March 2008

It's not HIP to tie in your customers

THE Office of Fair Trading says it will consider investigating the mis-selling of Home Information Packs, following lobbying by Spicerhaart about unfair and restrictive practices.

We have been concerned for some time about agents who offer so called ‘free’ HIPs or ‘teaser rate’ deals to tie in their customers and then hit them with a hefty withdrawal fee if they try to change agents at the end of their sole agency deal.

It’s an issue which has been exposed recently by BBC’s Moneybox programme and which, yet again, threatens our image as a profession with the public at large.

What these deals don’t give the customer is a free HIP or a cheaper HIP.

Worse still, under some of these ‘teaser deals’, the customer doesn’t even have a right to take the HIP with them when they leave. Some agents say they will add up to £400 if the vendor wants to move to another agent.

This is simply conning the public and must be stamped out for the good of the industry.

We believe the cost of withdrawal fees or HIP transfer fees between agents must be restricted to the cost of the HIP if it were paid for up front (i.e. the true cost to the agent plus a market based profit) and a small additional cost reflecting the cost of providing interim funding for the HIP. Any other solution is simply profiteering at the expense of the consumer.

We believe strongly that the OFT needs to take the lead on this topic and ensure that HIPs are not used as a tool to restrict consumer choice and tie people into unsatisfactory agency agreements.

I would expect media interest in this topic to grow in the coming months as HIPs are now compulsory for all properties.

The OFT has told us that if it receives evidence of such practices as I have highlighted, it will then be in a position to consider whether or not there are grounds to take any regulatory action.

May I therefore suggest that if you have agents in your area who you believe are acting unscrupulously, you follow the OFT’s advice.

Board stiff of untidiness...

IT'S no secret that kerb appeal goes a long way towards selling a well-kept home — but at the moment it seems to me that it’s our profession that is the guilty party in making things look untidy.

In order to comply with the Government’s Town and Country Planning Act, agents competing for the sale of the same property are going a bit too far in sandwiching their boards back to back in order that just ‘one’ sale board is put up.

The problem is sale boards these days come in all shapes and sizes and they no longer sit neatly together. While it may only take up the regulation 0.6 of a metre, we often have this unsightly mishmash of sale boards on one pole outside people’s properties.

Competition between agents is very strong at the moment and with vendors getting wound up with talk of the market getting tougher, more and more will try to hedge their bets and engage multiple agents to sell their property.

This is unlikely to change unless agents nationwide get wise. It’s up to us to encourage vendors to choose to put up just one sale board in front of their homes.

While it can be argued that many enquiries are as a result of seeing the sale board outside, technology has opened up a much bigger market to reach those potential buyers. Agents could do more to persuade vendors that ONLY their board should be prominent. In a so-called cooling market, we are all going to have to be more inventive and much more on the ball to fight our corner.

But it’s not just about offering a competitive rate — our biggest assets are our staff.

Ensuring those members of staff develop good relationships with vendors, keep them informed and prove to sellers that they are working hard for them is a recipe for success.

Bringing elite performance into business

BEING the best in business is no different to being a champion performer in sport. You either win, or you don’t! There is no point in coming second when you are trying to win valuations or listings – it just means you lost a contract!

It was why we chose the new Wembley Stadium, the Venue of Legends, as this year’s venue for Spicerhaart’s annual awards and conference. What better way is there to inspire our team for the year ahead by taking to the hallowed turf of the UK’s finest footballers?

It gave us an opportunity to outline our own goals for the year and we were fortunate to invite one of the country’s leading business speakers, Gerald Ratner, the former chief executive of Ratners Jewellery, as our guest of honour.

Even though some of the people in the audience were too young to remember the casual negative comments he made which sent his jewellery business crashing, he gave an uplifting commentary on how he has fought his way back.

It was inspiring to hear him talk about triumphing over adversity, proving the point that even when times are hard, there can be light at the end of the tunnel – perhaps an appropriate mantra to remember right now with the housing market being quiet.

It takes real guts, drive and determination to bounce back from that level of disaster, but he first noticed a niche in the market for a gym which he sold at a profit before moving into his current successful occupation running online jewellery retailer Gerald Online.

There are many great correlations between business and sport. You need to be a certain kind of person to succeed, with very special qualities, whether you are on the sports field or in the boardroom.

They are the same qualities we look for when recruiting staff for our own team at Spicerhaart; if you really want to succeed in a competitive arena, you need to nurture talented individuals. Just lifting the Cup at Wembley is inspiration itself!