Increasing number of higher end buyers employing services of property agents
January 5, 2008
Many property purchasers from the top end of the market have turned away from the traditional method of trawling through estate agents’ listings, traipsing from property to property, and spending many frustrating hours pouring over literature about properties in order to find the perfect home. Instead, these people are now turning to expert property finders to do all the legwork for them and find them the perfect home.
In the past these property finders were often used by wealthy people looking to buy en expensive country pad. However, as property prices have been soaring over recent years more and more people are being nudged towards higher priced properties and are therefore finding it more viable to employ the services of one of these agents.
Although retainer fees and charge can be expensive – around £500 to £3000 plus a percentage commission – these agents could save buyers a fortune off the asking prices, thus enabling them to recoup the money paid out.
One property finder stated: “People can do a lot of the work themselves but generally aren’t able to. The problem is that selling agents don’t take a private person as seriously as a buying agent. A selling agent knows that I have a client who is serious about purchasing. Most of the houses my clients would want are viewed by buying agents before they go on the market. I will also hear about properties private buyers will never hear about. ”
He added: ‘You used to talk about the £1m property and it was a big house in the country, it isn’t anymore – that’s £2m now.’
He also said: ‘It is interesting to see what is happening at the moment - I’m signing up more people than I would have expected. In the past when you are talking about a property crash, what you generally see is no homes on the market. Where that happens is when buyers need a buying agent because there is apparently nothing for sale.’
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