Take cover, Welsh agents: Liz Jones heading your way

News Category: Industry News

It is reassuring to hear from the West Country that agents in that neck of the wood are so far unscathed by the experience of having to deal with waspish newspaper columnist Liz Jones.

As the Telegraph reported at the weekend, EAT did what we could to alert estate agents to the impending horror of the world’s worst customer being on the loose, by sending out an SOS.

Liz Jones – and I’ve got to be honest here, her column’s the first thing I read on Sunday mornings, if only to learn who else she’s moaned about or whether her sex drought has come to an end – is selling her house on Exmoor.

However, she did rather excel herself when it came to local agents, complaining that the men are all called Jasper and the women are blonde and stupid.

However, she took the EAT alert in good part, although she stands by her comments: “I’ve paid estate agents a huge amount of money over the years. They need to remember that. And why is it so difficult to get them to call you back?”

Anyway, it turns out that the selling agent is James (not Jasper, then) Baker of Strutt & Parker. He says she’s been “all right”, which sounds faintly ominous.

He also reckons the property has been “priced sensibly” at a mere £1.9m, although another agent (who begged not to be named) doubts that will be achieved.

Meanwhile, the demented columnist is on the hunt to buy something else, having widened her search from Exmoor to take in Dartmoor and (Welsh agents, be warned) the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia.

Oh dear. We scent trouble ahead.


Article courtesy of Estate Agent Today Sign up for EAT newsletter