How are estate agents surviving?

Realy

Pssst wrote: »

I dont mind admitting that i hate estate agents.

My experience of them is that they are mostly smarmy,arrogant and in reality, they dont provide much value for customers.

.

They do if you just look at the advertising bit. If you look at how much it would cost you to put a colour advert in the center pages of your local rag for a few weeks you would see the value.
I look as EA's as advertising agencies with sales people.
But sales people are smarmy I prefer EA's to furniture shop sales people.
Are you looking for somthing perticular "well lets see I am in a bed shop?":mad:

Realy

IT_nerd wrote: »

I have yet to meet a EA who I thought was worth money.
I could do their job.

In boom time maybe but in this climate you have to be clever, a good sales person, punctual and be able to judge your clients and the local market.
People say IT is easy its just sitting at a computer, but we all know it's more than that.

IT_nerd

Realy wrote: »

In boom time maybe but in this climate you have to be clever, a good sales person, punctual and be able to judge your clients and the local market.

But most aren't.. Which is exactly why they aren't selling houses.
For example my dads estate agent recomended that he lower his asking price to 250K odd and say "No offers"....
Also said he should count on people falling in love with the house. What kind of advice is that?
If I was the EA I would be saying to my dad to lower his asking price to 230K and accept nothing less than 225K...
That would be the quick sale he needs, and the EA knows he needs.
Currently all the EA's are doing is keeping my dads hopes up. He's freaking desperate and they're telling him he should basically hang tight. He wont listen to me, obviously. Because I didn't pay the £10 to the advert on the back of the comic to get my EA degree..
Repossesion looms.

Realy

IT_nerd wrote: »

But most aren't.. Which is exactly why they aren't selling houses.
For example my dads estate agent recomended that he lower his asking price to 250K odd and say "No offers"....
Also said he should count on people falling in love with the house. What kind of advice is that?
If I was the EA I would be saying to my dad to lower his asking price to 230K and accept nothing less than 225K...
That would be the quick sale he needs, and the EA knows he needs.
Currently all the EA's are doing is keeping my dads hopes up. He's freaking desperate and they're telling him he should basically hang tight. He wont listen to me, obviously. Because I didn't pay the £10 to the advert on the back of the comic to get my EA degree..
Repossesion looms.

Well change EA if your dad is unwilling to drop the price he is as guilty. The EA will advertise it for lower, £25K makes not much difference on his selling fee.
But to get a quick sale in this market and this time of year he will be lucky unless he wants to take the hit and he sounds unwilling if he will not listen to you.

moanymoany

The EAs who helped us sell our house worked really hard for us they did a really good job.

I certainly didn't begrudge them their 1%.

sfry

moanymoany wrote: »

The EAs who helped us sell our house worked really hard for us they did a really good job.

I certainly didn't begrudge them their 1%.

Same here. Our EA was polite and a mature professional, explained exactly the reasons for his valuation and was easily contactable. They did a lot of advertising and gave good feedback after they had done each viewing. Most importantly when he negotiated the final sale price he managed to get more than we were prepared to accept so the extra he got for us more than covered his fee.

So there are some good ones around.

ad44downey

Have no fear, the oily spivs are no doubt at this moment planning their next grand scheme to indebt the British Citizen even further and bankrupt the nation

Realy

ad44downey wrote: »

Have no fear, the oily spivs are no doubt at this moment planning their next grand scheme to indebt the British Citizen even further and bankrupt the nation

:rotfl: It was not peoples fear of not buying a property, greed and the banks then.
I did not see a gun the last time I purchased a house

IT_nerd

IT_nerd wrote: »

But most aren't.. Which is exactly why they aren't selling houses.
For example my dads estate agent recomended that he lower his asking price to 250K odd and say "No offers"....
Also said he should count on people falling in love with the house. What kind of advice is that?
If I was the EA I would be saying to my dad to lower his asking price to 230K and accept nothing less than 225K...
That would be the quick sale he needs, and the EA knows he needs.
Currently all the EA's are doing is keeping my dads hopes up. He's freaking desperate and they're telling him he should basically hang tight. He wont listen to me, obviously. Because I didn't pay the £10 to the advert on the back of the comic to get my EA degree..
Repossesion looms.

HA! Today my dad got an offer for £225K. Just found out.
Me:1 EA:0
He'll probably accept 235K for it in the end.
!!!!. Now I have to move out. :mad:

lynzpower

Realy wrote: »

:rotfl: It was not peoples fear of not buying a property, greed and the banks then.
I did not see a gun the last time I purchased a house

It really depends though doesnt it. Im not saying any gun was placed to anyones head! however, I was an estate agent for a few minutes at the start of last year.

At this stage the papers were full of stories about FTBs never being able to get on ladders, that the average house price was rising by 20k a week or othersuch craziness, that some postcodes had seen 15% rises in the last quarter alone etc. I knew this was unsustainable- having just STR :j

The EAs I worked with were an agressive bunch whos aim- quite rightly I might add- is to get bast price for the vendor. So, in taking viewers out- and believe me they really were panicking, Id never seen anything like it- council flats in shocking blocks going to sealed bids/ 1 bed ex las going for 275 and then some- we were having sealed bids daily in our office. Those buyers who could not afford these prices after being pipped would burst into tears on the phone. My reassurances, dont worry, youll find something meant sod all, as quite rightly in thier view all they could see was that prices were going up much faster than they could save. I was probably the worlds least effective estate agent, I often talked some viewers out of it as quite frankly they couldnt afford the extra loans they were taking on to get deposits.

You wonder where people got this herd mentality from. Answer- the media, and thier parents & freinds. My family were sure that I had gone totally mad when I told them my plan was to STR. Mum even casually wondered whether everything was ok in my relationship, was OH trying to milk some money out of me ( LOL mother, no chance!) what other reason could there be for me to sell up in a booming market?

Its amazing how short the memories are. Only a few months ago the STRs on this very board were slammed for being dumb enough to sell up and that the crash was nothing but a mere hope for sad little losers who had not yet bought *accident of birth? or simple common sense?* Comments like "will you regret selling up when next year you wont be able to buy the same flat you just sold?" were daily occuerences here-totally frustrating, that moneysavers on these boards are happy to advise others to simply waste money the flat next door sold 6ms later than I did for 20k less so there wasnt much chance of that happening!