Please read these articles >>> OFT targets rogue estate agents  or  Estate Agents, who needs them?

Similar contents published in The Guardian June 11, 2002  www.guardian.co.uk

Please read the article below, and then read our comments.

The estate agent sector is the target of a wide-ranging investigation by The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) following a steep rise in complaints from home buyers and sellers, as the housing market continues to boom.  Official statistics show that complaints to the Estate Agent Ombudsman soared by a massive 25% last year to a new record.  

This clearly shows that unscrupulous agents are exploiting the boom by resorting to various underhand practices. It was revealed in April that complaints made to the ombudsman leapt to 5,730 in 2001 against a backdrop of the fastest house price growth since the late 1980s in addition to growing numbers of people entering the market and also some homes selling in just a matter of days.

This has lead to a scenario of several would-be buyers for every property for sale and sealed bid auctions in some areas, leaving estate agents finding themselves in a powerful position.

This serious OFT inquiry will look at the way the public are being served by estate agents in England and Wales.  The OFT inquiry could even lead to recommend changes to the law to give buyers and sellers better protection from the rogue agents which operate in the UK.

Did you know that little more than a third of the UK's estate agents belong to the industry's voluntary complaints handling scheme?  It is highly likely that this is one issue the inquiry will focus on.

In order to give the public greater protection, the OFT has made clear it could call on the government to carry out its threat to make membership of the ombudsman for estate agents scheme compulsory for all Britain's 12,000 estate agent offices.  The OFT remains a firm believer in effective arbitration services such as those offered by ombudsmen.

This inquiry will also compare the current UK services being offered, with those in other countries.

The recently established Markets and Policy Initiatives Division of the OFT will carry out the investigation and has been ordered to undertake "probing examinations" of markets, practices and regulations. 

The consequences of this inquiry could lead to additional changes to the law, and could result in enforcement action by the OFT or a reference to the Competition Commission.

The National Consumer Council said yesterday that "the law isn't working".  They feel that there is insufficient effective protection for consumers from the real rogue estate agents who escape the good practice guidelines and regulations in order to exploit loopholes and rip off unsuspecting consumers.

And what is one of the biggest areas of complaints - FEES. The fast-rising house prices means that these fees have increased, to an average of £1,500 (+VAT) for a £100,000 house!!

Other complaints centred around disputes about inaccurate or misleading property descriptions (more than 300 complaints), and there was also a sharp rise in complaints about conflicts of interest, which can include where an agent is tied up with a developer who may be interested in buying the property, and so their property is not being offered comprehensively to the open market.

The National Association of Estate Agents commented that the inquiry has resulted in part due to a response to some of the allegations of unethical conduct by a minority of agents.

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More signs house hunters look online - More research has been published this week that highlights the increasing use of the Internet amongst house hunters. The results of the research from Halifax Estate Agents reveal that increasing numbers of house hunters are likely to turn to the internet to find their next home.

• 39% of house hunters said they would certainly use the internet to find their next property, a huge increase on the 7% who used it to find their current property.
• Those living in the South are likely to be the leading users of property sites as almost half will aim to find their next property online compared to just over a third in both the North and the Midlands.

The internet has been increasing in popularity as a property search tool over the past few years. Of those people who had bought within the last 2 years 33% had used the internet compared to just 3% who bought more than 2 years ago.

Age - all age groups plan to increase their use of property websites when they look for their next property. The biggest users of property websites will be 25 to 34 year olds (63%), followed by 18 to 24 year olds (61%) but even 29% of 55 to 64 year olds and 9% of those 65 and over will be turning to the internet to find their next house. This is a substantial increase across all age groups when compared to those who did use the internet to find their last property, 23% of 25 to 34 year olds, 11% of 35 to 44 year olds and less than 2% of those aged 45 plus.

Regional variations - 48% of house hunters in the South plan to use the web for property searches next time they look for a house, compared to 35% of those in the North and the Midlands. House hunters in the South were also the largest users of the internet to find their current property at 12% compared to 7% for the North and only 2% in the Midlands.

A leading Estate Agents' Managing Director has said: "The internet is becoming such an important tool, not only for house hunters to find properties but also for estate agents to market properties. House hunters have benefited enormously by being able to search for their ideal property, wherever they are in the country, from the comfort of their own home."

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gottaProperty Ltd comment:

We know, and work with, a large number of estate agents, and would not presume to state that all (nor even the majority) of estate agents are rogue traders, or that there is no need to use estate agents when selling a property.  We also know that in any profession or industry that there are a few bad apples that spoil it for the whole bunch.  Our comment here is not to disparage the work of estate agents, or indeed any other property professional.  We would, however, like to remind our thousands of website visitors, customers, colleagues and clients of our services and how we have become one of the UK's leading independent property portals.

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Why use gottaProperty.com ?

There is no hiding the fact that there are literally thousands of estate agents, property marketing companies, home builders, letting agents, property management companies, property newspapers and magazines etc.., all looking to promote, sell, advertise and generally provide various services of some sort or another to their clients and customers.

However, at gottaProperty.com our philosophy is new, exciting, and is designed with the intention to achieve total customer satisfaction.

The principle behind gottaProperty.com - for home sellers and landlords - is simply to help people advertise their properties to a wide property market without having to pay the usual commission fees associated with the 'normal' channels. 

Do we work? Our market penetration statistics, speak for themselves!! We consider our website to be our shop window.  See how many people 'entered our shop' last week....

Weekly Statistics For Previous Week
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Account number, gottaProperty, had a total of 2219 visitors last week.

AND.... we are OPEN for business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week !!

Our low cost marketing fees start at just £49.95 - a one-off fee with no extra commissions to pay.  At gottaProperty.com, we don't just place an advertisement on our own website, we also massively promote properties - and the gottaProperty.com brand - through other property related websites (maximising the internet exposure) and also in newspapers, magazines, newsletters, postal and email mailings and much more too. Click here for Where We Advertise.

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For the home seeker (buyer / tenant)      For the home seller or landlord      Marketing Options

For the home seeker (buyer / tenant), we offer massive and comprehensive database facilities listing over 120,000 properties. 

We have captured the technology of the internet to bring you a consolidated list of available properties throughout the UK, as advertised by gottaProperty.com and also our Corporate Associates, estate agents and others.

A truly massive overview of the UK property market and updated on a regular basis too!!  

To view our property lists click here.

For the home seller or landlord, gottaProperty.com offers an exceptionally comprehensive marketing service enabling you to promote your property details to the market on both a national and local level.

Nationally we publish the property details on the internet on our own website and also on other property related websites, and we also advertise in newspapers, magazines and send updated property details lists to our registered homeseekers.

Locally, we advertise in various local newspapers and magazines and also carry out leaflet postings as well as promoting ourselves in selected Sainsbury's stores too.

gottaProperty.com customers can also have a 'For Sale' board or 'To Let' board - with our FreePhone 0800 number displayed, thereby maximising the exposure of the property to the 'passing trade' market.

In addition, we also register our website with over 3000 internet search engines on a regular basis and the 'name' gottaProperty.com is constantly being marketed to prospective customers as part of our ongoing national media campaign.

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Property Advertising Marketing Options

Summary Table 

Using gottaProperty.com's wide-ranging and far-reaching marketing service, you could potentially save £'000's in usual fees.

For just £49.95 you could start promoting your property to the market right now.  Why wait any longer, call us now or complete our online form here. 

Use our marketing service and advertise from just £49.95 (one-off flat fees) for a full 12 weeks of marketing - with no commissions to pay on sale of property !

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Similar contents published in The Times July 13, 2002  www.thetimes.co.uk  Please read the article below, and then read our comments. Estate agents - who needs them? Looking at the alternatives to paying a fat commission to sell your home

SHOULD estate agents really expect you to really have to pay thousands of pounds merely to sell your house? Agents have it easy in the current property market because a shortage of sellers means that properties are selling so quickly. However, not everyone is happy; the Office of Fair Trading has launched an inquiry into agents’ practices, following a record rise in complaints to the industry’s ombudsman. Due to growing public scepticism, a range of lower cost alternatives to the traditional agent is now available. In one approach, former estate agents say they are reinventing themselves as property Robin Hoods to help seller save money. Some house advertising agencies, for a flat fee, will value the house, prepare details and for a particular term, will advertise it in local newspapers and on various property websites. It has been said that it’s unfair that traditionally there are only two options — sell via an established route or just being left totally unsupported.  In a market where house prices continue to grow, estate agents don’t need to do much to sell a house. People have now started to go it alone, not even bothering with disenchanted former estate agents who offer cut-price deals. gottaProperty Ltd receives regular advertising orders and has recently marketed a penthouse apartment, a period cottage in a conservation area, London flats, Surrey cottages and many other properties throughout the UK. Some estate agents still quote commission fees of up to 2 per cent, which comes can add up to several thousands of pounds. One buyer has said that the last time he sold a house the estate agent didn’t even have to print details — it went within two days. People are encouraged by the response after just one advertisement especially when they receive serious inquiries and viewings, even from outside local areas.  Property owners are discovering how the internet can attract far-flung buyers to the local areas. Local agents often state that their clients aren’t interested in certain types of houses and that everyone wants traditional properties. By advertising on the internet, properties can attract serious viewers from much further afield.    end.

We are always happy to answer any questions that you may have, so please use any of our contact details here to send us your comments, queries or if you have any requests for any further information.

Thank you.

The Directors and Staff

gottaProperty Ltd t/as gottaProperty.com

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