House Revolution makes a refreshing change to the normal type of estate agent we have worked with in the past.

They were professional & helpful at all times, & were extremely good at keeping in contact & keeping us informed. I always felt that each member of the team was giving us an un-boast opinion, without spin like many agents (unusual!).

I felt as though I was dealing with people just like me – straight forward, honest, & clear with no hidden agendas. It also suited us best to do our own viewings but I understand HR will organise this for you if desired. Their online feedback system is also useful so you can find out at any time what the viewer thought of your property. I would definitely recommend them – what a nice bunch of authentic people – & when you think of the money I saved, much better value for money than all other estate agents. Love Kath

I was asked today what being a new breed of estate agent actually means. Good question, read on.

New pricing –Our selling fees are lower because we have identified & recalculated what the actual cost of selling a property are – this is not about having offices in prominent locations but ensuring we get your property in front of as many prospective buyers as possible, Locally and nationally!  This is achieved through optimum presence on the internet so we do not need to pass on unrealistic charges, especially in austere times! Our attitude is “what does it cost to sell your home” and therefore what should you pay and not “How can we charge the most from every vendor”.

New values – “Traditional” estate agents exploit the boundaries of the profession and many people complain about the service they receive. We have hundreds of satisfied clients who really appreciate our revolutionary concept. The solution is a combination of transparency and honesty in all communication and dealings along with and better access to essential information. All our customers have their own online accounts which mean everything we say and do can be seen and interacted too in real time 24/7. We have abolished contracts so vendors have total flexibility and control.  

New methods – We are a mix of the traditional with the innovative and it goes without saying that our business wouldn’t succeed and our vendors would be disappointed if we didn’t sell property so we prepare your details in the traditional manner but ensure we utilise the web to give your property the maximum exposure. Vendors and purchasers alike are empowered with a suite of tools to value, change house descriptions, offer and arrange viewings which are just a few examples of the interactivity or, if you prefer we do everything. Most customer mix the two.   

New Breed –Estate agency is a people business and our team is brimming with highly professional customer focused individuals who will manage every aspect of your home moving experience, resolving issues quickly and keeping in regular contact with you from the outset in whatever method suits you best, live chat, email, SMS, mobile or calls to your home or work phones . At the team’s heart is the desire to see a change in the perception of estate agency and hopefully you will find this a welcoming and refreshing approach.

Chris Sargisson

Founder

I have edited this from a recent article published by the BBC if you would like to read the full transcript just click here  

There is no doubt about it, house sales in the UK have been in their lowest levels since contemporary records began in the late 1970s. 

With just 869,000 homes sold in the UK last year, the figures for 2011 are bang in line with those for both 2009 and 2010. 

That means sales have been halved from the levels seen in the run up to the banking crisis, which started in 2007. 

A stand-out feature of the housing market is just how hard it is now to obtain a mortgage. Just a few years ago, lenders of all sorts seemed to be throwing money at almost anyone who cared to ask for a home loan. Loans with no deposit, or for more than the value of a property, were commonplace. Now a squeaky clean credit history for borrowers, and a very big downpayment, are necessities as lenders continue to ration their lending. 

Meanwhile the banking crisis is still rumbling on, with fears it could even intensify because of the problems of the eurozone. So it is still hard for lenders to borrow wholesale funds from other financial institutions to lend to ordinary borrowers. New banking regulations have also hindered the ability of banks and building societies to make loans without a sizeable deposit from the borrower. 

And the fall in house prices, in most parts of the UK outside London, means lenders are wary of seeing the security for their loans eroded by further falls. 

The drop in home sales has had a big ripple effect in the economy. 

House builders are desperate for more finance to become available to buyers Along with the general fall in house prices, fewer sales have inhibited people from borrowing against the rising value of their homes – in effect using them as credit cards or cash machines. Known to economists as housing equity withdrawal, this process reached a peak in 2003 when it was providing UK households with an enormous 8% boost to their average after-tax income. That ground to a halt in the middle of 2008 and shows no sign of reviving. 

Tony Key, a professor of real estate economics at the Cass Business School in London, warns we should not be taking steps to bring back the housing market of just a few years ago.”I think the idea we should be doing something to re-prime the housing market is probably misconceived,” he argues. 

“It was priming markets with over-generous credit that got us into trouble in the first place. “Deleveraging [paying off debt] takes five to 10 years to work its way through the system,” he warns.

What next? 

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the newly established scrutineer of government spending and taxation, is assuming that house sales revive this year and for the next few years as well. The government recently launched a mortgage indemnity scheme to stimulate the sales of newly built homes. 

But generally things do not look too good, even if interest rates stay at their current remarkably low levels. Unemployment is rising briskly and many economists think the country is likely to be back in formal recession sometime this year. 

Incomes will probably continue being undermined by a combination of inflation and wage freezes or wage cuts. Meanwhile mortgage lenders are facing even stiffer regulation of their lending practices by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). And who knows how the eurozone crisis will develop? 

Adrian Coles, director general of the Building Societies Association (BSA), denies the housing market has gone straight back to the 1950s, when “queuing” for a home loan from a building society was the norm and many more people rented than owned their homes. But he is in no doubt that the house buying business has changed permanently.  ”I do not think we will go back to what was regarded as normal five or 10 years ago, looking back now, I think that was abnormal, ” he says.

“This is not just a cyclical downturn where we will see a recovery in a year or two – there are some fundamental changes that have occurred. 

“We are going back to the days of responsible borrowing and responsible lending,” he adds.

A new survey has reviled that only one agent in London disclosed its fees on its website. About 20% of agents refused to disclose their fees over the phone or via email. 

The survey, by estate agent comparison website ipostcode, looked at 250 agents’ fees across London and found that it is not necessarily in the most expensive postcodes where agents charge the highest fees. 

The majority of the London estate agencies surveyed quoted 1.5% commission, but 15% of agents quoted 1%. The highest commission level quoted was 2.5%. 

There were several postcode where commission levels spanned the range from 1%-2.5%, which means that on a property priced at the London average of £342,749 (according to latest Land Registry figures), the seller could be paying anything from £4,113 to £10,282 including VAT to sell the same home. 

One in four agents said that their fees are negotiable based on either a realistic valuation of the property or depending on the price range of the property.  

The survey also found that estate agent fees in London at an average of 1.7% are more or less in line with the national average of 1.8% – contrary to the perception that London estate agent fees are the highest in the country. 

Remember House Revolution only charge 0.75 % +VAT. No Sale, No Fee, No contract. If you’re looking sell contact or team now: 0845 017 6060     

Well, we think it might be! We do know that the lady of the house was less than impressed having returned from a shopping trip to find a timber shed ‘glued and nailed’ to the front of her 18^th century farm cottage. 

Admittedly the owners are in the middle of a full renovation program and the ‘addition’ was only ever meant to be ‘temporary’, never the less it was removed as quickly as it appeared. Bless

 So, this rates as our worst DIY example…. unless you know better?       

According to the website ‘Home’, which uses data from virtually every property portal and website in the UK, the average length of time a property is now on the market before a buyer is found  has risen to 241 days, the longest since its records began in 2004. 

Before the credit crunch, average time on the market was just 60 days.

 Home says:  “last year, asking prices barely changed, moving up by just 0.6%. However, big regional variations meant that asking prices went up by 2.3% in East Anglia and down by 2.1% in Wales. The fact that average time on market for unsold property across the UK is now at an all-time high of 241 days suggests that home prices are simply too high.” 

The site is predicting a slow market this year, accompanied by slowly falling prices. 

Remember, House Revolution provide a complete estate agency service and half the cost of the high street, just  0.75% No Sale, No Fee, No contract (no matter how long it takes to sell)

Estate agents’ branches are selling less than one new property a week each and new listings are at the lowest level ever seen.

Just 36,433 properties are currently coming on to Rightmove per week, the lowest recorded in the ten years that the site has been measuring the market.

By contrast, there is a record level of search activity, with 44 million property searches in the first ten days of this year, up 27% on a year ago – but with home-hunters facing the smallest-ever choice of new listings.

Rightmove labelled this activity the “low transaction volume pit” and until more mortgage funding becomes available we will be stuck with this situation for a while yet .

But the listings drought does not mean prices are going up. Asking prices on Rightmove now stand at £224,060, barely changed from a year ago (up 0.4%) and down just 0.8% on last month. Furthermore, asking prices are still way above actual selling prices – currently averaging just under £160,000 according to the Land Registry.

We have certainly experienced a slow start to the year, lots of viewings and a number of good acceptable offers but a seasonally low number of valuation requests.

Still, early days but now, more than ever vendors should be looking to engage with modern think estate agents like House Revolution who will comfortably sell any UK property and half the cost of the High Street. For more Information call us today : 0845 017 6060     

I live in the small market town of Halesworth, where there are nonetheless no fewer than five Estate Agencies in business.

I came across House Revolution when viewing a Georgian property, I owned a 500 year old small Tudor farmhouse and, when I finally decided to put it on the market, in late Spring 2011, I decided to sell it through House Revolution; as I had been both amused and impressed by their sales technique.

I was subsequently visited by Debby. I lived in a fairly isolated spot, despite being within walking distance of the railway and local town. Debby spent about an hour with me – astonishing from my prior experience of many years of buying and selling properties. She felt the house was unique and wanted to walk round the vicinity, seeing first-hand the proximity to the main line station and local walks.

Jo then subsequently arrived to take photos. I took a few myself when the light was better and was allowed, as a former professional editor, to alter the draft sales blurb. But then I came across House Revolution’s mega impressive Christina, who had run her own Estate Agency in Harlesden, and had also written professionally. She tactfully changed what I had written – and she was right!

The house was on the market for a matter of weeks. This in a so-called recession. The house had enormous character and charm, and I had invested a good deal of money in lovingly restoring it, until I decided to sell it so my younger son could get a foot on the London property ladder. It had been sadly neglected when I bought it, and I put in oak flooring and handmade oak doors and kitchen units; lots of costly detail, as I had originally felt I would stay there for ever.

The combination of Jo, Debby, and Christina, totally got the message that I loved the place; the setting was unique and I wasn’t prepared to just let it go. There were some totally unsuitable instant viewers. Then a woman after a deal. I was waiting for the sympathetic souls who would fall in love with the place, as I had done. They came, viewed, sent a lovely daughter and husband – these were the right ones. But their subsequent offer fell short of what I felt appropriate.

Debby took over, totally. She explained to the prospective buyers that I wouldn’t even entertain anything, unless it was a serious improvement on their first offer. Message received. It was a decent enough offer for me to recoup my outlay and downsize to help my son. Job done.

From then on she was magical. Tough, sensitive, and one felt completely supported, even on the completion day for my next home; when she ‘held my hand’ during the slightly surreal drama of the protracted moving.

So, hats off to House Revolution! They were amazing. They put in loads more interest, time, and caring, than any other Estate Agency I have ever dealt with.

The case of wine I sent at Christmas was the very least way I could do to ever show my total gratitude and appreciation. Why on earth would anyone bother to go to the High Street? This method saves you a huge amount of money, and you deal with highly intelligent, totally switched on people. Go for it!

This is great news for all our customers as it really demonstrates that the future of estate agency is the House Revolution concept. A concept which disrupts the traditional, expensive, low service high street model by offering great customer service and amazing value for money.

Being part of the ‘Future 50′ (as its known) is a real honour as we join a group of successful and like minded entrepreneurs who challenge and change the norm. Exciting times ahead.

For more information please click here 

Chris Sargisson
Founder
House Revolution Ltd

  Reason One: Selling.  House Revolution only sells property. That is what we do and guess what? We will sell yours!  Consider this, over last four years (of very difficult trading I might add) our business has grown. This could only have been achieved by successful property sales so please be assured,  we do everything required to sell your home from displaying it on all major property sites  including Rightmove, using all the latest promotional products to ensure your home gets the best possible exposure to hands on help such as access to a comprehensive mailing list of ready buyers to which details of your home will be sent. 

Reason two : Savings.  House Revolution gives you a choice of fees. If you want No Sale, No Fee, then we will charge you 0.75% + VAT on completion of your sale, which is up to half of what a traditional agent will charge you for the same service. Or, you can elect to pay only £999+VAT when you appoint us.

Reason three: Service. House Revolution provides old fashioned levels of service with a modern twist. Our hands on team will market your home and you’ll receive immediate feedback on enquiries and viewings via the phone and your online account. Once your sale has been agreed, we will proactively manage it all the way through to the point where you hand the keys over to the new owner.

To get the process started ask us for a free, no obligation, valuation of your current home. Call 0845 017 6060