No-flies

[No-flies]

'There?s only one thing worse than an estate agent but at least that can be safely lanced, drained 
and surgically dressed.?

STEPHEN FRY, A BIT OF FRY AND LAURIE, 1989

Sadly a view that seems to be held by more people than Mr. Fry. Our aim is to change this perception. We are a new online property sales agency operating in the SE22, SE5 and SE15 areas. We offer the same services as high street agents at a lower cost and with excellent levels of service.

Check out our website at www.no-flies.co.uk

Registered office ? Upland Road, SE22

[red devil]

What do you think has attributed to that perception?..

[KidKruger]

Excellent service levels sounds great !

Especially when all that estate agents in general would need to do to improve general perception is provide a reasonable service.

[No-flies]

I agree Kid - it is hardly rocket science. All that is required is being open and honest and delivering on your promises - and all for a fee that is fair. Notwithstanding that, there still seems to be a high level of dissatisfaction out there.

[red devil]

All I'm reading is the usual soundbites. The problem with estate agents is that it is a commission led business...therein lies the problem, not delivering on your promises...

[No-flies]

Hi Red Devil thank you for your reply. I assume you have read the website (and if so, thanks for taking the time) and feel that it includes little more than sound bites. I fear that that is the risk when just reading some words on the web. The proof is in the pudding, not reading about the pudding. As I said in my reply to Kid - estate agency is not rocket science - it is a question of doing a lot of small things well. You are right about the problems that arise when individual employees are incentivised by commissions and it is for that reason that we do not operate on a commission basis within No-Flies. For more details see the "How do we do it?" Section of our website at:

http://no-flies.co.uk/index.php/how-do-we-do-it/

[red devil]

No-flies Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> You are right about the problems that arise when individual

> employees are incentivised by commissions and it

> is for that reason that we do not operate on a

> commission basis within No-Flies.

That's good to hear No-flies. You should make that more of a selling point in your literature.

What is your company's stance on gazumping/gazundering?

Personally I have always felt that if an estate agent made it clear from the start that they will not promote or partake in such underhand practices, it would go down very well with the general public.

Your blurb about being loyal to the seller does worry me. I was once gazumped after having a sealed bid excepted. When I queried this with the agent I was told they were only 'following orders' from their client. To me that's taking client loyalty too far...

[njc97]

FYI no-flies, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The pudding contains no proof. I hope this helps.

[No-flies]

Thank you njc97 - most helpful.

[No-flies]

Red Devil - you raise an interesting, but difficult, point on Gazumping. Unfortunately there is legally nothing wrong with the practice. Personally I am against it and would never encourage it - particularly as the estate agent is the one that will feel the full wrath of the buyer ( or seller in the case of Gazundering)when it happens. At No-Flies we would never encourage the practice but we are under a legal obligation to pass on all offers to the seller (whether or not the seller has already accepted another offer). It is a feature of English law that there is no binding contract for a sale of an interest in land until written contracts have been exchanged. Interestingly, but of little consolation to anybody who has been gazumped or gazundered, the position is different in Scotland and these practices/problems do not exist there. There are some tactics that could be employed to reduce the risk of these practices, often involving collateral contracts, but few are really workable in the context of a domestic conveyancing transaction. Hope this has clarified our stance on it.

[red devil]

N-f, thanks for your feedback. I was aware of an estate agent's legal obligation to pass on offers, even after an offer has been accepted, but I've also heard that some agencies get round this by signing an anti-gazumping agreement with the seller. A simple search on the interent throws up many articles on how to minimise the risk of gazumping, including an anti-gazumping agreement, an example is shown below...

- Help speed up the sale - the faster it is, the less opportunity there is for the seller to pull out.

- Choose a seller whose agent has a policy on gazumping, if at all possible. Some agents insist that the seller signs an agreement to turn down any offers after one has been accepted.

- Keep in regular contact with the seller's agent - tell them when you have completed the survey and received a formal mortgage offer. This way they can be sure that the sale is progressing and are less likely to be tempted to consider any other offers.

- Make a pre-contract deposit agreement. This involves both parties paying a deposit of 1.5% of the agreed purchase price to a stakeholder, and signing an agreement saying that contracts will be exchanged within four weeks. If one side withdraws from the sale, the other party receives both deposits. If you are a gazumped buyer you therefore get some compensation. This is not a water-tight agreement as either party can pull out if they are willing to lose the deposit, but it definitely reduces the risk.

- Draw up an exclusivity agreement with the seller after your offer has been accepted. In return for a fee, this gives you exclusive rights to the house as long as contracts are exchanged within a certain period. Few people make such an agreement as it involves hiring a solicitor, but it is worth considering.

- Take out insurance cover to protect you if your deal falls through. This is yet another expense, but you might be glad of it if things do go wrong.

- Insist that the house be taken off the market once your offer has been accepted. Check that the board outside the house has a 'Sold' sign on it, and contact the agent if it does not.

[No-flies]

Thanks Red Devil. Yes I am aware of the internet search extract that you attached - some of the suggestions are the "collateral contracts" I mentioned in my previous post. Unfortunately none of the suggested solutions are quite as black and white as they appear and, whilst you very clearly have the gazumping risk at the forefront of your mind (having been a victim of it in the past), most people would not be sufficiently concerned about it to wish to incur the delay and expense of negotiating a separate agreement or buying insurance. An estate agent having a gazumping policy ( and I have never actually seen one of these in practice) is not going to stop you from being gazumped in reality. For this reason we will not have a gazumping policy at No-Flies but we will put some info on the topic on our website.

[Toldyouso]

One has got to wonder why, if the pudding contains no proof, we go to the bother of eating it in search of the proof. Sorry, in no way relevant to the thread. But not for the first time. Looks like a nice site N-F. Good luck to you. Your flyer made me smile.

[No-flies]

:o) Thank you!

[V511]

Anything that leads to one less estate agents on the high street sounds good to me ;)

An online agency is not a bad idea actually. Most people probably start looking online these days before checking out estate agent's windows. Good luck.

As you don't have the same overheads, what are your fees like in comparison?

[No-flies]

Hi V511 - you are right that, without the overhead of a high street office, we are in a position to be competitive on fees. We currently have a flat rate promotion of ?3000 with no vat payable irrespective of the price of the property being sold. We also have some targeted promotions which we are offering through flyers we are currently circulating. I don't think that price should be the only factor that people consider when choosing an agent to help them sell their property but I would hope, given our cost controls and lower overheads, there would not be many instances when we are beaten on price by agents providing the same full service as us.

[No-flies]

Red Devil we are doing a couple of posts on Gazumping on our blog. The first one is posted and may be of interest to you. You can find it here: http://no-flies.co.uk/index.php/2013/04/23/. I'll let you know when we do the second one.

[red devil]

Thanks...

[No-flies]

No problem..

[giggirl]

Watching thread with interest. Well done on starting a local business in these hard economic times. I know that if I were selling I'd be looking for a small local and not the big fat bastards on the high street. How's it going? Sold anything yet?

Px

[No-flies]

Lol - I love this forum - hello giggirl. Thank you for your post. I'm glad to say our approach seems to be working as we have just got our first property under offer after only days on the market, so fingers crossed it will sail serenely to exchange of contracts in the coming weeks. Busy looking for new properties to sell now so please feel free to put the word out that we are here, we are local and we are easy to deal with.

[No-flies]

The second blog post on Gazumping is now posted on our website here - http://no-flies.co.uk/index.php/2013/04/29/gazumping-part-2-possible-solutions/

[No-flies]

Third and final Gazumping blog post now posted here: http://no-flies.co.uk/index.php/2013/05/02/gazumping-part-3/

[No-flies]

The third and final blog post on Gazumping is now posted on our website here - http://no-flies.co.uk/index.php/2013/05/02/gazumping-part-3/

[DovertheRoad]

Hi Mr No Flies. When I was 9 years old my father said "Son as long as you're happy I don't care what you do when you grow up as long you're not an estate agent or a traffic warden". What a shame that such perceptions still persist about the industry and you are to be commended for looking to change it in some small localised way.

The high street estate agency model is already dated and, like the blacksmiths who said the car would never catch on, it will all soon one day end. Online searches for property are now the norm yet all we really still have is the same tired bricks and mortar model but with an online presence. What we need for the future is a move to a highly web enabled agency model, with a low cost physical location (home working could work) and the provision of consistently great service, solid ethics and a brain.

This model should include excellent and speedy client communication, quality photography and ideally a silly name that stands out from the usual upper crust/ double barrel surname wanky stuff.

With "No flies" you surely qualify for the latter....how does one get one's pecker out without one eh! Best of luck old chap and for sure, there are "no flies" on you.