Chas Everitt named as leader in bank-assisted sales

Chas Everitt International has just been recognized by Nedbank as the top-performing agency group in its bank-assisted sales programme - for the second year running.

"This annual award is presented to the company that achieves the highest number of registered bank-assisted sales and the highest sale price-to-value average, among other criteria," says Chas Everitt operations director Barry Davies.

"And it is especially gratifying to be named as the leading agency in this programme because our agents work so hard to assist homeowners who find themselves in difficult financial circumstances, and really go the extra mile to make sure that they can get their properties sold rather than having them repossessed."

The bank-assisted sales programmes run by Nedbank and other large lenders were set up following the 2008 /09 financial crisis and property market crash. They are designed to give owners who are in home loan default, or those who fear that they might go into default, the opportunity to list their homes for sale instead, and sell them on the open market, with the assistance of experienced and reputable estate agents.

"In most cases," he says, "this enables these owners to pay off whatever portion of their home loan is outstanding and avoid the additional interest charges that mount up quickly when monthly home loan instalments go unpaid. It also saves them from having their home repossessed after the bank has obtained a debt judgment against them.

"This is vital because it means that they can walk away with a clean credit record, which give them the opportunity to rent or buy another, more affordable home without difficulty and move on with their lives."

Davies explains that each bank has a panel of agency groups that are approved to work on their bank-assisted sales, and that Chas Everitt was able to take on the biggest number of these sales for Nedbank in the past year because of the group's very large footprint of operations across South Africa.

"It is also important that properties in these programmes are sold as quickly as possible, to lower the holding costs, and we were able to achieve an average time of 69 days between mandate and offer to purchase (OTP) - and the highest number of mandate and OTP conversions to actual registered sales.

"What is more, our agents sold all these properties at an average of 96% of market value, which means that in the majority of most cases, the financially distressed sellers emerged from theses sales with no further debt to the bank."

He also says that as interest rates continue to rise, more homeowners are likely to find it hard to make their monthly bond repayments, and that if that happens, they should talk to their bank as soon as possible and sign up for a bank-assisted sale programme rather than risk their whole financial future.

"Alternatively, they can approach their trusted local Chas Everitt agent and we will assist them to access a programme and to sell the property at the best price and as soon as possible."

Issued by Chas Everitt International

For more information

Call Barry Davies on 

+27 83 644 0001

Or visit www.chaseveritt.co.za