October, October, why have thou forsaken me?
In August we were reporting the busiest month that we’ve ever had and I was questioning whether the old wisdom about spring and autumn being the best months in the property market really applied any more. And then October happened…oh, October.
I’m the Managing Director and a solicitor at a rapidly-expanding firm of solicitors and estate agents with its Head Office in Edinburgh. We sell properties in Edinburgh and the Lothians, Glasgow and the Scottish Borders and have an innovative feeing model that puts the focus on transparency and value for money. I’ve long thought that the way that most estate agents charge their clients is completely unfair and that it does not represent good value for money.
So, do you want to get back at these greedy estate agents and save yourself thousands of pounds? Well, at the risk of making myself very unpopular with some colleagues, here are my Top 10 Insider Money Saving Secrets about how estate agents make money, hide fees and basically charge you more than you really should be paying.
There are signs, just an inkling of a feeling, that confidence is dropping in the property market.
Not from buyers. We have sold more this month already than last month. The more concerning factor is that supply seems to be weakening. Statistics that I saw today suggest that the number of properties coming to the market in September was lower than the number in August and by a full 10 percent. Our own experience almost exactly mirrors this. More concerning from our point of view is that so far in October we have seen the number take a small nosedive. Our stats are usually pretty representative of what’s happening in the wider market at least in Edinburgh and the Lothians.