Tales from the Front Line

Agent "Chaos" theories and bursting the bubble

by Sarah Daly
on June 22, 2010 in Negotiating

Talking to agents every day, we get a very good understanding on their take of markets and factors which affect them. Speaking with some key contacts this week, the current word on the street is that "the wretched budget" set for today is affecting everything in our rentals world. The biggest issue is that many owners are not making decisions on renting or selling until they have a better handle on their CGT position. The consensus is that if the Government does raise CGT levels without taper relief there is going to be "an unholy amount of chaos" as people try and secure sales on their properties. However, if there is a longer taper relief on the introduction to any changes in CGT, there will be some owners who retain their assets and rent them whilst waiting to see how the world changes.

In the meantime, we watch and wait. One agent I spoke to commented that, getting owners to agree to rent for longer periods, in conjunction with investment Landlords experiencing difficulties with lending, means that the whole market is "frozen in terror".

I don't think things have quite reached terrifying levels yet but I will be very happy to see the bubble burst on 22 June as we have a better understanding on what happens next.

No carnage, but still some pain in the year ahead

by Peter Mackie
on October 16, 2009 in Negotiating

Today Property Vision was quoted on ”credibility leverage” by Anne Ashworth in The Times:

Click here to view the article

Lock-out Agreements

by Ed Sugden
on June 9, 2009 in Negotiating

As a rule, within all our deals we agree a lock-out agreement which prevents the vendor from further advertising, encouraging interest from any other buyer and considering any other offers during the time within which we have agreed to exchange contracts. Many would argue that too much time is spent (and legal fees) on agreeing wording of the document and, as such, there are occasions when we do not insist upon it as long as there are letter/e-mails from both the vendor’s agent, on behalf of their vendor, and their solicitor agreeing to the basis and intent of the proposed lock-out agreement. This is quicker and easier and, whilst it has not been tested during my time involved in property, I am informed that lock-out agreements can easily be contested and of course the vendor can employ delaying tactics, enabling them time to consider other offers outside the lock-out period.

Lock-out agreements, however do have their uses and recently we had a case where we were gazumped by £150,000 and the vendor instructed lawyers to change horses. However, thankfully due to the clause in our heads of terms, we were able to threaten (in the nicest possible way, of course!) with legal action which brought the vendors back to the negotiating table and we were able to purchase the property for less that the gazumper.