Estate Agency Closures

experience08

Looks like most are doing a runner to the dung pit, where they belong.

"A supplier of office equipment to Simply Homes contacted the Observer to enquire if any information had been received as to the whereabouts of the owner as the company apparently shut down owing IKON Office Solutions a considerable amount of money."

Cissi

Philip Hodges in East Twickenham (used to cover Richmond) - gone & boarded up. Nearby branch in St Margarets still there, but for how long? They certainly didn't impress us when they tried to sell our house a couple of years ago... (we eventually changed to a more proactive agent, with good results)

I think the weaker ones are already starting to be weeded out!

trudiha

Things were still going great gun, in London at least, until September. For the last 7 years all they've had to do is send a dog down the high street with a set of 'particulars' in it's mouth to get a sale and it's hardly an industry that requires big capital outlay. How did it get so bad so quickly?

Microstar_2

I think its dreadful when anyone loses their job and its wrong to indulge in 'Schadenfreud'. However, I do make an exception in the case of estate agents. I can still remember when, back in the '80's, I went into a local estate agents and the snotty youth in an ill-fitting cheap suit laughed at me when I asked whether they had any houses under a certain price level. I hope he lost his job a long time ago.
Maybe they'll find productive jobs like topping carrots once the Poles head home in the coming recession.

Jorgan_2

trudiha wrote: »

Things were still going great gun, in London at least, until September. For the last 7 years all they've had to do is send a dog down the high street with a set of 'particulars' in it's mouth to get a sale and it's hardly an industry that requires big capital outlay. How did it get so bad so quickly?

Many agents have running costs of £10-20,000 per month (more in large city centres), just to open the doors:

Lease for shop
Wages
Advertising- local paper & internet
Business rates
Printing

The industry is not as profitable as everybody thinks, so you if you have 3-4 bad months, the debts soon add up.

WTF?_2

Microstar wrote: »

Maybe they'll find productive jobs like topping carrots once the Poles head home in the coming recession.

Yes - immigrant labour is the big wild card.

If immigrants go home en-masse, it'll knock the property market hard. But it will make the unemployment figures look a lot better and save the government a packet in social welfare payments due to lower (than otherwise) unemployment.

So - rental market or jobs market. Wonder which the government will choose to try to save?

dubsey

J D Oliver in Kent closed a couple of weeks ago. Ina newspaper article the manager said something like, we could have carried on trading but chose to close now. Their website now redirects straight to another company. Some of the properties they had on their books have been taken on by another agent (most by the same agent) and have come onto propertybee as new properties - at the same price they were on before!

Lotus-eater

Two closed in Corby
http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/661/Second-Corby-estate-agent-closes.4005284.jp

silvercar

An EAs tale:

http://www.agentsdiary.blogspot.com/

Thomas99

I've been keeping my beady eyes open for EA's shutting shop in my area, but have yet to find one...still plenty of time for them to join the party though
Loads of fitness clubs shutting down for some reason :j