Property programmes on TV

Continuing his series of property articles, estate agent Trevor Cooper looks at the growing development of property programmes on television...

COUNTLESS thousands of people regularly roam unnoticed through others' homes due to the growing development of property programmes on television. The presenters smile, fume and despair at house hunters. The house hunters smile, fume and despair at each other, and the property owners probably wish they had never agreed to let their houses be shown.

But is television reflecting real life? Is it really like this when house hunting in Guernsey?

Let's put aside the property makeover programmes (who can forget Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen? He recently predicted that avocado bathroom suites will soon make a comeback) and disregard the renovation sagas and the 'grand-design-but-I-couldn't-live-there' epics. These are the house buying programmes where we size up the people wanting to buy a property as much as the houses.

For a start, the television presenters are not acting as estate agents in the usual sense. They are playing the part of property finders effectively working for prospective buyers, not the sellers. The job of property finders is to uncover the perfect property based on their clients' requirements. They are not, generally, instructed by owners to sell property. Their job is to knock on doors and search estate agents' listings for the right property for buyers, who pay the property finder commission, or a finder's fee, when successful.

One such programme is the cosy 'Escape to the Country' where we television viewers and the couple on the programme are asked to choose between three or four houses in the whole of an English county that must be bursting with properties for sale. One of the presenters, Jonnie Irwin, is at least a qualified building surveyor with a university degree in estate management. Fellow presenters include Jules Hudson, who was originally an archaeologist while Aled Jones is better known for flying with snowmen.

'Location, Location, Location', which has a regular audience of over 4m. viewers is the epitome of these programmes, although some house hunters in Guernsey are confused by what they see. They cannot understand why their local estate agents are not driving them about, taking them down the pub for a drink and making urgent calls with 'take it or leave it' offers on their behalf.

The difference is that estate agents are working for and being paid by the people trying to sell the properties, the current owners, the prospective vendors. All estate agents happily befriend potential buyers but this confusion can have unintentional yet serious ramifications.

It is known for buyers to make an offer through an estate agent but also say, as they do on television, 'We'll pay more if we have to but see if the owner will accept a lower offer.' The estate agent working for the owner is duty bound to tell his or her client exactly what was said. The objective is to achieve the best price possible for the property. Imagine the uproar if the new owners innocuously tell the departing occupants that they would have paid the asking price but the estate agent had knowingly got a lower offer accepted.

It is not unusual, even in Guernsey, for buyers to criticise estate agents for not trying harder to negotiate a lower price. That is not their job.

So these television programmes are fun and compulsive viewing but house hunters must take care to know the difference between an estate agent and a property finder.

Quintessential Relocation Consultants is a property finding company founded in Guernsey in May 2010 by Jo Stoddart who, with consultant Liesl Esterhuizen, assists a growing number of private and business individuals looking to move to Guernsey, Alderney and Jersey.

And finding properties for their clients is only part of the job. Newcomers have plenty more issues that could be overlooked in the process of moving house, starting a new job and putting children into schools.

The list seems endless, but from the company's website, www.quintessential-relocation.com, they include Housing Licence applications, registering with doctors and dentists, obtaining local driving licences and registering non-Guernsey vehicles, introductions to banks and insurance companies, arranging visits for schools, nurseries and childcare, linking up removals, advice on domestics and trades people, listing club memberships, career support and social networking for partners and even advice on the best restaurants, pubs and hairdressers.

Jo Stoddart is well known for her previous work as an estate agent in Guernsey and a rapid endorsement of her new company followed in December 2011, when Quintessential Relocations was appointed the exclusive Channel Island partner of The County Homesearch Company, one of the UK's leading and longest-established property finders – and also one of the homefinders for 'Location, Location, Location'.

On a recent visit to Guernsey, Jonathan Haward, County Homesearch's chairman, commented that having met Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp many times they are the same in real life as their screen personas. Phil is always nice and Kirstie at times just as scary.

Phil Spencer's main focus is actually as CEO of Garrington Home Finders, a leading independent residential home search consultancy that he established in 1996 with offices in London and the West Country.

Taken in proper context these property programmes can be helpful as well as entertaining. Just click on Channel 4's accompanying website www.channel4.com/4homes for a staggering amount of information about buying, selling and improving property.