Estate Agency Closures

baby_boomer

Two just gone in Forest Hill, London.

Goldie
Scotchbrooks

Goldie isn't officially closed. Just a line of dustbins outside & a pile of gathering mail inside, including a communication from the Inland Revenue

On the recession front, this now leaves 4 gaping gaps on the Forest Hill shop front - these two, plus a major post office and Blockbuster's.

baby_boomer wrote: »

I shall also keep an eye on the notorious Putney road which has about seven estate agents next to each other, including Foxtons.

Well guess who just had enough time on their hands to write the "Diary of an Estate Agent" for the Evening Standard?
And guess how many sales were mentioned during the week? Clue - it's a round number. :rotfl: :rotfl:

Not exactly an EA closure but

MSE thread - Rightmove cuts 20% of jobs

lynzpower

Glad to see you are still flying the flag for this thread boomer.

A couple more to add

Churchill estates of Wanstead is no more. They ara a chain of about 10 in east london/essex borders. Anyone know if any of the other branches have shut yet? Walthamstow must be vulnerable there are scores of EAS on the main rd there- more than putney even :rotfl:

And what a surprise, a small, independent looking EA with cheapo orange sign opened oposite Leytonstone High Rd mainline/ TFC station 2 months ago. Went past today and its empty- but with A4 printed signs in the window saying staff wanted - im sure they must be inundated :rotfl:

fatpig_2

I sincerely hope these montrosities never come back. They blight virtually every high street in the UK

ad44downey

Yesterday I spotted a bloke who used to work in a local Estate agents working in Burger King. The estate agency itself is still in operation, I'm not sure for how much longer though

napoleon

ad44downey wrote: »

Yesterday I spotted a bloke who used to work in a local Estate agents working in Burger King.

Well at least he's doing something useful now.

Conrad

EAs get a lot of stick and much of it deserved, however the general slurr on thier intelligence is misplaced. As a broker I work with EAs and as such have seen many people fail. Oddly enough a lot of failures went into IT after.

People think houses sell themselves, but this is an incredibly neave view. Imagine you had to value a house tomorrow faced with a proud vendor wanting top money. You might think its a simple case of just speaking plainly and honestly, but this is the very reason so many dont cut the mustard. Its all about knowing what to say and when, and having a good gut feel for how far you can push people. As an example you dont want to alienate a potential purchaser but on the other hand you dont want to give away the sellers cash.

Honestly, being a conveyancer is just a straight forward process job any monkey can learn. Selling and deal making is immensly harder, as the apprentice candidates have found (people with MAs that couldnt cut a deal if thier life depended on it).
Similarly IT is just a process job with no particualr skills required.

I think generally we undervalue deal makers and over value process workers. Without deal makers no firm can exist, whereas HR and most other process jobs can be done my many.

treliac

Conrad wrote: »

EAs get a lot of stick and much of it deserved, however the general slurr on thier intelligence is misplaced. As a broker I work with EAs and as such have seen many people fail. Oddly enough a lot of failures went into IT after.

People think houses sell themselves, but this is an incredibly neave view. Imagine you had to value a house tomorrow faced with a proud vendor wanting top money. You might think its a simple case of just speaking plainly and honestly, but this is the very reason so many dont cut the mustard. Its all about knowing what to say and when, and having a good gut feel for how far you can push people. As an example you dont want to alienate a potential purchaser but on the other hand you dont want to give away the sellers cash.

Honestly, being a conveyancer is just a straight forward process job and monkey can lear. Selling and deal making is immensly harder, as the apprentice candidates have found (people with MAs that couldnt cut a deal if thier life depended on it).
Similarly IT is just a process job with no particualr skills required.

So you have to be a psychologist.

Personally, I'd rather make my own decision. Or is that what a good EA should make you feel? :rolleyes:

ray123

It is sad that anyone has to lose their job, but I would argue that there are far too many estate agents. It is only natural that now the boom is over, estate agents are going bust.

Conrad

treliac wrote: »

Personally, I'd rather make my own decision. Or is that what a good EA should make you feel? :rolleyes:

In my experience quite a small proportion of those that start in the business actually make a good go of it. The difference is down to choice and use of language and the drive to maintiane a high work input day in day out.

Potential customers will make internal often unconscious decisions that lead you to put your home on with one EA over another.
The simple mind would argue "Ill put it on with the one with the most lavish advertsing", but if it were that simple then every agent would up thier ad budget.

Ultimately a home sells itself, but thats only one aspect of the overall business endeavour that results in said sale.

Again, plenty of apparantly super intelligent MAs have been shown not to have dealing skills (the key business skill) on the Apprentice.
The stress comensurate with business dealing is IMO far greater than that associated with any other workplace activity.

The only other activity I would rate as highly as dealing would be creativity.

Woby_Tide

SmartMove in Bournemouth/Southampton gone pop according to another thread. They were a 1 time fee lot £350 up front/£350 when sold or some such and always wondered how they would sustain it.

That said we got in on a speciall offer when they first started the new franchise and paid £345 so I'm sorry to see them go in that respect. But we did warn them to buck their ideas up if they wanted to stay in business even at the height of the market