Sherryfitz.ie is re-newed

Sherry FitzGerald has launched a new website. Have a look and let us know what you think (anonymously if you wish, of course).

For the occasion, Mark FitzGerald has written a new overview of the company, from which:

"In a Sherry FitzGerald business, the culture isn't what one finds in the yogurt in the fridge in our offices, rather it's the standards by how we conduct our business day in and day out."

"We don't deny that like all businesses we need to make a profit, but we believe in the mantra as echoed by the late Bill Hewlett of Hewlett Packard "Profits are like oxygen and blood, you need them but they are not an end in themselves"."

"Uneducated opportunists" please remove yourselves

Asked recently by Irish Construction,What do you think are the main challenges facing your sector in the future?

Alan Cooke of the IAVI had this to say:

"For properly educated estate agents to seize the opportunity and recover ground lost to uneducated opportunists who entered the business to take advantage of the State's heretofore lax approach to the need for estate agents to study law, valuation methodology, town planning, building construction etc.

This, coupled with the fact that most uneducated estate agents have never experienced a difficult market, presents an ideal opportunity to those for whom real estate was always a first choice career, for which they secured relevant third level qualifications, to effectively reclaim the market."

We just hope he didn't actually say that out loud, cause it's quite a mouthful.

Great agents' blog in Longford

Well worth checking out and keepting an eye on is the local property blog for Longford by Brendan Harte of RE/MAX Premier Services: http://countylongford.blogspot.com/

Restrictions on the market

"Twenty-three agencies in rural Ireland are pulling in the welcome mat with locals-only laws that require potential house builders to have jobs in their areas or even to be fluent in Gaelic, according to the European Commission. Opponents of the rules say they unfairly deny people like McGoldrick the chance to enjoy the fruits of successes achieved elsewhere.

The commission, the European Union's executive agency, is examining the restrictions to determine whether they breach an EU treaty that grants citizens of member nations the right to settle anywhere in the region."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/08/business/land.php

Noticed a few things ...

Keating Somers are no longer with ERA. (Since when, I'm not sure.)

Justin Kinsella has left GPK Properties & set up on his own just down the road: www.justinkinsella.com.

Derek Brawn is no longer with Savills research department - not sure since when, or where he's gone.

Lowe & Associates have redesigned their website.

Watching the watchers

These sites are well worth keeping up with - offering an insight into the way the online world spin the property market:

• A Random Walk
• Daft Watch
• Irish Property Watch
• The Property Pin

And since MyHome.ie's change of format, the Irish Property Watch is now using Daft and operating from a blog called, Trees Don't Grow to the Sky: http://www.treesdontgrowtothesky.blogspot.com/

Said the agent to the developer ...

Destroy the blogosphere!

New site for Real Estate Alliance

http://www.realestatealliance.ie/ - interesting graphics/motifs being used as links to the main sections of the website.

HWBC go You Tube

Friday 7th September 2007 saw the inaugural HWBC Golf Day & BBQ at the PGA National Palmerstown House course in Johnstown Co. Kildare. Follow this link for brief video highlights....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YIKpHiqRBU

The golf scramble was won by the four man team (pictured below) of Eamon McHugh (McHugh Kinsella), Brian Hayes TD, Dermot Murphy (IAWS Group) and Simon Coyle (Mazars) who finished ahead of the other 80 golfers who partook in the shotgun start which ensured everyone was finished in time to join the non golfing fraternity for a post game BBQ. This includued live coverage of France v Argentina in the opening match of RWC 2007 on the specially installed big screen with analysis and insight provided by special guest Brent Pope.

The days other celebrity, Mike Murphy of Harcourt Developments and RTE was unlucky not to capture first prize with his playing partners; Brendan O' Regan (Boundary Capital), Fergus Dowd (Irish Life) and Declan Power (HWBC), as they finished in second place, just 0.65 of a shot off the lead.

A thoroughly enjoyable days (and evenings) entertainment was had by all and plans are already afoot to repeat the event again next year provided of course the weather agrees to co-operate again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YIKpHiqRBU

Paris & Irishtown

Came across this on the blog of an ex-employee of PropertyWeek. Good ol' L! We still remember her with fondness.

Clarke Auctioneers

This is another commendable agent website. Clear, concise, easily navigable and attractive. Not sure who designed it but it's an excellent site! www.clarkeauctioneers.com

Property Monkey is confused by mixed messages

From the Irish Independent: "THE Broadcasting Complaints Commission yesterday rejected a complaint of bias against an RTE programme about the property market.

'Future Shock: Property Crash', broadcast on RTE1 last April, looked at the possibility of property prices in Ireland falling in the future.

The Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute made a formal complaint to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission, claiming that the programme had not been impartial and had a detrimental affect on the property market".

Builders are experiencing widespread layoffs from sites, this was the first sign mentioned in the programme wasn't it? And the BCC are affirming that it wasn't completely made up nonsense! Are the skies darkening...

Chin up, room for optimism

According to today's Department of the Environment Q1 2007's Housing Statistics Bulletin: "The average price of a new house nationally was €320,969 in the first quarter 2007, which was 9% higher than the average price in the same quarter in 2006. The average price of a second hand house nationally was €379,874 in the first quarter 2007, which was 9% higher than the average price in the same quarter in 2006". This seems to buck the trend of recent reports from various institutions & agencies which have widely reported a stagnant housing market at best with many areas experiencing a fall in prices. The methodology of these house prices is based on loans approved by lending agencies so whether it is 100% accurate, especially in the face of overwheming evidence suggesting the contrary, is up for debate. There is also the fact that prices were still rising in Q2 2006 so this may also explain favourable results for Q1 2007 when compared with the same period last year. Anyway it's nice to see a report challenging the doomsayers and giving people some room for optimism.

GVM's website is admirable

Created by some crowd called DESIGNWORX.ie based in Limerick and using some (I would guess) in-house code they are packaging as Property Hub, hoping perhaps to make it available to other agents.

The thing is, it is clearly influenced, in my opinion, by Blog designs (like this Blogger one), and I like that.

To deny or not to deny the elephant in the room

Kelly Hudson don't ignore it: on the HEADER of their website, against a clear blue sky they proclaim:

Kelly Hudson can promise an experience that puts "honesty" and "hard work" in the same sentence as "estate agent".

The implication is that one doesn't usually find them in the same sentence, or find these virtues evidenced in the work of estate agents.

The only problem is, by putting them in inverted commas they could be misinterpreted - you might end up reading them sarcastically, imagining the agent doing the "" inverted comma thing with their fingers while saying them with a sarcastic grin on their face.

Gob stoppingly poor standards

This has got to be the worst-ever description of a property Agent PW has ever come across. It's for a 1-bed cottage bang on the coast in Co Clare between Kinvara and Ballyvaughan.

"The Mother Of All Locations!!!
Stunning Holiday Cottage Which Offers Privacy Most Rarely Seen In A Setting That Is Eye Watering"

At €500,000 one would hope they'd have more to say about it in the description than this drivel. If I was the vendor I'd have them taken off the instruction immediately.

How to join the church of latter day ethical estate agents

This gimmick is not just very funny, clever & up-to-date, it actually works as marketing.

http://www.tedtruitt.com/

Having looked at it, you're ready, you're primed & receptive in fact for a really interesting angle on the difficulty estate agents have in terms of their public image.

Unfortunately, what you get in the target website on an ethical code for estate agents is packaged very badly - a failure in terms of marketing/communications - totally over the top, too "clean" & idealised, not direct enough:

http://thecodeisgoodbusiness.com/

Therefore, as a combination, it's a strange juxtaposition of what you might call a European-like, satirical piece of marketing with a classic bit of po-faced American preaching.

Imagine giving out badges to your employees who had shown respect for a code of ethics! They'd laugh in your face & rightly so.

Euphemistic Madness, Propertymonkey to the rescue.

Estate agents have conducted some excellent research over the last ten years or so as house prices have experienced unprecedented growth levels. I always wondering though, how news would be managed if prices began to go downwards instead. This finally started to occur over the last few months. One leading agent/economist describes how “the average price of a second-hand property in Ireland eased back moderately by 1.1% during the first three months of 2007”. Also "House prices eased further in the Dublin second hand market in the first quarter of the year with prices falling back by 2.3%". Correct me if I’m wrong but is “eased back” not a fall, drop or decrease? In conjunction with this we are told that if certain areas are excluded from the analysis, even a slight increase can be detected from the figures. Is there any need to soften a soft landing? Enough of this fluffiness I say, let’s call a spade a spade. Propertymonkey is no fool!

Worth a wager?

With the political parties' promises to abolish or significantly extend stamp duty exemption levels for first time buyers, Paddy Power is offering odds on how the election outcome might impact on non First Timers. 4/6 is being offered on stamp duty being abolished on second hand homes (up to the value of €500,000) while 11/10 is available for those who fancy No.