Episode 2 Under Offer: Estate Agents on the Job

You're dealing with the most expensive thing people ever buy.

There are more of them than ever before.

A square foot can be worth £3,000.

Many of us say they are our least favourite professionals.

The customer's always right, aren't they? No!

Yet we turn to them at some of life's most stressful moments.

I can't control it, you can't control it.

-Yes, we're off!

-SHE LAUGHS

They are the estate agents.

You'd get a better response if you say you're a mass murderer.

What inane comments do you want to make now, Alan?

HE LAUGHS

This series goes behind closed doors across the UK with the agents...

It needs everything doing to it.

..and their clients.

We're moving!

Gary takes us to the streets of London's super-rich.

My firm has recently sold four houses of, let's say,

£40 to £60 million.

It's knock-down prices with Lynne in County Durham.

It went to auction with a starting bid of a pound.

There's straight-talking Dave in Birmingham.

So when I tell you you're not getting it,

don't come crying back to me saying "I'd have gone another 500 quid."

Rookie Lewis in Devon.

These surveyors are dangerous, dangerous people.

And in London's cheapest borough, Dagenham...

Please stop shouting.

..Caroline, Andy and Darren.

They'd had a bonfire in the front room here.

This is ridiculous.

With unique access we'll learn the tricks of the trade...

As an estate agent I could class it as a wet room.

..and find out what's really going on

in the UK's crazy property market.

I'm rather hoping that bankers might have

taken our place at the bottom of the pile by now.

Welcome to estate agency.

HE HOWLS

Estate agent Ed Mead works in one of the most expensive parts of

the most expensive city in the UK.

If I tell you there's an indemnity

are you going to be happy to go to HSBC and sign that off?

That's it. That's all you need to check.

-I think to be very successful as a salesman you need 5%

-BLEEP.

If you don't have that 5% you'll never make a good salesperson.

I've been dealing with this for over 30 years

and these indemnities have always proved adequate.

You have to have that ability to close and often that means saying,

"Are you going to sign on the dotted line or not, mate?"

Jolly good. Bye.

For the last 20 years, Ed's been the director of Chelsea branch of D&G,

an independent agency with offices in the poshest parts of London.

Central London agents have a reputation perhaps

for being a bit Hooray Henry.

You know, they all talk like I do, and they all went to public school.

If I tried to ply my trade in somewhere like Wigan

I'd be considered to be a toff.

At the top end of the market, Ed deals with properties

ranging from £2-£15 million.

It's a little bit different

from what you'd get in a Scottish sporting estate.

If you were in Scotland spending five million quid you'd probably get

200-300 acres and possibly a bit of shooting and a river.

Here you get about 20 square feet, which is that.

For those with smaller budgets,

cheaper properties are also available.

An enormous door...

..for a relatively small flat.

So it's a studio flat,

a sort of pied-a-terre for someone or maybe to be bought as a rental.

What might surprise you is that

it's selling for the thick end of a million pounds.

Over the last 50 years, average house prices in Chelsea

have rocketed to around 1½ million, one of the highest in the capital.

Seen as hip and cutting-edge, over the years, the area's now popular

with rich foreign buyers looking for a safe haven for their cash.

I'm so sorry that this has left a bad taste in your mouth.

Obviously from our point of view we feel very guilty about it.

But now, high prices are causing problems.

The wealthy buyers in his patch aren't buying.

I don't think UK PLC is fixed yet,

and I think UK property PLC has a long way to go.

The problem is things are very, very slow,

so not an awful lot's being agreed. Not an awful lot's being taken on.

I mean, this is July, so we would normally expect to be

taking on an average of 20 to 25 properties.

We've taken on... There are two or three

that are not on the open market,

probably ten, so that's, you know, 60% down on where we'd expect to be.

Ed suspects that prices may have risen unrealistically high.

His vendors' expectations are out of sync

with what his buyers are prepared to pay.

The result? A slowdown.

They're not stupid, rich people.

You know, they can see value, they understand what the right price is,

so our biggest issue at the moment in the market

is that prices have...

Asking prices have overshot the market, I think, by about 10%.

One of our managers, Chalkie, over here in Battersea, described it

as moments of madness followed by tumbleweed rolling through,

and I think that describes this market extremely well at the moment.

Luckily for Ed, one of his top agents is on the case.

Eileen Neville.

Eileen's arranged some viewings with a wealthy foreign client

in the exclusive Lennox Gardens.

About to see two properties in Lennox Gardens.

The first flat is a two-bedroom at 1.45,

and the second property's a flat, a two-bedroom flat at 870.

Eileen has worked in Chelsea for the last six years,

although she doesn't quite fit the Hooray Henry public schoolboy mould.

If there was probably...

A typical agent would be normally kind of posh and blonde,

and I'm obviously Irish and a redhead.

I went to a Convent school run by the nuns who were seriously strict.

You did not mess with Sister Elbie.

Even now I'm still scared of her.

Nowadays it's traffic wardens, not nuns,

that Eileen's often in trouble with.

Coming!

We're not given a business permit,

so we just have to leg it everywhere we go,

and so I have had a huge amount of parking tickets.

I don't even know how much, a couple of thousand, maybe more.

Probably more.

With the machine having swallowed her change,

Eileen's chancing her arm without a ticket.

Right, hello again.

-So you're seeing two in Lennox?

-Two, yes. Perfect.

-Brilliant.

-So this is the first one, which is the slightly larger one.

-OK.

Her client is Venezuelan property hunter Anne Plissonneau,

who's got just one month to find the perfect pied-a-terre for her uncle.

'While I was on holiday,'

my uncle mentioned that he wanted a property, so I thought,

"Do you want me to have a browse around and let you know?"

So this is quite a bit bigger than

-the other one we're going to go see.

-OK.

My uncle's budget is 1.2 for a one-bed

and around 1.4 for a two-bed.

The first flat Anne's seeing has two bedrooms, one bathroom,

a designer kitchen, and even some outside space.

It's on the market for 1.45 million.

-So this outside space here, it's, erm, demised to you.

-OK.

-They have right of way cos it's a fire escape.

-OK.

You could quite easily and quite comfortably

-put a nice little table and chairs here.

-Yeah.

-Fantastic, good.

Anne's aunt's in town. She's also popped along to have a look.

-Where are you from?

-Venezuela.

Amazing. My brother's just come back from there, he was in Caracas.

-Oh, really? Caracas. Why would he go there?

-He's a priest.

-Oh, he's a priest. Oh, yeah.

-He's trying to fix things.

He tries to fix the world. It gets kind of boring.

Good luck with him for that.

Next on the list is another two-bed flat, also in Lennox Gardens.

In need of a touch-up, this one's a steal at £870,000

-So this is obviously completely different.

-Yeah.

-I mean, this flat at below a million is incredible.

-Yeah.

But, obviously, if your budget's higher,

-it's maybe going to be more suitable to a slightly larger property.

-Yeah.

The price may be right but Anne and her aunt are underwhelmed.

Though this kitchen does have to be redone.

Completely redone, yeah.

The bathroom needs a lot of work as well.

Really lovely to see you.

Thanks very much, thanks for your patience. OK.

The Venezuelans haven't leapt in with an offer,

but Eileen's already planning her next move.

There's another property which is just off the Fulham Road.

The location mightn't be as good,

but the property itself is ideal for them so we'll take them to that

and we'll see what else we have around.

Just 16 miles east of Chelsea is Dagenham.

This is one of the cheapest places in London to buy,

with an average property price of £185,000.

I'm fairly good at photography,

with making properties look better than they are,

but I'd have to be David Bailey to get this place looking presentable.

Working this patch of the capital is estate agent Darren Griffiths.

All right, let's look at what pleasures are upstairs.

As an estate agent, I could class that as a wet room.

Yeah, I don't think estate agents have got

the greatest of reputations in the world.

Probably second just to a taxman.

I've been at parties before with people I've never met, and,

"Oh, what do you do for a living?"

And you, like, take a breath before you tell them, you think, "Oh..."

You'd get a better response if you say you're a mass murderer.

There we go.

That looks like a palace, that's fine.

Nearly all of the properties Darren deals with are ex-council.

In the 1920s and '30s, 27,000 houses were built here

to form the biggest estate in the world.

The original residents were First World War veterans

and the poor from London's East End slums.

Today, low prices plus direct Tube links to Central London

mean demand for these houses is on the up.

There is a real mix of the people that will buy around here.

First-time buyers, buy-to-let, people moving out of London,

second-time buyers that have got a bit more to spend.

It is a good mix, yeah.

Please stop shouting, please stop shouting.

No, no, no, you've had your say, I'm going to say mine now...

Darren set up his own agency in Dagenham five years ago

with his mate Andy.

Bear with me one second, let me just put you on hold.

We met, me and Andy met in '93 as delivery job drivers,

and then we sort of got mates from there,

then just ended up working lots of different places.

Bailiff, doorman, bus driver.

-Delivery driver.

-Delivery driver. Erm, anything else, Andy?

We were chippies in Croydon for a while. Don't ask me how we managed to do that.

Didn't have a clue what we were doing.

Yeah, if anybody bought a flat above Brannigan's in Croydon,

-I apologise if your windows fall out.

-Or the doors fall off.

Or the doors fall off and they don't shut properly,

cos that is down to us. I do apologise for that.

'Do you need qualifications to be an estate agent?'

No, not really. It's probably why there are so many shady characters

and why estate agents get such a bad name in this country,

cos if you want to be an estate agent you just open a shop.

But Darren and Andy aren't the only ones who have set up shop in town.

Lining the high street are seven other agencies

ready to do battle over Dagenham's houses.

With demand for homes currently outstripping supply,

competition is fierce, and several of the big guns are currently

winning the bulk of the business.

Here's an e-mail yesterday. Rightmove, clicked on,

15 new properties for sale in Dagenham.

It's like, why, none of them, did we get asked out for an evaluation?

Why didn't they think of calling us as well?

What goes through their thought process to why they didn't?

If we could work that one out...

-We'd be millionaires.

-"This time next year we'll be millionaires."

I'll be driving round Dagenham in me Bentley doing the company viewings.

But if the customer won't come to them, they'll go to the customer.

I'm just from an estate agent, can I give you my business card?

Darren's only employee, Caroline,

regularly goes on the hunt for properties to sell.

Sold. Sold.

SHE KNOCKS ON DOOR

And she's not put off if they're

already on the market with someone else.

I've noticed your "for sale" board outside the property.

How long have you been on the market for?

-Six months.

-Six months, really?

It is devious, it is sneaky, you know,

I'm going behind other agents' backs,

but it is dog eat dog, we all do it to each other.

We all want to be the best.

We all want as many instructions as possible

so that we can all earn as much money as possible.

But Caroline's also driven by a stronger incentive.

I'm a single parent.

I have a four-year-old daughter and I work five days a week,

sometimes six days a week if one of the guys is on holiday,

trying to earn as much as I possibly can.

If the market crashes, my baby's getting no Christmas presents.

SHE LAUGHS

House sales in London and the South East

account for a staggering 75% of turnover in the UK property market.

The spectrum is vast,

from modest one-bed flats to five-storey mega-buck mansions.

And that's the world of Gary Hersham,

estate agent of choice to the super-rich.

-David, you cannot take back...

-Gary, when we get schedules...

David, you cannot take that figure back from that letter

once you put it in there.

Nicola, one second please.

You cannot take that... David. David.

David, circa 40,000 square feet, OK? Circa 40,000 square feet.

I think I'm a rather positive person.

No, don't say Gary has asked me to write to him, why Gary?

Just say you're writing to him.

I'm very fussy when it comes to certain types of order.

I would say circa between 40 and 42,000 square feet.

I'm particularly pedantic.

No, we will not, not we cannot, we WILL not.

'But at the end of the day'

I have great focus,

and I don't give up on any task, whatever that might be.

Can I have a light, please?

-No.

-Give me your lighter, I'll give you your lighter back later.

-No, not until you've heard this.

-Oh, quickly then, David.

-Shut up!

'You two are like a married couple.'

We're both quite strong characters.

I don't give way if I think something,

and he certainly doesn't give way.

Gary's been the director of Beecham Estates in the heart of Mayfair

for over 30 years.

The properties he deals with range in price from £2-£120 million.

I'm very used to selling expensive properties,

dealing with very wealthy people and understanding their lifestyle.

And I think I fit in very well to that milieu, to that society.

Working alongside Gary in this "milieu" is his Russian wife, Olga.

She runs the firm's private office,

which caters for their clients' every whim.

If our client wants to not only to buy a house,

but to have...

the best decoration of the house, to buy the best art,

to participate in any events in London,

to have advice on education,

to everything that clients may want, may desire,

and doesn't know where to go,

they will come to us and ask,

"Where do I go, what should I do?" And we tell him.

Olga met Gary at a dinner party in Belgrade.

After seven years of marriage she's got used to his eccentric ways.

At 10.20 we're going to see a house in Mayfair.

It will probably come onto the market at £100 million.

Tremendous energy. Very difficult to keep up.

I then have a meeting at the offices of Chelsea Football Club.

He sleeps four hours a night.

I've got another meeting at three. I've double-booked.

Then I have to show a house to an extremely wealthy man at 4.30.

Some people does require only four hours sleep.

'Like Margaret Thatcher.'

Like Margaret Thatcher or Napoleon.

Or Stalin! It's also...! Maybe you take it out!

SHE LAUGHS

Followed by another meeting at a £105 million house.

Et cetera, et cetera.

-'Busy day?'

-No, not really.

In Dagenham, Caroline's attempts to drum up business

have so far drawn a blank.

But there's good news for Darren.

A potential sale has just walked through the door.

Local landlord Mr Overall wants Darren to value one of his houses.

I had tenants in there, see? And I'm just fed up with them now.

But he's also been speaking to one of Darren's arch-rivals.

-I've got...this other mob came up to me this morning. Hart, is it?

-Hart.

-OK. That's fine.

-He wouldn't give me a price there and then.

I said I need to know. He said, "Let me look." I said, "All right.

-"Come round at 11 and have a look."

-Right. 12 o'clock, pop round.

-Are they still there or are they gone?

-Everybody's gone. It's only me.

-There's my card. All right.

-Lovely.

See you round there at 12 and give you a more accurate figure on price.

All right. No worries. See you at 12.

That other agent is going to be going in there with a view

that I need to get this property on and I'm exactly the same.

We need the properties.

Properties are scarce at the moment, so, yeah, it's a competition.

You're up against a competitor.

The best way to do it's, don't think about the competitors,

just think about doing your job.

See you later. Bye-bye.

Darren is on his way to value Mr Overall's property,

which is a three-bed, end-of-terrace house on Parsloes Avenue.

It's a vital bit of business Darren needs to win.

But with rival agents sniffing around too,

Darren's got to act fast.

So we're just coming up to the house now, over the road here.

The other guy's finished. There was an estate agent here before me, so...

The good thing is around here, property like this is selling.

There's not much on the market

and the similar property is selling quickly.

When this came on it was a guide price of 210 and above.

I thought that was a lot of money cos it was non-extended.

I would've thought they'd struggle to get above 200 on it.

Two questions I've got is your fee...

1% for sole agency.

..and how long are we tied in with you?

We normally do ten-week contracts but I would happily say, look, six weeks.

If we haven't sold it and got it virtually to the point of exchange

in six weeks, I would happily say you can go with another agent,

because I'm that confident the property would sell.

-All right?

-All right. Excellent.

-Lovely to see you.

Darren suggested an asking price of offers over 195.

It's not Mayfair megabucks,

but he still stands to make nearly £2,000 commission.

You could tell they don't want any mucking around

and jargon and loads of rubbish. Tell me the price, what's it worth,

can you sell it, what deal can you do me?

So fingers crossed, fingers crossed.

Scotland traditionally lags a year behind the rest of the UK

in terms of property prices,

the most remote regions being the cheapest.

But there is one city that behaves exceptionally.

Aberdeen, the land of black gold.

The oil capital of the UK.

The international industry has brought high employment

and foreign investment to the area.

These are all fairly new buildings.

These are probably within the last five years.

So there's a big population influx,

because all these oil companies are recruiting workers.

So, that can only be good news for me as an estate agent,

because all these people who are coming to the city

need somewhere to live.

Cashing in is estate agent Julia Willett,

who was born and brought up in the area.

I feel quite fortunate in the end of the market that I work in.

You know, it's obviously an aspirational,

desirable end of the market.

And lots of people, particularly who, you know,

who think about what I do, they say, "Oh, my God!

"You've got such a nice job and you must meet really interesting

"people and see really interesting houses." Which is true.

-Hi, Joyce. I'm Julia, how do you do?

-Nice to meet you. Hi.

-Nice to meet you too.

-Come on in.

I like all these welly boots lined up.

-Every picture tells a story.

-Yes.

Julia mainly sells traditional granite properties

just outside the city.

The average five-bed costs between 500,000 to 600,000 -

cheap by central London standards,

but a lot higher than much of Scotland.

But it is a sort of window into someone else's world

and often that world is pretty charming and pretty lovely.

Pretty aspirational, I suppose, as well.

It sounds delightful, you describe it...

It is! It is delightful!

It's a nice job. I feel pretty lucky.

And in your list of contents, do they include any paintings or not?

For the last ten years, Julia has worked at Strutt & Parker,

a national agency 18 miles outside Aberdeen.

We've had a good run recently.

In the last sort of six days we've sold five properties.

Lots of happy clients, which is great.

We've sold this one. It sold within ten days.

This one here, it sold to a family who were relocating from Norway.

They'll be involved in the oil industry

and they're coming back to Aberdeen for work.

Today, Julia is on her way to check the spec of an unusual property

which should be popular with her oil-rich clients.

This house that we're going to is one of the nicest houses I've ever,

ever been in, in my ten years of doing this job.

So I'm really excited to be selling it.

Stracathro House is a Palladian-style mansion

with nine bedrooms, four reception rooms and 17 acres of land.

All this costs just over £1.4 million.

Expensive for Scotland but a snip by London standards.

The mansion's owner is artist Frank Convery.

Frank bought it ten years ago as a home for his family

and his 150 canvases.

When you've been painting for 30 years you accumulate a lot of work.

So these proportions are terrific - the height and the air in them.

And it's no surprise that many of the galleries have got these

kind of neo-classical proportions, because they've been hard to beat.

You do get complacent, what a privilege it is to have,

you know, these spaces.

Most of us dream of having more space,

but Frank has decided the mansion is too big for him.

He only uses a few rooms for day-to-day living.

I think it's a downsize, as you can imagine, from this.

And I'm happy with that reduction in responsibility.

I'm kind of looking forward to less, as it were.

It's just so ornate...

and grand and elegant.

There's just... Everywhere you look there's something beautiful

and interesting to look at.

The price for the home is going to be around offers over 1.4 million.

It's amazing just the difference, the contrast.

You can get all this space and these magnificent rooms

and the history and all the space around about it

and the peace and quiet

for a fraction of the price of a flat in the centre of London.

Indeed, the flat in Chelsea's Lennox Gardens is on at the same price

of 1.4 million, and it still hasn't sold.

The Venezuelan property finder hasn't placed an offer

on either of the flats she saw.

So just say no, we've spoken to the owner, that's fine.

We're coming to pick up the keys please.

-So don't take any

-BLEEP.

Ed's in a bad mood.

Newspapers are reporting a property boom and he's not happy.

The press would have you believe that everything's fantastic

and all-singing, all-dancing and, unfortunately,

they're talking absolute crap, as usual.

Rightmove have just published some statistics which show

that asking prices - asking prices -

which have nothing to do with real prices or sold prices,

have gone up by 10% apparently in this area in the last month.

So I had an e-mail this morning from Australia from a client saying,

"Oh, we read that prices have gone up 10% in a month.

"Shall we put the price of my house up?"

Their house has been on the market for four months,

had no offers, and they think it should be going up 10%.

In order to boost business, Ed needs to rally his troops.

Right, well, listen. We haven't met for about three weeks so, actually,

this is quite an important meeting.

I'm certainly getting to the stage where some clients

are beginning to ring up and say, "What's going on?"

You know, and that's where the newspaper stuff comes in,

cos they're all reading that the market's booming.

We know it's not booming and, of course,

their expectations are too high.

Agents from several other branches have been called in

to go through all of their properties in detail.

OK, Glebe Mansions is down to 1.4 now,

so it's creeping down to the level it should be.

Bristol House, nothing to say. Rosary Gardens?

It's actually a really good-level flat for 1.3,

so if you've got people at that level it's definitely worth showing.

OK, Emperor's Gate?

Really doesn't want to come far down off his asking price.

Elizabeth Court, we're up to where in the bid?

-765.

-765 on a 775 asking price.

-And I think they're balking, aren't they?

-Yeah.

And everyone seems to be bidding about 10% less, don't they?

And that's exactly...exactly what we were talking about at the start.

Houses not selling and battling for buyers in the macho Chelsea world -

no problem for competitive Eileen.

At first it was really hard,

because it is a bit of a man's world in Chelsea.

The other day I had a guy walk in and said,

"I want to speak to Patrick and Nick about a property.

I said, "They're not here but I can help you."

And he was like, "No, get one of them to call me." I was like...

And they just won't deal with you just cos you're a woman.

I don't know why that is.

It's just this real old-school kind of boys' club,

and that was incredibly frustrating.

But I just worked through it

and eventually I built up my own contacts, just persevering.

And now it's fine. But the first two years was really hard.

Of course they'd say they don't like the price.

Of course they'd say they don't like the price.

Everybody says they don't like the price.

Gary Hersham may work in the same part of town as Eileen,

but he moves in very different circles.

People don't make prices on properties

without understanding the property market.

It's a very reasonable price, trust me.

Being a millionaire in SW3 doesn't mean you're immune

to market pressures, but add a few zeros

and over-hyped property headlines rarely cause trouble.

Today, Gary's doing a price review of this extraordinary

Georgian town house for London socialite Amanda Eliasch.

I'm an art collector and I've also made a film.

And I'm a photographer.

And I like mirror or white or dark floors,

because otherwise art doesn't look good.

My style is sort of quirky.

I mean, definitely I like things that are really unusual,

and if I can see an unusual chair I'll buy it.

If I see an unusual painting I'll buy it.

If I see a white elephant I'll buy it.

I like very different things from everybody else,

almost in a contrary way.

I have terrific neighbours. Between pop stars and films stars.

(Adele.)

If you are rich and you want to have a good life there are only about

six streets that you could possibly even think of living in,

which are Cheyne Walk, Cadogan Square, Chester Square,

Pelham Crescent, Edgerton Street just off Egerton Terrace

and Egerton Crescent.

You should stick to the good streets.

Hello.

Where are you? Christ, you get sexier by the year!

SHE LAUGHS Oh, I'm not sure about that.

I am. Oh, you have a tattoo, Amanda.

Yes, I did. I decided to have a tattoo at the age of 50.

Well, I'm 60, my dear.

Well, I know, I can't believe you're 60 but, anyway, time goes fast.

We've got three Eliaschs in here. This is not you, is it, Amanda?

-Yes, but in 1986.

-Quite cool in those days.

You're obviously being looked after well, aren't you?

-I've got a lovely Russian wife.

-Oh, that's fabulous.

Isn't that what men want nowadays? I hope she behaves.

I think what men want nowadays - and I can talk for myself...

-Easy.

-..is a woman who is both your lover and your friend.

Yes. My friend said to me I can't have a better bedroom.

I see that Mark Brazier-Jones still features in your life.

-Yes, I love Mark.

-You'll have seen exactly the same in my flat.

You'll have seen this in my flat over here. Those are candleholders.

-We're all in love with him.

-Those are candleholders.

-Well, we've put the house on the market at £8,200,000.

-Yes.

It's a very reasonably priced house.

At £8.2 million, Gary will pocket over 200 grand for this sale alone.

And I think this house is so eclectic and so charming

and so different from everything else that we sell

that I'm sure we're going to find one of those youngish, funky people

who's going to just fall in love with everything that you've done.

Look at that chair, I mean it's not a chair, it's a throne.

Is that a problem to sell a house? You know, if it's so different?

-Look, it's very simple.

-Yes.

People won't like it and people will like it.

And you only can sell it once, and you don't care about the people

who don't like it because they won't give you what you want for it.

You only care for people who do like it. It's that simple.

And I think one's got to go out there

-and find the type of person who has a similar lifestyle to yours.

-Yes.

What you're going to do is sell something that you've created

for somebody else to live in and it's going to become their creation.

-Yes.

-And I think it's going to be...

I don't think it's going to be terribly difficult,

-I promise you, Amanda.

-Oh, great. Thank you.

While Gary seems relaxed about sales,

in Dagenham, Darren's desperate for the instruction

on Parsloes Avenue, which he's valued at offers over £195,000.

Luckily, Darren and his team don't solely rely

on making money from sales.

With more people renting since the recession,

Darren's core business is lettings.

-Sorry?

-Rent.

-Rent?

-Rent. Has it been paid?

Although lettings bring in a steady income,

it's small change for an awful lot of hassle.

Lettings probably is 65/70% of every day what we deal with.

-All right then.

-See you.

-OK. Bye.

It's constant, "My light bulb's gone or my boiler's broken down

"or I've got leak from my bathroom."

I mean, that takes so much of your time up

and you don't earn anything from it.

And ideally you'd want to just concentrate on selling,

cos that's where the money is.

Today, Caroline has to inspect one of their rental

properties for the landlord.

Repairs need to be carried out,

but they can't happen until the tenant has tidied up.

KNOCK ON DOOR

Hiya, I've come to have a look.

The tenant has been living on her own in the flat for five years.

Although Caroline's visited several times,

the flat's far from ready for the workmen to come in.

This is appalling.

What am I supposed to say to the landlord?

Yeah, and I've taken photos.

OK. All right. Bye.

Caroline's concerned the tenant's now in danger of being evicted.

I just thought she'd try. She promised she would.

I kept saying to her that I couldn't defend her any longer

and that the landlord was going to start, you know, taking action.

Said, "OK, OK. I promise I'll sort it."

She knew we were coming. It's not like we sprung it on her.

She was given plenty of written notice.

SHE SIGHS

I tried to help her.

I didn't tell the landlord straightaway,

even though I should have done when I inspected it and it was a mess,

I gave her a chance.

I said, "You've got however many weeks to sort this

"and I'll be back to inspect it."

I gave her a chance, I went to inspect it

and she'd done bugger all.

-What's going to be next for her then?

-It's all down to the landlord.

I don't decide. I'll do whatever the landlord tells me to do.

But I did try and help her.

-Why?

-Why? I felt sorry for her. She lives there on her own.

In Chelsea, it's all about sales for Eileen.

All the agents have been instructed by Ed to ramp up the viewings.

Follow me, come in. Let's go in to the reception first.

Take your time, have a good look around.

The pressure's on and Eileen loves it.

You have a caretaker which lives in one of the blocks just down below.

I quite enjoyed today, I like being under pressure.

Furniture not included although you can potentially buy if you wanted.

In the summer when we're quiet I absolutely hate it, cos it's boring.

It's only 800 square feet, but this still feels comfortable.

I much prefer it when you're out doing viewings,

you're getting offers and trying to get exchanges through.

I like working in that kind of a stressful environment.

You couldn't work here if you didn't. You'd hate it.

More viewings also mean more of a work-out. Forget the gym.

With agents we're all constantly kind of running around.

You know, we're not sat at a desk.

And inevitably, like today, a lot of my clients were late

so then I was just pegging it up and down the streets in high heels.

I hate the gym. I hate anything energetic or exercise,

I absolutely can't stand it.

I don't even own a pair of runners. I refuse to.

I did get a ticket! Urgh!

Despite racking up the parking tickets,

all the viewings are starting to pay off.

The cheaper two-bed flat in Lennox Gardens has had some interest,

although it's not from the Venezuelan buyers.

Two buyers have expressed an interest

and both come in at the asking price, so both have offered 875.

In that situation when that happens, what we do is we go to

what's called the best and final bid,

cos you've got two people who are interested,

and the last thing you want is them going up and up and up

and everyone getting a little bit annoyed.

So we do what's called the best and final offer,

where they submit bids to us, their best bid, by 5:00pm today,

and that's what's happening today at 5:00pm.

One of the buyers is a client of Eileen's,

the other has come in through her colleague and rival, Patrick.

'As a sales person, that's probably what I most enjoy,

'is going to a sealed bid against my colleagues.'

We have pooled office commission,

but we all have individual targets, so...

The more properties the agents sell, the more likely they are

to hit their targets and get their bonuses.

I wouldn't be a sales person

if I didn't like going up against my colleagues in sealed bids.

More often than not, I do well at them

but, you know, you win some, you lose some.

He does do very well and it annoys the hell out of me.

Agents like sealed bids because it can bump the price up,

but it also heightens office rivalry.

We can't know each other's bids,

so we're constantly trying to get the better bid from our buyers.

So we can't be seen...

I can't hear Patrick talking about his bid

and he can't hear me talking about mine.

-Why can't you know?

-Because if we did...

If I knew Patrick's bid then I would just go back to my buyer and go,

"Just bid 1,000 over that," which is completely unfair and pointless.

-Do you enjoy these?

-Sometimes they're really stressful.

We went through a flurry of them about a year ago,

there was just sealed bids every five minutes.

I kept losing, which is why I was like, "Urgh!"

-So are you going to win?

-I hope so. I don't know.

My buyer's in a much better position...

..but he may not bid high enough. Got to wait until 5:00pm.

How does it go? Does it tilt? Oh, yeah.

For sale, on the market. Roll up, roll up.

In Aberdeen, the nine-bed mansion, Stracathro House,

is now officially on sale, and the global marketing drive has begun.

Stracathro we put live on the internet last night,

and I believe that there's been some enquiries come in overnight,

which is great.

Somebody from Cape Town has already shown an interest in this property.

One of the largest oil industry players,

Aberdeen is attracting buyers from all across the globe.

We're speaking to people from Africa, the Far East,

the Middle East, America, Australia, literally all corners of the world.

People are contacting us about properties

in the north-east of Scotland.

And more often than not, nine times out of ten,

that's about the oil industry.

We're really pleased with the photographs

that we've got on this one.

I think it gives a good sort of idea of what the place is all about

and how lovely it is.

"Opulence and grandeur." That's my caption, yeah.

I made that up.

And I think it just does what it says on the tin.

Meanwhile in Dagenham, Darren's also honing

his creative writing skills.

Just the basic details.

You can extend it, it's close to the station, it's newly decorated.

Yeah. Keep it short and sweet really.

He's beaten his rivals and won the instruction on Parsloes Avenue.

Now he needs it to go live on the internet ASAP.

Interesting, when we press the "go" button on the internet

so it's on, you should see how quickly calls start coming in

about it, because it is pretty much instant it will appear.

See, I think the record I've got is about 40 seconds.

With the property websites like Zoopla, Prime Location

and Rightmove flourishing,

estate agents can now reach thousands of punters in a click.

But will Darren beat his record of a response within 40 seconds?

OK, the time - synchronise watches - it is...

..2:09pm.

And it is now, bomp, live on a well-known property portal.

Excellent.

I'll just sit here tapping my fingers and wait for the phone to go.

30 seconds left. Come on, ring!

PHONE RINGS

Oh, go on, be for that properly. Go on.

Good afternoon, Stoneshaw Estates.

What is it you're looking for?

Two-bedrooms I've got nothing at all. I think three-beds I'm out.

I've got a three-bed flat on Millard Terrace for rental,

that's the only thing I have.

Almost, almost.

It's a rental property so, no. No world record, unfortunately.

But it's not world record conditions. It's a head wind.

Slippery track and we didn't...

Oh, I might as well just take the corned beef out of this bread.

Oh, it's so dry and mingy. Ergh.

Back in Chelsea, Eileen is up against her nemesis,

Patrick, in a sealed bid showdown.

They've asked their buyers to e-mail their best and final offers

on the two-bed flat in Lennox Gardens.

Deadline - 5:00pm.

It's 4:50pm.

I actually haven't got a bid yet, which is a bit worrying,

so I've actually e-mailed the buyer saying...

because he e-mailed me saying, "You'll get a bid before 5:00pm."

It's now 4:50pm, there's no bid.

I can't believe it. It's just come through, literally just now.

OK, good. It's a good bid. I'm happy with that.

It's all very stressful.

I'll just wait patiently for my bid at the moment.

In the meantime I will work on something else.

We all want to get, personally, a lot of money.

No, but...this is true.

You're going to make money if you do the deal yourself, really.

Yeah. So it all goes in to your pot.

And also, you just want to beat them, you know what I mean?

You do though. We all want to win, that's why we're in sales.

-I've got my bid.

-Oh! Right, OK.

-Whoo! My God!

-Well, I've got my bid.

You've got one and Patrick's got one?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Oh, OK.

-Oh, wow.

-Yeah.

What's he doing? Oh, is he trying to nick my bid?

No, you can't read it, because it's quite light. You cheeky sod!

Both bids are in.

It's now up to Ed to make the final decision about the winner.

There was at just below 900 and one at over 920,

both of which are well over the asking price.

So what we've done is we've now recommended the higher figure,

because they've given us proof of funds,

they've given us a letter from their mortgage broker saying

they're good for the mortgage, so they're ready to go.

-From a bids point of view, mine won?

-Yes. Yeah.

-Knew it!

Eileen has defeated rival Patrick and won the sealed bid.

The flat has sold for £50,000 over the asking price.

Sealed bids often have this inflationary effect on the market.

Obviously, from the smile on my face you can see I have the higher bid.

The numbers - well, Patrick's was 896...

..and my one was 920,999.

In Dagenham, the three-bed house in Parsloes Avenue has only been

live for a few days, but it's already had heaps of interest.

Having all new carpets. Keep that in mind.

-It's being decorated.

-It's a nice size.

Bulgarian builder, Nevlin Nachev and his family are first to view.

We want to move closer to London, actually in London,

within the outskirts of London.

And then because I work in London,

the travelling is going to be much easier for me.

It's not perfect, but nothing's perfect in this world, isn't it?

In the last six months,

houses like this in Dagenham have shot up by around 30 grand.

The following morning Nevlin is straight in with an offer.

He called at about 9:02am, so he's made an offer.

It's over the asking price, but it was offers in excess anyway.

Nevlin has offered 197 - £2,000 over the asking price.

Six months ago the amount he's offered on that house,

I would have probably have had to have seen if he was compos mentis

and got a doctor to swear he wasn't going a bit senile,

cos it's a lot of money.

But the prices have gone so high recently that it's an OK offer.

It's not... The vendor's not going to look at it and think,

"Wow, I've got to bite their hand off before they run away

"because it's a ridiculous offer."

It's probably what the house is worth.

OK. I'll book you in and I'll text you shortly with the full address.

Despite receiving an offer, Caroline's also arranged

a block viewing - common practice in the estate agent game.

Until the cash comes in, it's a chance to pack in the punters.

Because of the way the market is and how difficult it is

for people to get mortgages we need a back-up.

So I've now got a block viewing of about 12 people.

I'm trying to look organised!

-You can hear the slight panic in my voice.

-Why?

Well, it's just so many people to deal with in one go.

So what is it exactly you're looking for, then?

It could be better...

It could be slightly bigger but this one is fine.

This is a good size for Dagenham.

There are quite a few smaller gardens or even angled gardens,

-so...

-Can I go downstairs?

-Yeah, help yourself.

Of course. I've got somebody waiting downstairs, so...

I've got a big list today, I'm afraid.

With nine years in the business, Caroline's wise to all the tactics

that buyers use to try and cut the best deal.

-A leak?

-I don't know.

She was quite open in telling me what she likes

and what she doesn't like.

He had the poker face.

She's enthusiastic. (He wants to keep the price down.)

Quite a decent size garden here, plenty of room for extensions.

-You see next door's extended.

-I'm going to buy cash, remember.

Some people will think that because they're cash

it gives them an advantage.

In some cases it will and in some cases it won't.

It will all depend on the seller and their position.

Remember, I'm buying cash. My money's ready.

-Yeah, I remember.

-My money's ready.

-Yeah.

But despite knowing the ropes inside out,

Caroline doesn't yet own a property herself.

With 100% mortgages nearly a thing of the past,

she has no choice but to rent.

I can't afford to get the deposit together to buy.

It kind of sucks, doesn't it?

I will get my son to see it on Monday.

Especially when I've got all these first-time buyers going,

"Oh, yeah, I've got 30,000, 40,000, 50,000."

Cash buyers coming in, "Oh, yeah, I've got 200 grand to spend."

I think, "I hate you!"

-I like this anyway.

-All right.

-And I'm paying cash so...

SHE LAUGHS

She's paying cash, just in case you didn't get that.

Lend us 10,000!

The block viewing's gone well,

but there's some sad news for the Dagenham agency.

The tenant who lived in the cluttered flat has suddenly died.

As you go straight in you can see rubbish in the bathroom,

like bags of clothing.

-I'm waiting for the smell.

-No, I don't think there will be, Dar.

-I think...

-I think you'll find there will be.

Oh, my God!

Been dead for a few days but, yeah,

that's all I know about this person.

Despite the tragic situation, cleaners have been called in

by the landlord to get it back on the market as soon as possible.

I'd rather not be here, but it's a job. Someone's got to do it, so...

A bad way to live, and I don't think she had a phone either,

so she wasn't even able to call anyone in a moment of crisis.

I was going to ring her this week,

because I was expecting a call from her this week to arrange to go back.

I didn't think I'd be going back because she'd died.

That's not nice, is it?

I mean, how do you deal with it?

How best do you approach somebody and say,

"I'm really sorry that your relative, ex-wife, mum died,

"but you need to sort out the flat."

That's the thing when you rent, because you don't own it...

..you don't...you've got to sort it out straightaway,

which isn't very nice for the family.

In Aberdeen, Julia manages to sell Stracathro House for 1.48 million,

30,000 over the asking price, otherwise known as a premium pay.

So the property's sold practically before it hit the market.

We've marked the property under offer.

For Julia, the dark days of the financial crash appear to be over.

We've never sold so many million-pound houses

in a short space of time.

We've returned to good times now.

The mansion has been bought by Yvonne Corbett

and her husband, who works in the oil industry.

They've been living abroad for years,

but Yvonne is originally from Aberdeen.

It's a stunning property, we're very, very lucky.

We've been looking for over a year

and seen many fabulous properties, but just never been the right one.

And this one, I think... As they say, it had me at hello.

Initially, I'd like to open it for events, for conferencing,

for people to just enjoy,

because it's too stunning to keep to yourself.

In Chelsea, Eileen is about to find out

if she's hit her performance targets and brought in the readies.

Today, I've got my review.

So every six months we have a review,

and that's with my manager and the director of sales.

It's kind of seeing how you got on the last six months,

and how your figures are.

-Hello, gorgeous.

-Hi. How are you?

-I'm all right. How are you?

Right, well, let's talk about work.

So how much property do you think you've sold

since you've worked in Chelsea - as in value?

-Um...

-Have a guess.

-Have a guess.

I couldn't even fathom. I haven't a clue. Tell me.

-£132 million worth of property.

-Have I?

-It's quite a lot, isn't it?

-It's huge, isn't it?

-It's a great stat, isn't it?

-That is pretty good.

-Amazing six months, as always.

-Good.

-You're an absolute trooper, regular performer.

-Thank you very much.

-Your stat rate is 89%.

-OK, that's good.

-Which is really good.

-Phenomenal, actually.

-I was wondering what that would be.

Nine out of ten of all your deals that you agree are going through to exchange.

-That's really good.

-Phenomenal.

-Thanks. Cool.

Guess how much property I've sold since I've been in Chelsea?

-£132 million. Can you believe it?

-£132 million?

-Yeah.

BLEEP

I know.

Despite the open house, the owners of Parsloes Avenue

have opted for Bulgarian buyer Nevlin,

but they want him to up his offer from £197,000 to £200,000

£5,000 above the original asking price.

-Hi, Nevlin.

-Hi, Darren.

-Hello, mate. Did you get the message?

Yes, I got the message.

-Then they accept £200,000.

-They have, yes, indeed.

Oh. I'm so glad.

In just one week, Darren's nailed it,

earning himself a tidy two grand commission in the process.

-OK, brilliant.

-Cheers. I'll speak to you soon. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Sold subject to contract.

So it's now "Show me the colour of your money".

It's not over till the fat lady sings, as they say.

In the rental property,

workmen are carrying out a complete make-over.

Completely different, isn't it?

Caroline's arranged a viewing with a potential new tenant.

Here she is.

Mum-to-be Leigh has come along with her mother and brother.

That's true, yeah.

This will get replaced with a UPVC double-glazed one,

and then all this is...

Brilliant. All this will be...

Yeah, yeah, all this will be redone.

It's all electric heating.

-Yeah, it is...yeah, it's really nice.

-I like it.

There was somebody living here up until last month, I think it was.

Leigh and her mum seem keen on the flat.

But Caroline's in a dilemma.

I just tried then.

I was like, "Yeah, somebody lived here up until last month."

But then the rest wouldn't come out.

I can't not tell her.

It wouldn't be fair.

There's one there.

And one there.

I'm going to do it.

Just so you know,

you know I said somebody lived here up until last month?

-Yeah.

-They did pass away.

Oh.

-In the flat?

-Yeah.

-Were they old?

-She had a heart attack.

-How old was she?

-Yeah, how old?

-50.

-That's me!

Yeah, but she wasn't very well.

-Oh, oh, that makes it better.

-She wasn't very well at all.

No, if it was someone young

and they were like...they killed their self or something like that...

No, nothing like that.

She was a lady that lived here on her own,

she wasn't very well and she unfortunately...

-In what room?

-Do you want to know?

This room?

-It was in bed, wasn't it?

-No.

-In the bath?

-No.

-Oh the sofa?

-Yes.

-That's all right, then.

-That's all right. That's fine.

Yeah, a good viewing.

It's nice that someone will hopefully be happy here.

Yeah, nice for something good to happen here.

A new baby here - that'll be nice.

Next time...

-Somewhere to hide from the wife - always a good thing, I think.

-Yeah.

..moving house doesn't get any easier.

You're always afraid of estate agents not being honest.

She's not going to make her money back because she's overspent.

The builders are in town.

Probably more building work going on here than in Dubai right now.

And Gary is on the hunt...

That's what I'd like to have in my house.

No skimping here.

..for the ultimate super-rich palace.

I can just imagine going round the lake in a gondola,

which I think would be quite fun.