estate agent

As an estate agency currently tracking at 5 out of 5 stars with our Feefo reviews you might think that we think we’ve got this selling and renting lark down to a tee. But do we? No.

OK, so that might be a bit overly-humble – we do know what we’re doing of course – but the point is this: do we, as estate agents, truly understand what our customers want from us?

What will happen to the Canary Wharf property market in 2019?

As 2018 draws to a close the question on everyone’s mind is: what will 2019 hold for the property market?

Now, there are agencies far larger than Proper Local, with whole floors of staff dedicated to research into property prices and sentiment. We can’t pretend to have a team such as this, but we do have plenty of common sense, and some good old-fashioned proper area knowledge.

We’re not really ones to blow our own trumpet but…

We thought it might be of vague interest that we have recently awarded the ‘Highly Rated’ mark for our Lettings services by The Best Estate Agent Guide.

All forms of recognition are nice, but this award is particularly comforting because we didn’t do anything to achieve it. We didn’t apply for it. We didn’t ask for it. And we didn’t pay for it.

Tenant fees

Just in case you missed it, we thought it might be worth republishing this article from Andrew Ellson of The Times.

Of course, at Proper Local we couldn’t agree with Andrew more: the charging structure of most ‘traditional’ estate agents is indeed ridiculous.

Whilst Andrew doesn’t explicitly say it, the structure to which he is referring is a percentage-based fee structure. What very few agents will ever admit to you is that it’s the same amount of work whether you’re selling (or letting) a one bedroom flat as it is a four bedroom house. So quite why an agent would charge a fee which is two, three, four or even five times as much for doing the same job leaves us at a loss too. That’s why we charge a fixed fee.

At Proper Local we specialise in properties to rent in East London, but wherever in London you are looking to rent a property, this useful guide will help you save time.

Rental contracts in the UK typically contain two month notice periods for both landlords and tenants, although if the original fixed term of the contract has expired (and has lapsed into what it is termed a ‘statutory periodic tenancy’) tenants are only required to give one month’s notice to vacate.

You may not think that tenancy law has a bearing on when you should start your rental search, but it comes back to this: when do agents start marketing properties to let?

The Property Ombudsman TSI Trading Standards Client Money Protection Rightmove Zoopla