TuckerGardner Blog

The results are in and Sally Munday has lead her Great Shelford lettings team to another record year with regards to properties let up to the end of March 2012.  Congratulations and thanks are due to the whole team, but especially to Sally who over the last eleven years has built the office virtually from scratch to now looking after over 500 properties. By way of recognition Sally has been made an Associate Director of the company and we look forward to her leading the office to even greater heights.

With the news that the Office of Fair Trading has given clearance for the merger between Digital Property Group Limited and Zoopla Limited it will be interesting to see how Rightmove reacts. The merger will bring together four of the top five property portals that the companies own between them, Primelocation.com, Findaproperty.com, Zoopla.com and Globrix.com.

Rightmove is undoubtedly the dominant force in this sector, but whilst loved by the consumer their is no love lost with agents and other advertisers. Bullish sales practices and eye-watering annual price hikes have eroded what loyalty they may once have enjoyed from the majority of agents so it will be interesting to see what this new proposition brings. According to PropertyDrum the two portal companies insist that the merger, once completed, is set to be a big win for consumers and advertisers alike, with far greater coverage of property listings and an unrivalled consumer audience across the UK.

If it can deliver an enhanced product and better experience for consumer and advertiser then it will be difficult to see where Rightmove can go, having held and applied the whip-hand for so long. We look forward to seeing how the situation develops.

TuckerGardner have always been keen supporters of local events and charities, however, in this Olympic year we felt it fitting that we add some sweat and tears rather than just our usual financial support.

As such, in September this year three of the directors of TuckerGardner will take part in the Deloitte Ride Across Britain event, looking to cycle 960 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats in just nine days. Training is underway but just how we prepare for 20,000m of climbing – roughly 2.5 times the height of Everest – is proving a little tricky in the flat Cambridge terrain.

By way of a warm-up the team will also be riding the 180 mile two day London Revolution event in May, which includes the daunting Box Hill climb that will feature in the Olympic road race.

Our chosen charity is Teenage Cancer Trust and, as we have all paid our own costs, every penny raised will help towards the funding of their new 11 bed unit at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. The unit opened in February this year and will treat just under 200 young patients every year, for which they need to raise £250,000 per annum. To find out more about the fantastic work that they do please visit their website.

We are raising money through Virgin Money Giving, so you can sponsor us and donations will be quickly processed and passed to charities. Click here to visit our fundraising page.

Congratulations to Rob Bryant and all of his team at MOBAS who have just been named as the region’s top design agency by industry journal The Drum. In addition, they also secured 43rd place in the nationwide top 100 so a fantastic success story for the Stapleford based company. As a home-grown business ourselves we always look to use local suppliers and it is really great to have witnessed MOBAS go from strength-to-strength through sheer determination, hard work and quite a big dollop of ambition. I can only hope that their new elated status does not result in our design costs going up!

The Leys rugby 1^st XV played the Wirral Grammar School for Boys on the 11th March in the semi finals of the Daily Mail Vase competition. The team, captained by the powerful back row forward Fraser Heathcote, had previously progressed through the tournament at an emphatic rate and this match proved no exception. Faced by the large Wirral boys school, who had been very successful themselves on the North West schools rugby circuit, the match was billed as a tough encounter. However, the dry warm conditions played into the hands of the Cambridge school who play a very exciting free flowing brand of rugby. Directed by their England U19’s fly half William Hooley The Leys looked to move the ball at every opportunity resulting in the back 3 sharing 5 of the 6 tries scored on the day. Seb Howarth took a personal tally of three tries and Hooley’s kicking was once again metronomic, missing only one. Backed up by an excellent defensive display The Leys ran out victors 40 – 3. They now play the rugby academy boys from Ravens Wood School in the final at Twickenham on Wednesday 4^th April.

Congratulations to all involved and the least that we can do is to provide new commemorative shirts for the day to replace the current TuckerGardner shirts which have been rather battered by the campaign.  Good luck and enjoy the day.

This seems to be the overriding advice of The Property Ombudsman, Christopher Harmer, in his annual report for 2011.  In light of a record year for letting complaints he is calling for higher standards across the lettings industry.

“My office dealt with 7,641 letting enquiries during 2011, a 26 per cent increase on 2010,” reports Mr Hamer. “Slightly more than 25 per cent of these complaint enquiries concerned letting agents who were not registered with TPO and I am concerned that, for those consumers, they may have little alternative but to undertake potentially costly legal action to pursue their complaint, a daunting prospect in the current financial climate.”

“Consumer awareness is the key,” adds Mr Hamer. “Knowledgeable landlords already check if an agent has a separate account for client money and has signed up to a redress scheme, before allowing them to market their property”.

“However, landlords who are new to lettings, for example, will no doubt be attracted by lower fees and may not enquire what protection the agent can provide both them and their tenants should problems later occur. Agents who protect client money and follow the TPO Code of Practice can give landlords this reassurance. If all landlords ensured that their agent had these credentials, I firmly believe that tenants and landlords would see the benefits of using agents who adhere to important standards of business and stories concerning ‘rogue agents’, with which we are all familiar, would dramatically reduce.”

As a result, the Ombudsman is proposing an initiative to develop and promote overall standards within the lettings sector which is something that we would strongly endorse. However, it is fairly easy for us to say that because of the 7,641 complaints made to The Property Ombudsman in 2011 not one was in respect of TuckerGardner.

Count every “F” in the following text:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS …

How many did you get?

There are actually six F’s. If you got three don’t worry as that is normal, as the brain fails to process the word “of”. Apparently anyone who gets all 6 “F’s” on the first go is a genius. As such, it shouldn’t be too hard for a large section of the Cambridge population, but needless to say that I got three.

I am often asked by people looking to sell their property whether we do open houses, as they are promoted by some of our competitors as an advantageous marketing tactic. On the face of it most people would probably agree that they are a useful sales tool, but in reality are they?

Open houses are an American approach to selling but their whole property industry is structured entirely differently to ours. They do their marketing in a different way, both buyers and sellers are usually represented by an agent, and it is a very personal approach centred around the individual agent. In such an environment I can fully understand the attractiveness of the open house idea, not least because it maximises the efficiency of the agent’s time.

Conversely, in the UK huge effort and expense go into the initial marketing of a new property carried out normally at the agent’s expense in order to attract as many prospective buyers as possible.  However, this is only the start of the process as it is the resultant viewing and first impression of the would-be buyer that are critical in securing a sale at a good price. This is borne out by the endless programs about presentation and makeovers, so why risk all of the hard work by then potentially cheapening the whole process with an open house?

In my experience 5 things can and do happen:

1. Everybody arrives at the same time and whilst many may think that it makes the house seem popular, it can actually make most UK houses seem overcrowded and small.  Fine for your Bel Air mansion but for a three bedroom terrace off Mill Road?
2. Security is actually also a concern. I certainly don’t want groups of people wandering around my house unattended,  especially as they may be attending as a result of an advertised open house and so will not have been vetted by the agent.
3. The best buyer can slip under the radar as the agent can be caught up talking to somebody else.
4. People can’t come at the allotted time, so they might not come at all.
5. Estate Agents quite often use part-time, inexperienced staff for the open house.

Buyer rapport is very important as they are making a major investment, so surely they deserve a little one-to-one attention. This makes them stay longer and remember the house in more detail. We can overcome any questions or fears they may have, whilst pointing out the unique features of the property and area aligned to their needs. The feedback and information we glean is also extremely valuable to you as a seller when choosing the right buyer.

In conclusion, I therefore believe that open houses are actually a lazy and inefficient approach to selling that generally offers poor reward to the seller. That’s why we always use trained staff and arrange personal viewing appointments to suit both buyer and seller to ensure the best result.

The only thing that I am left wondering is how the Americans get away with it and also manage to charge selling fees of up to 6%!

Good luck to everyone involved with Impington’s 51st Art Exhibition which will take place at Impington Village College during the spring half-term from the 11-15 February 2012. Over 300 works by local artists will be on display in a variety of materials and styles and with sale prices from £30 there promises to something for everyone.

There will be a number of adult workshops running during the week and the chance for children to try paint making and gilding. See their press release for more information.

We are currently looking for a Lettings Co-ordinator to join our Ely office. This is an extremely important customer facing role which requires a calm, confident individual who is able to work well under pressure whilst keeping a smile on their face! Primary tasks include answering the telephone, dealing with email enquiries, maintaining web content and booking viewing appointments. Previous reception or administration experience is beneficial but not essential – we are looking for someone who can demonstrate solid customer service skills and is able to use their own initiative.

We offer in-house and formal ARLA training and a competitive salary commensurate with previous experience.

If you are interested in the role please send your CV with a covering letter to jalderson@tuckergardner.com