| What
is a Pavilion of Splendour?
Is
it the right company?
Pricing
and valuation
Joint
Sole Agencies
Multiple
Agencies
Fees
Media
coverage
Advertising
Selling
brochures
What
next?
Pavilions
of Splendour's TERMS & CONDITIONS
for selling listed buildings
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MMPavilions
Of Splendour is an estate agency, or realtor, set up to deal in the most
outstanding and unusual properties to be found in Great Britain and elsewhere
Unlike most other realtors, we are demographically rather than geographically
based, like the Internet. We were the first estate agency in Great Britain
to go online, having our first web site in November 1994.
MM
If you type "listed buildings" into the BBC or the Google search
engine, you will get over 108,000 results. Pavilions of Splendour's web
site comes right at the very top of the lists. We get far more hits than
any other heritage site, so if you have a listed building for sale, it
makes sense to place it with us. More people will see it.
MMThe
network that ties all our properties together and sets us apart from other
agents is a thread of splendour—whether through location, architecture,
history or ambience. Condition is immaterial. Location is through choice,
not necessity. Quality is paramount. As is variety. The only thing we
insist upon is
that the building be listed Grade I, II* or II in England or Wales, or
Grade A, B or C in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
We don't sell unlisted buildings or anything outside the British Isles.
Some
questions and some answers for sellers
What
type of property will Pavilions of Splendour sell?
MMWe
will sell any property that is listed Grade I, II* or II by the Department
of Culture, Media and Sport or its successors (Grades A, B and C in Scotland
and Northern Ireland). We have built a reputation among purchasers for
providing outstanding properties of unusual interest, and we want to maintain
and enlarge that reputation.
Is
Pavilions of Splendour the right company for me?
MMPavilions
of Splendour is not like other estate agents. We share their professionalism,
because we have to be profitable in order to succeed, but we were founded
on the ethos of conservation through commerce. We will probably have more
interest in the history of your property than the average agent, and consequently
more enthusiasm in marketing it. Our customers have sought us out because
they are looking for something very special to buy. If you have something
special to sell then you must talk to us.
Pricing
and Valuation
MMBecause
we are uniquely successful in finding buyers for listed buildings, we
find we can sometimes achieve a purchase price of up to 5% above a local
agent's valuation. This gladdens many a seller's heart, as the higher
price more than covers our fee and the local agent's fee—and sometimes
the solicitors' fee as well.
MM
Prices vary street by street, ward by ward, parish by parish, while we're
stuck here in Winchester. As a result we do not and cannot carry
out valuations for you. The true value of a property is what
someone is prepared to pay for it. You will have a figure in mind. In
this market there has to be flexibility. Bear in mind that although properties
sold through Pavilions of Splendour normally command a small premium above
ordinary properties for their scarcity, none of the prices are unrealistic.
The properties we sell may be romantic, but they still exist in a market
environment and have to be paid for in hard cash, not fairy gold.
MM
The best judge is a local agent or a professional
valuer (fee chargeable), whose job depends on accurate valuations.
You may not like the result. As we work in tandem with
a local agent as joint sole agents, we will accept the local agent's valuation,
or we will arrange to have a professional valuation carried out. Much
as we would like to, we cannot always find a buyer if a vendor sets a
sale price without reference to local agents or professional valuers.
MM
Sometimes we feel that valuation is a science on a par with alchemy.
Joint
Sole Agents??
MM
A Joint Sole agency? How can anything be both joint AND sole at the same
time? It's an oxymoron.
It's nonsense. Well, yes it is, but it's only nonsensical in its nomenclature,
presumably devised years ago by some illiterate estate agent. In practical
terms it's a very effective way of selling a house. What it means is that
you appoint two agents to share the exclusive right to sell your
property. A sole agent means just that—you appoint one
agent to sell the place and he gets the fee for doing it. (Britain has
the lowest estate agent's fees in the world, by the way; the only known
instance where "Rip-off Britain doesn't apply).
MM
But
local agents have a constrained constituency: an agency based in Stroud
may not reach potential purchasers in Painswick, for example. So the trick
is to appoint one local agent to work jointly and exclusively with a national
agent, in this case Pavilions of Splendour. The two agents split the fee,
whoever actually sells the property. There are agents which claim to be
national chains, but go into the Colchester office of Smith & Jones
and ask about their properties in Exeter and you'll be gently referred
to that branch.
Multiple
Agencies
MM
Don't
go there. Don't touch it with a bargepole. We won't and don't do this
and neither should you. It may seem like good sense to place your property
with as many agents as you can, in the belief that twenty people with
do a better job than two. It doesn't work like that. If an agent works
hard to find you a buyer, then someone else steps in at the last minute
and scoops the fee, the hard worker will feel aggrieved. So he won't bother
again. Which means you can catch them once (when they're very young),
but only once. And simply not telling other agents that they're part of
a multiple instruction won't work either; you'll find yourself legally
contracted to pay several sets of fees. Agents who accept multiple instructions
will not put themselves out to sell your property. Why should they bother?
If the house sells itself, they'll collect the fee, thank you very much,
and if it doesn't then whatthehell, archy. So please note: Pavilions of
Splendour will NOT act when more than one other agency
is instructed.
Fees
MMOur
fees are negotiable of course, but we normally charge sellers 2.5% on
a joint sole agency—the same as the great majority of reputable agents.
Unless there are very exceptional circumstances, we prefer to work with
a joint sole agent. As we say above, we will not accept multiple instructions
because there's no incentive for any of the agents to put any work into
sellling your house. We may negotiate an additional fee if the asking
price of the property is too low to provide a reasonable return on our
percentage (under £50,000, for example), or reduce the fee if the
value of the property is stratospheric (i.e. a terraced house in London).
Please remember. we want to stay in touch. If a place is good enough to
become a Pavilions of Splendour property, why should we lose interest
in it the moment it is sold? When the time comes to move on, we want our
purchasers to come back and ask us to find a suitable new guardian for
their property. We have already sold five properties twice.
What
we will do for sellers
Media
coverage
MMYou
may already have noticed that Pavilions of Splendour attracts a great
deal of media attention. When we started, we profited from major coverage
in media such as News At Ten, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal,
the Mail on Sunday, The Guardian, The Times, Newsweek, RAI And the list
goes on. We will get editorial coverage for the properties we sell. We
can't guarantee it, but it's as certain as most things in this world.
And there's no extra charge for it.
Advertising
MMWe
can advertise your property to a world-wide audience through these web
pages. Just look at our list of properties for
sale. Those luscious advertisements in the front of COUNTRY LIFE and
other glossy magazines do cost quite a lot of money. Should a client wish
for a national advertising campaign, we will recommended budgets. Again,
the seller has to pay, but we will prepare an advertising schedule to
budget, and write, design and produce the advertisements at no further
cost.
Selling
brochures and particulars
MMWe
publish (at no cost to our clients) our full list of HERITAGE FOR SALE
on the internet for all our enquirers. This provides outline details of
the properties we have on our books. A simple click leads through to the
fuller details—the particulars—which can be printed out on request.
Should sellers wish to benefit from those elegant full colour selling
brochures that describe properties in sumptuous detail, we can arrange
for their production, which can be as elaborate or as frugal as desired.
What next?
MMOnce
we have discussed a property and agreed to take it on, all our client
has to do is sign a copy of our Terms
and Conditions instructing Pavilions of Splendour to act as the agents
for the sale of that particular property. We start work immediately on
receipt of the letter.
MMDoes this answer your initial
questions? If you are the sort of buyer we like to deal with, you will
have many, many more to ask. But we cannot read your mind or anticipate
your needs. Our enthusiasm is matched only by our experience and capability—if
buildings mean more to you than basic shelter, get in touch with us, and
we will do our best for you. You can contact us straight away by e-mail
through pavilions@heritage.co.uk—just
send us details of the property you want to sell and we'll come right
back to you.
Pavilions of Splendour Ltd
22 Mount View Road
Winchester N4 4HX
020 8348 1234
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