Estate Agents just don't listen!

justruth

This really isn't complicated, my dad is buying the property and I will rent it off him to cover his loss of interest especially following the recent BoE rate cuts. As such he wants me to find a suitable place, should be easy!

Budget is set and was based on affordability and some online research of properties in the sorts of areas that I was looking at and should get me a comfortable place. I contacted lots of EAs and have had some laughable responses.

One thought I was clearly stupid, showed me a property that I KNOW has been on the market for nearly a year (since we started taking an interest in the area). It was £30k above the set limit, but he said that they would not come down on it, and suggested I take the details and 'use them as evidence to get some more money out of daddy'. As I also had toothache that day he very nearly recieved a slap! Apart from anything else he clearly hadn't listened to the areaI wanted, he knew better and had housed people working at ONE of the places I said I needed to commute to, unfortunatley it was not great for any of the others!

Another phoned me Thursday to send details of a place that met my needs. Very promising, he took an hour to send them and by the time I had looked over the place he had left the office. Friday I called back and asked to view the property, I told him when I was available on the Saturday. He called me back and offered a time when I was clearly not available, so I said I would have to wait till this week to see it to which he replied that there was a lot of interest and I would have to be quick! I was not about to be rushed into something as significant as this, so I politely suggested that if that was the case then I would have to give this one a miss. Phone call 2 minutes later, I now have an appointment for Wednesday.

It's no great secret that there is something of a credit crunch on. Our position should be strong, the finance is already in place, there is no chain and I would like to move in the near future. Why do the EA's still try to blag it? They're clearly not used to having to work for their money!

david29dpo

Tell the vendors!

justruth

The first place was not a suitable location as I have to commute to several different sites, and I don't know about the second place yet. I just want somewhere to live for the next 5+ years!

Pennywise

Your experience doesn't surprise me at all. When we were looking, we had a large deposit, mortgage arranged, nothing to sell, and in a hurry to buy as we were getting married in just a couple of months time. We gave our details to all local EAs to go on their "hot list" for suitable properties, but never once did any of them call us or send us any details of new properties. We had to constantly chase them as we were getting desperate. We actually missed 2/3 houses as they had already received offers by the time we knew the properties were on the market. We started driving round our preferred areas almost every day to look for new boards as we couldn't trust the EAs to tell us. It was purely by chance that we found out about our "dream house" - we were viewing a property elsewhere and the EA's part-time "viewer" happened to mention a property nearby that didn't have a board outside - he only knew about it because he'd shown someone else around the day before. He made a phone call to the office and took us round straightaway - we made an offer the next day and moved in five weeks later. If it had been down to the EAs office staff, we'd probably still be looking as they were next to useless. It's easy to make money and be successful in the good times - in the recession, we'll find out which EAs are actually good at their job - good riddance to all the lazy hangers-on!

ukjoel

Monday morning.
Boss sits down at team meeting.
Guys - property A,B, and C have been on for 3 months -no viewings and we are about to lose the business to agency down the road...............

Get some people in there or your all sacked...............

An hour later you walk in - guess what properties you are going to see

If they have what you are after they will show it to you but there is very little on at the moment (apparently its a bad time to sell:rolleyes: ).

Therefore they need to keep the vendors sweet and the people who are 30k over budget may come down, but not until they have had 5 people looking at there house all saying the same thing. If your number 6 you get lucky.

Going back to my first point - I think your number one.

Have a friend in the business and am often asked to do viewings on properties to lift their footfall rate.

Your right there is a crunch on and your in a strong position. The problem is that sellers dont want to sell from a weak position so most will not.

This is where the difference between whats in the press and reality really starts to show. Your saying the papers tell me I should get a bargain. Phil and Kirsty tell me I should save a fortune.

Yet can you find it?

justruth

Unfortunatley for them it means I have no interest in buying the wrong property. I am beginning to wonder exactly what it is that estate agents do to earn their commission as they dont show me suitable property and try to manipulate the seller.