Fancy a move to the country? Well, this could be right up your street – sorry, we mean your sleepy country lane where nightingales sing, owls screech, cows moo, and the Countryside team is about to feature hedge laying.
The address is Hemel Hempstead, which the ever-reliable Wikipedia tells us is a new town with a population of 80,000.
But forget all that.
The property itself is next to National Trust land, enjoys views, is in a village and is rural. Well, that’s what it says on the Tepilo advert.
And it’s also got 38 pictures to go with its listing on Rightmove. That’s two minutes of our lives we won’t get back as we had to go through the whole lot to see for ourselves whether there was a view over the expansive National Trust greenery and maybe an adjoining stately home.
There isn’t.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-61003283.html
Comments (10)
£800,000! For a house that looks like that in Hemel Hempstead? I would have put it at about £650,000 tops.
Jeez – you’re MILES out…
Even Zoopla’s pick-a-number machine has it at £601k – and that’s usually around +20% on real market value! ;o)
Dear Tepilo
As an Estate Agent who, ridiculous as it may seem to you has a genuine pride in the industry we both profess to exist in, allow me to offer some helpful pointers as to where others may think you’ve gone wrong here.
1. According to Wiki, “Hemel Hempstead /ˈhɛməl ˈhɛmpstᵻd/ is a large new town in Hertfordshire…” (There’s a not-so-subtle difference between ‘village’ and ‘town’, you see.)
2. There’s this thing called CPRs 2008. For simplicity, it basically states you don’t ********. When you state “Neighbouring National Trust land”, as a feature/benefit of a property you really need to ask yourself ‘Would a reasonable person expect to have to get two buses to visit their “neighbour”?’ Would you? Personally I like to talk to mine over the fence – using your definition I’d either need a two-way radio or two cans and half-a-dozen balls of string.
Same goes, by the way, for your use of ‘Rural’. I’ll not make a second point – but it could get you into separate bother.
3. When you say “South Facing Garden”, which garden exactly are you referring to? And which ‘South‘ are you referring to, for that matter? CPRs might be better adhered to if you change your blurb to ‘South-west(ish) Facing FRONT Garden’ I’m 275 miles away – and I can tell you that. And I usually say ‘local’ is necessary for this job – ironic, huh?
For info, you can buy a clever device called a ‘compass’ at any camping store – instructions supplied…
4. ‘Views’, you state. Well… I guess every property has “views” of something and this one is no different. From the front you can see… the property in front of it; from the rear – the property behind it – and if you look straight up on a cloudless night you can see the Milky Way. (I can see that from 275 miles away as well, by the way…)
5. Oh – I think you’ve got plenty on your plate dealing just with the first four, to be frank. But if you want the other thirteen (and counting) – let me know.
I’ve always worked on the principle that those with standards should consider it their duty to coach those without.
Always a pleasure – never a chore…
Stop it – you’re helping them to improve their business.
Just laugh to yourself and make a sarky comment on PIE and move on.
I couldn’t agree more with your post, but it’s stuff that all us proper agents got knocked into us that first month of the job.
The longer they do it, the worse their reputation will be.
I’m happy to leave them to it.
‘Stop it – you’re helping them to improve their business’.
Not exactly, AC – I’m actually trying to improve the professionalism of our industry.
We all know it’s a mahoosive, vertical-face mountain to climb; that the rocks awaiting my attempts to fail are jagged and plentiful – and that many may have tried to scale the same face before without success.
But… I can see the summit and I’m going to try or die to hoist the flag of professionalism on that summit, when NAEA, RICS , Uncle Tom Cobblers and all have failed.
Why?
Because it’s there, of course…
To be fair, it’s in a high demand location so will probably sell **** pictures or not, £50,000 over priced though
S’obvious, innit? Look at the aerial view and there’s some green space to the south with a hedge line that could be a divided “n” and another that forms a big “T””. Dosn’t that mean it’s National Trust land? Course it does! What are the rest of you on, missing such opportunities?
Rubbish photos are one thing but blatantly lying about the location being next to National Trust land is enough to get buyers to view and that’s all the seller will probably be interested in.
Tepilo’s local property expert probably got it mixed up with his/her previous inspection in Norfolk. Still, as long as they haven’t got a local branch that trading standards can rock up to and demand the head of the listing neg on a platter that’s all right!
Totally agree with your comments Andrew. Maybe some of these so called celebrities should stick to ‘match making’ web sites. I believe you may get a better response from those call centres!!
There’s a classic example of why cheap is cheap. A call centre agent taking money upfront will gladly allow those pictures to represent such a home in such a location. A professional agent would not allow those pictures on any portal. Oh dear Mr / Mrs Vendor, I dare say your choice of call centre agents has saved you thousands in fees, sadly their inadequate advice re: marketing / professional standards will likely lose you substantially more on your sale price. When will folks wake up and smell the coffee?