The property section of Hitchin Nub News is exclusively sponsored by Wellington James.

Wellington Evans is a unique team, made up of experienced local estate agents Nick Wellington and James Evans, who live and breathe property in North Hertfordshire, including the Hitchin area, as well as Central Bedfordshire.

We will be running a weekly Pick of the Week series every Thursday, showcasing the best properties they have to offer in and around our town.

We will also be publishing regular, in-depth features on the team at Wellington James.

So, read on for the second part of our extensive Q&A series with Nick and James, from Hitchin's newest estate agent Wellington Evans..

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HITCHIN NUB NEWS: What would be your message to people in Hitchin?

Nick Wellington: Our message would be to 'come and talk to us'. We are genuinely here to help. If you have any questions, any issues, anything you'd like to clarify or know more about, we'll only too happy to help.

If you've got a question you've always wanted to ask, then please do feel free to fire away.

James Evans: If I can also add that we are about looking after the people involved in the process.

When you come to us you're not just a number.

It's not just about houses, it's about the match, it's about learning about what your buyer wants - and most importantly it's about what your vendor's timescales are and what their needs are.

Our job is to market properties and to maximise the effectiveness of that using our experience and skill.

The more time, experience and industry knowledge that we are able to deliver straight to our vendors - our clients - the better.

But also in the presentation of the properties to our buyers, because we are able to 'read' more about what they are trying to tell us.

Our experience will help us decipher what the problem really is.

Something that was missed by the public, which is interesting, is that during Covid, a lot more home buyers became aware of is the skills that are required to get a property sale through from the point of an agreed deal to an exchange of contracts.

We call that sales progression.

An awful lot of people in estate agency have no idea what sales progression is. They don't even know the relevant forms that are required.

HITCHIN NUB NEWS: Why do you think that is?

James Evans: Because they haven't been in the job very long possibly, or they also seem to think that they 'deliver' the offer to the vendor.

And they're almost like a messenger person in between, rather than a negotiator. And often that is a result of a lack of confidence or a lack of training - or both.

A good estate agent should be negotiating and recommending a strategy to a vendor. They should be pulling a buyer along with them in the process.

The reality is that you work for the vendor.

But unless you have a 49 per cent 51 per cent relationship and you get on with your buyer, you're not going to have any trust and credibility with them and you're not going to get the deals through to exchange.

So, really, especially in a market where we are now - it's fair to say we're in a bit of a split market - there are some property types that are struggling: basically if you haven't got under offer in three or four weeks in this market, you've probably been given bad advice up front.

Or advice maybe that needs to be 'honed' is the more polite way of saying it.

In reality, from our perspective we've got to help people understand the process from the beginning to the end.

Getting the property under offer - which on the whole is not the hardest thing to do at the moment - and getting the best price, which is another key point, and then getting it through to the actual delivery of the deal with the exchange of contracts, with the antiquitarian conveyancing system we have at the moment in this country, is an area that a lot more people became aware of during Covid.

The amount of work that goes in and the amount of experience required, and the ability to identify a problem are important to understand.

]HITCHIN NUB NEWS: We're delighted about the partnership with Hitchin Nub News, so thanks for coming on board and sponsoring our Property Section….

Nick Wellington: It feels like it's a really good fit. We do a lot of work on social media in terms of getting our name out there. We know Hitchin Nub News is very dynamic and does a lot on social media and we're excited about the future.

James Evans: Spot on. The way local media serves the community over the last ten years has changed dramatically.

It's strange to see estate agents waste money on newspaper advertising. Where does that go?

We're really proud to partner up with Hitchin Nub News in front of more people and readers, on a site with good content. We're both looking at this from a new way of doing things - and we're very excited.

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See our next feature on Wellington Evans and more on James and his take on the industry and exactly why Welllington Evans is the estate agent for people in Hitchin and surrounding areas.

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