When the country went into lockdown last month most people expected that it would last for a few weeks and then life would return to normal. It is becoming clear that this is not how things are going to turn out and that the return to normal life is going to be a gradual process […]
Since the Brexit vote and the resulting downturn in the housing market, much of my consultancy work has involved helping clients to reduce costs, says Adam Walker, but we have to avoid chopping the critical elements of the business! When things are going well, it is all too easy to let costs increase and a […]
Employee fraud is a significant problem faced by organisations of all types and sizes, says, Adam Walker and there is no reason to think that estate agents and letting agents are exempt from it. Whilst we would all like to believe that our employees are loyal and honest, there are still many reasons why your […]
“Money…” How would you complete the sentence? Money makes the world go around? Money is the root of all evil? What is your instinctive answer? And why is this important? says Adam Walker. Well, the attitude that we have towards money plays a very important role in determining how much of it we earn, how […]
‘Happy New Year… As I sit down to write this article, the first one of 2019, the estate agency news magazines, websites, portals and indeed, Twitter, are full of stories about the demise of the online estate agency sector, says Adam Walker, I hate to say ‘I told you so,’ but…” Emoov has just collapsed […]
I have written about this subject before but it’s becoming ever more important so I make no apologies for writing about it again. Hardly a week goes by now without a negative article in the press about estate agents and landlords. Last weekend, a leading firm had their office besieged by a large crowd of […]
For thirty-five years, I have viewed the burden of increasing regulation from the agent’s perspective but I have just been forced to look at it from the perspective of the tenant. One of my daughters did her degree at Kings College London and made what turned out to be a rather unwise choice of student […]
During the last few months a small number of estate agents, mostly in London and the Home Counties, have started to use conditional contracts. In other words they have started to ask buyers to pay their fees. To my mind this is an alarming development that could have far reaching implications for the whole of […]
Staging an ‘open house’ is a valuable tool in property sales, says Adam J Walker. I read an article in The Times the other day about the “high pressure sales techniques that are being employed by some estate agents”. I expected to read an article about over valuing, hidden agency fees, or overlong sale agency contracts. […]
Adam J Walker says tenants want longer tenancies. According to the national press, the great majority of people dream of being homeowners and hate being tenants. I don’t believe that this is true and by perpetuating this myth, we avoid facing up to the real issue which is that the standard Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) agreement does […]
