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Prime London property – the secret way in

Buying top end property in London is far from straightforward. Not only is the prime London property market currently suffering from low levels of supply, meaning competition for the best properties is incredibly tough, but much of the stock available to buy never reaches the open market. This, in turn, makes it increasingly difficult for both domestic and overseas buyers to find either the right domestic or investment property. Nevertheless, London remains one of the safest and most desirable places to invest in property, but how do you access the market if so much of it functions under the radar? This is where buying agents come in.

The buying agent

The job of the buying agent has never been more necessary at the prime level of the market. Their ability to offer impartial advice, to cut through mixed messages relayed by the media, their expert negotiation skills and perhaps most importantly, their ability to access properties that are marketed privately, makes their services indispensable. Time poor, cash rich individuals are not in a position to build the relationships necessary with estate agents, to ensure first access to properties hitting the market, or crucially to be made aware of those that don’t ever get there.

In such a competitive market, strong relationships with estate agents are essential. Estate agents know us and know that we represent clients who are committed to buying and can move quickly, therefore we are often the first to hear about properties before they come onto the open market. Agents register hundreds of buyers every week, how can they know which are the serious ones and how can they keep in regular touch with all of them?

“A diligent buying agent will be a lifelong estate agent stalker!

Instructing a buying agent to advise you shows a serious, considered commitment to buying a prime London property, which gives strength and credibility to any offer put on the table. If an agent can sell a house by making one call, he often won’t bother making two. A diligent buying agent will be a lifelong estate agent stalker! They will have worked hard over years to guarantee that they are always number one on the estate agent’s call list, receiving the first call as soon as that agent has seen a new instruction.

International investors in prime London property

For international investors with no knowledge of the prime London property market, the appeal goes even further, as a good buying agent will have extensive local knowledge essential for a home search – from good schools to transport links, to nearby development plans and intricate price variations that can vary from one side of the street to another. Increasingly buying agents are being asked to handle much more than the search and acquisition process, but are relied upon to recommend legal professionals, and even design experts.

Much more than a property search

“Finding the property is only part of the job; the work doesn’t stop there…

The job of a buying agent, especially when you are a small outfit, is a 24/7 job and you are always on call, often acting as a confidante in more than just the property search. We help with sourcing finance, a good solicitor or tax adviser, and are able to provide our clients with introductions to the best architects, interior designers, landscape design gardeners and even professionals in sourcing antiques and artwork.

“Once the perfect property is found, this is when the work really begins, and where the good buying agent really adds value to the deal…

Negotiating the deal is another essential string to the buying agent’s bow. Buying agents can negotiate aggressively for investor clients, potentially saving a healthy percentage off property asking prices. However, whilst getting a good price might be important for many, the saving is not always the most important thing but securing the best deal is, especially if the buyer is searching for the perfect lifetime home. The successful structuring and presentation of the offer put forward to the seller, is as important a part of the negotiation process as securing the best price. Savings are not the main thing for many of our clients. We are employed to identify what the client is looking for, find it and once having found it, making sure that we secure it. Sometimes price is immaterial.

Engage an experienced buying agent

The buying agent’s ability to understand cultural differences, respect and preserve client confidentiality entirely and offer expert advice and knowledge, are key to acquiring the right property. Experts have for a long time been automatically employed when it comes to almost every other investment decision – be it art or the stock market. Today, for those investing in bricks and mortar, the instruction of a good buying agent has become an equally essential requirement.

This article was originally published in JANINE STONE

More property intelligence from SIMON BARNES

by Simon Barnes

The life cycle of buying prime property – Simon Barnes

Simon Barnes on the life cycle of buying prime property and the press proclaiming the “death of buying agents”.

I was interested to read a recent article in the Financial Times about an increasing number of buying agents going out of business or throwing in the towel. Before times got tough in Prime Central London, it didn’t make monetary sense among a lot of estate agents for the lazy estate agent ‘Henry Fitzwilliam-Smythe’ to contact other property professionals or properly ‘work’ his database; not when he could sell a property with one phone call and happily take his commission, rather than making two or three calls to achieve the same result.

Sloppy buying agents

While sloppy buying agents won’t retain good clients and will be ignored by estate agents, the best buying agents who have vetted and carried out due diligence on their clients will now be making their presence felt and more importantly count with estate agents finding the current market conditions in Prime Central London trickier than for some time. Estate agents need to have the ear of those acting for serious buyers, who make the right buying noises and should be picking up the phone to buying agents with a direct access to these candidates and really exploiting this receptive market.

Property transactions

Established estate agencies who, on a point of principle, would not deal with buying agents, however talented, have or should think again. It’s a tough market out in Prime Central London, and it’s not a question of the fittest, but more about property consultants and buying agents being skilful, knowledgeable, tenacious, experienced and well-connected. Let’s be honest, great properties do not come to those who wait, you need to know who might be tempted to sell, who is selling and where to seek and find the best. Similarly, having access to serious buyers, with funds in place and motivated to buy or invest in property in PCL is a vital component in making the life cycle of a property transaction actually come to fruition.

Lining their pockets?

People tend to fixated with the amount property agents earn, they begrudge lining their jewel coloured silk lined pockets, but what they don’t learn is that this fixation will actually cost them money. Investing in a good skilful agent is money wisely spent. There is more to searching for a suitable property for your clients than sending out 50 “dear fellow agent” emails asking if they have anything suitable. The fact is that the best property is not going to be unearthed from trawling through the 50 irrelevant emails sent by young Henry at Idle & Partners who doesn’t know you from Adam and has no understanding of the type of property you really want. I know because I receive at least 20 of the blanket emails on a daily basis.

Tried and tested

What you should expect and get from your property advisor is someone with tried and tested local knowledge not ‘Google maps’, someone who knows how to negotiate confidently, someone who can (dare I say it) play one party off against the other to buy at the best market price and above all someone who works incessantly hard for their clients. Choose this person wisely and I guarantee they will save you money. Personally, I have never looked after more than four or five clients, if I did, well I’d need to create more days in the week than the current seven. Keeping it small and personal guarantees I can anticipate each clients’ needs during their life cycle – from first Mayfair apartments, to family homes in Belgravia to investment flats in Chelsea and university accommodation for their children or grandchildren, right through to retirement country houses and getaways abroad.

It’s still tough out there

There’s no doubt that the current market place is tough in Prime Central London, which is why those who came into the buying business thinking it was a way to make a pile of money, are falling by the wayside. The reality is that it may be an easy profession to enter, but to be successful and stand the test of time you need much more than a smartphone and a smart suit.

by Simon Barnes

Completing your deal in a stagnant property market

What’s making the in London and the South East property market stagnant is not what the pundits claim – a hike in Stamp Duty, Brexit uncertainty, the snap election. What’s really behind the stagnant property market is the expectation among vendors that their property is worth more than it is. It’s simply greed, built upon years of extreme growth that could never be sustained.

Any one of these pundits can draw on a whole vat of statistics, citing different elements as a barometer for property values. However, as we all know, property cannot be packaged up neatly into on asset class.

There are so many variables between properties – geographical, location, architecture, position on a street, condition, interiors, size of plot and outside space, schools and facilities – all of which make valuing correctly all the more difficult but important.

Emotional value cannot be underestimated. With some properties buyers will be prepared to pay a price because they connect with the house in a way that justifies the money; what one buyer loves may leave another cold.

While people have a need to move house, be it death, divorce, taxes, marriage or children, the motivation for moving is personal and constant. Pundits want to blame and bleat about external forces like Brexit, a snap election or Trump’s election, but ‘it is as it is’ and we would all do well just to accept this and get on with it.

Unless you’re jumping off the property ladder completely, whether it’s a bad or a good or stagnant property market, you should view it as a win-win situation. Buyers and sellers need to react to the market conditions and let realism prevail to move onwards and upwards.

Given that so many buyers are currently extremely price sensitive, never has it been more important to appoint a decent hardworking agent, who has the ability and experience to find and introduce the right buyer to the right house.

by Simon Barnes

Online v high street agents – the great ‘click’ debate

In the London property market most high street estate agents will stick their properties online; not because they will sell faster, but to showcase the type of properties they are marketing. It’s pushing their brand rather than being a winning way of securing a better buyer with one click from a potential purchaser.

In this current market if a property remains unsold then it’s usually because it has been overpriced, although not everything online is overpriced. Increasingly lazy selling agents rely on the internet to bring in the buyers rather than working the phones and painstakingly calling all ‘hot’ applicants.

There’s a belief among house hunters that estate agents charge high fees and fail to deliver a worthy service. Sellers see an online agent offering no commission deals and it seems like too good an offer to resist. The reality is that if you pay your agent 1-2% of the eventual selling price, he’s doing what you paid him to do and you should factor in their fee when you agree the price. The fact is that using an online agent or selling privately will cost more at the end of the process than using the traditional selling agent.

It’s important to remember that the fee you pay your agent includes finding and introducing the buyer, it covers negotiating and coaxing to get the best possible offer from your buyer. Conveyancing is a minefield and a good agent will have a solid working relationship with your solicitor and often an in-house dedicated team to track the process over the sale process. Assuming all the due diligence has been done between the vendor and their solicitor and then the selling agent to push the sale through to exchange of contracts and completion, the agent’s fee of 1% to 2% will be money well spent.

Weighed up against the risk of loss of opportunity when using an online agent or selling privately through not gauging the right selling price, no hand holding or screening buyers, zero negotiation skills and a lack of industry and market knowledge and an unsold property could amount to a far greater cost than a 1% agent’s fee.

by Simon Barnes

Expert property viewing advice for buyers and sellers

Simon Barnes offers his insights (and some advice) for property buyers and sellers; including mobile phones, smelly pets and annoying sellers.

Buyers

Buyers who do not pay attention during viewings and instead spend their ‘viewing’ time texting or on the phone. If you’re serious about buying, there will be an important decision to be made; so for perhaps 20 minutes, dare to turn your phone off!

Buyers who disappear after a viewing without giving any kind of feedback leaving everyone concerned in an unenviable state of limbo. Just let us know what you thought of the property… that’s all!

Buyers who ask stupid questions – usually because they’ve been on the phone for the duration of the viewing! You would know what the service charge is if you’d been listening… likewise that there is permit parking/off street parking/garage parking…or no parking etc etc

Sellers

Preparation – decisions are made within the first few minutes of viewing a property and yet strangely, few sellers seem to fully understand this so I make a point of always arriving at least 30 minutes before a viewing to ensure everything is as it should be.

Vendors who follow you around on viewings with a running commentary do nothing to ingratiate themselves to any prospective buyer – they only irritate!

Pets may well be loved by their owners but their ‘scent’ does not assist the viewing process – so I would recommend removing all evidence of smelly pets… or any pets for that matter.

About Simon Barnes

Simon Barnes has built a reputation for possessing insider knowledge, treading the pavements of London’s fanciest streets for more than 20 years acquiring prime properties for the well-heeled and wealthy. Working slightly ahead of the curve; his code of practice has been always to retain a manageable cluster of clients rather than spreading his attention too thinly.

The buying agent

International investors in prime London property

Much more than a property search

Engage an experienced buying agent

Sloppy buying agents

Property transactions

Lining their pockets?

Tried and tested

It’s still tough out there

Buyers

Sellers

About Simon Barnes

Contact H. Barnes & Co – Tel: 020 7499 3434