It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A...

A couple of weeks ago I had a pop at the Governor of the Bank of England for being so negative. Well he's been replaced so hopefully the new bloke will have a more uplifting determination about him as we need bankers to stop moaning and start lending. The market is set to go and it does appear that the confidence is returning but banks are not making easy for people unless they have a large deposit. I still think the people who caused this mess should be the ones to sort it out!

November was a good month in Bradleys, we had auction successes many fold with our SWW auction selling very well, car parking spaces in St Ives selling over 50K a piece and making the national headlines and our Modern Method of sale by on-line auction continuing to go from strength to strength. In fact the only thing wrong with November or should I say 'Movember' was the facial hair seen sprouting from a few of the normally clean shaven chaps around the company. The biscuit was certainly taken by Mark Eaton the Company Senior DEA who if he wants me to give him money will need to submit a photo of the said 'Village People Biker' moustache for inclusion in this blog next time.

We have our Bradleys Conference this week so that will dominate the week and everyone will feel fully informed by the end of Wednesday and on Thursday I am off to London to attend the Sunday Times Estate Agency Awards.

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group
www.bradleys-estate-gents.co.uk

Rain, rain go away..

What a few days, rain, rain, wind and a few cats and dogs!

The market was going well and the weather has certain played it's part in trying to spoil that. One day last week the road to Exmouth was underwater so a detour over Woodbury Common was required to get to Head Office, the only thing was Woodbury Common also resembled a river! Thursday wasn't much better when I took over 3 hours to get back to Cornwall from Torbay when the Tamar bridge was down to 1 lane and closed to lorries. Hopefully things will let up this week and those who travel for work will find it a bit easier to move around and those who need to travel to view houses to buy will be able to do so again!

Fingers crossed for some sunshine!

We had a push on our new Platinum+ marketing package last week which is designed to help give an edge to the properties who really want to do everything they can to get moving. If you have not yet seen what an audio tour does for a property then have a look today.

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

What a Porker!

It seems that the Bank of England want to suppress the apparent feel good factor that seems to be touching the country following our escape from recession. The Governor said last week that house prices would not recover for another 5 years but we at Bradleys are seeing some very encouraging signs at a time of year when things would normally be slowing down. My advice to anyone thinking of buying or selling is that 'now is the time', I don't think things will ever be as cheap as they are today again and with the gaps between the price bands comparatively narrow if you want to move up a step on the ladder then don't wait too long or you will miss the boat! It's a case of who do you believe? A Banker in an Ivory Tower who is having a guess or the man who is working in the industry with copious data that can see in an instant when things start to look up!

 

Personally I will never listen to a banker again as long as I live as look what a mess they landed us all in! I continue to be immensely proud of our Allagents ranking, Bradleys are currently ranked 6th in the country but with the excellent reviews we continue to receive from our happy customers I think we have a chance of seeing our ranking rise even higher over the remainder of this year.  

I have mention flying pigs a couple of time previously in my Blog but this time we at Bradleys really have had a genuine flying pig! Well quite a quick one anyway. The Looe Rowing Club put on pig racing on Saturday night as a fund raiser and I am pleased to confirm that following on from our success at the Allagents Awards, Bradleys now have been confirmed as the winners of the 3rd race of the Pig Race Gold Cup and our Prized Porker ran in by a clear snout to take the victory in the Muddy Boot Chase.

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

Time to sell the car!

I am struggling to contain myself, the economic news remains favourable and the property market seems to have recovered just a little at a time of year when it would normally start to slow towards Christmas. It appears that those at the very top of the market have decided the bottom is here and are seriously looking and so long as a price is right then there are buyers right now.

 

Our customers are still giving us great reviews on the Allagents review site and that makes me really happy as it is the greatest proof that all of our hard work to exceed our customers' expectations is actually being achieved. Chris Baxter our Auctioneer has had a busy time with the South West Water Auction part 1 on Friday and with part 2 to come on Monday he will probably be a little quiet by Tuesday! But he has been achieving some fantastic results for one of our best corporate clients.

 

Some of you will have seen masses of National publicity for another Auction in St Ives at the end of the month where Chris will be auctioning 5 parking spaces at a guide price of 50K each and just looking at the interest and pre-auction offers I think we will see prices some way ahead of the guide!!  

So what for me this week. Meetings in Head Office on Monday and Wednesday with Area Meetings with the Managers on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. On Thursday and Friday I have ruled out some time so I can prepare for our annual Conference but will no doubt spend most of those days on the phone so that will happen at some later time!

Can all this good news continue……..read on next week

 

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

I had a dream...

The economy is on the up so now confidence will return to the market and we will see a lots more buyers. That would be the dream, the reality is the country is officially out of recession and dependent upon your choice of news source we now have the strongest economy in Europe, but as we head towards Christmas we always see a slowdown in sales so whist we have a few weeks in November to make hay we won't see any real benefit of our improving economy until spring time. That said we did really well with our innovative Modern Method of selling by on-line auction in October and we have achieved some great results for some very happy clients. We sold more property generally in October than we have for several months so that must be good news.

We continue to march up the estate agents review site Allagents league table and are now in 6th position nationally out of over 10,000 firms which is testament to Bradleys excellent customer service. Allagents is a very interesting concept as they have listed every agent in the country and if they could make their software work a little better could easily become a serious competitor to Rightmove as an agent friendly portal. In the meantime if you have never looked at the Allagents site log on and see who is good and who is bad.

Whilst the sales have been tough generally for a few months our rental business has been getting stronger and stronger, culminating in October with a record month so if wonder if the whole property ownership/renting relationship is swinging more towards the rest of Europe who traditionally have lower home ownership and more renting. Ask me in another few years and I will know more!

You haven't heard much about the other bit of my life lately which is building a new house and particularly that staircase! I can report that Varnish was applied this weekend and that must mean it must be nearly finished.   

 

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

What a difference a week makes...

What a difference a week makes in Bradleys, we have our silver award for Customer Service and I now know I am being interviewed on Friday for The ESTA's We have submitted a very robust entry so fingers crossed, I know we are really good at everything we do at Bradleys, so it will be interesting to see if the judges agree! Apart from that lot the buyers reappeared last week and several of the offices reported an upturn with sales agreed as proof of the pudding.

We changed our Area Meetings from 3 to 2 last week and I think that 2 larger meetings worked better so we will stick with that for the time being, although it did mean some people had to drive a bit further. Hopefully the longer drive was counteracted by the benefit of a larger meeting with increased influences.

So what am I up to this week? I am visiting Helston, Hayle, St Ives, Penzance, Camborne, Newquay, Teignmouth, Shaldon, Newton Abbot, St Thomas, Exeter, Torquay and Paignton offices as well as starting our budget for 2013,  starting to prepare for our end of year conference and Brian will be back from his break in Germany so will need to be updated. I don't seem to have much time or energy for house building at the minute which is frustrating as we are nearly there with it, but then nobody said it would be easy!

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

More Awards!

It's been an exciting time in Bradleys which has contributed to the lack of blogging from me, smacked wrist and I will try to do better! The big news is Bradleys were awarded silver in the Allagents review site annual awards for customer service. While Bradleys are now rated 8th out of 10,000+ firms in the country by the independent review site we were given the silver awards for both sales and for lettings which was excellent. It is always gratifying to be recognised for delivering good service. I have also entered us for the ESTA's and myself and Chris Baxter spent quite some time last week putting together all of the detailed information required to submit an entry. I don't know if we can pull off a double in the same year but it will be fun trying!

It's Area Meeting week this week and I have combined what was 3 Managers Area Meetings into 2 larger meetings which will hopefully be helpful to everyone involved. We have plenty to discuss this week so we will have to wait and see if the format is better. After that I am back on the road with more office visits which is a great part of my job seeing how everyone is progressing and developing.

 

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group