Two of the larger estate agencies have just announced their annual trading results.
Two of the larger estate agencies have just announced their annual trading results. Connells - part of the Skipton Group - declared a 48 million pound profit for 2010, which works out to 103,000 for each of its 464 high street offices that include brands such as Barnard Marcus and Sharman Quinney.
Next up a few days later, were LSL property services that run Reeds Rains and Your Move amongst a variety of names. They made 36 million pre tax. LSL were the controversial purchasers of Halifax Estate Agents last year. They paid 1 for that business and, moreover, were given an 'incentive' payment of several million pounds with which to 'rebrand' the offices acquired. Following the buy, LSL profits increased by 100% on the previous year. Halifax was sold to them by Lloyds HBOS, one of the UK banks that were bailed out with tax payer cash in 2008.
So does that mean profit is a dirty word?
We should all be asking a question, and the question is this: 'If high street estate agency chains are making tens of millions of pounds profit, can they justify their high fees?' Could there - or should there - be a good reason for lowering those fees - especially when there's a very viable alternative these days.
Back in 2009, the OFT published a report of its review of the estate agency industry. It labelled estate agents 'expensive' and noted that more and more sellers are moving away from high street estate agencies to save themselves money ... and instead, going online. The report also advised consumers to do just that: go online and save on estate agent costs. One very good example of the new breed of estate agents is eMoov.co.uk, a nationally-established online agency whose costs start at just 99.
If you can simply list your property on Rightmove and dozens of other popular such websites for a fraction of the cost that traditional, High Street estate agents charge you, then wouldn't you be crazy not to? Private sellers are not permitted to advertise on the big property portals such as Zoopla, Prime Location and FindaProperty and that count around 10 million unique visitors each month amongst their statistics.
There is a difference between online estate agents and sites used by private sellers - a big difference. Genuine online estate agents are much less expensive than conventional agents, even though they do exactly the same for their clients. Good online agencies like eMoov list their customers' properties on many property portals, as opposed to just a few, the way high street agents do.
From here it looks like Connells, Countrywide, LSL and other high street names are going to keep getting away with charging fees that bring in those high profits. That is, until homeowners come round to realizing they can save themselves a bundle by using internet estate agents.
If you're thinking of selling, get one step ahead of the game and save yourself hundreds - if not thousands - of pounds while getting your own back on the agency that charged you thousands - if not hundreds - of pounds for selling your previous home. They've done pretty well for themselves, after all. But as with most other industries, hi-tech and the internet are changing the way people do business - and that's especially true for the property industry.
So go on - save yourself a fortune by selling your home online!
Two of the larger estate agencies have just announced their annual trading results. Connells - part of the Skipton Group - declared a 48 million pound profit for 2010, which works out to 103,000 for each of its 464 high street offices that include brands such as Barnard Marcus and Sharman Quinney.
Next up a few days later, were LSL property services that run Reeds Rains and Your Move amongst a variety of names. They made 36 million pre tax. LSL were the controversial purchasers of Halifax Estate Agents last year. They paid 1 for that business and, moreover, were given an 'incentive' payment of several million pounds with which to 'rebrand' the offices acquired. Following the buy, LSL profits increased by 100% on the previous year. Halifax was sold to them by Lloyds HBOS, one of the UK banks that were bailed out with tax payer cash in 2008.
So does that mean profit is a dirty word?
We should all be asking a question, and the question is this: 'If high street estate agency chains are making tens of millions of pounds profit, can they justify their high fees?' Could there - or should there - be a good reason for lowering those fees - especially when there's a very viable alternative these days.
Back in 2009, the OFT published a report of its review of the estate agency industry. It labelled estate agents 'expensive' and noted that more and more sellers are moving away from high street estate agencies to save themselves money ... and instead, going online. The report also advised consumers to do just that: go online and save on estate agent costs. One very good example of the new breed of estate agents is eMoov.co.uk, a nationally-established online agency whose costs start at just 99.
If you can simply list your property on Rightmove and dozens of other popular such websites for a fraction of the cost that traditional, High Street estate agents charge you, then wouldn't you be crazy not to? Private sellers are not permitted to advertise on the big property portals such as Zoopla, Prime Location and FindaProperty and that count around 10 million unique visitors each month amongst their statistics.
There is a difference between online estate agents and sites used by private sellers - a big difference. Genuine online estate agents are much less expensive than conventional agents, even though they do exactly the same for their clients. Good online agencies like eMoov list their customers' properties on many property portals, as opposed to just a few, the way high street agents do.
From here it looks like Connells, Countrywide, LSL and other high street names are going to keep getting away with charging fees that bring in those high profits. That is, until homeowners come round to realizing they can save themselves a bundle by using internet estate agents.
If you're thinking of selling, get one step ahead of the game and save yourself hundreds - if not thousands - of pounds while getting your own back on the agency that charged you thousands - if not hundreds - of pounds for selling your previous home. They've done pretty well for themselves, after all. But as with most other industries, hi-tech and the internet are changing the way people do business - and that's especially true for the property industry.
So go on - save yourself a fortune by selling your home online!
About the Author:
eMoov makes it easy for you to sell your house on the internet. You can sell your home quickly and benefit from cheap estate agents fees. All properties are displayed at UK's top 25 property websites such as Rightmove and Prime Location, reaching 170 million buyer visitors each month. Plus as Internet estate agents, their low cost service reaches millions of people 24/7.. This article, How To Sting The Estate Agent That Stung You is released under a creative commons attribution license.
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