Fast reaction:

 You will recall the Mary Portas Secret Shopper episode last week which certainly caused some controversy among agents! Despite the dreadful woman's ignorant approach that got under most estate agents' skin, there were some reasonable pointers for basic customer service there if you are not already eg greeting people properly. However, I was most impressed with how some agents quickly turned the show to their marketing advantage. For example Knight and Rennie in Leamington Spa were very quick off the mark and on the same day had a superb flash on the homepage of their website which you can see here. http://sut2.co.uk/clickthrough.php?iD=5&iItem=111475&iLink=31847369&strUnique_ID=bf4024bc05bcafa813306820592e30&strUrl=http://www.knightandrennie.com Superb! This is a great example of an agent always on the lookout for a fresh topical approach to promoting their business. 

Prime property prices rise through short supply

One area of the housing market continues to outperform the rest – prime property.
Tight supply of stock and resilient demand pushed prices higher in central London by 1.1% last month, according to the latest Knight Frank Prime Central London Index.
Recent price performance has contributed to annual price growth of 10.3% in the 12 months to January.
Price rises have been led by the Knightsbridge and Kensington markets, where prices have improved by nearly 6% in three months
Prices are now 26.9% higher than March 2009 and 3.4% lower than their all time peak reached in March 2008.
Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, said: "London has bucked the wider UK trend in recent months, with strong price growth and resilient demand for property. Whereas prices in the wider UK market fell by over 1% in the year to January, central London saw continued double digit growth.
"Demand for property has been strong, applicant volumes were 13% higher in the three months to January compared to the same period a year earlier. The real drivers of this demand have been overseas buyers, especially Europeans, and also City based buyers, who have been more numerous than expected given the uncertain discussions over bonus levels.
"A marker of the strength of the London market is shown by the fact that viewing volumes are up by 30% year-on-year in January.
"On the supply side, the ongoing issue of tight supply continues, while stock volumes are running at 3% above the level seen a year ago, they are still down by over 20% compared to January 2009.
"Current rates of sale compared to stock volumes are still running at approximately 10%, far above the long-run average of 7% to 8%. This again confirms the position of limited stock in the market for buyers to choose from."

Ludlow; Daily Telegraph Article

Hot spots for a happy retirement

Where can you find attractive properties with good transport, shops and a community spirit for your later years? Graham Norwood investigates

By Graham Norwood

Today’s retirees can look forward to decades of active living. The big question is – where? We have scoured cities, along with rural and seaside locations, to find the essential ingredients of a happy retirement.
We shortlisted places that have handsome yet manageable homes to suit downsizers intending to spend their later years in their own properties. We insisted on a good environment and a busy community catering for everyone from bowls players to arts and sports aficionados. Many of our top 20 locations have their own amateur dramatic and music societies, run by volunteers, to keep the creative juices flowing.
Finally, we applied a “five-minute rule” to ensure you could buy a pint of milk or hop on public transport within a five-minute walk of your home.
The absence of good bus and train services sadly ruled out many locations that were otherwise perfect. A few other locations stood out as being a little unwelcoming for retirees, but thankfully that still left more than 20 places in Britain that fit the bill.

Ludlow, Shropshire

With 500 listed buildings and one of Europe’s largest annual food festivals, house prices are far lower than most incomers expect. This is pure heaven for the culture-vulture retiree.
A large period detached house is only £500,000. One of the longest established agents here is Nock Deighton (01584 875555; http://www.nockdeighton.co.uk/).

PROPERTY EXPERTS MAKE FLYING START TO 2011

A local firm of leading property specialists is reporting a strong start to the New Year after registering considerably higher January residential sales and new instructions than over the same period in 2010.

Shropshire-based Nock Deighton revealed that new instructions during the first month of 2011 totalled almost double the amount recorded in January last year, while agreed sales were also up by a huge 56%.

In a sign of growing confidence amongst both buyers and sellers across the county, the firm has received new instructions totalling almost £8.8 million, up a staggering 95% in comparison to January 2010, while £5.2 million in sales were agreed across their offices in Shrewsbury, Telford, Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Ironbridge, against the £3.9 million sold this time last year.

Michael Evans, Director for Nock Deighton, said: “These results follow on from a very positive end to 2010 for the business, and show that parts of Shropshire remain some of the UK’s most sought-after locations with buyers – not just from within the county, but from further afield too.”

“There have been so many conflicting reports about the state of the property market from the national media, but it’s important to note that Shropshire as a region has consistently recorded higher prices than the UK average. What we’ve seen in January backs up this trend and highlights there is still a healthy demand for property throughout the county.”

Formed in 1831, Nock Deighton is one of the Midlands’ most well-established and respected firms of estate agents, lettings agents, chartered surveyors, block management agents and auctioneers. The company stands at the forefront of the modern property sector by embracing up-to-the-minute technology and industry best practice, and has a firm focus on achieving the very best results through a full range of specialist property-related services and dedicated staff.

For further information on Nock Deighton’s professional services visit http://www.nockdeighton.co.uk/ or contact: the Shrewsbury office on 01743 241251; the Bridgnorth office on 01746 767767; the Ironbridge office on 01952 432533; the Telford office on 01952 292300; or the Ludlow office on 01584 875555.

Mary Portas TV Show; Weak and Very One Dimensional.

If you watched the show last night, I found the whole experience completely unrecognisable to our daily working practices. In my view, the programme was weak, one dimensional and a prejudice hatchett job. Very dissapointing. In fariness to Gordon Ramsay, at least he understands his subject matter!

•  She presented the public perception of estate agents completely stereotypically and of old – slimy, manipulative, spin, all about the hard-sell, and keen to pressure people to buy
• Her view was that the industry was “as far away from good customer service as you can get. A reputation as good as a piece of poo on the street.” Charming I know! She referred to “smoke and mirrors” and claimed she “didn’t understand why people just don’t sell houses themselves by sticking it on the internet” adding that “estate agents are not doing customers justice”
• She made a big deal about the lack of training estate agents get, saying things like “buying a house is the biggest purchase anyone will ever make, estate agents basically say ‘we don’t train our staff’, and I find this unbelievable”. She stated that you don’t actually need a formal qualification to become an estate agent (we could link with the licensing later in the year for this if needed?)The London agency they basically did a case study on only offered one hour customer service training for new staff and offered no formal training to help staff to do viewings (new staff basically shadowed senior staff and learned on the job – badly!) We know that you guys differ hugely and are proud of the investment you make in your team and of their own individual experience and integrity
• The estate agents lived up to the stereotypes so pressured people to sell, exaggerated, used estate agent jargon “west facing is the new south facing”, “based on a prestigious turning”...
• She took the agents to a stately home to learn from a tour guide and stressed the importance of understanding the property, doing proper research, really getting to know the ins and outs and giving people the full picture – emphasise the positive, but also not ignore any negative features/aspects. This is something that you guys do as a matter of course
• Her aim was to develop a new type of estate agency based on honesty, knowledge, hard-work, expertise, detail, researching the features, showing they care about the customer and the property. Sounds rather like Nock Deighton doesn’t it! She stressed the importance of giving people the whole picture so listing the pros and cons of the property on marketing literature, banning estate agent clichés like ‘would suit a DIY enthusiast’ and ‘convenient for motorway access’
• The results of this new approach (surprise, surprise!) were that in a survey of customers 100% satisfaction was reached and 100% thought they were trustworthy
• She ended with the hope that the “slimy little toads will clean up their act”

Google Maps and PropertyLive.co.uk

 

As many of you will have already read, Google have recently made the decision to discontinue their ‘property tab’ feature on Google maps.

Google have announced that the property search feature will be dropped in all the countries where it operates, including the UK, on Thursday 10th of February.
Full details can be found on the Google blog at http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/01/retiring-real-estate-on-google-maps.html
As a consequence, all uploads from PropertyLive.co.uk (and all other property search websites) to Google maps will discontinue on the 10th. We will continue to send properties to Google maps until this time.
In support of Google’s claim, the property tab does indeed only deliver a very small number of visitors to PropertyLive and with traffic to the site steadily increasing as we move through January, we anticipate there being little or no impact on the site.

Kind regards,
The PropertyLive Team

HOMES WITH A HISTORY JOIN PROPERTY MARKET

A renovated 19th century toll house and a converted smithy originally built in the 1700s are just two of the properties with significant history and character that have been placed on the local housing market within the past few weeks.

Leading Shropshire-based property specialist Nock Deighton is reporting a noticeable increase in the number of homes with a truly desirable past being made available pre and post the busy Christmas and New Year period.

One such property is the Coalport Bridge Toll House just outside Telford, a detached Grade II Listed building lying within the Severn Valley. Originally built as a warehouse back in 1793 and used as a toll house between 1812 and 1922, the property has now been refurbished into a three-bedroom house with an asking price of approximately £280,000.

Also recently added to the market is the picturesque Old Vicarage on Church Road, Coalbrookdale. The Grade II Listed, three-story property was commissioned by Muriel Darby – it is actually said to be ‘the last house the Darby’s built’ – and was completed by local builder Charles T Smith in 1901.The six-bedroom property is situated in three-quarter of an acre grounds within the World Heritage Site-acclaimed Severn Gorge and is open to offers from £850,000.

Other notable properties on the market include the £500,000 Old Smithy, a four-bedroom cottage in Bourton, Much Wenlock. Built using Wenlock stone in the mid 1700s, the property’s smithy and stable block have been adapted to provide additional living quarters at the same time as retaining many of their original features. While a 19th century, semi-detached former schoolmaster’s living quarters has been renovated as the Old School House in Broseley, a three-bedroom property containing the original fireplaces and built-in cupboards and on the market for offers around £240,000.

Michael Evans, Director for Nock Deighton, said: “Shropshire continues to be one of the most sought-after locations for house-hunters, and with properties like these on the market, it’s not difficult to understand why. Not only are they beautiful buildings in their own right, but they have hundreds of years history and their own special stories to discover.”

Formed in 1831, Nock Deighton is one of the Midlands’ most well-established and respected firms of estate agents, lettings agents, chartered surveyors, block management agents and auctioneers. The company stands at the forefront of the modern property sector by embracing up-to-the-minute technology and industry best practice, and has a firm focus on achieving the very best results through a full range of specialist property-related services and dedicated staff. For further information on Nock Deighton’s professional services, contact Nock Deighton’s Shrewsbury office on 01743 241251 or visit http://www.nockdeighton.co.uk/