Coffin Dodger

Seems like they don't want my business

Saw a house at the weekend that the missus and I liked and want to put in an offer. Rang them nearly an hour ago, spoke to someone who said they'd get the agent who showed us round the house to ring back as he's on the phone at the moment. Must be some long phone call! I'd have thought they'd be ringing back within minutes at any sniff of a sale

Can't concentrate on w**k until I know the outcome of today's dealings. Parasites.

Rant over

David Lock

They are probably trying to contact their client so that he can give you a positive answer (or not) to your offer. But he could have rung to tell you that I suppose.....

SiPie

It's Monday morning and maybe the guy's in as good a mood as you appear to be

Coffin Dodger

No, haven't actually got as far as placing the offer yet, that's what I'm waiting for him to ring for! So wouldn't be on the phone to their client I guess.

Coffin Dodger

I'm in a good mood but a bit on edge as I'm about to make the biggest financial decision of my life so far.

But if you're an estate agent I guess it's obviously not that important. Thought he'd be after his commission though....

Flatcapdriver

Estate Agencies are where failed salesmen end up. So, I wouldn't be surprised.

Until more people are prepared to shop online for houses, we're stuck with them.

angrynorth

The problem is not people being prepared to shop online for houses. Millions of people use all the portals (rightmove, primelocation etc) everyday searching for houses.

The problem is people not being prepared to sell their houses online. There are loads of sites these days that will allow you to sell online, but as long as people believe the old estate agents speil of "you need local knowledge to sell a house" then the longer this transition will take.

This local knowledge is a total myth these days. Online agents such as The Web's fastest growing estate agency - BrightSale Online Estate Agents can accurately price properties as they use exactly the same tools as your "friendly local agent" to work out an accurate valuation. These types of sites are much better than the typical sell it your self sites as they still offer a professional on the other end of a phone/email and manage to get a greater exposure as they are allowed on the portals.

PS, coffin dodger, had you been using The Web's fastest growing estate agency - BrightSale Online Estate Agents you would have been able to make your offer directly to the vendor through the messaging system, without the need to speak to an agent (unless you wanted to of course.)

Can you tell I like online estate agency? It's the future y'know.

MattN

I had the same. Saw a house liked it. Called to make an offer. Soke to 1 person who said someone would call back. An hour later they did. But then told me I had to speak to there mortgage chap BEFORE they would put the offer to the client!

Anyway spoke to the mortgage chap for seconds when he finally called. Apparantly it's to make sure we could afford it but I didn't tell them our wages or anything like that, just we had a deposit of xxx no chain and that's about it. So after speaking to 3 people and waiting nearly 4 hours my offer was put to the client.

When I went for a second visit I advised them that the agents were not prepared to give them offers unless they spoke to their mortgage people ... Didn't get the house, the agents made it to difficult ...

Matteeboy

An estate agent blatantly made up a "higher offer" when we offered the full asking price for an office.
Oddly enough the higher offer "fell through" so they asked if we were still interested.
I managed not to swear but you can imagine my reaction - It ended in "off"

Another was an hour late for a house viewing then tried to blame US for it.

Utter scum.

Coffin Dodger

That's shocking. If you have made your own mortgage arrangements all they need from you is a letter of intent from the mortgage provider to back up your offer.

They should, by law, pass on all offers to the client regardless of whether they think you're taking the p*ss or don't have the financial clout to back it up.

MattN

I have found buying houses more difficult recently.

You are right though they are supposed to make all offers known, it's not their decision if i can afford it or not.

Bought a much more expensive house in the end, and wouldn't want to use them in the future so they lost out in the end.

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Without being racist on this one (cause i know what the PC brigade are like here)

Mate of ours tried to buy a house in our street, family were selling it as the old dear had been put in a home.

Anyway he offered the money and was informed by the estate agent he hadn't got it. The house was sold to an asian group who were paying cash (this seems pretty normal to avoid the interest rates on grounds of religeon)

Trouble was they were offering less than my mate, just included a bit of extra cash for the estate agent. So religeous issues with paying interest but not with paying bribes it seems.

Anyway, because we knew the sellers we were able to warn them they'd actually had a higher offer, the estate agent hadn't even bothered to pass it on.

needless to say they took my mates offer and told the agency where to go.

lucky result really.

5t.

kbsub

Just sold my house through a local estate agent who valued it 10k above everyone else ... sold it for 4k under asking price after 6 weeks and 15 viewings .. therefore they are welcome to 1.5%

Seems a lot of estate agents under value just to get a quick sale and boost the figure's .

Abdabz

We are in the process of selling my place. We went round every single estate agent in town, "interviewing" each one to see which would get the business. Some were out and out cowboys (especially national franchises).

We chose the one that seemed to be the most upfront and honest.

We agreed on a slightly below top price value in order to shift it and 4 weeks later have had 3 viewings booked, 1 of which cancelled and didnt rearrange and 1 who was misinformed by the agent about house layout so the viewing was wasted...

We are only paying 1% though, but still, I am that dissapointed with the early interest that I am already considering if, in this game, going for honesty really is the best policy...

PeteBrant

Estate agents are a bunch of parasitic ****s. Much like insurance companies, banks, pension companies, Management consultants, advertising executives and other various organsisations that make money by leeching from the general public without actually producing anything.

geesta

I had the same thing happen to me, ******* oxygen thieves!

Chris L

It's difficult to tar them all with the same brush. My house was originally on Brightsale - which I think is an excellent idea. The Brightsale model is probably the way forward and their fees are good too (0.5% including seller's legal costs). All they lack is listing on Right Move, which is effectively controlled by and for normal estate agents. I can see that they would be worried by the Brightsale model.

That said (and in fairness to Brightsale, my house was put on the site at a high price just on the off chance someone would bite before the supposed HIPs deadline), my house was sold in under a week using a local estate agent (not one of the national chains). Six viewings and an eventual selling price just 1K below asking price. They've been very efficient and very helpful, so they are not all as bad!

Luckyscoob

iTrader: (2)

Guys, please dont tar everyone with the same brush. As with every business there is good and bad. My estate agency business has been in the family for over 40 years. we are a family run business, that thrives mainly on recommendations. We belong to just about every regulating body going, so would be stupid to act immorally or improperly as we could be closed down. Whilst I agree with alot of the comments, and accept that unfortunatley there are a right bunch of T**ts trying to be estate agents, but are no more than smarmy sales people in sharp suits, alot of us earn a genuine living. Off me soap box now

Coffin Dodger

Well, so far today......

Called at 11am, asked if I could put in an offer, told the agent who dealt with our viewing will call back.

At 1pm, still no call so rang them again, managed to get someone to take details of my offer, said they'd pass on the info to the agent who was dealing with it.

At 1:45pm, agent who did the viewing finally rang back, had to repeat the offer details all over again, then try to fob him off regarding talking to their financial advisor (unsuccessfully I think ). OK getting somewhere I think, says he will put the offer to the client....

4:45pm still no flippin call. Is it always this slow? I'd have thought in this age of mobile communications things could progress quite quickly.

Oh well, awaiting developments I suppose.... impatient moi

If the estate agent hadn't been so slow off the mark I think we could have had at least one round of offers today. Still useless IMO

Abdabz

Whilst there are voluntary bodies you can affilliate with, I didnt think estate agency was "regulated"... I am aware of the voluntary code of conduct too which came out a short while ago, but, whilst I know your company wouldnt, any estate agency in the land can breach all the rules to their hearts content.
Some voluntary schemes may kick them out, but they will always be OK to carry on trading...

All that said, it's a shame you're not local to me - we could have done a deal

Luckyscoob

iTrader: (2)

I agree, sounds like they aren't too clever at communication.

Abdabz

Oh and I did receive an offer on Wed last week, which I turned down and proposed a compromise. I still havent heard back from the potential buyer - with the exception of the agent telling me when I chased them on Friday that the potential buer is thinking about it!!!
FFS what is there to think about??? You either want to live in the Abdabz soon to be former **** pad or you dont

Luckyscoob

iTrader: (2)

If an agent belongs to either the National Association of Estate Agents or Ombudsman/OFT, they can be fined and in extreme circumstances, stopped from carrying out the activities of an Estate Agent. Unfortunately though, these are voluntary but moves are afoot to make estate agents belong to a body of some sort. It's simple really. Pick an Agent that belongs to one or both of these organisations . If we open an office your way, we'll do a deal

Monkeybone

My folks run a normal high street agency and charge that most of the time. For an online only price I'd say that's quite high

I say it everytime a topic like this comes up, depends on the agent

Generally a small independant, 1 or 2 offices in size, will be pretty decent. They can't afford to be crap else they'll be out of business.

It's the larger chains that are shockingly bad. The fact you are talking about agents with financial/mortgage advisors would make me run a mile as these are bloody awful.

Miller Countrywide were recently selling my deceased dad's flat (he was selling it just before he died and found a buyer a couple of weeks before popping his clogs), the buyers were a polish couple who were fine with hanging on while we sorted probate out. Millers were ****ing awful, and 5 months after probate had been issued it took a letter saying you've got 10 days to exchange or I'm pulling the sale. On the 10th day everything was sorted, but our solicitors said their "call centre" way of conveyancing was rubbish.

Although in agency the easy bit is selling the houses, it's taking them on where the agents will bust a gut to get the business

Bodgit

I had some agents do this to me about 5 years ago. I told them it was illegal and I would be going round to speak to the people selling the house and tell them I was going to buy it but the agents we being difficult. They then put the offer forward.

I think most agents get comission for just getting you to sit with the advisor. that is why they do it.

I am trying to find another house at the moment and have sworn never to go to that agent again. I would rather knock on the sellers door and tell them I would buy it if they moved agent.

JamieMacdonald

A local EA near us got in to trouble for putting up 'SOLD' signs outside sought after blocks of flats, when they never even had property for sale there in the first place! Just drumming up business by conning people in to phoning them up!

My girlfriend and I went with the same firm but different branches when we sold our flats; I received an offer £5K over asking price within a couple of weeks, she had received one offer of £5K under asking price (declined) after 16 weeks. She then sold within about a month of changing agents.

Now I would tell you my estate agent was great, she would tell you hers was rubbish...... go figure!

MattN

I've bought 4 and sold 3 and never had a good agent. Had a couple that were OK and the rest were bad. Even had one that called every week for an update - they weren't even our agent they just wanted to know. Had to complain in the end stating I was NOT their client and to stop bothering me!

Huw Jorgan

The fact that the agent didn't have a reply for your after 3 hours, may not be the agents fault. Not all vendors can take personal calls at work, they maybe shift workers etc. However a good agent would have called you back to explain that they had tried to call the vendor, had been unable to contact them & left a message. At least then you would have been a bit wiser as to what was going on.

If you have evidence that offers haven't been passed onto a vendor or other offers have been made up, then contact your local trading standards office. They will look at any complaint have far more reaching powers than a body like the NAEA.