In one afternoon I could see six different properties from six different agencies
Posted in General on 28. Aug, 2010
In one afternoon I could see six different properties from six different agencies. They just wouldn’t have the time to do that for themselves.”As well as potentially saving money, property finders can take away the headache of trying to track down the right place. Unlike estate agents, whose first interest is the vendor, finders (or search agents) work for the buyer alone and (should) charge the buyer only. Search agents became popular in the Eighties when they added private clients to their usual customers – big companies trying to find accommodation for relocated employees. Today there are hundreds of search agents around Britain and some of the bigger estate agents, such as Knight Frank, have opened their own property search divisions.
The industry is nowhere near as big as it is in the US, though, where “buyers’ agents” are far more common.”These agents are particularly useful to people in business – especially the senior executive level,” says Jim Atkins, president of the National Association of Estate Agents. “If I were a busy executive needing to relocate to Newcastle, for example, it would be cost-effective to employ someone to find it for me.”Mr Lucas certainly found Kirmir a help in warding off problems: “I was a first-time buyer and I had no idea what the pitfalls would be. They were very good at spotting things I just wouldn’t know about.”In a competitive market, property finders can also make the difference between you grabbing the home of your dreams or being pipped to the post. Charlie Ellingworth of property finder Property Vision says: “We know if a client really does have to move fast on a property and we will advise them accordingly. We also have very good relationships with estate agents, so we will push our clients’ needs harder than other prospective buyers.”Property Vision is one of the biggest and, at 18 years old, the oldest search agency in the country.
It covers London and the west and south of England and deals only in properties worth over £400,000 in London and £800,000 in the country. Charges are 2 per cent of the purchase price and a registration fee of £1,500 to £2,500, which pays for a year of searching.”The kind of people who use us are those accustomed to receiving service and paying for it,” says Mr Ellingworth. “They’re busy, successful people who just don’t have the time to look themselves Increasingly they see us as their adviser A country house now could set you back [more than] £1m. These are serious sums of money and there’s a range of possible outcomes.
We don’t just do the legwork for them; they look to us to save them money and stop them losing a good property or wasting hundreds of thousands on a bad one.”Contacts: Kirmir, 020 8960 8228; James Oliver, 020 8987 6060; Property Vision, 020 7823 8388. Searching highs and lows how to pick an agentAnyone can set up a property-finding agency, and some are less professional than others. Recommendations are best, but if you do not know anyone who has used one in your area, check some essential criteria before taking them on. * They must not act as either selling or letting agents.* They must have professional indemnity insurance.* Registration fees should cover at least two and probably three months’ searching.* The agent should take you as far as exchange and, in most cases, completion.* They must have a good local knowledge. Check by asking a few big estate agents in the area if they have heard of them.. As if to counter Knotgrass Elegy, Sally Beamish’s dystopic oratorio on modern farming premiered two weeks ago, last week’s pastoral offerings at the Proms presented life on the land as one of prelapsarian bliss.
At Monday’s Late Night Prom, the Academy of Ancient Music gave a delightfully breezy performance of Handel’s Arcadian idyll, Acis and Galatea. Then on Wednesday the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra presented The Seasons, Haydn’s other great oratorio. As if to counter Knotgrass Elegy, Sally Beamish’s dystopic oratorio on modern farming premiered two weeks ago, last week’s pastoral offerings at the Proms presented life on the land as one of prelapsarian bliss. At Monday’s Late Night Prom, the Academy of Ancient Music gave a delightfully breezy performance of Handel’s Arcadian idyll, Acis and Galatea. Then on Wednesday the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra presented The Seasons, Haydn’s other great oratorio.
Written just over a decade after the French Revolution and on the cusp of the century that would see the progressive industrialisation of Europe, Haydn’s celebration of nature and agricultural labour is as politically astute as The Tweenies Thankfully, it’s easier on the ear. The Enlightenment’s love affair with the natural world forms the body of the work: the renewal of spring, the heat of the summer, the bounty of autumn, and the mists of winter But the notion of self-determination is absent.