Open war declared on property overvaluations

Industry figure Charlie Lamdin is set to launch a new crowd-sourced Public House Price Index as he declares war against property overvaluations.

The tool will be launched during BestAgent Day, an industry conference arranged by Lamdin that is taking place on 4 September.

The new index aims to bring “timely transparency to house prices,” by publishing an index based on paid exchange (and let) prices only, crowd-sourced primarily from the moving public, but also supplied with data from conveyancing firms and auction houses, as well as  estate agents.

Agents can contribute to the index on a no-cost basis, where any agent who volunteers their exchange prices will have early access to the index data for their patch in return, giving them the ammunition to prove that other agents are overvaluing.

Lamdin claims that the endless reporting of unverifiable ‘average’ house prices, inflamed by Rightmove’s ‘asking price only’ index leads not only to over-inflated vendor expectations, but even ends up convincing agents themselves that values are higher than they are. 

This is as damaging to agents' businesses as it is to vendors moving chances, added Lamdin.

He said: “No amount of talking about house prices solves any problems for movers or agents. 

“All it does is drive up overvaluing and help newspapers sell advertising as the public laps it up relentlessly, despite it being of absolutely zero benefit. The reason the public wrongly thinks agents are overpaid is because they don’t understand the difficulty involved in selling. If they understood the process better, they would change how they choose agents, looking instead for evidence of competence and experience, and being more willing to pay proper fees. Proper fees, for agents who get a home sold swiftly for the best market price, should be at least 2%.”

BestAgent Day is a free agent-only online conference that won’t be viewable online after the event, so registration is essential to not miss out.

The event will focus on three key objectives:
●      The multiple ways overvaluing kills transactions and income
●      Exactly how agencies can double their sales
●      Creating a new-business battlefield where honest agents win

The day will also include a live debate on what standard template terms of business should be offered to movers on the BestAgent website, to include each of the negotiable variables. These include fee, fee structure, contract length, notice period, withdrawal fees, up front marketing costs, discounts for contract-ready sellers.

There will also be data from Zoopla research director Richard Donnell to illustrate the true costs of overvaluing to transactions.

To celebrate the launch, BestAgent is offering up to £25,000 value per branch to all agents who register early and go on to join the optional “BestAgent Club” bestagent.club . Full details can be found on the registration page.

Live debates on the day include:

House Prices:
Watkin v Lamdin: Does talking about house prices in your marketing actually hurt transaction income? Charlie aims to change Christopher’s mind.
Quirk v Lamdin: Do rising house prices hurt transactions and agent income?
 

Referral Fees:
Simon David: How panel managers and excessive referral fees are hurting agent pipelines
Ash Borland: The conflict of interest of in-house mortgage brokers

Under offer in 28 days every time:
Perry Power - Bringing Homes to Market and Negotiating

Unfair Advantage over Big Firms
Daniel Daggers how to use social media to beat the big firms

‘Overvaluing is killing estate agency’
Katie Griffin - Why we must end overvaluing if we want to stop fees falling further.