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Brokerage Scheme

Submitted by FRoberts on 3 June, 2010 - 09:23

Hi

The subject of brokerage schemes came up at yesterdays meeting of the North Wales Empty Homes Officers.  As often happens the officers will get enquiries about empty properties from interested parties, either interested in renting or buying, also they may get enquiries from owners of empty properties who want to rent out, sell etc and were concerned about  matching up these people with out being seen as having a letting/estate agent role.  Has any one been involved in any kind of brokerage scheme and if so, please can you share your secret...many thanks

Fiona

Shelter Cymru Empty Homes Officer

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Brokerage

Submitted by ppalmer on 4 June, 2010 - 07:50.

 Hi there, south derbyshire are the experts, please see link.

http://www.south-derbys.gov.uk/housing/empty_unoccupied_properties/buying_an_empty_property/default.asp

 

Paul Palmer
Empty Property Consultant
www.paulpalmer-emptyproperties.co.uk
Associate of the Empty homes Agency
Currently working at Corby and East Northants.

Brokerage

Submitted by Emma Kumar on 5 June, 2010 - 11:31.

Hi Fiona

I think as Paul says South Derbyshire are the lead on this and you may find that a similar scheme would work in your area. I don't know if the properties they list on the website are the long term horrors or the shorter term empties which would otherwse be (or are also) with an Estate Agent.  I do keep meaning to talk to South Derbyshire as I would like to expand what we do on this at the moment.

Here in Brighton & Hove any such scheme is likely to be labelled a squatter's guide (there's a history!) - so we have to tread very carefully.  

We keep an  Investor's List - which is people who are looking for an empty to buy and we send this list to the empty property owners (rather than the other way round)!  It is a bit convoluted and, when the market was rising - pretty ineffectual really in that any empty would have had several willing buyers putting notes through the door or using Land Registry to trace the owner anyway. In the current market it is proving more useful - with at least one sale because of it. 

We also have a couple of owners at the moment who have agreed that we can send the property details out - we get their specific agreement in writing - so that's a good development.

As said - it's an area I'm keen to expand so I'll be watching the thread with interest.

 

All the best

Emma

 

Brokerage

Submitted by Luke Taylor on 7 June, 2010 - 09:48.

 

Hi

We are looking at setting up something similar, and hope plagiarise the South Derbyshire set up. We were concerned about highlighting properties that are empty, and shall therefore include a disclaimer which must be clicked yes before the page with the form for registering a home for sale, and as potential purchaser is completed.

Our plan is to probably retain the list of potential purchasers in house, (this is mainly to monitor usage), and to require sellers to have energy efficiency certificates etc, as they are probably legally required to do so as we were not sure if this can be counted as a private sale as putting it on a council website in effect becomes public advertisement.

 

Thanks

Luke Taylor

Brokerage

Submitted by elliwguner on 8 June, 2010 - 07:55.

 

At present Gwynedd is offering a similar service but it is not advertised. I am currently working with a couple of developers who made a successful freedom of information request to get a list of all empty homes in Gwynedd. The details of the owners were of course not given.
They have come to me then with a list of empties they are interested in buying. On their behalf I have sent letters out to the owners of the empty properties asking if they had an interest in selling, and if so to contact me. I have then either put them in touch with the prospective buyer or vice versa or given the prospective buyer the details of where the property is being sold ie. Estate agent.
We are the 'middle man' merely putting people in touch with each other, this has been working well, although time consuming. No sale has gone through yet but its very early days.
Through doing this I have gained a lot of information about several empties I might not have known otherwise; although they may not want to sell I can now work with in another way.
We are now looking to expand this to create a web page like South Derbyshire to match-make sellers and purchasers.
 
All the best
 
Elliw

Elliw Güner