Will the housing crisis change the nature of Estate Agents

No

They will change but its their local knowledge that counts, its probably the only bit of little old England that is still a deal in the making.

Its the IT bits that will change, search engines have made all the difference to the high street shops and the insurance market. Now its the time for the bigger packages such as houses.

The sellers know its better to go through an agent, the buyer spends their time visiting agents to get on the inside track, except at the moment there is no inside track.

Anyone thinking of taking a £250,000 morgage on a property that next year will be 10% cheaper will be paying £25,000 interest over a 25 year term.It will cost an extra £37K

Go and rent.

For the IT providers the message is for a slick and fast deal, this means streamlining the papers associated with the sales and purchases of houses.

Automated HIPS, a waste of time and money.

What about the rest?

How do we handle the paperwork. Well it seems Adobe forms are the answer to a maidens prayer.