Has anyone used Foxtons introduction 0% sale fee (Lounged)

[Dorothy]

Some facts about Foxtons:

If they come and value your house at ?50k more than any other agent, then they are wrong about its value! It will not sell because buyers are not stupid. Buyers have free access to every other agent in the area and the internet. Who and where are these ignorant buyers, the ones that Foxtons have exclusive access to? Who will pay ?50k over the odds for a property just because a teenager in a Foxtons mini tells them they should? Honestly!!!

Foxtons are going to be covering a huge geographical area from their office in East Dulwich. Tulse Hill, Brockley, Brixton, Sydenham, etc. This is why they have such a big office, so many staff, and so many minis. The other agents on Lordship Lane focus on East Dulwich, occasionally getting instructions in Forest Hill, Nunhead, Camberwell and the immediate surrounding area.

Agents do the vast majority of their work after the sale has been agreed. It is in their interest, motivated by the complete lack of payment of any kind until a sale has completed, to keep long and complicated chains together. Agents negotiate on price changes after bad surveys etc, find other properties for people if one sale in a chain falls apart to keep the chain complete, and generally deal with constant hassle from stressed buyers/sellers, non-communicative solicitors, surveyors, builders, exiting tenants. Oh and they also work generally work 6 days a week, 9 hours a day before even starting on their evening viewings.

Agents take the brunt when buyers make an appointment to come and view and then cancel at the last minute, or simply decide not to show, because they have suddenly found somewhere else, their own sale has fallen through, they are too hungover, they forgot, its a sunny day and they feel like going to the park.

To get a ?10,000 fee in East Dulwich these days, then the agent would need to be selling a house at ?850,000. Not many of those around here, even if prices are a lot higher than they used to be. And more likely their fee will be ?8,500.

The days of 2% commission are long gone!

Except that now Foxtons are here, with their notoriously high fees, ED estate agents will be able to raise theirs to maybe a cheeky 1.5% to 1.75% and still undercut them. Foxtons' local competition is taking a measured view over their arrival. It may be quiet for a few months while the locals get all excited about the 0%, but then things will improve a great deal for other agents in the vicinity by dint of the fact that local selling fees are simply going to get higher.

[*Bob*]

Thanks for that, Heretostay.

And the non-Foxtons estate agent you are connected to is...??

[macroban]

> Oh and they also work generally work 6 days a week, 9 hours a day before even starting on their evening viewings.

I wasn't aware that estate agents could exercise derogation under the European Working Hours Directive.

[peckhamasbestos]

been away for a bit, and can't be bothered to read previous posts, but went past it today and two (3) things occurred;

great shop front, looks excellent!

in a world were all estate agents are viewed as shysters, why not use the best(worst)! of them all?

look for a sign outside my house soon!

(btw, imho DDA legislation dos not just apply to the ambulantly disabled!)

mr.p.asbestos

[macroban]

> (btw, imho DDA legislation dos not just apply to the ambulantly disabled!)

This refers to the surprising threshold?

[SimonM]

>>>(btw, imho DDA legislation dos not just apply to the ambulantly disabled!)<<<

And noone has suggested anywhere that it does.

[Dorothy]

? Bob.

[jbob]

Foxtons shopfront is naff and an afront on Lordship Lane, for that rason i'v fallen a little bit out of love with East Dulwich.

[Spangles30]

Jbob, Oh you have to admit the funky, colourful chairs add a bit of flair to the locale - and they did give me an Italian biscuit when I popped in to get a balloon yesterday.

Bless 'em.

[DiD]

What's wrong with Foxton's? Loads. Set aside the affront (no pun intended) to Lordship Lane -- and it is totally out of scale with the street -- Set aside the 2.5% hike to fees when the 0% offer runs out and the impact on the local estate agents -- more likely to drive their prices up, rather than Foxton's prices down. Set aside the influx of black pinstripe suit-wearing mini-drivers without personality. (I wanted to throw up on seeing their entry Friday eve for some big party)

The big issue is as more chains move into Lordship lane, and more over-expectant Clapham-ites along with them, the rental prices will be driven up and the lovely independent shops that give this area is unique character, will be priced out, and all but disappear. Our high street will be no different than any other. Horrible.

The negative impact of driving up real estate prices also has another negative impact on the area. The artists, the mixed community, etc....will be (if they aren't already) completely priced out. If I wanted to raise my family amongst a load of white over-paid toffs, then I would have moved to Fulham.

In reference to the posting earlier, the Retail consultant asks why Southwark didn't pay attention to the mis-use of the frontage? Me suspects that because it the building was a social services one before, wasn't it? Perhaps some sort of back-handed offer? Just guessing.....

For those like-minded Foxton haters, I was wondering if we should launch some sort of anti-Foxton public campaign. I was thinking of printing up some flyers saying why they ruin the neighbourhood and popping them into the door of anyone with a Foxton's sign up; along with carrying them with me and handing them out before people pop into the shop. I've never been a protestor, but something about them just offends me to the core.

[*Bob*]

Yes! Let's take ED back to the days of the friendly local non-chain estate agent.. you know.. Haart, Winkworth, Bushells etc. The good old days.

[Andyng]

*Bob* Wrote:

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> Yes! Let's take ED back to the days of the

> friendly local non-chain estate agent.. you know..

> Haart, Winkworth, Bushells etc. The good old days.

All the agents above are chain agents anyway.Hundreds of people

have already signed with foxtons.They will be here a long time

love it or hate it

[*Bob*]

Andyng Wrote:

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> All the agents above are chain agents

> anyway.

Jeez, Andy..! Really?!

[monica]

did i will join your petition,they have really got up my nose.Plus the fact they leave their lights on all night,does that come under noise pollution,and they were giving out plastic bags,that comes under Eastdulwich SNUB pollution.The snubbers are on the case,and we are going to present them with a little gift.fox trotters

[Nero]

>a load of white over-paid toffs'

This isn't a place for racism, even of the (possibly) self-hating kind. Nero

[SeanMacGabhann]

Nero, for that post alone I love you... (not that your others don't count etc)

There are some genuine, honest to goodness reasons to be bothered about the advent of the Foxtonista chain - but let's not blow things out out of proportion. A street already blessed with a plethora of gor-blimey-good-as-gold-look -after-me-mum-old-fashioned estate agents is augmented by an estate agent which has the audacity to take over a "beautiful" "heritage-listed" building, ride rough-shod over the planning regulations and install a modern frontage - let's all man the barricades

Ok ok - they aren't helping business rent/rates in the area and certain landlords are rubbing their hands - and as someone who knows personally the damage done to independent businesses by aforementioned landlords I have no desire to see their hand strengthened.. but my honest opinion is that, ultimately, Foxtons have taken on a never-likely-to-be-bettered corner of LL, installed something useful (ish) and tarted the place up a bit.

If they go out of business tomorrow (which they won't, what with all the local people in there giving them business) and even if the recession hits.. come a few years down the line a much more attractive premises is available for a new opportunity...

[Jeremy]

I actually preferred the old prison-style brick wall! The Foxtons office might look smart in Canary Wharf or even in the west end.. but on LL, it just looks ridiculous!

[Marmora Man]

Jeremy Wrote:

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> I actually preferred the old prison-style brick

> wall! The Foxtons office might look smart in

> Canary Wharf or even in the west end.. but on LL,

> it just looks ridiculous!

It'll make a great bar if Foxtons ever shut down.

[macroban]

Foxtons have lost a significant court case about their contract conditions. Significant enough to make it to The Times Law Reports.

Anyone who signed up to Foxtons in the glitz of their arrival in East Dulwich and who now feels shafted may now have recourse if they are in similar circumstances to the plaintif.

[macroban]

The law report in The Telegraph provides more context and is easier to understand.

[Administrator]

Lounged - an old thread and is no longer East Dulwich specific

[rogertebbutt5k]

-- moved topic --

[macroban]

It seems that "journalists" have now worked out some of the implications of the legal decision.

This seems East Dulwich specific to me if anyone has paid East Dulwich Foxtons an illegal commission.