Diary of an estate agent

Monday

After weeks of not being able to make his mind up, a client finally decided today not to proceed with his purchase of a 980,000 five-bedroom house in the Bedford Park area of Chiswick. The client has been back four times over the past two weeks, twice with his architect, to discuss the possible extension of the kitchen, but this morning I had a phone call to say that he had decided the building work involved would cost too much. I spent much of the rest of the day phoning other interested parties. The vendor is aggrieved that so much time has been wasted because he is in a chain to buy a new home in the West Country.

Later, I valued a property in Bedford Park, a five-bedroom family house which will go on the market for 1.8 million.

Bedford Park was London's first garden suburb and its properties became very popular with families because many have wide gardens and roof terraces and the area has a small prep school.

But in the past four years, I have noticed things have changed quite considerably: now it is the City bankers with their big bonuses buying into the area.

After talking to the client, we managed to work out that the house was built around 1880 by the architect Norman Shaw, rather than another local architect EJ May, and is Grade II listed. These historical facts are important for the brochure.

Tuesday

I took an instruction today for a property I first sold in 1996 and which is now back on the market. It's a two-bedroom split-level flat with a roof terrace and balcony in The Powerhouse, which was built in 1901 to provide power for the electric trams in Chiswick High Road. The building was later converted into warehouse-style apartments.

The vendor bought the apartment at 120,000, and it is going on the market for 249,950. I think it will sell quickly as flats here are very popular, particularly with young professional couples.

This afternoon, contracts were exchanged on an unmodernised four- bedroom house on the border of St Peter's Square for 380,000. The house belonged to an elderly man whose father and grandfather had lived there before him. He is moving to be closer to his father.

Fortunately for the new owners, he has agreed to take one highly unusual garden feature with him: a steam train and tracks he has had for years as part of his lifelong hobby.

Thursday

I had a good offer this morning on a lovely five-bedroom town house in Regency Quay, a popular riverside gated development in Chiswick.

What is amazing is that we only received instructions for this property last Friday. It went on the market at 825,000 and an offer of 780,000 was made after the first viewing on Saturday. We have been negotiating since then and now that offer has been increased to 800,000. I was keen to talk to the vendor and tell her about the new offer but she had gone out shopping and had forgotten to take her mobile, so we had a tense few hours waiting for her return. When she did, she seemed very pleased with the offer, and I am hopeful she will accept it.

Friday

Drove down to the river to value a property and realised that the tide was in - a local hazard round here. As I was already late for my appointment, I didn't want to risk driving through the water and damaging my car, so I turned back and parked the car safely.

I made my way to the property by foot and went to look at the back garden.

The view of Eyot Green, with all the seagulls flying around, was quite beautiful and the house exceeded my expectations. I told the owner 3 million would be appropriate.

When I got back to my car, I found that, having prevented it from being washed into the Thames, it was now being caught by another local hazard: a parking warden was in the process of writing out a parking ticket.

Christina Christodoulou is manager of Chesterton in Chiswick (020 8995 3443).

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