I'm an Estate Agent. What do you expect from me.

Limana68

I have moved several times and all the estate agents I have used were useless!
Most of it has been said already, but I think the worst thing for me is that I would like more feedback from the estate agent,
(the viewers thoughts), and also would appreciate a call from them at least once a wk, to let me know , well that thay are still alive!!
I have had my house on the market for 2 mths now, two viewings and no feedback, and I hate the fact that I have to chase them when I think of what I will be paying them. The only time I hear from them is if there is a viewer to book in.

Thats it for me!!

Good luck, your not opening up your business in Nth Yorks are you? Shame!!

Rubyru_3

silvercar wrote:

...Honesty!

I second that.

Keep in touch even if you have had no interest in your clients property.

gentlepurr

all constructive opinions, i have one more to add:

i am now in my tenth house, and i dont suppose it will be my last. what i would really like is for the front line staff to have specific knowledge of my house, via a personal viewing, so when a prospective buyer contacts your office, the staff are able to talk knowledgably about specific properties, instead of saying "this looks like it has.....", they can actually speak from experience. this was the case when i bought my current house, and it was a benefit being able to talk things through with the girls on the front desk, to enable me to make a considered and balanced judgement on the property i was interested in, and subsequently bought.

xx

ps if your in staffs and want to sell on a no fee basis?.......

stockmarket-diva

Thank you for all your comments so far. Alot of your comments I have already taken on board because they too are the things I hated about the other Agents I worked for. In fact I walked out of the last Agency I worked at because I was ashamed to be associated with such bad service.

As an ex estate agent and ex financial advisor I feel I know the business inside out. I am specialising in the Village in which I live and have brought my children up in etc so if I can't give people the best advice then nobody can. I not only am an honest agent and take on only properties that I think are priced correctly, I also am offering a property finding service which is all included in my fee. The fee is the same or less than the other agents and I dont tie people into long contracts. One agent makes people sign up for a 16 week contract. I just ask for 2 weeks notice. That way I have to be constantly on my toes trying to sell the properties.

I advertise in the local papers, have a website and advertise on rightmove. I hold open house launches and accompany all viewings. What more can anyone really ask for. Unfortunately, the cut throat agents still manage to try and steal some of my business but they haven't managed it so far.

Unfortunately, because I'm a smaller agent, I have to hope that word of mouth will be enough for people to realise they should ditch some of the bigger names. Unfortunately vendors are still lured by useless service for the sake of a big name.

By the way I'm in the South East so if anyone wants me to sell their home or look for a property for them, I am more than willing to help.

nelly_2

"New instruction"

"we are delighted to offer"

Them 2 stupid sayings really get on my nerves.

The smell of freshly brewed coffee annoys me too, it smacks of a con.

Spendless

Not just rely on the weekly papers to get customers interested in a house. Many friends of mine only heard from EA once a week after the local rag came out. I sold my old place using an independant and heard from him several times a week as he chased up customers he had on his books, contacts he knew etc.

biblejohn

silvercar wrote:

...Honesty!

lol!!! thats EXACTLY what i was going to say!

silvercar

Good luck! You sound like just the sort of agent people dream of.

Incidentally, in my area the independents do very well and 2 of the national chains have shut their offices.

Only taking on instructions at reasonable prices should enhance your reputation. Round here people say sell through XX and buy through YY because YY's prices are realistic and XX's are pie in the sky. Of course many people start off with XX, realise they can't sell their property has been on the market too long so they end up with YY having wasted 4 months.

lush_walrus

All very good advice so far, I have done exactly what you are planning to do 5 years ago and I must have got something right as in that time I have 3 EAs that I now just oversee. But the one word of advise I will give you from the business side rather than the what I would like in an agent side, is make sure you are fully aware of all costs and stick to them. Its tempting to start advertising here there and everywhere and promising the world when you first start out, but you will be gone in seconds.

The other piece of advice I would give you is in the early days (if not for the rest of your days if there are lots of big chains in your area) make sure your fees are as low as possible, as regardless of all of the wants of people money is the biggest factor in which agent the majority of people go to.

Also make sure you don't fall into the trap to false advertise properties you have sold, ie put a sold board outside every house that your family and friends own. A couple of years ago (you may already know) but an office of a well known chain in Reading were found guilty of exactly that and had a huge fine put onto them. Not worth it.

NervousYetFeisty

Advice is good, telling me what I want is not. I had a meeting with an EA who not only criticised the area in which I live now (which is a bit rough around the edges but it's still my home, for now at least) but also told me that I didn't want to look at house A because the garden wasn't "child-friendly", whatever that is. I'd have liked to be the judge of that - my ds isn't that little anymore. Actually house A wasn't right because it's a 2-bed not a 3-bed but that's by-the-by - it's still on the market some months later.
Don't describe some grubby little terrace with no loo upstairs and a dodgy extension with a sagging roof as " a delightful family home". "Needs some TLC" would have been fine, but "Delightful" was just a big fat lie. Or then price that house at several thousand above similar properties nearby.
Also, when emailing details, please don't just send a random selection of Word files which are simply called "PropertyDetails.doc". Send one email with all the attachments and call each attachment a sensible name, like "10AcaciaAvenue.doc" so I know what I'm looking at. It sounds trivial, but (when they can be bothered) one agent sends me a weekly emailing consisting of about 6 of these, all of which I've already seen probably and seeing as I can't tell from the document title which property they're on about, I now rarely bother opening them. It's a faff. Actually, don't send Word files at all - PDFs would be much better.
Decent photos - some of the photos I see are shocking. Discuss with the sellers what they think are the house's strong points - you might know the area well but there might also be things you've overlooked, perhaps because your own lifestyle is different from that of the likely buyer, iykwim.
Thing is, I know that EAs are working for the vendors not the buyers, but without us there is not going to be a sale, so please treat us with a little respect. Oh, and send an agent out to view the property before they take round potential buyers so there are no nasty surprises (the disdain on one EA's face as she showed us around one place was pretty hard to conceal!).