Countrywide’s daily battering on the stock market continued yesterday with a fall of over 16% at one time.
As we have noted before, the share price is already so low that a huge percentage fall actually knocks very little off the price. Even when the price does lift, the London Stock Exchange may regard it as a fall.
Yesterday the shares started at about 3.7p and were down to 3.1o by mid morning.
They closed the day at a somewhat perkier 3.6p, or just 0.1p down, recorded by the London Stock Exchange as down 2.7%.
Meanwhile Purplebricks shares ended the day at 105p, or 1% down, after co-founders the Bruce brothers sold their entire share holdings to German publisher Axel Springer.
We were told by Purplebricks that co-founder Kenny Bruce remains in the business, as sales director. His brother Michael left his role as global chief executive last month after a boardroom coup.
Purplebricks has confirmed that it will announce its full-year results, for the year to the end of April, on July 3.
Comments (59)
Giant steps are what you take …..walking on the moon.
Prophet Sting.
As far as PBs results go on July 3rd it’s hard to say how the market will react.
There should already be little doubt that the performance of Oz will be poor and the US will show turnover growth but costs growing more. This is why they are pulling out of Oz and have scaled back spending in the USA and reviewing if and how they will continue over there.
The UK will show an increase of about 6% in sales listings according to my proxy and usually average income per instruction grows as they sell more ancillary products. There was also a price rise. So turnover should be up. Whether this translates into a profit depends on cost of sales (somebody told me the increased price all went to LPEs), marketing costs and admin. costs which are anybody’s guess. It would not surprise me if there is a profit increase from the UK though.
So what happens with the SP depends on what the market is expecting to hear and whether it’s worse or better.
My proxy tells me UK listings were down about 8% on May last year so not a good start to the financial year.
“So what happens with the SP depends on what the market is expecting to hear and whether it’s worse or better.”
The market have been told to expect sales of £130m-£140m and cash of £62m.
Here’s a clue…
Kenny Bruce is employed as Sales Director and has just sold all his shares for £1. 🙂
>Here’s a clue…
>Kenny Bruce is employed as Sales Director and has just sold all his shares for £1.
Can you elaborate?
“Can you elaborate?”
The market is primarily concerned with the trading update for May/June which will be presented with the results on 3rd July.
As Sales Director, K.Bruce will know the actual numbers for May and clearly thinks the shares are not worth much more than the issue price.
Of course, it’s possible that PIE have not been given the full story and we will be told at a later date that he has decided to spend more time with his family?
>The market is primarily concerned with the trading update for May/June
The market will be very interested in how PB performed in the UK in the 2019 financial year. This is all that PB are obliged to report on. Companies typically comment on current trading and future prospects and can go into as much detail or as little as they want. They could quite easily just say something like trading has been subdued since year end and in line or better than the market as a whole.
They may wax lyrical about their change of focus and other sources of revenue. PB like quite a few other companies will paint a positive picture if at all possible.
>clearly thinks the shares are not worth much more than the issue price.
No that is not clear. Maybe he is thinking now that now it’s not him and his brother calling the shots he would prefer to invest in a new venture or just kick back and relax and not leave his money in a company he has little influence on. I would be surprised if he is still there in 6 months time. Maybe terms of the sale with Springer being to stay on for a while and oversee changes.
Nothing is ever clear with these things.
“The market will be very interested in how PB performed in the UK in the 2019 financial year”
See previous post – market expectations for 2019 are clearly stated by PB – the detail will not influence them (unless it turns out to be different – in which case heads will roll) as much as the trading update, they already know its going to be a dog’s breakfast and that is why the SP is at the current level.
The city will want to know the sales numbers for May/June and K.Bruce already has half that info, so if he sells all his shares at £1 that will influence the market.
The fact that Axel Springer appear to bailing out the major investor will also have a big influence.
So to summarise Oz failed, the USA is failing, and the UK is on a downward trajectory in terms of new business.
>So to summarise Oz failed, the USA is failing, and the UK is on a downward trajectory in terms of new busines.
Yes but the recent downaward trajectory is in line with the market as a whole and you didn’t put anything in your summary about 2019 UK profits.
How do you see them being reported?
In all honesty I dont know, but given that the Bruce brothers are in the know and they have sold up for £1 a share i can guess they wont be great.
Re the UK if i were the Bruce Brothers i would have loaded as many costs as possible on the overseas ventures in an attempt to show the UK as profitable and “prove” the concept works.
Axel Springer obviously have a plan in place but what that is Ive no idea.
Does your proxy take into account sales that have fallen through and come back on the market and properties that have taken a “marketing break”
Well what it does show is the Bruces have been forced out . Axel who now want control.Who can balme them?
The price paid reflecting quantum .a handsome profit for Ken certainly sufficent to buy some potential classic winning racehorses
The actual results unlikely to have any bearing on the future of Bricks. That game is being played elsewhere with Axel making all the necessary moves to protect their not insubstantial investment Suspect we will see some major structural changes
A new era beckons
>Re the UK if i were the Bruce Brothers i would have loaded as many costs as possible on the overseas ventures in an attempt to show the UK as profitable
So you’d be getting up to dodgy practices then? Something Axel Springer accountants and the company auditor examining the books couldn’t spot easily and in the case of the auditor not spotted over multiple years?
You have to remember the UK was on the verge of profit in H1 2017 when they had a contribution from Oz. They then raised finance to enter into the USA market. Do you really think loading all the UK costs onto Oz would have made entering another overseas market attractive to investors?
Irrespective of whether the Bruce Brothers would behave in the same way that you would the question was how the market will react. If they think like you then the financial accounts are and always have been worthless. I really don’t think that’s how the market will see it.
>Does your proxy take into account sales that have fallen through and come back on the market and properties that have taken a “marketing break”
Yes it does.
I didnt say I would be getting up to anything dodgy I would be charging all reasonable costs to the overseas ventures that I could. Where did the Directors and senior managements salarys come from ? Where did the costs for relocation come from? Does the UK charge for Head Office services ? Does the UK charge for marketing support ? Does the UK take a % of turnover ? There is a huge diffence between illegal activities and presenting company accounts the way you want the company to look.
Lets be honest its not unknown for a certain amount of smoke and mirrors in accounts for large corporates.
This is an excellent point and something that keeps on being missed out of the conversation whenever someone says Purplebricks are profitable in the UK.
And the point about them being on the verge of profit in the UK back in H1 2017 and it being counterproductive trying to raise finance for overseas ventures when you are inflating the losses of the overseas operations?
In February 2017 institutional investors invested £50m for expansion into the US. If PB had been loading UK costs onto the Oz business which launched in August 2016 would they have done this?
In Septemeber 2017 PB launched in the USA. Would Axel Springer have invested £125m in March 2018 in the main to accelerate growth in the USA if PB had been loading UK costs onto the USA business?
>There is a huge diffence between illegal activities and presenting company accounts the way you want the company to look.
Surely if PB were raising capital to expand overseas then they wanted the overseas accounts to look good?
You can’t have it both ways.
And whatever they do the Auditor and the investing Institutions have to be happy so I just don’t see them arranging for overseas losses to be inflated.
I am not trying to have it both ways at all.
In my opinion it is/was more important to show the UK as making a profit so they could “prove” the model works and roll it out to other countries.
The losses on overseas ventures wouldn’t be enough to deter investment as after all they are disruptors and expected to lose money initially then move into profit eventually, after all they could point to the UK.
You seem to put a lot of store in Axel Springer and Institutional investors investing, given how their investment is panning out I wouldn’t put a lot of weight on their judgement.
I suspect you know all this and are just having some fun. You are not seriously going to tell me you have never heard of International companies putting costs and revenue in the most beneficial areas for them ?
I am not saying this has happened in this case but its certainly not beyond the realms of possibility.
The UK will show an increase of about 6% in sales listings according to my proxy
My proxy tells me UK listings were down about 8% on May last year so not a good start to the financial year
Now an investment analyst, we shall soon see if you are right.
Cyberduck46: 16.01hrs 14th May 2019 “The fact I don’t have any experience of being an Estate Agent is irrelevant”
>Cyberduck46: 16.01hrs 14th May 2019 “The fact I don’t have any experience of being an Estate Agent is irrelevant”
Nicely taken out of context. How very sad and pathetic.
That comment was in relation to either data protection law or consumer protection law (I forget which) which of course doesn’t just apply to Estate Agency and are both areas in which I do have some experience and/or have read the actual statute.
You said it and its come back to haunt you. Trying to wriggle out as usual, once caught with your pants down. As to how very sad and pathetic … you were of course looking in a mirror. “Read”, that’s another one to pop up in future posts, no experience or qualifications or training. Yep an armchair self-proclaimed expert with no track record, lecturing those that have ……. says it all.
There must be a lot of very nervous Territory Owners and LPEs out there at the minute. Looks like the Purple Family have been abandoned by the Purple daddys.
Likewise at Countrywide, imagine sat in a branch while slowly but surely other branches are being closed down with no discernible plan. From a business point of view LSL did it the right way by “ripping the plaster off” there must be a lot of energy and time being wasted by Countrywide troops on speculation.
Silence from Countrywide is deafening.
Apart from the poor misguided fools at branch level piping up on LinkedIn saying how they are “Smashing it” and share price does not matter, we hear nothing from CW.
No plan on how they intend to get out of this mess, no updates on trading, 18 months on no CEO,
They must be looking to merge or put it into administration.
Giving the tenant fee ban a month to see what it does to the bottom line?
The longer the fallout goes on, the more I want to look Ms Platt in the eye and ask what the hell she thought she was doing?
She has almost single-handedly destroyed the strongest estate agent in the country – I didn’t think it was possible for a fall to be so hard, so fast and so sustained.
The mind boggles that she probably got paid a couple of million quid just to leave.
If it makes you feel any better, it was only £680,000! Probably not?
It was exactly the same with those who sought to bring ‘retail’ into the big banks. They too went bust, but their failure was judged to be too much of a crisis across society so they were bailed out with public funds. Countrywide will not have the same recourse.
She has almost single-handedly destroyed the strongest estate agent in the country – I didn’t think it was possible for a fall to be so hard, so fast and so sustained. Perhaps you should ask yourself, why Foxtons who posted a 80% fall in profits, has closed branches and changed its CFO ,still has recorded positive share price growth this year….. answer…. its has Cash in the bank and no borrowing! BUT…. Sorry to disappoint but the blame can not keep being heaped on Alison Platt; keep reading what a great Company Countrywide were in the “Good Old Days” but when were these times? 2008 – Countrywide avoided liquidation by being sold for £1 and the Venture Capitalist underwriting the debt to save the company. The next four years rebuilding, but still losing money! It wasnt until 2013, that it posted a modest profit that increased to 67.48m in 2014 but reduced to 41.35m in 2015, 17.4m in 2016 and a small matter of 226m LOSS over the past 2 years. So on aggregate, over the past decade the company has lost over £500m …. In 2014, despite raising £750m through the IPO, it still had debt levels of £131.71m which as of 2018 still remained at £88.1m after raising a further £129m from share placement. (Not to mention the selling of Zoopla & Rightmove shares) In the past three years REVENUES have dropped by £120M, whilst through write down of intangibles, the operating expenses have increased from £702m to £872m and infact despite alleged cost cutting exercises, the other operating expenses have only been reduced by £10m (less than 2% of revenues). To turnover £737m and only make a net profit of £17.4m is not a sign of the Strongest Estate agent in the Country.
Well it’s Phone Out Thursday at CW tomorrow so that will get the SP back up there! LOL… no apt’s please were busy calling out vendors from 5 years ago to see if they want to move again.. and try and get a Financial services Apt while you are at it zzzzzzz
I couldnt agree more but perhaps because it has nothing to say? There is a small element of truth in the comment the share price doesnt matter BUT it does severely hamper how they can operate. They must working on a cash only basis because they have no security to borrow against. We’ve all been in those businesses where suddenly the PDQ machine work and its CASH ONLY. Taken last year the revenues were £627m (ave of £52.5m) per month, should be enough to meet there expenses of £51m a month. Unfortunately, the income and expenses are not equally amortised over the 12 months and with the summer coming, cash could get very tight.
As long as they can service the existing level of borrowings, they can trade.
My experience of Countrywide is that most of the staff are oblvious to the company performance and what is actually means. You only have to look at the non-repsonse of the staff who participated in the former SAYE scheme and lost over 90% of their savings only to invest in the next scheme on the promise of all will be good.
I suspect they have all been instructed to sign-up for Linkedin and publsih good news.. nothing would surprise me.
What will be deafening is if Coutrywide once again fail to publish half year or quaterley trading statements.
Perhaps it’s a case of … “If you’ve nothing good to say, then say nothing at all”?
What is interesting is that Axel if bidding to takeover the company today is that Stock Exchange Rules means they have too offer the same as the highest price they have paid for the shares in the last 12 months.
If they acquire Woodfords holding that gives them a majority they will have to offer the remaining shareholders the same That was 320p last July so in theory will have to wait til then to time expire before reducing to a minimum of a £1.
However Axel are in the process of delisting so will be appearing in a different form -maybe able to circumvent Stock Exchange rules .
All very complicated my guess it will land somewhere from 110-125p A roller coaster journey for shareholders back to square 1 or thereabouts
There must be a lot of very nervous Territory Owners and LPEs out there at the minute. Looks like the Purple Family have been abandoned by the Purple daddys.
Your comment regarding “buying up all the shares” applies to any investor who holds more 30% stock; in fact an Investor must buy the remaining shares if their holding exceeds 30% at the highest price over the preceding 12 month period. This can be remedied by the shareholders waiving this rule by shareholders resolution. In fact, Oaktree were granted this exception by Countrywide up to the time of the placement last August.
This rule does not however prevent existing shareholders selling their stock to Axel Springer at whatever price they feel is a good deal with them.
With the annual report soon to be released, it may be, as you say 115p will be a good offer as Investors holding stock can only sell at current prices which may fall significantly after the report.
Look at Countrywide. 89p a share August 17, 27p as share August 18 and now 3.3p? Perhaps a sell to Axel at £1 might not look so bad in the future ?
7.2 million PB shares changed hands at a quid a pop just after midday.
Then news hits that Woodford has dumped 17% of their holding…
Done nothing for the share price, closed down 71.98% for the week from its highs and the consensus is by traders is still strongly “sell”. Value ended today where it started. My proxy is it will stay where it is until July 3rd unless Axel Springer pull the plug which is highly likely if its going to be bad news.
Can’t wait for the newsflash on July 3rd Ros. What kind of announcement will the public / investors receive now the kings of spin have departed?
According to Sdaltaf101 that is the day PB shares will fly like a rocket. 🙂
That would explain why Sales Director Kenny has just sold all his shares for a quid each ?
I predict fireworks on the 4th July !
He who laughs last, laughs best. You may laugh now, thinking you have won, but you may not prevail in the end.
The Prophet Sdaltaf 😉
Lets hold hands and bow our head and pray to the Purple Brick.
The future is bright, the future is Purple.
Buy…Buy…Buy…Buy…
Bye Bye
Grow up, no one finds you at all funny.
I do…
If you are new here you won’t remember there was quite an aggressive Autumn in 2013 where a set of very .. confident characters on Estate Agent today who were really fired up were predicting all sorts of things. I debated politely if firmly with each of them that their thinking was. in my experience, incorrect.
I said then and have been consistent even when Countrywide, Savils and the very level headed Livesey dabbled with passive intermediary/ hybrid agency that agency is a service sale not a retail sale and cannot be disrupted in the way the disrupters claimed it could.
I have stood up, stated my position and using my own name, put my reputation and credibility on the line.
I am the last one standing in all of this so those people who laughed long and hard at me are not laughing now!
Forget all the baiting and all the nonsense, how is it going to be different THIS time?
You say this Robert but there are a few successful hybrid type online firms that have done / doing ok considering the current climate. The 3 off the top of my head being Nested, Express Estate Agency and EweMove have all shown it can be done. What is interesting about these 3 is they just get on with their business without mocking the trad model and they all charge a no sale no fee type structure. It can be done successfully but not in the budget up front model.
1. Who?
2. Have you seen Express Estate Agency accounts ?
3. Ewemove franchisees have been dropping like flies – the franchisor is the only one making money.
Ewmove do well selling Franchises rather than hosues, but i agree there is and will be a place for Online agents.
100% correct but they weren’t the shouty ones of 2013 or 14/15.
You can see my utter respect for agents without traditional offices but where they are doing the job properly and well. My posts to Nick Neill Headshepherd11 demonstrate my respect for Ewemove
I respect passive intermediary listers too but have no tolerence at all for people who are offering nothing more than a passive intermediary listing service but claiming to be esate or letting agent whether that is with or without a ITZA office.
I’ve gone all in to support decent agents, they’ll be the ones who survive and I’ll give them what support I can to ensure they do. I have both officed and non-officed agents on r4p
Robert you are well respected and a tremendous ambassador for the sector.
The difference is quite simple, the hybrid is essentially sucking revenue from the sector with their fix fee model, for every listing they remove £2-3k from the high street commission model which is the “disruption” from within the sector, however the growth has been below market expectations so although the fixed fee has been warmly welcomed it is inevitable to maintain growth the hybrid model will arrive on the high street to compete on a level playing field supported by a regional infrastructure.
Quality agents will succeed offering one-to-one personal services which will always appeal to the high value properties but the majority of homeowners would prefer to pay a fixed fee regardless if it’s upfront, pay later or 50/50 and to accelerate revenue they will also offer a host of additional services, again at a fixed price, however I believe the fixed price will increase to £1,500 (inc vat) which will be on average 50% less than the typical agency working on a commission based model. Quirk said it was impossible to generate a profit whilst maintaining the support network for anything less than £1,000 so it is inevitable there will be a cull within the hybrid sector for those discounters fighting for the 1-2% market share, once costs exceed profit they will look at crowdfunding which has been tainted so will fail leaving the big three to dominate.
Look at the hybrid model as evolving, the concept works in theory but what is essential is the consumer support and that can only be sought with a physical presence on the high street focused on the remaining 95% of the market who are still driving Model T’s and the hybrids will arrive in their Tesla’s.
The second main difference is the hybrid model is geared for volume sales whilst the local agent isn’t so those who attempt to compete on price will fail.
Lots of love and kisses,
The Prophet Sdaltaf.
The future is bright, the future is Purple.
Buy…Buy…Buy…
Bye…Bye
“Look at the hybrid model as evolving, the concept works in theory but what is essential is the consumer support and that can only be sought with a physical presence on the high street”
OMG – you’ve just re-invented the wheel 🙂
Why spoil the post with the daft stuff?
Never mind
Portal sales are reactive sales, they are sales that lack the competition element that is behind people not liking estate agents; for every 10 people who view a property 9 miss out.
Passive intermediary listing sales lack the competition element so become effectively auction sales with a single bidder ie it’s rare for the vendor to get the same price as a competition sale.
The average transaction price is now £291,000 ( ignore land registry averages they are wrong) the transaction average commission is 1.2% plus VAT 1.44% in total. Average fee is £4190
If a passive intermediary listing agent charges average £1090 there is a £3100 saving.
The stats being established is that PI achieve about 5% less than competition driven agency sales, 5% of £291,000 is a £14,400 average under-sell
A net proceeds of sale comparison on a £300k sale – a PIL sale will save £3230 against an agent % but the will end up with £283,910 in the bank not £295,680 from an agency sale
Save £4320 on fees is a great message but Don’t lose £11,770 is a better one.
Vendors are not stupid, in general they are smarter than most and have jobs or have had jobs that paid a mortgage. Your business plan is to keep reinforcing a message they have heard for 10 years and as the numbers show 95% of vendors are rejecting.
Until you find a way of introducing #local competition into every sale you can be as confident as you like, your system of selling will achieve up to 10% less than an agency sale. the commission saving isn’t worth risking that.
You haven’t put a name to your posts so you won’t face the same fate as Bruce, Ellice or Quirk, , people who tried but failed but at some point your name will go above the door and you had better have thought of an angle I haven’t or you too will fail.
I’m not an estate agent, merely a Prophet.
Your assumptions are assumptions based on assumptions with no reference to facts.
Both high street and hybrid list on Rightmove / Zoopla and some on OTM
The high street values the property with a view of over inflating the price to achieve the sale, this is the same with the hybrid
Both the hybrid and the high street attend viewings and communicate between the buyer and the seller.
If the process is the same can you elaborate how the high street achieve more when its the buyer who makes and offer and it is the seller who accepts or declines an offer in an open market?
Arguably the higher valuation is a barrier to market, this raises the vendors expectations and deters any potential buyers, if the price was lower then the demand would be greater, so in an open market it is the market which decides the price and is not influenced by an agent regardless if the agent is a hybrid or high street.
My point is you can not assume anything in an open market, it will always be the market which decides the price and the seller who accepts or declines.
My assumption would be: If my Grandad had t*tties he would be my Grandmother 😉
“My assumption would be: If my Grandad had t*tties he would be my Grandmother”
Oh, dear, Prophet’n’Loss – this assumption is not only medically incorrect – it is biologically and genetically impossible.
Unlike all of your other ‘prophecies’ – which are, quite simply, unadulterated bu115h!tery of the lowest order.
With respect if I can shout “that is not correct”* at the radio within 12 seconds of a claim made by Michael Bruce on Money Box tha Purplebrick sell 88% of all they list with 10 months of listing and after 14 months of manual cross checking by Jefferies be only 0.03% out I’d suggest my numbers are fairly accurate.
* I shouted ******** but that will get get smut filtered
Good estate agents, the ones in your market of the future, you will be competing against do not over value, there is no point, it delays the time between listing and completion. No intelligent business will go no sale no fee and throw in an unwarranted delay for good measure.
I am not going to elaborate in detail on why agency sales achieve a higher price, I have already told you, it is basic supply and demand. If demand =1 the price is lower than if demand = 2
Not understanding agency and how it works is dangerous, agents have a duty of care and skill that cannot be ignored.
The number of traditional agents will be probably halfed but passive intermediary listing firms will not benefit from an increase in listing volume.
As I said in 2013 give it 5 years and let’s see who’s right.
The listing to sales ratio is the same for both high street and hybrid- it will always be the open market which decides the price and the vendor who accepts.
Estate agents simply act as a conduit to pass messages from one party to another so I’m confused with the word “Skill”, are you referring to the time it takes to put the phone down and ring the other party with the message or arriving 5 minutes before the viewing so the potential buyer is not kept waiting, or taking pictures and measuring rooms?
Don’t forget there is no qualifications needed to be an estate agent so not understanding how an agency works cant be that difficult, Doorsteps was selling properties during his playtime at school.
“I am not going to elaborate in detail on why agency sales achieve a higher price” – I’ll elaborate – FRAUD! Is the only way an estate agent can achieve a higher price in the open market.
More 80% than 50% but we will see.
One thing is for sure, the commission model is doomed but we will see very soon.
You got out just in-time and many more will follow, the high street is dooooooooomed.
Its a good job you are hiding you identity I think you are showing a serious naivety of the laws of contract and the obligations an agent has to their principals. The stuff you are posting now is simply a repeat of what Russell Quirk, Adam Day Rob Ellice etc have said before yet you aren’t ffering up anything new that convinces me it will be different this time round.
I hardly think 80-100 hours a week is getting out just in time, I am doing more now than ever. The challenge for disruption is getting past people like me, Gary at Reapit, and all the other SAAS suppliers who will give whatever you come up with, a spanking. You are not just up against agency you are up against their support network too.
A bigger plonker than Rodney.
Skill………….I’m still laughing :-0
Robert you tell me how an agent earns extra money in an open market and I’ll tell you who I am.
I don’t think Robert has explained his position very well when it comes to ‘skill’ (just my opinion). The point he is driving at is that a proactive agent that works a database of buyers with phone calls when a new instruction lands may be in a position to get more viewings quicker and therefore use that interest to leverage buyers against each other to maximise the offer for the vendor. Not many buyers see a property on rightmove et al and phone up and buy that exact one. A good agent will keep in touch with that buyer and tell them when something new comes up. The issue for the wider industry is that not many agents do this very effectively and they are the ones that will suffer if the market continues to get tougher.
2 Scenarios
Scenario 1. Prospective purchaser offers X direct to the vendor via the portal. Its bang on the vendors bottom line and they have no further information so they accept.
Scenario 2. Prospective purchaser offers X via the agent. The agent has seen the buyers proof of funds and knows they can go up, the agent did the viewing and knows they love the property, the agent knows they have been looking a while and need to be out their rental property soon, the agent knows their are a few viewings booked on the property and the prospective buyers have missed out on a couple they have offered on. Based on all this the agent has a discussion with the vendor and they decide to go back with a counter offer of X + £5k. The agent has a conversation with the buyer ” You can secure your dream home and get it taken of the market today if you got to X + £5k” Buyer agrees and the vendor gets £5k more than Scenario 1.
I have a close friend who worked for an online agent where the vendors were notified of offers and were able to accept them themselves so I know Scenario 1 happens. I carry out Scenario 2 on a regular basis.
I will hold you to that, honour and respect are important to me.
A #local agent has typically 50 applicants per property type and property range for their register of listings. Typically an agent has 10 distinct property groups, so 500 applicants.
For an individual property there will be a standard distribution curve of the 50 applicants wishing to buy a property that matches their shared criteria. The no hopers on the left,the best on the right with the majority in the middle, standard mathematics. The middle ground, a forced sale figure will be about 10% below open market value. That’s a figure that will have applicants falling over themselves to buy
A good agent will ***** those on the left of the graph those on the right and those in the middle
The best price a vendor will achieve will come from the applicant on the far right of the distribution curve. They will pay 1 bid higher than the penultimate right buyer.
Because internet selling finds a single purchaser out of the 50 with no rhyme or reason to which one will find the property given the randomness and passive selling of the portals the vendor will end up with a sale but with no competition effectively the offer can be what they can get away with.
That is why AVM’s do not work and why the agents who have no applicants to reference their valuations are simply guessing on a guessed at number that was based originally on flawed data from HM Land registry that I have proven to contain close to 200,000 errors and duplications.
The lack of applicant awareness, the lack of #local knowledge means passive intermediaries achieve sales but at the expense of the best price.
“Skill………….I’m still laughing :-0”
Obviously you are not an EA, perhaps a callcentre lister though – the timing of your arrival here and the content/tone of your posts suggests you are very worried about the recent problems for PB and their ilk.
Why do you think EA regularly try to poach staff from other offices?
A.Because they recognise the value a skilled employee brings to their bottom line.
Most of your ramblings make little sense and your predictions are woeful, in the last few weeks you have claimed:
“The reality is Purple Bricks are here to stay, raising £100 million is pocket change for the caliber of investors who have already committed”
– unfortunately it now appears that the calibre of their main investor is not what you thought.
“Yes the management appear to have the full support but i’m not on the board so this is only my opinion, also they don’t need Axel Springer’s money, they have several options to raise money.”
– oh dear, two assertions which have since been proved wrong in one sentence!
“They are a sound business model with huge financial resources”
– really, not on the evidence of the last few weeks.
Conmissary and cash in shares.
Come on now own up Ken.