Consider the following possible scenario which could hypothetically arise from such hypothetical activity.

Estate agency (or estate agent) purchases properties to flip them at a higher price, then credit crunch and HPCrash sets in devaluing said properties and preventing their sale.

1 If this were to be the case is it ethical
2 If this were to be the case is it legal (I suspect it is but stand to be corrected)
3 If this were to be the case I wonder who bought the properties in the first place (wouldn't the sellers suspect they may not be getting a fair market price?)

Now lets say the Bank says 'Sell Your personal portfolio now!'.....

4 More importantly do you not think that this hypothetical estate agency/agent will try and sell his personal portfolio before trying to sell anyone elses - again would this be eithical.

Again I stress this is a hypothetical situation - could it occur??

Is there any regulation covering estate agencies???

Estate Agents need to live in houses, therefore they either have to buy them or rent them. Surely that is fairly obvious.

Also, fairly obviously, there may be conflicts of interest, and this is why you will see notes on property particulars where estate agency staff or their families have an interest in a property.

The Estate Agents Act 1979 covers estate agents, the clue is in the name.

We actually discussed this about 2 months ago, posters on here reported many properties that were being sold by estate agents (and their family members) while some of these EAs where telling sellers to wait until spring to sell their properties because the market would pickup during this time.

Sure, I remember the 'ole days of the first apartment 'gold rush' in Belfast, way back in mid/late '90's - the talk was then, allegedly, that the friends, family of E A's, contractors etc signed up and paid the minimal booking fee, then maybe the 5% deposit.. Then when other buyers clamoured to buy on/after general release, they were allegedly told that although all the Apts were fully booked immediately on release, some buyers had 2nd thoughts and decided to pull out, and were willing to sell their booking/contracted apt on, at a profit. All allegedly of course..... Now the contracts are more watertight from Developers solicitors, esp re purchaser selling Apt between booking/contract being signed and completion, so not sure if same allegedly occurs.... allegedly.

regards

most estate agents and yes sorry but I'm tarring the majority of them...not all but most...seen the money to be made in property and like all nice pigs...got their noses stuffed in the trough. I'm glad most of them are struggling now. I for one think, just like politicians, Estate agents do little deals away from public view to make money.

mmmm - what if the hypothetical estate had 40 properties for sale??

Then The Estate Agents Act may be being breached.

An agent is hired to get the best price for a client, and must declare any interest. Anything else is fraud.

does anyone have the skill to compile, say from a well known property website a list of all the estate agents and the number of properties they are tied to and have declared say be 'owned by estate agent' 'friend of estate agent' etc

It might be useful to see how that number changes over time for each estate agent.

I think this might be what you are looking for: Click here

It shows all the search returns for NI (Sale and Rent) which have a vested EA interest using the search keywords; "a member of staff"

The total as of 03/01/08 currently stands at 32 properties. Will be interesting to see how this changes over time.

Also search under estate agent act 1979 brings up a few too.
http://www.propertynews.com/results.php?s=34752142&p=1

seems strange 32 properties - this hypthetical estate agent allegedly had 40 to get shot of.

However hypothetical estate agent could be 1) holding houses in a limited company to protect himself from estate agents act with a business friend fronting it. 2) be unable to appear in court due to illness or incapacity 3) the bank holding the debt might only want to put several houses on the market at one time to keep prices high.

Hypothetical lawyers and developers will be covering their butts big style just now - the tide is going out.

Yeah doccyboy I believe you have got it in one!!

That would be my 'hypothetical assessment of such a scenario', however I'm not so sure that ordinary punters trying to sell their properties with this hypothetical estate agent will get a fair shake - I bet the hypothetical estate agent will sell his stock first.

Sorry for being naive but I thought that this was the end game of most estate agents anyway. They use their estate agent business as a "loss leader" to entice punters through the door. The automatically get passed any new potential development property that comes on the market and try and buy it "off market" before anyone else gets a sniff of the deal. They then develop the property and use their business to flog it at maximum, pumped-up, over the odds rates. Almost all of the estate agents in my area have their own development companies and do just as described above. The ones who don’t are new to the game and haven’t yet collected enough business contacts to play "the big game".

Well you could well be right - maybe I was the naive one - and I'm being sincere when I say that too. If they were playing both end of the markets then they deserve everything they get. I have no time for insane greed.

I have a great conflict of interest story from several years ago. One Estate Agent / Developer was approached by a local GAA club who owned a piece of valuable development land. At this point in time he was acting in his “Estate Agent Role” and should have been representing his client’s best interests. He however saw his opportunity and bought the land for himself through a 3rd party for a bargain price. He then adopted his “Developer Role” and flipped the land to another party within a matter of days walking away with several hundred thousand pounds (this was many years ago – before the boom when believe it or not the profit margins were smaller). The deal soon became public knowledge and the particular individual became public enemy number one. The GAA club became aware of the fact that they had been swindled by their agent and were not happy to say the least. Some of the more militant embers of the club wanted to exact physical retribution. I don’t know the exact details of how the issue was resolved but thankfully the club involved received the full value of the land the Estate Agent / Developer got to keep his kneecaps

Again interesting to see estate agent employees getting rid off properties


Some here
http://www.propertynews.com/results.php?s=35980783&p=1

http://www.propertynews.com/results.php?s=35981082