Come on England!

June 17, 2018 by Leigh-on-sea.com

Come on England!

As I write this the build up to England’s World Cup football first match is in full swing with the match against Tunisia tonight. It is quite an unusual situation where everybody seems quite realistic about our expectations in the tournament and the way that Gareth Southgate (the manager by the way) has conducted himself and the team has lead to an unprecedented amount of respect and pride in our team.

Obviously as we all know if it all goes wrong and we lose or even draw tonight with Tunisia all of that good will will evaporate and there will be the usual witch hunt for Gareth Southgate like we have seen in the past with previous managers such as Graham Taylor being described as a turnip or Steve Mclaren as the wally with the brolly. The England managers job has been described many times as the impossible job and even before Gareth Southgate took up the role those close to him suggested he do something easier such as being a travel agent or even estate agent but would it really have been any easier if he had chosen that route?

As I have told you all many, many times, I love my job and couldn’t imagine doing anything else but easy isn’t a word I would ever use to describe it.

Being the middle man is an interesting juggle trying to keep everyone happy and never gets boring being involved in one of the most stressful times of their lives! Not unlike I would imagine trying to keep spoilt footballers amused during a football tournament and just as every football fan thinks they can be a better England manager everyone thinks they are estate agents and know best.

First when you take a property on the market people obviously think that their house is worth more than you say and disregard the vast amounts of evidence that we produce to back up our thinking. Obviously we do as we are told and put the house on the market for what they want after much deliberation and they don’t like the photos and details that we use and are concerned that we haven’t done anything and no one wants to view!

Eventually after much persuasion they agree to listen to our advice and we reduce the price, finally get some interest and agree a sale. The offer we receive is obviously too low as their house is the best in the street but it is the best we can do and they begrudgingly accept it. On the other side the buyer obviously thinks they are paying too much money for the house and will spend the entire time during the process of buying trying to find excuses to renegotiate the price to lower than was originally agreed. Oh the joys of trying to keep everybody sweet during the transaction process, it is always a fine balance of understanding and convincing.

Maybe both sides solicitors are deemed to be useless and take forever to answer questions or respond but they both blame each other or more likely the agent and because the vendor and purchaser have to pay every time they speak to their solicitor it is easier and cheaper to call their agent to have a rant and a moan. That is after all what we are here for.

After a very delicate balance of keeping everybody informed and at arms length from each other to stop them throttling each other we do eventually exchange contracts and the day of completion comes around. On the day of the move itself the buyers are moaning at the agents that the vendors are taking too long to move out or have left the house in a state and the vendors are moaning about the buyers saying that they didn’t pay them enough to leave the house clean and couldn’t be bothered to cut the grass for them out of spite. They both rush in to the office to drop off and pick up the keys with cars overflowing with their stuff and don’t even acknowledge us poor agents.

I am hopeful though that a few weeks after the move the dust has settled and they are happy in their respective new homes. It is then sitting down for a cup of tea or discussing the move with friends that they look back and think that they might have given their agent a hard time or at least consider how much work and effort the agent put in for them. That would be reward enough for me that they take the time at a later date to give us some thought and have a wry smile.

I am joking of course (?). For the most part people are brilliant to deal with and I feel it is a genuine privilege to be involved if only in a very small part in such a monumental time of their lives. If I can be of any small assistance to make this hugely stressful process any easier then I am delighted to help. I know from my own experience of moving that I am probably the worst vendor & purchaser to deal with. I had a house on the market recently that I genuinely wanted to buy myself but the thought of going through the moving process filled me with dread and I chickened out so if I cant do it the least I can do is empathise with those that have got the bottle to give it a go themselves.

So maybe if Gareth Southgate doesn’t do very well tonight and over the course of the World Cup he does find himself at the Job Centre he might well turn up on my doorstep with his CV. After dealing with prima donna footballers, disappointed public and the backlash from the press he should have grown a thick enough skin to consider being an estate agent and I might even consider a position for him.

This article is by Rob at Scott & Stapleton
Tel: 01702 471155
Email: rob@scottandstapleton.co.uk

To read all of Rob's previous property blogs, please click the link here

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