Co-operatives

At the moment there are 100s of websites offering EPCs, both commercial and domestic, at low cost prices Nationwide.

These are more often that not middle-men, and there has been lots of cases recently where DEAs are not being paid and the "middle-men" firms are going under, shutting up and both the DEA and the clients are getting burnt.

In 2008 I was involved with trying to set up a "union" for DEAs - mainly because I am passionate about this industry and wanted to see it promoted more but also because I felt that DEAs NEEDED to work together to provide more coverage and to effectively "cut out" the middlemen.
I feel that this, more than ever, is required. DEAs need to be working together - to provide holiday cover for each other, support and if there were enough DEAs working together to be able to provide a service to larger nationwide estate agents and clients.

If there was Nationwide coverage from a co-operative of DEAs then they would be able to have a larger pot for advertising - putting them "up" there with the middlemen on google rankings and therefore the DEAs would benefit by getting more clients and therefore more work. It would benefit the client because they would be speaking with trained and accredited DEAs and not a call centre operative who would simply be passing a message on.

This solution of a co-operative would benefit all concerned and is definitely on my Christmas wish list this year.

Good News

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20101123/tbs-uk-nationwide-03c9bed.html

Nationwide Building Society , the country's second-biggest mortgage lender, reported a 26 percent jump in first-half profit, and said it did not expect big house price falls despite signs of property market weakness.

Nationwide, which publishes a closely watched monthly house price survey, said on Tuesday major price falls were unlikely in 2011 because continued low interest rates would keep mortgages affordable and prevent a flood of distressed sales.

Mutually-owned Nationwide made an underlying pretax profit of 147 million pounds in the six months to end-September.
The improvement reflected a 44 percent drop in bad debts as a partial recovery in commercial property prices since mid-2009 helped more customers avoid defaulting on loans.
Britain's retail banks have all reported stronger profits in the past year as tighter lending criteria and a tentative economic recovery have helped reduce loan impairments.
Mortgage and savings-focussed Nationwide, the country's biggest customer-owned lender, has emerged as a relative winner from the financial crisis, snapping up financially weaker rivals including the Cheshire and Dunfermline building societies.
The Bank of England, which slashed interest rates to 0.5 percent during the crisis two years ago, was unlikely to start raising borrowing costs until the end of 2011, Nationwide said.
"We think house prices will remain relatively flat for the next few months, with some possible downward migration, but nothing significant," chief executive Grahame Beale told reporters on a conference call.
Surveys show house prices have been falling over the past three months, reflecting scarce mortgage finance and worries over the economic impact of government spending cuts aimed at reducing Britain's budget deficit.
Nationwide also said it was losing out on 300 million pounds per year because of a pledge to cap its base mortgage rate at two percentage points above the Bank of England rate, relative to the typical 4 percent rate offered by other lenders.
Over a third of Nationwide mortgage customers now pay the base rate, and more are choosing to revert to it when their fixed-term loans expire, the company said.

Wow, thank goodness some good news from the banks in the UK. I do really like this part -""We think house prices will remain relatively flat for the next few months, with some possible downward migration, but nothing significant," chief executive Grahame Beale"

Interesting day so far

As you know I have been having a minor panic about work loads these past few weeks and now - going to have a very busy day tomorrow! Am very happy, hate it when there isn't any work in as I am very proud of my little business and I want it to be a success but being self employed as a domestic energy assessor is a tricky thing in this current climate.

But the bad news has been reported again "Property website Rightmove said prices fell 3.2 percent this month, their sharpest drop since December 2007 and more than reversing October's 3.1 percent rise.
The annual rate of growth fell to 1.3 percent, its lowest this year, from 2.9 percent in October.
Mortgage lender Nationwide and property data firm Hometrack also reported falling house prices in October. With government spending cuts and tax rises due to take effect at the start of the year, there is little optimism that prices will pick up any time soon."
Being honest about the current economic situation and the housing market is the simple fact that it always goes quiet during the winter months. It always has and it always will. If a property is priced to sell it will still sell but incorrect pricing, a glut of properties and lack of mortgages being approved in conjunction with the time of year are going to have an effect on the amount of money properties are selling for and the amount of properties that are selling. So I for one refuse to panic about this!

On a completely different note I have been positive and have made arrangements to go to the gym with a friend on wednesday evening - I will do it x