A Harrogate estate agency founded 14 years ago has gone into liquidation, blaming difficult trading conditions during the pandemic.

Hopkinsons Estate Agents, a trading name of Howroyd Estates Limited, went into insolvent liquidation yesterday, Monday, June 5, according to a notice in The Gazette today.

The Harrogate-based business was founded in 2009 and Jeremy Hopkinson had been the sole director since 2015.

He has applied to continue using the trading name of Hopkinsons Estate Agents and has vowed to continue trading with his existing team.

Mr Hopkinson told the Stray Ferret:

“Howroyd Estates Limited has entered voluntary liquidation due to trading difficulties during the pandemic period.

“A deal has been agreed to acquire the business to continue to trade as Hopkinsons Estate Agents.

“There are no staff redundancies and the business will continue to offer its quality services to its existing and new clients.”

Mr Hopkinson was seriously ill with covid in the early days of the pandemic and required a lengthy stay in hospital. He then suffered from long covid for a further 18 months.

The company has also been the victim of an alleged fraud, in which a couple are said to have claimed to be wealthy in order to make financial gains.

A warrant was issued for the couple’s arrest at the end of last month after they failed to appear at York Crown Court.

Holroyd Estates’ most recent accounts show debts of just over £550,000, up from £162,000 in 2018.

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Local estate agent Feather Smailes Scales (FSS) has won the British Property Award in Harrogate for its sales department.  

The team was congratulated for its outstanding performance throughout the judging period, which looked at customer service levels.  

Partner Richard Smailes said:  

“I am delighted that we have been recognised by an independent adjudicator as “best in class” and winning the gold award.

“It is testament to my wonderful team who show dedication, hard work and a caring nature at all times and a true depth of knowledge with regard to the housing transaction process. I couldn’t be more proud.” 

The awards were created by a team of former estate agency owners who hope to change the way estate agents are perceived by the public. 

They consider a set of 25 criteria that consumers often overlook, and aim to highlight excellence in different towns across the country. 

Robert McLean, from The British Property Awards, said:  

“Winning agents should be proud that their customer service levels provide a benchmark for their local, regional and national competition”.  

FSS has now been nominated for a number of other national awards. 

Three Harrogate spas nominated for good spa awards 

Rudding Park, Three Graces Spa at Grantley Hall and The Swinton Country Club have all received nominations for the good spa awards 2022.  

Rudding Park is nominated for the best destination spa, whilst Swinton Country Club and Grantley Hall are nominated for two awards each. Swinton is hoping to win awards for sustainability and wellness, and Grantley Hall is in the running for wellness and best destination.  

Swinton Estate said it was “delighted” to be nominated for both awards, adding:  

“Wellness and wellbeing, both physical and mental, sit at the heart of our commitment to all guests.” 

The hotel was also the first in the UK to install a biomass boiler, a sustainable alternative for heating water at the spa.  

Last year, Three Graces Spa at Grantley Hall won the best spa for fitness and wellbeing, and Rudding Park won in 2020 for the best outdoor facilities.  

Voting is open until 5th June, and the winners will be announced on 20th June at the spa life convention in Gloucestershire.  

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This article is sponsored by FSS.

Feather Smailes Scales (FSS) have become the first Harrogate estate agent to launch a ‘plant a tree’ scheme to help combat climate change, ahead of next week’s COP26 Climate Change Conference.

For every for sale, to let or auction board put up, FSS will plant a tree. So when your for sale sign goes up, you’ll know that somewhere in the world, a new tree is growing too, and the planet is a little better protected.

Harrogate’s leading estate agent have joined forces with a tree planting agency to ensure that they do their bit for our world.

The trees will be planted as part of a wider project to support communities in poverty and increase biodiversity in Madagascar, Kenya, and Haiti. Not only will the trees themselves help the planet, but the planting projects also help grow the economy and offer employment opportunities in these low-income communities.

Simon Croft is a partner at FSS. He said he hopes thousands trees will be planted under the company’s scheme:

“We are all much more aware of the need to be greener, as such all of us at FSS wanted to contribute to reducing our carbon footprint.

 “We are conscious of numerous things we can do to help, such as staycations, recycling, sustainable energy, or greener cars – and they all have divergent arguments as to how green they actually are! 

“To try and improve our green footprint as a business, we have decided to plant a tree for every single board we place on property or land we have for sale or to let, across sales, lettings, auctions and commercial property.

“Trees are without doubt the lungs of the earth and are essential to our future wellbeing on this wonderful planet.

 “We feel the physical planting of a tree couldn’t be more demonstrative of our wish to improve the environment.

 “So you know whenever we are instructed, you are also helping to help us save our world!”

FSS, the only fully comprehensive property agent in the district, offers a range of services, including sales, lettings, surveys, auctions, valuations and commercial offerings.

FSS Property are leading the way with combatting estate agents’ carbon footprints.

Anyone who instructs FSS to sell, let or auction their property will have a tree planted on their behalf! You can follow how many trees the company has planted by checking the tree-counter on their website.

Find out how FSS can help sell or let your property, and have a tree planted on your behalf by visiting the FSS website.

This article is sponsored by EweMove.

Picking an agent to represent you in a property sale can be a confusing choice. Do you pick the agent with the most ‘for sale’ boards up in your area? Or the one that offers you the lowest fee?

There’s actually more to think about, and EweMove Harrogate, Knaresborough & Wetherby’s unique approach scores highly in three key areas.

Personal service

Unlike other estate agents, with EweMove you’ll have a dedicated personal agent to see your house sale through from valuation to completion.

They’ll get to know you and your property and you’ll have the same person conduct all the viewings. This means you receive consistent feedback and advice on the best offer to accept. Think about it, how can an office-based negotiator obtain the best price for a property that they have never been to, from people they have never met? It’s even worse if the agent requests that you do your own viewings – never do this if you want the best price for your property!

EweMove’s service is so good, it has won the coveted title of “the UK’s most trusted estate agent” on Trustpilot and the 2020/21 EA Masters National Sales Agency of the Year award, based on independent listings analysis and ‘mystery shopper’ interactions, not by an industry picked judging panel.

EweMove sold Sally Binns’ Knaresborough property. She said Ewemove were “fantastic from start to finish”:

“Our Ewemove agent’s approach to selling our home was spot on and he got us 2 asking price offers on the first day of viewings. The offer we accepted, unfortunately, had to pull out due to losing their buyer, and yet again we got a new asking price offer within days. EweMove were poles apart from other estate agents we have had dealings with previously and I would recommend them all day long!”

Sale price 

Based on data from GetAgent, in September 2021 EweMove Harrogate, Knaresborough & Wetherby achieved an average asking price of between 0.6% and 1.7% more for their customers’ homes than other estate agencies in the area. For a £300,000 home, that equates to between £1,800 and £5,100 more.

Because your agent is personally involved every step of the way, they’re fully invested in selling your home. The best buyers will see your home thanks to marketing experts who are on hand to promote your property across social media and the most popular websites. Crucially, what drives the best price achievement is the same person meeting and negotiating with these buyers in your property.

Speed

Getting the best price is surely every seller’s goal, but for many, speed is also of the essence. Selling a property quickly is relatively easy if the price is low. The best agents will not only sell a property quickly, but will also achieve the best price – which is exactly what EweMove agents do. Last month, EweMove sold properties in the HG2 postcode area between two and ten weeks faster than other Harrogate agents, and between four and seven weeks faster in HG1 (figures obtained from GetAgent).

EweMove has a unique service that creates a smoother and quicker route to completion. Using its ‘ASAP’ (Assured Sale & Progression) service, the 2021 average time for local EweMove customers to move from sale agreed to completion is 101 days. The national average is well over a month longer at between 140 and 154 days.

When an offer is accepted on a property and legal services begin, the buyer’s solicitor orders ‘searches’. The local search can take weeks to be delivered and delay your sale. With EweMove and ASAP, as soon as you list your property the local search will be ordered. The buyer can either use ASAP’s services themselves or just buy the search results, massively cutting down this time-consuming process. If they instruct ASAP, buyers only pay for the searches on completion, whereas with other agents and solicitors they must pay around £300 up front, which in itself creates delays.

If the majority of conveyancing issues could be summarised in one phrase, it’s ‘poor communication’. To mitigate this, you’ll be assigned a dedicated ‘progressor’, who communicates with all parties. They speak to the buyer, vendor, agent, solicitors and others involved in the chain to make sure things are kept on track – making the sale agreed to completion stage of selling your home even smoother with EweMove.

For a FREE, no obligation home valuation, contact EweMove today.

Property Gold is a monthly column written by independent bespoke property consultant, Alex Goldstein. With more than 17 years’ experience, Alex helps his clients to buy and sell residential property in some of the most desirable locations in Yorkshire and beyond. 

This month, Alex discusses the pros and cons of instructing more than one estate agent. 

Two heads are better than one, but in estate agency terms this isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to instructing agents.

Some vendors feel that by instructing two (indeed sometimes more), they think that they will have greater exposure in the market and more likely to sell for a premium. However, unless this is done under the right circumstances, in the right way and with great care, having two or more agents working for you can be counterproductive. Not only could you run the risk of appearing desperate to sell, but agents behind the scenes could be arguing about who found the buyer and not necessarily working in your best interests.

So under what circumstances should one instruct another agent(s) and how do you play the game?

Sole agency is as it sounds. One agent working on your behalf and for straightforward sales, usually the best route.

The polar opposite is multiple agency, where two or more agents are instructed, but only the winner gets the fee. This route is not worthwhile and actually dilutes your sale efforts, as agents will see the risks versus reward as too high and won’t bother selling your home!

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The middle option can be used if your sale is losing that original sparkle. To beef up your marketing, create a ‘marketing spike’ or just to get the original sole agent re-energised, instructing a joint agent could be worthwhile… but proceed with care.

Critically the new agent must be very different from the original agent, so that they fill in any gaps that may have been missed. The downside with two agents is that there is a higher commission rate, yet this needs to be balanced with what you could gain on sale proceeds.

Now here’s the tricky bit – how does one split the commission between joint agents? Yes 50/50 can work and both agents then collaborate and work together for you, the client. However in some circumstances it is worth weighting this towards the winning agent.

An extreme example of this I did recently, where a vendor asked me to get their original agent back on track, but they didn’t wish to disinstruct them given the work they had put in thus far. I brought in a joint agent, but specifically chose them as I knew both agents had a major personality clash and there was fierce rivalry.

I then weighted the fee 80/20 to significantly up the ante. The new agent aggressively went about their new instruction to prove a point and the original agent had a serious wake-up call. Needless to say we got a great result and the new agent won.

Instructing a joint agent can be useful to rejuvenate your sale, however it must be used with caution and done in the right way, otherwise you could be up in a worse position than when you started!

If you have any comments or questions for Alex, please feel free to contact him on alex@alexgoldstein.co.uk