Who am I?

Welcome to the inaugural www.allenwargent.com blog, your portal into the fascinating world of property search. 

Who am I? (mimics Henry Kelly at the start of a 'Going for Gold' question). Property buying agent, property buyer's agent, property finder, relocation agent, buying advisor, buyer's representative...call us what you want, our industry has somewhat of an identity crisis. We're not estate agents as we don't sell or market property, but we are regulated by the Estate Agents Act 1979 and have to comply with the Anti Money Laundering regulations set out by the Office of Fair Trading. For the purposes of Professional Indemnity insurance we are also covered as estate agents to a large degree, but we still don't sell property. Confused? That's just the start of it. 

In the UK, we often don't consider using an agent or representative when buying property. Essentially estate agents marketing property are paid by the seller and thus have no contractual obligation to provide a buyer with a service. If they did have, there would obviously be a huge conflict of interest. Just as an estate agent will advise a seller on the right price and method to market their property, surely a buyer should also be advised the best price to pay for their new home or investment? An agent acting for the seller ultimately wants to get the best price for their client, so is that in the buyer's best interest?

Estate agents get a bad press more often than not, but there are more good ones than there are bad. Our bad experiences are often borne out of not having aligned interests, very common when you want an estate agent to do something for you as a buyer, when they are contracted to someone else, namely the vendor. Maybe it's worth considering having someone looking out for you? 

Perhaps that is where we come in, but who are we exactly? See www.allenwargent.com to learn more about us and the markets we work in.

Now for something away from property. One message that was reinforced to me this week in discussion with one of our clients is that successful people will often surround themselves with people who are better than them in an array of fields in order to keep on learning and evolving. Sounds simple, but often our own insecurities and/or egos can make us feel threatened by those who know more and thus we place a ceiling on what we can achieve. Kjell Nordstrom (www.kjellnordstrom.org), talks about the need for businesses to constantly evolve just to stand still and maintain success, so surrounding yourself with the best is not a bad way to achieve this.