Launched in October 2004, Real Estate TV (Sky channel 279) is celebrating its 2nd birthday by hosting Real Estate TV Live on the 18 – 19 November, at the NEC Center in Birmingham; and by encouraging its viewers to "Become a property expert in one day" and even having a "Property Factor" open audition contest to become a presenter on the channel.
Sounds like its going to be a fun weekend!
[related post via Nubricks]
Zillow has been getting negative attention recently; outside of the normal blog babble from US based real estate professionals; as well as speculative rumors concerning potential takeover bids.
Venture blogger John Cook from Seattle highlights some interesting facts concerning Zillow and its business model. Cook compares Zillow's valuation with YouTube and Myspace and makes some interesting assessments:On the surface, the two Internet darlings may appear quite different, with YouTube specializing in online video and Zillow serving as an online repository for residential real estate information.
But there actually are quite a few similarities. Both are online media companies that are hoping to capitalize on the shift of advertising dollars to the Web. Both allow consumers to search for information that was previously difficult or impossible to attain (real estate records and personal videos). And both have quickly grown through word of mouth.
YouTube -- attracted a whopping 72 million unique visitors in August. That means its sale price to Google was 23 times the number of people who visited the site.
Zillow's -- audience is not growing at nearly the pace of YouTube. And overall unique visitors to Zillow, which comScore listed at 2.3 million for August, pale in comparison to the video site.
Now, let's say a suitor wanted to buy Zillow and it looked to the Google-YouTube deal for guidance. At 23 times monthly visitors, one would value Zillow at just $53 million.
That's less than the $57 million in venture capital that the company has raised.
BUT ...
Zillow spokeswoman Amy Bohutinsky, -- notes that 86 percent of the company's visitors own homes. And more than half are in the process of buying, selling or remodeling a home.
YouTube may have youth on its side, but Zillow is capturing people at the point of one of life's largest monetary transactions.
"It is a high-value group of users, who are not just looking to buy or sell, but maybe refinance or do home improvements" Bohutinsky said. "They are pretty valuable to advertisers."
"the value per user at a company like Zillow ought to be higher," according to Kevin Cable, of Cascadia Capital.
London property search engine Zoomf has just released its "Zoomf Index" feature and to my knowledge, there's no other property website or search engine that compiles comparable price data in such an easy and instantaneous format. In fact, the really great aspect to this feature (when compared to other asking price indices such as Rightmove, Hometrack and Home.co.uk is) the instantaneous results. No more waiting around for the end of the month for index releases from Rightmove and Hometrack for the property professional. They can find out what's happening in their neck of the woods or in London overall, just by pulling up the Zoomf Index. What's also innovative is the rent yield calculations, and price comparisons with Greater London averages as well as nearby area averages, a very useful tool for investors and property professionals alike, as well as consumers just searching for a place to live. Guidelines can also be broken down by home type and number of bedrooms.
We did try searching via postcodes and street names and got an error page. We're not sure if this service is intended to be integrated as it would be quite useful, and product director Ivailo Jordanov admitted to us last night that there were "a few small glitches which are being worked on". However, we were able to get very accurate results when doing broad area searches using Brixton and Maida Vale as search terms.
Another pitfall is the current size of the Zoomf database which we're estimating at approximately 10,000 properties for sale in London. Now we're not sure how many properties on the open market in London at the moment, but we're estimating between 60,000 - 100,000 depending on who you speak to.
Notwithstanding this, we're calling the "Zoomf Index" a winner and predict that it will have serious impact and influence on the London housing market in the coming years.
In a report released this afternoon, the RICS comments on the UK market:
Strong economic activity during the third quarter alongside above target inflation has raised the chances of an interest rate hike in November. With both the service sector and industrial production now in expansionary mode and capacity constraints apparent, we expect interest rates to climb into the New Year. However, the rapid expansion of the labour force may continue to curtail wage pressures and will prevent the Bank of England applying the breaks on the economy too quickly.
Commercial property
Occupier demand in the commercial property market has strengthened in line with the improving economy. Rents increased by 3.2% in the year to September, the firmest rise in five years. This tallies with economic activity which has been robust in the past year with 2006 set to be the best year for growth since 2000 with the one exception being 2004. Rental growth was again driven by the office sector, which has now overtaken that of the retail property for the first time since February 2002.
Construction
Growth in construction workloads slowed fractionally in Q3 after increasing for three consecutive quarters. However, growth in workloads is still high and well above year ago rates. The strongest sectors of activity were private commercial and private housing, which have both now grown above their long-run averages for four consecutive quarters. In the private
industrial sector workloads showed signs of stabilising.
Residential property
House price growth in September hit the fastest pace since October 2002. Price rises are being driven by a combination of new buyers entering the market and falling property supply. Price rises were again led by London and the South East, which have been supported by a booming City economy. Moderate rises have been recorded across most other regions.
London's most controversial agency announces the opening of its brand new Islington office at 355-357 Upper Street; beside Angel Tube station. The new office, accommodating 120 staff in a "café-style design" environment; is no doubt part of CEO Jon Hunt's "sale and leaseback" strategy in his efforts to break the US market.
Foxtons' money loosing presence in the New York metropolitan area began five years ago with a £12m investment in New Jersey, later expanding to Manhattan and eventually Connecticut. The Times reports that Hunt expects to loose £6m this year while absorbing a £32m investment from his New York operations.
Foxtons' controversial “beware of sharks charging 6%” advertising campaign hasn't gone down too well in America; where agents average 6% commissions per sale, versus the 2% that they're charging. Not only have the New York agents rebelled, but Hunt admits that it's not easy to convince the general public that there is no catch. Plus the rise of flat fee services like Redfin is causing great upheaval in the way the real estate game is played in the US and will no doubt greatly affect Hunt's ambitious American business model.
Nonetheless, with a UK pre-tax profit of £25m on sales of £90m, whatever short term losses Hunt experiences stateside can be easily offset by the profits he's making over here. The bigger question is long term sustainability of his American business model.
Foxtons expects to raise more than £14m through its ongoing sale and leaseback strategy of many of its London offices. They're also planning to expand operations outside London and into the rapidly growing Home Counties market, with new offices costing about £1m each to open.
ZDNet writer Russell Shaw speculates on who's gonna buy Zillow. Shaw lists five companies including Google, Yahoo! and AOL as his current favourites, and has a poll in the article which has IAC/InterActive leading the list with 24% (followed closely by Yahoo! with 20%) at the time of this post. Even though Shaw makes a compelling case for Google, given the current Gmap mashup craze, our take is on Yahoo! leading the way, given that they're currently integrating Zillow on their real estate search site, and as Shaw readily admits, they're "artfully skilled in brand integration". But of course the bigger question, are they ready to sell?
[via frem]
UPDATE:
According to Amy Bohutinsky, Director of Communications, Zillow.com: "Zillow is not for sale"
Zillow Real Estate Data Coming to a Site Near You
... and they're "very excited about it according" to Marion Shelly of the LR press office. Marion tells us that the new monthly index will contain data back to 2000; and will be different from the LR quarterly reports, in that the geographical breakdown will not be post-code specific:the HPI measures average price changes in repeat sales on the same property, the price change on a flat in Mayfair is not compared with the change on a flat in the Old Kent Road. This gives a like for like comparison, making it the most accurate index currently available. Ted Beardsall, Land Registry Deputy Chief Executive, said:
[link]
“The Land Register provides the most complete set of house price data for England and Wales. We believe that our new House Price Index is more timely and will become the authoritative and most accurate reflection of average house price movements in the country.”
The Land Registry dataset is a record of all residential property transactions made in England and Wales since April 2000. At present it contains details on over seven million sales. Of these, 1.3 million are identifiable matched pairs, providing the basis for the repeat-sales regression analysis used to compile the index.
From the Telegraph: Countrywide has accepted an indicative take-over offer of around £900 million from private equity company 3i
UPDATE
Rightmove refuses to respond to "newspaper speculation";
details emerging
Poor sod can't remember the name of the program, but "likes to look at the maps"
Just ask Reverend Creflo A. Dollar Jr of Atlanta Georgia, who preaches a message of "opportunity for prosperity."
Mr. Dollar, whose Rolls-Royces, private jets, million-dollar Atlanta home and $2.5 million Manhattan apartment, furnish proof to his followers of the validity of his teachings, is a leading apostle of what is known as the "prosperity gospel."
Well with the slowing real estate market in the US, now may be a good time to think of a change careers; and if "prosperity preaching" tickles your fancy, whatever you do, just dont follow this guy's example:
[via Bossip]
Former Playmate Anna Nicole Smith, who recently buried her 20 year old son, days after giving birth to her daughter was ordered to leave her Bahamian residence by Oct. 31, according to People Magazine.
G. Ben Thompson, a US based developer, claims ownership of the property where Smith lived; claiming he purchased the house for her for just under $1 million in August of this year as a favor to Smith, whom he "befriended" after meeting her through neighbors in mid-2005. Thompson says that Smith was supposed to buy the house from him, but Smith says the house was "a gift".
STOP PRESS
In related news, California photographer Larry Birkhead, is now claiming paternity of Smith's new baby and has filed papers in a California court to establish paternity and obtain legal custody of the child. Smith was also served in this matter in the Bahamas, where last week she held a commitment ceremony with her attorney, Howard K. Stern, who also claims to be the baby's father.
TechCrunch reports on Homes24's relaunch; a partnership between Archant, the UK's largest independently-owned regional media business and Amsterdam based developer Rossetta:Now ordinarily this would be of only passing interest to TechCrunch UK, largely because most of the time newspaper groups simply put up Web 1.0 shovel-ware and just reprint the paper ads online. This time however, Archant appears to have engaged brain with strategy and hired Rosetta in Amsterdam, a self-styled developer of software for classifieds and communities. The result is a Google Maps mashup with which allows home-hunters to identify and zoom in on available properties. To fund development, Archant is offering free advertising for estate agents who pay only when consumers organise viewings through the site.
Even as the impetuous Lord Norman Foster is about to reap millions for the redesign of Moscow's infamous Rossiya Hotel; news is that he also charges a premium for “designed by Norman Foster” to be included in sales and marketing literature.
Nick Johnson, of Manchester based Urban Splash claims that:
“There was a stipulation in the fee agreement that we could not use ‘Norman Foster’ himself in association with the building unless we came to a separate agreement which . . . would require the payment of a further fee."
When Urban Splash launched an advertisement campaign promoting a development designed by Foster and Partners, claiming it was a Norman Foster design; they received a letter of complaint from Foster’s lawyers. The row was settled after Urban Splash pointed out that Foster had appeared in a video to promote the scheme. "He has become really aware of using his brand and image in the way David Beckham has,” claims a source close to Foster
I swear in a few days, they'll be doing the dance in honour of cowtown's newest icon; The Banana.
We anticipate the "Calgary Banana" will be similar to the "Chicken Noodle Soup," exemplified by Ms. Janet Jackson in a recent performance.
The Calgary Banana 
The Chicken Noodle Soup
EnCana, Calgary's largest oil and gas producer, has unveiled plans to construct a giant monument to its success, one that will dominate the city's skyline when completed in 2011.
The 59-storey tower (also dubbed The Bow) will not only be the tallest office tower west of Toronto, it will also be among the most architecturally unique, with an energy-efficient, bow-shaped design reminiscent of Toronto's city hall."Calgary's [oil] boom has drenched the city in money ... (the) unveiling of EnCana Corp.'s planned $1-billion, glass-and-steel office tower is unlike anything the city has ever seen, an instant icon that will stand at the forefront of 21st-century architecture." [source]
Anguilla's CuisinArt Resort & Spa has announced a $7 million, 19,000 square-foot expansion of its Venus Spa, to be completed in March 2008 and will more than triple the size of the existing facility.
Among the planned additions are areas for hydrotherapy and an exclusively designed Thalasso Pool, where guests soak in heated Anguillan sea water, a natural, mineral-based therapy favored for its healing properties. The spa's relaxation room will offer each guest expansive views of the Caribbean Sea as they begin and end their spa experience each day.
Mmmm ... nice.
Winter room rates start at about $700/night to just under $5,000/night for luxury penthouse; plus government taxes and service charges ... mmm ... not so nice
The Sunday Times highlighted Manchester mayor Sir Howard Bernstein's attempt to "woo" Wall Street firms to the north England city; along with Mike Ingall CEO of Allied London, the company behind Spinningfields - Manchester's answer to Canary Wharf.
According to the article, Bank of New York is bringing 750 new jobs to the city, which Bernstein and Ingall hope will convince more to do the same. In the next few years a slew of financial regulation is expected to increase the amount of back-office work that banks have to undertake in Europe. There are 42 new directives being foisted on the EU financial-services sector in the next three years.
Banks such as Goldman Sachs or Merrill Lynch are never going to give up their prestigious Wall Street or City of London addresses. But, Bernstein and Ingall hope, they may be convinced to ship the burdensome back-office work up north rather than out east. Rents in the City are about £55 a square foot and in the West End they are close to £100. Rents in Manchester are about £25 a square foot. Rents and wages in India are far lower, but they are rising and there are other factors at play. “How sustainable is it for people to ship off everything to Bangalore in the long term?” said Bernstein. He pointed to Powergen’s decision to move its call-centre operations back to Britain to improve customer relations. “And if you look at the City of London or Wall Street, it’s obvious that financial and professional-services companies want to be close together,” he said.
Interesting video interview with the GoogleMapsMania blogger. Dude obviously has a lot of extra time on his hands; insofar as he's tracked over 900 sites mashing Gmaps. Two intersting ones he mentions in this interview are Placeopedia.com which mashes up Wikipedia articles with gmap locations; as well as Virtual Tourism, which mashes locations with video
RatandMouse has the scoop:
OneMove a new on-line property service which claims to be "the single largest residential property portal in England and Wales." They're also claiming a database of all properties advertised on each of the major property portals, including Rightmove, Look4aProperty, Primelocation, fish4homes, FindaProperty, propertyfinder.com and thinkproperty.com, as well as the properties on offer from many of the UK's leading estate agents, including Foxtons and the PropertyPro network.
R&M comments: Right now, though, I'm a little concerned about their search claims. When I search Nestoria for 4 bedroom houses up to £600,000 in W6, I get this:
OneMove offers this:
Elsewhere, similar results. Perhaps the press release got a bit ahead of the database.
Notwithstanding, they do have an intriguing business model, offering consumers a free "Personal Moving Consultant (PMC) who will take care of everything from finding a solicitor through to organising the utilities." and providing transaction updates via e-mail, mobile, or BlackBerry. But as R&M points out, there isn't an estate agent in the land who won't very gladly "lead you into the safe arms of a lender, lawyer or financial advisor." OneMove's approach is a little different and it appears however that their business model is geared towards making money by providing add on services. and recommendations. The press release is also claiming a relationship with over 250 law firms to provide conveyancing services; a panel of "Financial Advisors" , offering mortgage, tax planning and insurance services; as well as a removal service and a "utility package".
Sounding great on paper; let's see what happens when they put it into practice
Close but not quite according to Zillow co-founder Lloyd Frink, speaking to California Realtors this week. Frink vows that Zillow won't do to estate agents what Expedia.com (his old website) did to travel agents. In fact - according to Frink - the oft-repeated nuance that Expedia killed the travel agent industry is incorrect. Frink claims that most of them now have a bright future working call centers! Which begs the question is this the future for estate agents?
Imagine Canary Wharf for sale or rent ... via Mumbai; may not be that far off as you think!
[via Real Estate Voices]
[related: Zillow Gets Pillowed In Old School Smackdown]
IMMIGRANTS DRIVING GROWTH
At precisely 7:46 a.m. ET yesterday morning, the 300 millionth American was birthed; according to Uncle Sam's Census Bureau, ranking them an impressive third, behind China and India in terms of population growth. 39 years ago, the U.S. population reached 200 million.
Since then, about 55% of the growth has come from immigrants, their children and their grandchildren, according to a recent report by the Pew Hispanic Center. When the population hit 200 million in 1967, more than 80% of Americans were white and less than 5% were Hispanic. Less than 1% were Asian. Today, Hispanics make up nearly 15% of the population and Asians about 5%. White non-Hispanics account for about 67%, blacks a little more than 13%. By 2043, white non-Hispanics are expected to be a little more than half. That's the year the population is projected to hit 400 million, though the numbers could change significantly depending on immigration and birth rates. [via Booker Rising]
The newly launched Nestoria DropIn Map allows webmasters to add an interactive map of property and other local services to his or her website, with a simple bit of cut and paste. I tried convincing one of my colleagues about the benifits of integrating the map on one of our corporate websites. After a 2 and a half hour "discussion", he still wasn't convinced and felt it was a "clever ploy" by Nestoria merely to drive traffic to their search engine. So we emailed Ed and asked him to define the basic advantage to putting the map (or any other search tool ) on a 3rd party website? Here's his answer:
The reason you would want to use the map is because it provides highly relevant content to your readers. For example look at a site likethis, all about SE1 that uses our property list.
http://www.london-se1.co.uk/property/
of course he could contact all the agents in SE1, get the data, build systems to manage it, etc, etc Or he can just use our tool and be done with it in about 1 minute and provide his users with a great experience
Likewise with the maps, you could go out and get all the local data: tube, hospitals, schools, etc, etc yourself, it's certainly possible or you can just let us do it for free and be done in about a minute.
If your users are interested in content about an area they will go find it. This gives you a chance for users to find it on your site. If you don't offer it they'll find it somewhere else. If you don't think this content is relevant for your users, then of course you shouldn't add it to your site. [my emphasis]
Former Apprentice winner and author
Talking about a bubble implies a sudden burst, and real estate does not work that way. You don't go to sleep one night with your house worth half a million dollars and wake up to find it's lost half its value. Also, the real estate market is a regional phenomenon based on all kinds of factors: migration to or from an area, job growth and local economies. So while there is no bubble, there are areas in the U.S. that are experiencing corrections that will continue over the next six to 24 months. There are also markets that will appreciate over that same period. The trick is keeping your cool and taking advantage of the opportunities.
According to the National Association of Realtors, 2006 will mark the first time in 15 years that the average price of new homes will fall from the previous year. The dip in pricing will likely be 0.2 percent to $240,500, the first decline since a drop of 2.4 percent in 1991, according to the association.
Additionally, the price for previously owned homes will likely increase a meager 1.6 percent to $223,000, the smallest gain on record. In August of this year, US housing inventory stood at 3.92 million homes on the market; the highest level ever recorded. On the whole, sales of previously owned homes probably will drop 8.9 percent this year while new-home sales probably will plunge 17.3 percent to 1.06 million.
[link via Jonathan Liss]
It's been pretty much standard reporting for the past few months about London's dynamic growth driving the UK market etc, etc ... but the Nationwide figures released this morning (pdf link) reveal that the highest housing market growth in the UK is actually up North in Ireland. According to group economist Fionnuala Earley; house prices in Northern Ireland increased by an incredible 33.4% in the last twelve months compared with just over 7% growth for London for the same period.
According to Earley, a strong jobs market, high levels of immigration have helped to contribute to the booming housing market in the Republic of Ireland: "House prices in the parts of the Province closest to the border have increased most quickly. This could be due to lower house prices north of the border attracting demand from the Republic. The average price of a house in the Republic of Ireland is over £200,000 compared with the Northern Ireland average of £159,859."
We recently spoke with Nestoria co-founder Ed Freyfogle, about the importance of map integration and real estate search. Location, location location was the obvious answer, but why such heavy Gmap integration? Ed appreciated the criticism and revealed Nestoria's desire to "stay as flexible as possible" by supporting opensource mapping frameworks like Mapstraction. At the time Ed said he felt like it was "good for business".
Now today, Nestoria announces that they have started integrating the Mapstraction API; and that in the near future, this will allow users to choose from the most up to date features of all the mapping providers. Mapstraction provides a common API for Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft's mapping APIs enabling switching from one to another as smoothly as possible.
Mapstraction claims their aim is "mainly to protect companies building commercial products on top of Google Maps from changes to terms and conditions, the introduction of ads, or the emergence of a competing library with better maps, different imagery or preferable licensing terms." Very interesting development for Nestoria; it will be interesting to see if any of the new players using Gmap follow their strategy
American International Group, GE Capital, and Credit Suisse are reportedly putting the finishing touches to contracts to purchase London City Airport for £750 million after Madrid based Sacyr Vallehermoso pulled out of the deal, late last month. City handled almost 2 million passengers last year, compared to Heathrow's 70 million and in related news, London mayor Ken Livingstone is reportedly `close'' to a £10 billion funding agreement with the UK government over Crossrail; a railway system that would connect the West End, City and Docklands with Heathrow. We reported last month that London business leaders were eager to see Crossrail developed; many expressing frustration that Gordon Brown had not yet resolved the project's funding. This is seen as an urgent transport priority and has been the subject of concerted lobbying by the capital's business leaders.
Mayor Ken is apparently planning to ``bust a gut'' to see that Gordon Brown, replaces Tony Blair as the UK's next prime minister, when he steps down as party leader next year.
The first anniversary of the devastating Pakistani earthquake was held on Sunday. The tragedy claimed 80,000 lives; left over 100,000 seriously injured and displaced 3.5 million.
Meanwhile the hunt is on for 3 Pakistani developers who are reportedly hiding out in the UK. Interpol has issued warrants for Ramzan Khokhar, his wife Kahkashan Khokhar and Abdul Hafiz Sheikh.
The Khokhar's owned the Margalla Towers in Islamabad believed to contain up to sixty apartments and collapsed in the earthquake, killing hundreds. Nearly fifty people were rescued from the towers and local authorities are holding the 3 named individuals responsible with the faulty construction they claim caused the towers to collapse. Abdul Sheikh was the architect.
Sarah Van der Noot, London's "property goddess" and founder of London Property Search, has been dealing in the London property market for almost twenty years. Recently describing the current market as an "impossible disadvantage without a buying agent on your side", Sarah has been helping people "find a home and not a house" in London for over 10 years. She was also the BBC's resident "property guru" on the successful reality TV series "Would You Buy a House with a Stranger?" earlier this year and spoke exclusively to Renthusiast this weekend via email about London's red hot property market; her take on the property industry including investment tips and strategies for those wanting to enter the London market and the more experienced investment players:
1 ) Without revealing your trade secrets, how do you source your properties; is it through special relationships with agents, or do you use other methods?
We source our property through a number of means. The most obvious is through estate agent but additionally we are well linked into the property market grapevine and hear of properties through other property professionals, developers, estate agents themselves and lawyers which will never come to the open market for various reasons (well known personalities in the media and business who don’t wish to make their personal affairs public or have joe public snooping round their houses!) or prior to going onto the open market in the hope they can achieve a sale without having to have a lot of viewings.
In the current market best prices are being achieved on the open market because of the competition amongst buyers (too many buyers for too few properties) so other than at the top end £10m plus there are fewer off-market deals to be done for now. Because of the competition amongst buyers in the current market the good relationships with estate agents built up over the past 10 years are essential to ensure that we are the first, or amongst the first, people they call when they take on a new property.
If a client wants to buy a property only on a particular street (couple of streets) we will write individually to the owners of properties on those streets addressing them by name not just as a general mail drop. This has been fruitful in a number of instances.
2) You were working as an estate agent, before launching London Property Search "after several frustrating years" according to your website. What frustrated you most about being an estate agent? And what do you see most wrong with the estate agency business model as it is today?
As much as I am passionate about architecture and interiors I also enjoy the relationship that grows with clients as you help them find their homes – I am a people person and enjoy the process of discovering, with a client, what it is they are really looking for. Many aren’t totally sure themselves and it is satisfying guiding them through the process of decision or surprising them with their “perfect” property having read between the lines what would suit them even if it is very different to what they thought they were after. Hence are tag line of “Finding you a home not a house”. In estate agency it was more a case of getting enough people around a property until you’d sold it and then collecting the fee which just I simply did not find fulfilling enough. Yes it was satisfying to achieve high prices for ones client but I still get that, albeit lowest possible prices, for my clients.
The only issue I have with the business model of estate agency today is that many of them are now offering buying services (ie. acting as buying agents) as well continuing their regular job of selling properties. I see this as a two-fold problem. Firstly there is a direct conflict of interest with acting as a buyer and seller – how can you achieve the best possible price for one of your vendors is you are selling their property to one of your retained buyers for whom you are trying to achieve the lowest possible price? Additionally, acting for retained clients is a full-time job in itself if you are to be on top of if you are doing a good job for your vendors should you really be passing up one of their properties You can’t is the simple answer. Additionally, if your time is spent servicing your retained clients how can you focus on the business of selling your vendor’s properties at the same time? Your vendors are not going to get the same level of service if you are distracted by retained buyers. It just doesn’t work. Let buyers be buyers and sellers be sellers!
3) How do you define your business model?
Service first! Most of our new business comes through the recommendation of previous clients. This wouldn’t happen if they weren’t happy with the service we give them. It is my belief that each client should feel like they are our only or most important client and that our work to find them their new home is as important to us as it is to them. We achieve this by limiting the number of clients we take on at any one time so that we can give each search the maximum amount of time required to do it thoroughly and effectively.
Straight-talking and honesty is also paramount. Assisting someone in the purchase of their home is a personal task and the management of their expectations and advising them on what is realistic and what isn’t is essential and has to be done in a way that doesn’t offend them. If what they are hoping to achieve is impossible within their budget we will tell them this and help them find ways to compromise (most likely in size or location) if they are unable to extend their budget. It is not our job to encourage our clients to spend more than they want to but equally there is no point in kidding them that they can achieve what they are aspiring to if they can’t.
Discretion is also key to the success of my business. We have assisted many well known personalities in the search for a home or investment and they can trust us not to talk to the press or other individuals. The same goes for all our clients. If, which is often the case, we are dealing with various employees of one company (one referral leads to another) it is imperative that each individual client is not discussed with another – their personal details, budgets and plans are personal to them and not for anyone else’s knowledge.
4) What impact do you see the internet having on the industry?
The internet is a great tool for researching the property market and that in itself has had an enormous impact on those wanting to invest in bricks and mortar. It has made it easier to research prices and yields in different locations but in my view it will never replace the property industry professionals.
5) Your focus appears to be on specific areas in London, mainly west-central; is there any specific reason for this?
We cover the most prestigious areas of London, ie. Chelsea, Kensington, Notting Hill, Holland Park, St John’s Wood, Bels
