Name & Shame! - Estate agents!

MissMotivation

pandamonia wrote: »

well ive been talking to Dixons today and they told me that they wont take a house on their books if they think its overpriced and wont sell as they dont want to waste their staffs time. they said having homes for sale for over a year is of no use to them. i quized them about green and co and they said its just their agents arent very good at helping buyers understand the market. And also they think sutton is some kind of bubble from the rest of the market which it clearly isnt. Today they listed a 2 bed terrace like a shoe box for 225k, i cant understand how its worth twice the price of others just like it. it has no parking no space no nothing.

maybe its just this agent then?

they certainly dont have many SSTC.

First of all I'm not defending Green & Co as any EA that takes on overpriced property in this market is shooting themselves in the foot. I don't know Sutton Coldfield very well but from 5 mins research you can easily see that this road is quite expensive anyway.

The most expensive property that has ever sold there is £280,000 (Semi, 2007) and the cheapest was £190,000 (terraced, 2007). So I don't see where you have got the 'twice the price of others' comment from

Just because you want something to be a certain price or because you can't afford it doesn't mean that it should be cheaper!

Conrad

The public are so dim witted sometimes.

I work with EA's and I can assure you'all they always aim to take stuff on to sell asap, aferall it costs them to have property sitting on thier books.

I would love the public to witness the conversations I hear where obstinate greedy vendors get it into thier heads that thier property is;

1) The best in the road (always)
2) has not been effected by the recession - that only applies to other areas
3) is correctly priced, and they damn well wont be giving it away


C'mon, people, streeeeetch those brains

MissMotivation

Conrad wrote: »

The public are so dim witted sometimes.

I work with EA's and I can assure you'all they always aim to take stuff on to sell asap, aferall it costs them to have property sitting on thier books.

I would love the public to witness the conversations I hear where obstinate greedy vendors get it into thier heads that thier property is;

1) The best in the road (always)
2) has not been effected by the recession - that only applies to other areas
3) is correctly priced, and they damn well wont be giving it away


C'mon, people, streeeeetch those brains

:rotfl:
Below is an actual conversation that I had with a prospective Vendor not so long ago.

Me: A competitive asking price for your property would be £150,000
Vendor: But that's not enough
Me: Why? How much where you hoping it would be worth
Vendor: £200,000!
Me: Why do you think it's worth £200,000 when nothing in the area has sold above £170,000?
Vendor: Because I just think that's what it's worth, i'm not selling it for a penny less than £200,000, I'm not giving it away
Me: Ok........see ya! (well not really but that's what I wanted to say)

And this was a deceased estate property, no mortgage and the proceeds going to one person.......pure greed!

I know EA's get all the blame for house prices but for God's sake have a bit of common sense, why would we want to take on 100's of overpriced tat, payout £1000's in advertising costs, staff costs and our time if the property has no chance of selling

moggylover

Conrad wrote: »

The public are so dim witted sometimes.

I work with EA's and I can assure you'all they always aim to take stuff on to sell asap, aferall it costs them to have property sitting on thier books.

I would love the public to witness the conversations I hear where obstinate greedy vendors get it into thier heads that thier property is;

1) The best in the road (always)
2) has not been effected by the recession - that only applies to other areas
3) is correctly priced, and they damn well wont be giving it away


C'mon, people, streeeeetch those brains

I would have to back that opinion all the way! I have two very good friends who are Estate Agents around here, and they are both saying that when they try to explain to those whose homes have been on the market for ages without selling, that they need to really look at reducing the price the people go balistic! Furthermore, even now, almost every valuation they do the people say things like: "oh but we were thinking of "x" amount" more and will not budge down.

They will have to accept the drops eventually, but think how much extra money they stand to have lost by then - seems so silly to me. I have reduced my prices, and have one house under offer from cash buyers and progressing at the moment, and the second one has had a second viewing from very keen cash buyers this morning! Better the bird in the hand than two in the bush as far as I am concerned. Yes, I have had to take offers that are less than I would have ideally liked: but once I am a cash buyer I shall just make the same sort of offers and negotiate until I find someone who actually wants to sell at a price I calculate makes it worth me taking the risk.

HelpWhereIcan

MissMotivation wrote: »

I know EA's get all the blame for house prices but for God's sake have a bit of common sense, why would we want to take on 100's of overpriced tat, payout £1000's in advertising costs, staff costs and our time if the property has no chance of selling

but at the same time, I know of at least one local EA who is pricing at least 15% below current and recent sold prices because there is so much pressure on them financially they are pricing everything as low as they can to try and maintain volumes.

They are still offering a £995 + VAT all inclusive fee so cannot afford to have too much advertising expense etc - they need it sold yesterday.

They have some sold boards but no more than most and not as many as one local agent I know who has 30 odd years under his belt who has similar properties priced slightly higher but does a better job with the presentation of particulars etc etc

ie they know how to present and sell properties (I know that's a dirty concept here) without automatically trying to be the cheapest. Any monkey can sell something by making it cheaper.

They can back up their valuations with recent sold evidence and surprise people both ways - bringing some peoples' expectations down and others up all through weight of evidence.

Some vendors have over-inflated opinions of what their property is worth but some buyers have silly ideas as well.

A property is only worth what someone will pay for it but it will also only sell for what the vendor will accept. A good EA knows how to manage the expectations of both sides - that why the job used to be called a sales negotiator.

MissMotivation

HelpWhereIcan wrote: »

but at the same time, I know of at least one local EA who is pricing at least 15% below current and recent sold prices because there is so much pressure on them financially they are pricing everything as low as they can to try and maintain volumes.

They are still offering a £995 + VAT all inclusive fee so cannot afford to have too much advertising expense etc - they need it sold yesterday.

They have some sold boards but no more than most and not as many as one local agent I know who has 30 odd years under his belt who has similar properties priced slightly higher but does a better job with the presentation of particulars etc etc

ie they know how to present and sell properties (I know that's a dirty concept here) without automatically trying to be the cheapest. Any monkey can sell something by making it cheaper.

They can back up their valuations with recent sold evidence and surprise people both ways - bringing some peoples' expectations down and others up all through weight of evidence.

Some vendors have over-inflated opinions of what their property is worth but some buyers have silly ideas as well.

A property is only worth what someone will pay for it but it will also only sell for what the vendor will accept. A good EA knows how to manage the expectations of both sides - that why the job used to be called a sales negotiator.

Then more fool the Vendors for listing their properties with this agent because they are cheap! It looks like, in this case, that you really do get what you pay for!

Pricing properties correctly is the key, and you are correct in saying that a property will only sell for what someone will pay for it and what the vendor accepts.

The problem, IMHO, is that there are still lots of rubbish, inexperienced EA's out there that just can't sell in this market. The good ones that have experience of selling in a difficult market are able to "manage the expectations of both sides" but, unfortunately, they are few and far between. These agents are the ones who are either over-valuing or pricing everything at a set percentage under value as they are unable to put forward a valid and well-prepared case, backed up with comparable evidence, to the Vendor

moggylover

MissMotivation wrote: »

Then more fool the Vendors for listing their properties with this agent because they are cheap! It looks like, in this case, that you really do get what you pay for!

Pricing properties correctly is the key, and you are correct in saying that a property will only sell for what someone will pay for it and what the vendor accepts.

The problem, IMHO, is that there are still lots of rubbish, inexperienced EA's out there that just can't sell in this market. The good ones that have experience of selling in a difficult market are able to "manage the expectations of both sides" but, unfortunately, they are few and far between. These agents are the ones who are either over-valuing or pricing everything at a set percentage under value as they are unable to put forward a valid and well-prepared case, backed up with comparable evidence, to the Vendor

BUT you are missing the point that if vendors will not accept that their particular house IS affected by the drop in prices then they are never going to make it to the "negotiation point" because no-one even bothers viewing.

Those buyers that are out there at the moment appear to be using their brains. They are watching for an indication that the vendor is realistic about the price drops: and then moving in for the kill. If no attempt is made by the vendor to indicate that they have accepted the need for a price reduction, they don't get viewings and thus there is no negotiation over price.

I've been watching some houses since 2007, they didn't sell then (and I wasn't in a position to sell at that point) they are still on the market and they have knocked off maybe 5K/10K (on a house that was overpriced at 465K in 2007) and are giving their EA's a hard time for not selling them Some of the houses have been on even longer than that, not sure what miracle some of them are looking for.