier to obtain and more important than that – unemployment is showing signs of falling which is a huge relief to everyone.

We believe that the property market needs to keep check of itself and not get carried away with the positive economic data and the growth should be gradual and controlled.

Neil

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A unique opportunity to work for yourself within residential sales, under the umbrella of one of the leading pioneers of on-line estate agency with a market leading website including buyer/seller communication tools.
As a cost effective, dynamic and efficient way of operating, the company offer a full estate agency service to its clients listing properties on all major websites and with a fixed fee model.
Candidates will ideally have a minimum of 2  years experience within this sector or associated sector and have the drive and self motivation to be part of the ongoing expansion of this successful agency.
Franchisees will be provided with full training on all aspects of Sales, various marketing equipment and many other marketing tools and accessories along with their own unique area in which to work.

There is no initial investment required from the franchisee and the opportunities to expand are huge.

This could appeal to any of the below:-

· Redundant Estate Agents

· Estate agents looking for a change

· Self employed HIP consultants

· Candidate with strong business development / sales skills looking for a new challenge

Contact us on 07789 174490 for an informal chat.

We read with interest a couple of recent articles about Estate Agents and in particularly this spectacular offer to sell your home for free.

Too good to be true, well here is a brief summary of the article in The Evening Standard.

"A chain of London estate agents is offering to waive its fee on any property sold before the end of the year.

The move, which could cost it up to £10,000 on each transaction, comes as sales have collapsed due to the credit crunch and financial crisis.

Normal high street agents charge between 1.5 and 3 per cent commission

From the beginning of this month all estate agents have to belong to an approved ombudsman scheme, but the regulator has no powers over the fees which agents charge"

Some of the comments from other Estate Agents in competition with this chain, were "what happens if not sold before the end of the year" and "to look out for small print"

We have looked into this further and it appears that the offer is to pay upfront a marketing fee in the region of £999 and this is non refundable and does not depend on a sale being made.

At Dreamspot.co.uk we are always amazed how Estate Agents believe that transparency is not necessary and that the public will not notice the small print.

Another example of this lack of transparency has happened in Buckinghamshire recently with an estate agent offering to sell homes for a fixed fee of £999 plus VAT - subject to Terms and Conditions. On further investigation it appears the one and only condition is to market it at the price they advise!

Can there be a genuine, no small print offer to to sell your home for a fixed fee of £999 with no surprises - Yes!

The Dreamspot way of selling your home is that we do not have these Terms and Conditions, transparency is very important to us and we are happy to offer a fixed fee of £999 inc VAT only payable when a house is sold and at the price agreed between Dreamspot and the seller!

The other issue was regarding another Estate Agent who stated on a forum that they really don’t like "for sale signs", which in all honesty I find strange especially for a traditional estate agent.

Here at Dreamspot, we are focused on developing our Internet marketing strategies but we also really value some of the traditional marketing methods, especially the For Sale Signs. We have designed our boards with a distinctive theme in mind and will always look at new ways to make these even more effective. 30% of buyer enquiries do come via these!

Lastly let me quote from a trade publication article written by an estate agent, which confirms our view of high street branches:-

"Of course, many estate agency branch offices are only there to show the flag. They were never going to be major profit centres but were useful for image purposes and staff training. Frankly, in the new paradigm, do you really need them?"

In the last 2 weeks we have seen 2 HIP providers announce that they will be closing down business and both the National Association of Estate Agents and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors have called for the government to remove search information from HIPs.

Together with this, we also have The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) urging the government to take action on Home Information Packs (HIPs).

The 2 HIP providers to meet their demise were Openbook and Hipstar.

Worryingly, OpenBook had until now touted itself as a pioneer in HIP provision, as it has been supplying sellers’ packs to clients since 1996.

The HIP provider also took part in the government’s Bristol pilot scheme in 1999 and presented on the subject to the Cross Party Parliamentary Select Committee and the House of Lords in 2005.

A|so, Hipstar, the Home Information Pack provider conceived by Network Data’s Richard Griffiths more than three years ago, had claimed at  launch to have “developed leading edge technology to offer a streamlined solution for the ordering, production and delivery of our HIPs”.

Lastly, but also most importantly looking towards the political situation, the Conservative Party, rocketing ahead in the opinion polls, have already pledged to scrap HIPs should they win the next General Election.

The party recently stepped up its attack on HIPs, arguing that the packs discouraged speculative sellers and that they had increased sales costs.

Despite the above, the economic situation worsening and  the property market still suffering there are some supporters and not surprisingly these are lead by the The Association of Home Information Pack Providers who are highlighting the benefits of Home Information Packs in the face of criticism by industry groups.

At Dreamspot, we believe there can be a place for HIPs in the buying process but changes do need to be made to make the system that works cohesively and efficiently for both buyers and sellers in Buckinghamshire and the rest of the England and Wales.

We see the current call for local searches to be conducted as part of a HIP as simply not working in the current climate, due to the length of time properties are on the market. A majority of these searches become out of date by the time the property is sold which means they need to be repeated at extra cost to the consumer.

The National Association of Estate Agents have suggested a simplified pack to include only information that is of some use. They suggest that perhaps a simplified pack could include; a sellers’ questionnaire, an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) also reviewed to be fit for purpose, and the Land Registry title and plan.

This view is backed by Sir Bryan Carsberg’s recommendations in the recent ‘Carsberg Review of Residential Property’ he endorses the Association’s strong standpoint on HIPs, together with many other stakeholders in the industry."

Summary

If HIPs can be simplified and perform a genuine benefit to speed up the buying and selling process we can see them continuing and I am sure the Conservative Party would reconsider their view (Political  Party changing their policy - never!!).

In their current format they are only helping to slow an already slowing property market!

"Most home owners to avoid negative equity"

House prices would need to fall by almost a fifth before home owners experience negative equity, reveals research from GE Money Home Lending.

Recent research shows that house prices would need to fall by almost a fifth before home owners experience negative equity.

This is based on analysis of data from the Land Registry and Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Prices would need to fall by 19% before negative equity occurred, based on last year’s average house price of £219,410 and an average deposit of 28%.

The figures for those who bought in 1995 were even more reassuring.

The average property purchase price at that time was £68,079, and the average deposit was 27%. On this basis prices would need to drop by 72% for the value of the property to be lower than the finance owed.

It is worth remembering that over the past decade home ownership has delivered fantastic returns for many borrowers and we would need to see unprecedented falls in property prices for the average home owner to be severely impacted.

Whilst we have witnessed depreciation in house prices over the last year, the fall in property values has been relatively modest compared to the significant inflation over the past decade or so.

Ultimately, the concern in the current marketplace is for the small number of borrowers who put down a small deposit who may now be feeling overstretched.

But for the vast majority of UK consumers, the historic growth in the market has provided a welcome cushion against these falls.

Just to cheer yourself up, compare the above with what would have happened if you had invested £200,000 in shares of homebuilders last summer: Barratt shares would now be worth £7,795 (a fall of 96 per cent). Taylor Wimpey would be £16,432 (down 92 per cent).

Let’s not talk ourselves into a recession!!

House sales have fallen by half in the past year, according to a survey by the National Association of Estate Agents, which shows members selling an average of seven houses in March compared with 14 in the same month of 2007. Meanwhile, the country’s largest network of independent estate agencies, Movewithus, suggests that a third of the 12,000 firms will be out of business by December. Agencies are closing branches at a rate of 150 a week, with around 4,000 job losses since the start of the year, it was reported yesterday.

There is a 3 pronged attack facing the traditional estate agents:-

1. Falling House Prices
2. Reduced number of property transactions
3. Increased competition from online estate agents offering lower fees

We see from our research that online estate agents (as a sector) now move to tenth place in terms of estate agency size in the UK.

More recently a well know franchised network of estate agents have shut an office in Bristol BUT kept all of the staff who now work from home using their website as the primary selling vehicle.

Try researching How to start Up an Estate Agent and the comment below will feature predominately in the financial section of any feature:-

"Probably the most expensive part to setting up an estate agency is the office"

Also, see what the cost of leasing a high street shop in a town centre such as High Wycombe and then it will become clear why the commission charged by an estate agent is so high!

This was taken from Estate Agency Times regarding the future of the redundant estate agent!

Others will take this opportunity to become part of the new breed of agents – the ones that are trading from non high street locations with minimal cost bases, offering a high level of personal service for a competitive fee.
Buyer behaviour has changed with the dramatic growth of broadband. Yet even today estate agency is still a largely a high street retail operation. How many industries can you name that now only operate from a single medium? If the worlds of retail, banking and insurance have a selection of web-based channels with discounted rates why not estate agency? In actual fact the question is not why not – it is why not yet!

Where Are All the Buyers?

Well, chances are you’re in the throws of house hunting at the moment so you probably know the answer to this already.

For the avoidance of doubt:

                    "The buyers are on the Internet!"

The world of selling and buying houses is changing rapidly. Currently almost 90% of people now search for their next home on the Internet.Consider this in light of the fact that 14 million homes now have computers with Internet access not to mention how many have access at work.

According to which.com the top five property portals register in excess of 16 million user sessions every month.

As well as this estate agents can now access all the local knowledge and recent house prices on your street and in your area through online services.

Conclusion

The traditional, costly and mostly irrelevant high street branch network will be challenged as never before and we look forward to playing our part in this much need shake up in Bucks.

A changing market place has at long last forced this development as the last 10 years have seen excellent trading conditions for estate agents which has delayed the inevitable.

Compare the estate agency industry for example to travel agency, how many of you now book and research online??

Without the high street costs involved in running an estate agent, people looking to sell house quickly and wanting value for money can find that alternative in Bucks very soon!