Bad luck Toad

In times like these when businesses are dropping like flies, more and more people are feeling the pinch and that pinch seem to be getting tighter and tighter, there seem no end to the credit crunch that’s squeezing the life out of this country.

There are many industries finding them self in a hole that seem to be getting deeper with no way out, the estate agent as a industry seem to be falling deeper than other industries.
I feel sorry to say this but in a way the estate agent could be called the condemned man slow on his walk to the gallows still in his mind preying for that last minute reprieve from the governor.

There are many facets to there demise, yes the credit crunch has hit them hard certainly harder than other industries, and we know that
offices are closing down at an alarming rate and that many ex employee are now member of that club the government love to hate the dole cue. whist watching the news a couple of weeks ago I remember seeing an interview where an estate agent mentioned that he had not sole a house for the past two months and that he feared things would not get better.
Now this is not the only problem Agent’s face because the majority of people will not feel sympathetic towards there plight, there are very few people who would have a good word for estate agent as an industry, if you stated to a friend that you new of a really good agent who had worked hard on your behalf, most people would think that this most be an exception rather than the rule one, we look at estate agents in the same way we look at maybe politicians, layers and especially in these time bankers, this perception we have is that they have little morals and the back bone of a snake yes we know there are good out there but it like a myth we here about them but trying to find one is a near impossibility.

That being said, this is not why at the end of this recession I feel the type of estate agent that will rise from a industry that has been brought to it's knees will be a much weaker entity, I believe that people’s view of the estate agent would just be the nail in the coffin that will compound there plight, Internet the, commission charges, sole sellers contracts and other dubious contracts tying sellers to them, then on top of that people’s distain for them that is what will finally signal there partial down fall and just remember the bank are not the only one’s culpable in selling house to people who could not afford them, they were key player in deals were gazumping was involved, the money a property sold for the bigger the commission agents received.

The internet has had a massive impact on the property market and within this change the internet has transformed the way agents do business, sharing information between companies has had benefits for agent, seller and buyer, this was because it give the agent the ability to market property to a wider audience, the ability to buy a house in Spain when you never step foot on Spanish soil, just an example to the power of the web.
The same benefits that help to enhance the estate agent business model will be the pin that is used to burst there bubble, along with the credit crunch and it’s effect on the property market the estate agent also has to contend with the freedoms that the internet gives the seller and buyers, the marketing opportunity that exists for business is also there for the customer and it’s this realisation that along with the credit crunch could seriously compound the woes of the estate agent.
More and more people are using the internet as a marketing tool to sell there own properties with all the recourses the internet has given us, it has given the seller and the buyer the opportunity to control the way they sell and buy there homes. Online classifieds like Craigslist and Gumtree among others are just one of the media’s that have people turning away from the traditional use of just an agent, the FSBO (for sale by owner) sites are the real dark horses in this saga, they may be the real beneficiary when there is finally an end to this the credit crunch, people seem to be turning to these site in there droves, I feel that sites like UploadAproperty will have a major hand in changing the way a large chunk of property sellers market their homes, weather sellers decide to market using solely with a FSBO site or by using an agent along side one of these sites attempting to market to us big a audience as possible.
To my surprise people are even using social networking sites to market their properties, this is a new
to property marketing it more as a result of the credit crunch , people are now trying to use every tool they can find to achieve that all important sale.

So you see with the country in the middle of a crisis the estate agents have now to try and regain ground while its industry is on its knees, it’s being attacked from all side whist it’s in a weekend state. They have to just stop and take stock, may be look again at their commission charges, definitely rethink there contracts that tie sellers to them, what ever there strategy are to regain lost ground they have some time to ponder as the global crisis dose not seem to be ending any time soon. I think the point is not what strategies they manage to conger to combat their failing business model but how many are left and still have the stomach for the fight ahead.