As a nice end to the week we received TWO offers on separate properties today, one in Kent and one in Essex.

Looks like they should both turn into sales over the next couple of days too. Internet estate agency WORKS.

The total estate agents fee saving?

£4832.60

We were recommended by one of our selling clients today. Mrs Brown from Leeds has suggested us to one of her friends who wants to move home in the New Year. We’re very grateful!

Unfortunately, the person that was recommended to us inadvertently called a company called emoveUK who seem to be passing themselves off as eMoov online estate agents. They are a very new, very small set up from Southend run by ex-financial services salesmen.

Fortunately, our new customer realised their error and has now signed up with the REAL eMoov.

Suffice to say that our lawyers are being consulted on this matter right now, flattering as it is to be imitated

Check out our low, low selling fees on our HOME page:

The Chancellor is still at the despatch box as I write this but so far, as it affects housing, the following announcements have been made:

Housing Benefit to be limited to £400 per week maximum. Landlords to be affected by a squeeze on rents from DSS tenants?

A one year Council Tax freeze to be ‘assisted’ by Government in respect of those local authorities that prove prudent in cost cutting.

A bank levy to be introduced. Will this mean that bank charges and loan rates will increase to pay for it?

Capital gains tax will rise to 28% from the current 18% for high rate tax payers. This means that all the second homes and buy to let properties disposed of will have their profits taxed at the appropriate rate. This announcementwas expected, and could have been worse in fact.

VAT to increase to 20% from January. Staple items like food and children’s clothing are to remain exempt.

However, estate agency fees are not exempt of course. This means that with an average fee in Essex of £3680, the vat rise will cost you £92 more.

But the vat on an eMoov fee will rise by less than a tenner. 

Click. Sell. Save (even more) at www.emoov.co.uk

Check out our low, low selling fees at our HOME page:

Estate agency is a communications industry. There’s know how involved in terms of property valuation and the house moving process itself, of course, but the essence of the job is to tell people about houses for sale.

Getting the message out. Getting it to as many people as possible. And in particular to those that have a specific requirement for a given type/location/size/price of home. Easy huh?

Well you would think so, wouldn’t you.

Attending a recent seminar held by property portal Rightmove revealed that 28% of High Street estate agents do not bother to respond to email enquiries sent to them via the by site by prospective buyers. And we all know the traditional perception of how ‘great’ estate agents are at calling people back.

So in light of that scary stat I have had a look at the agents in Chelmsford to see what they do to communicate in this advanced and technically ‘easy’ day and age. Why Chelmsford? Just because CM1 is an estate agency hotspot. The postcode area with the highest concentration of them. 33 to be precise.

Now please bear in mind the context to all this… Hitwise and Com Res, the search monitoring tools, now say that social media sites like Twitter, My Space and Facebook have more visitors each day than search engines such as Google do. Facebook has a greater membership than the entire population of the USA (350 million against 250 million). ‘Rightmove’ is now more popular as a search term than the word ‘property’. Etc.

So the World can see where the whole marketing thing is going. Its online and, specifically, social media.

Well, the World except for estate agents that is…

Of 25 Chelmsford estate agents randomly looked at today:

FOUR do not even have their own websites.

Just FOUR are on Twitter.

Only TWO have a dedicated facebook page.

Pretty slack really.

Other areas like news journalism, celebrity, Government, the advertising industry and so on, that stand or fall on their prowess at getting brands and information ‘out there’, have embraced these modern communication weapons.

Arsenal FC has 135,000 Twitter followers. Burberry 23,000.

Marmite has 372,000 Facebook fans. Vodafone 185,000.

And that’s just the UK. Worldwide, Starbucks has 7.9 MILLION people that ’support’ its Facebook page.

Modern media is no fad.

That’s why you need to be with an estate agent that does it all.

Follow us on Twitter @emoov

Find us on Facebook as emoov

Choose wisely. Sell your home at www.emoov.co.uk

eMoov estate agents sell homes in Barking, Basildon, Billericay, Braintree, Brentwood, Burnham on Crouch, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Colchester, Clacton, Dagenham, Epping, Harlow, Harwich, Hockley, Ilford, Ingatestone, Leigh-on-Sea, Loughton, Maldon, Rayleigh, Rochford, Shenfield, South Woodham Ferrers, Southend and Wickford.

We advertise to about 8 million people a month. Not just the few that walk through the door ;-)

In the last month alone there have been 85,349 searches for properties in Essex on Rightmove.

eMoov estate agents sell homes in Barking, Basildon, Billericay, Braintree, Brentwood, Burnham on Crouch, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Colchester, Clacton, Dagenham, Epping, Harlow, Harwich, Hockley, Ilford, Ingatestone, Leigh-on-Sea, Loughton, Maldon, Rayleigh, Rochford, Shenfield, South Woodham Ferrers, Southend and Wickford.