For the avoidance of doubt...

...all of the bad press that estate agents suffer is wholly unmerited in my opinion. By way of context, the excel chimp enclosure in Tooting is rapidly becoming too small for our needs, resulting in the tentative decision to leverage up to dangerous levels in order to get a larger house. As a result, my wife spent yesterday afternoon in the company of various estate agents, who despite their dubious reputation, definitely DID NOT do any of the following:

• suggest in no uncertain terms that our budget was nowhere near big enough, and hint that we'd need to spend at least £50k more than our budget
• quietly suggesting that frankly we didn't have enough money, and weren't the sort of people that they wanted to associate with
  
• imply that we would not be taken remotely seriously until we'd seen their 'independent financial adviser'
• on being challenged about the above, insisting that the financial adviser really was independent
• on being presented with irrefutable proof that they were fibbing, reluctantly admitting that said financial adviser wasn't perhaps independent in the normal sense of the word
• hint that unless we use them both to buy and to sell, we wouldn't have a hope
• offer to get the valuation done immediately, sign us up to the contract within an hour, and have the house on the market before tea time
  

God bless them, every one.


Following an earlier post, the above is an exciting montage of further accountants in films, and what a fine bunch of excel chimps they are. Downtrodden, grey, bespectacled to a man. On the left is the nerdy guy who brings down the Capone mob due to non-compliance with tax regulations in 'The Untouchables'. Centre is the fellow from 'The Producers'. Right is Mr Stern from 'Schindler's List'. Any more out there?