Estate Agents seem rather busy this weekend

Maisie11

No one panic though please. It is still a buyers market - just dont think you will automatically know where the bottom of the market is. If it is right for you and you can afford it that is the main thing.

When we were looking for our current house 10 years ago we saw a house that I fell in love with. There was a bidding war and we were up against an elderly women who had cash. She won. About 2 years ago she sold the house but I have to pass this house every day on the school run. I still wish we had brought it and that was 10 years ago - how sad is that....

brit1234

There is an awful lot of spin at the moment distorting the reality.

You shouldn't compare last month with this month due seasonality. You should compare like with like for example dec08 with dec09.

All this rubbish about increased interest in estate agents is a smoke screen against what really is happening ie actual sales falling.

People now need 25-40% deposits for conventional mortgages and I doubt there are many of them. I can only think it relates to people resorting to these shared equity properties where you don't need the deposit and Halifax are one of the few mortgage providers for the scheme?

Things are economically getting far worse. This price rise is just a blip/deadcat bounce. Momentum can't just change like that

Maisie11

A colleague at work got a very reasonable mortgage with 15% deposit. I do agree the very best rates are only available to people with 40% but rates are really low at present...

PasturesNew

You have to ask yourself if they had any staff to do viewings in the first place. A lot are down to skeleton staff and this means going back to the way it used to happen years ago: they pretty much expect people to be able to do viewings in the week - and - at their convenience.

You probably left it too late, phoning for viewings on a Friday afternoon and expecting to get fitted in that weekend.

puddy

yeah, you're probably right, i honestly thought they would be doing nothing at the moment, never mind

QTPie

jenner wrote: »

yeah, you're probably right, i honestly thought they would be doing nothing at the moment, never mind

No, to be fair, those left are working pretty hard (not always competently and well-directed, but that is a different matter... ).

You are just like me, impatient to get on...

QT

bob79

Yes, estate agents do seem to be busy. Probably partially because they laid off so many staff as others already suggested. But I think also because many people only see that houseprices have fallen and do not see that mortgages are not that easy to get anymore. In my area virtually all properties that are 'sold STC' come back onto the market because the people who made the offer could not get a mortgage. Many people that have zero change of buying are keeping the estate agents busy.

kunekune

What I'm seeing is that scarcity of purchasers doesn't translate into better quality of EAs. Three days to phone for feedback? That was a house we may well make an offer on. No response to feedback at all? That one was housenetwork, btw. Well, maybe, except that the feedback was that if the seller was genuinely negotiable, we'd be the first at the table. We'd love that house, but the price has stayed stayed the same for 11 months. Without some kind of pointer, why would we bother?

besonders1

It is just a load of spin about house price rises and busy estate agents offices. If you walk past estate agents windows, there is still just one person siting at the desk looking bored but if you ring up they tell you that the earliest viewing is next week LOL. On the other hand if there are now only 2 EAs working there then someone would need to be at the office whilst the other does the viewing. Don't believe anything till you see it.