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Fake Agent
Fake Agent
Senior Negotiator
11867  Profile Views

About Me

That would be telling.

my expertise in the industry

16 years as an estate agent in Bristol, working in both sales and lettings. Took a sabbatical a few years back when I fell out of love with property, but now back with a vengeance and a renewed vigour.

Certainly don't think the industry is perfect, but the perception of estate agents in the media is unfair. Which is probably why so many agents are so defensive, insular and averse to any criticism whatsoever. One of my main gripes with my fellow colleagues.

I'm quite the expert on most property-related matters. That's what I tell myself, at least!

Fake's Recent Activity

Fake Agent
Without wanting to be rude, no-one asked you to become a landlord, did they? It was your own personal choice, to bring in a second income (as you've admitted yourself). And why should housing benefit go straight to a private landlord? How will that help matters? Surely people will just think of landlords as even greedier? The public perception of landlords is not good - getting housing benefit to go straight to private landlords won't help that perception. Of course, in an ideal world, there would be no need for housing benefit - people would be able to afford to live/rent somewhere without it being topped up by the government. There would be proper social housing and genuinely affordable homes to buy. But this government isn't interested in making houses affordable to buy or to rent, so nothing is going to change anytime soon. "Why is it that council tenants housing benefit is still being paid direct to the council but not to the private landlord." Housing association homes/council housing isn't there to make a profit, it's there to provide housing for those who most need it. And it's to help provide genuinely affordable housing for all. The council are expected to reinvest that money. I'm assuming a private landlord wouldn't be doing the same. Unfortunately, landlords aren't going to get much sympathy from the public at large. You are being painted as the new scapegoats - it's now moved from estate agents being the people the public love to hate, to landlords being the people the public love to hate. That's just the way of the world. There is an unfair and unsustainable burden on the PRS, but the only way of solving that is to build more houses and to make investing in the PRS less attractive. More stock, which might be hoovered up by the BTL brigade, going to first-time buyers and the like, etc. This is a governmental issue, but I'm not sure landlords are helping themselves with such a defensive and brittle approach to any criticism.

From: Fake Agent 16 February 2016 16:50 PM

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