estate agents are useless

Wig

My point (in reply) was, that you don't need to have an infinite number of criteria to allow a customer to search, but you should have enough (search fields) to cover the areas that are the most basic. Your 4 searchable criteria are not good enough. There is obviously no perfect system, but there are basic things that all EAs should be offering. And these should also be offered on the EA website. I can't stress it enough that this is basic common sense. Computers make this so easy to do. Why have EAs not taken advantage of them?

Do you think it was reasonable of that EA to not be able to tell me which out of a wall of 50 properties had off road parking? I am faced with a wall of 50 frontage photographs - which tell me very little about each individual property, and the only way to do it, is to constantly have to ask "does this one have XYZ?" with the telephone going constanly and other customers coming in all the time. Isn't the most sensible idea to offer a fairly detailed personalised search for a customer who wants it, which can be done in 3 - 4 minutes. And if you don't currently have a software package that can do this, you should pay someone to get it.

princessamy86

No, I can't search loads of different criteria but I honestly don't think it matters because I will sit down with a customer and go through what they want. I think your EA possibly should have known more about the properties but nobody's perfect, yes it's annoying for you to have to ask but it's not possible to satisfy everybody all of the time. Basics for me are talk to the customer (with my full attention, not flitting between customers) and help them find what they want based on my knowledge. Btw about the computer system it's not really my call, I'm just a humble negotiator, but I think what I do works fairly well. Never had any complaints anyway! I think you've obviously just had a really bad day with the agents and you're annoyed, fair enough, hope you fare better next time :rolleyes: .

before_hollywood

i'm looking for somewhere at the moment, and i would like just once to be told the size of a back yard of a terraced house cos i want to put an up and over garage door on it for a car port.

one i am interested in is next door to a hairdressers, with double yellows outside, quite simply if i cant park out back i cant buy it, and the e.a wont put how big it is

before_hollywood

princessamy86 wrote: »

How could you possibly expect EAs to memorise every single scrap of info about every single property which passes through their hands? Also, is it not generally obvious by the external picture whether or not there is parking?

not when you are looking at terraced that havent already had a car port conversion at the back

most of the estate agents in my home town are useless, one even made an effort to specifically print off listings in black and white and i can barely differentiate one house from another. she showed me things on the screen and if i said i was interested she changed the default printer each time to a black and white one- so i am looking at a house tomorrow and it looks virtually identical to another one she gave me details for, yet they are nothing alike, i actually dread going to see that agent, as her attitude stinks as well, but i wont let her get between me and a bargain (but if i get chance i will tell a vendor that their agents attitude stinks) and given the chance i will say on here the agent's chain name as they are a national one :eek:

googler

Out of the 50 or so on the wall, if you had asked me which of them had off-road, I'd have responded with "How much would you like to spend?".

That'll take a few of them out of the equation.

Then "How many bedrooms do you need?"

That'll rule out a few more.

Then, and maybe after some other questions, we might get down to the issue of which have and don't have off-road parking. There's no sense in giving you a list of £500k+ houses when you only have £200k to spend......

Computers are great until someone comes up with a new requirement that wasn't built into the original system, or wants to add a new requriement halfway through development. Let's say someone had already built agent software that allowed them to filter their inventory on off-road parking, as you want right now.

6 months down the line, someone else like you wants to know which of the houses have an Aga (to lean on someone else's post here). Are we going to get them saying "Computers make this so easy. Why can't you just press a button and filter them on the ones that have an Aga?" Answer - Nobody asked for it when the system was built.

Houses aren't all the same. Build one set of criteria based on all the houses that you've encountered so far, and someone will come along next week with something that isn't on the list, and someone like you will expect the system to cope with it.

Honestly, you sound as though you didn't have any patience at all with the receptionist or agent at the office you went to, and it sounds as though you didn't even give them the chance to help you. Then you came here to complain.

Wig

googler wrote: »

Out of the 50 or so on the wall, if you had asked me which of them had off-road, I'd have responded with "How much would you like to spend?".

That'll take a few of them out of the equation.

No, it wouldn't have, because they were all in my price range, I was already eliminating all the ones over 140K.

Then "How many bedrooms do you need?"

That'll rule out a few more.

You could eliminate 1 beds, but there might have been a 1 bed that was exceptional, which is why it is not one of the factors, that is very important to me, so we can conclude you are wrong on this point aswell. I suspect the number of 1 beds in the selection were very few, probably no more than 4.

Then, and maybe after some other questions, we might get down to the issue of which have and don't have off-road parking. There's no sense in giving you a list of £500k+ houses when you only have £200k to spend......

Wrong, and why annoy me with twenty questions, just print me a list as I require -on some basic features of property- and allow me to whittle it down further for myself..

Computers are great until someone comes up with a new requirement that wasn't built into the original system, or wants to add a new requriement halfway through development. Let's say someone had already built agent software that allowed them to filter their inventory on off-road parking, as you want right now.

6 months down the line, someone else like you wants to know which of the houses have an Aga (to lean on someone else's post here). Are we going to get them saying "Computers make this so easy. Why can't you just press a button and filter them on the ones that have an Aga?" Answer - Nobody asked for it when the system was built.

Good software would allow any number of additional cross references to be included in the future. It's really not complicated to write this feature into the software. But it would probably never get used, because anyone with some common sense can come up with the basic features that various people consider to be important. Once the buyer has a shortlist they can work much more easily to find suitable properties.

Houses aren't all the same. Build one set of criteria based on all the houses that you've encountered so far, and someone will come along next week with something that isn't on the list, and someone like you will expect the system to cope with it.

No they wouldn't, someone like me would understand that there only needs to be a list of about 10 - 15 features that are searchable. Not many (if any) will search on all features, but for most people 1, 2 or 3 them will be very important, and after being given a shortlist they can then ask the EA about some of the houses that they like, questions about agas would be appropriate at this stage.

Honestly, you sound as though you didn't have any patience at all with the receptionist or agent at the office you went to, and it sounds as though you didn't even give them the chance to help you. Then you came here to complain.

If I tell an EA that off road parking is important to me and ask which properties have off road parking, I flippen well expect them to have the technology to be able to tell me. I asked, and she said she couldn't tell me, how much of that is my fault? I don't want to spend all day in there, I just want them to print me a list, then I can come back to them with a shortlist for further details.

eanick

Out of interest would you buy a property with no parking a present but with easy scope and space -people compromise and this is why it is agents would rather run through the properties that they have than give out lists to any tom !!!!!! or harry! My office in South London has over 250 properties available - I do feel your agent should have had more knowledge on her stock. - However I also wonder if your attitude put her back up.

Wickedkitten

To be fair, I'm sure they would get well more people asking about off road parking than they would Aga's.

mandi

Wig wrote: »

If you are an EA I can't believe that you don't see the importance of allowing the buyers to ask for a list of properties that meet their basic needs.

Not being able to tell them which properties have off road parking or good potential of such is ridiculous.

Er did I miss something here. thats why EAs provide sets of details for each property

WillowCat

I pretty much agree with the OP, especially on-line it's hard to find out essential details from some (not all) agents.

But my whinge goes further - I'd love to see floor plans on every property, and, especially, floor areas and plot areas. I'm only interested in properties greater than 1000 sq feet as I know anything less will feel cramped, no matter how many box rooms (sorry bedrooms) have been crammed in.

It's routine in other countries, why not here?