ARE THERE DANGERS IN USING ONLINE AGENTS? R
CMK Lettings would like to thanks its employees for registering to hold a Blooming Great Tea Party again this summer as part of the 2017 appeal. This will be the fourth year that the company has held a tea party in support of Marie Curie and since 2014 the team has raised more than £2,000.
This year’s tea party is taking place on Friday June 23 2017 and will be attended by CMK Lettings staff, landlords, tenants, contractors, family and friends. As well as being spoilt with tea, coffee and a range of cakes and delicious sweet treats, party attendees will have the chance to win a lovely Marie Curie sock monkey and other fantastic prizes. To help raise additional funds, the company is also running a knock-out darts competition in the run up to the tea party – with 28 players competing to be crowned the winner.
Owner of CMK Lettings, Britta Atkinson, explained: “My dad Bruno spent the last weeks of his life in hospital in Germany. I think that had the services of Marie Curie been available for him, it would have been better for him and his family to have stayed at home. I feel that having a Blooming Great Tea Party each year, and helping to raise funds, may enable someone else to benefit from the care and support that Marie Curie nurses provide. We are hoping to raise £750 this year so I just want to say thank you to everyone who supports the event each year by coming along, helping to plan the event or making a donation.”
Liz Howlett, fundraising manager for Yorkshire, added: “Huge thanks to everyone at CMK Lettings for their fantastic support again this year. We are delighted that they are holding a tea party again this summer and a special thank you to Britta’s daughter Vicky, who I hear has the unofficial nickname of ‘cupcake queen,’ as she is going to be doing much of the baking for the tea party. We hope they all have a wonderful time.” ECENT developments in technology and the impact of the internet has seen a wave of online and ‘one-man-band’ agents opening up.
While it is understandable some vendors are keen to try out the new service – especially for fees in the region of £800-1,000 – it remains to be seen whether online agents afford much more than a picture of the property on property portals.
As one of the professional surveying and estate agency firms, we at Bramleys dread a property with an online firm appearing in a chain. With a distinct lack of communication and no real means to verify the sale it leaves the whole chain in jeopardy. We recently had an offer from a lady who said she was sold subject to contract and had been for four weeks – when we finally managed to obtain the information from her online agent and checked her chain, one of the chain had not sold their property, so we had to inform her she could not purchase the house she wanted as her chain was not complete. Needless to say she was not happy with her agent!
This is a prime example of ‘you get what you pay for’. The lower fee may seem attractive, but ultimately it can cost the vendor dearly. An agent’s responsibility is to negotiate the best possible price for the property, not just agree a sale. Then the hard work starts in managing the chain of properties through to completion. This is when the value of an experienced agent comes to the fore. We have the experience to deal with any situation that arises. Further to that, as a chartered surveying practice, we can offer the extra expert advice on any structural issues that may arise.
All too frequently we are having to do the job for the online or inexperienced agent in order to keep the chain together. While the cheaper fee seems attractive, we only charge a commission on conclusion of the sale, where as many online firms want their fee up front. This leaves no incentive for them to work to ensure the property gets to completion. If we receive two identical offers on property and one is selling through an online agent we would always advise the client to accept the offer with a chain involving a traditional firm, as we would have more confidence that the sale will proceed to the completion we all strive to achieve.
Since Mr Bramley opened this office in 1958 we have continued to provide the people of Huddersfield and surrounding areas with professional and honest advice for their benefit – and we will continue to do so in the years to come.