What do you do when your estate agent is rubbish?

Robert_Sterling_3

What do you do if your estate agent is rubbish?

Bin him.

MissMotivation

lynzpower wrote: »

this is a moneysaving site- surely youve learnt by now thats not entirely true!! :beer:

But you're only saving money if the property actually sells surely

The problem is that many sellers expect to pay Iceland money and get M & S quality....this VERY rarely happens. What usually happens is that they inititially go on the market with a cheap agent that doesn't give them a good service, the property doesn't sell and then change agents to one that charges more money, reduce the price and then end up selling.

For example

Agent A Charges 0.75%
Agent B Charges 1.5%

Say the property is on market at £150,000, therefore assuming the property sells at asking price (not likely in this market) the difference in fees would be £1125. If the property doesnt sell with first agent and then the Vendor changes agent and reduces the price with second agent, as this is what invariably happens, the Vendor actually looses much more than £1125, therefore, its a false economy.

The company I work for now is one of the more expensive agents in the area, I worked for a couple of months for an agent that only charged £499 plus VAT and the service was shocking, I was actually warned for giving Sales Particulars to a client who wouldn't agree to view the property because it cost them 11p or whatever to produce those details....crazy! Hence the reason I only lasted 2 months with them!

MissMotivation

Robert_Sterling wrote: »

What do you do if your estate agent is rubbish?

Bin him.

Agreed! The only way to deal with these agents is to vote with your feet and walk.

Another reason to push for a short (4-6 weeks) sole agency. An agent that is confident of their service and confident that they have priced your property correctly and are doing everything within their power to get a sale will not tie you into a ridiculously long contract.

chickmug

MissMotivation wrote: »

Agreed! The only way to deal with these agents is to vote with your feet and walk.

Another reason to push for a short (4-6 weeks) sole agency. An agent that is confident of their service and confident that they have priced your property correctly and are doing everything within their power to get a sale will not tie you into a ridiculously long contract.

Yes it does depend on the tie in period for the OP's family.

I assume you mean Sole Selling Rights as well as Sole Agency tie ins?

Given the poor selling market I know many agents will not budge on mimimum periods as they want a fair chance to recover their costs from eventual commission. The set up costs are not insignificant (says me as a retired agent)!

MissMotivation

Maybe.......I have never used a Sole Selling Rights agreement in 16 years of being an EA as I do not think it is a fair agreement.

I will be flexible on tie in periods but I think a period of more than 16 weeks is unfair, I would prefer the Vendor stayed on the market with me because they were pleased with the level of service/viewings/feedback etc rather than feeling peeved because they HAD to stay with me because they were tied in for 6 months.

It's a fine line isn't it, the set up costs are important to agents but to the Vendor all they really want is for their property to sell in a timely manner for the best possible price they can acheive in this market.

I'm finding at the moment that the majority of my time is spent managing the needs and expectation of Vendors and Purchasers.

chickmug

MissMotivation wrote: »

Maybe.......I have never used a Sole Selling Rights agreement in 16 years of being an EA as I do not think it is a fair agreement.

I will be flexible on tie in periods but I think a period of more than 16 weeks is unfair, I would prefer the Vendor stayed on the market with me because they were pleased with the level of service/viewings/feedback etc rather than feeling peeved because they HAD to stay with me because they were tied in for 6 months.

It's a fine line isn't it, the set up costs are important to agents but to the Vendor all they really want is for their property to sell in a timely manner for the best possible price they can acheive in this market.

I'm finding at the moment that the majority of my time is spent managing the needs and expectation of Vendors and Purchasers.

An EA --- be careful you may get insulted as I used to be, and often, last year:D . Lots of 'abuse reporting' had the offensive posts deleted to be fair to MSE.

However now retired but only ever did SSR, 12 week tie ins, rarely was de-instructed but could be more so now because of expectations in poorer market. Found the sellers listened to my valuation arguments and promptly asked for it to be set initially at a higher price. Thereafter the figure seemed to be set in stone.

MissMotivation

chickmug wrote: »

An EA --- be careful you may get insulted as I used to be, and often, last year:D . Lots of 'abuse reporting' had the offensive posts deleted to be fair to MSE.

However now retired but only ever did SSR, 12 week tie ins, rarely was de-instructed but could be more so now because of expectations in poorer market. Found the sellers listened to my valuation arguments and promptly asked for it to be set initially at a higher price. Thereafter the figure seemed to be set in stone.

I've had my fair share of insults. Being told I was "no better than a paedophile" was a good one and one that resulted in me rarely posting or giving advice anymore.

I always find it interesting this SSR/SA thing as it seems to depend on area. Not sure which area you worked in but in the 3 cities I've worked in SSR is almost unheard of.

chickmug

MissMotivation wrote: »

I've had my fair share of insults. Being told I was "no better than a paedophile" was a good one and one that resulted in me rarely posting or giving advice anymore.

I always find it interesting this SSR/SA thing as it seems to depend on area. Not sure which area you worked in but in the 3 cities I've worked in SSR is almost unheard of.

I get used to the insults that are genric but have had some specifically calling me things. One last week was fatpig who said chickmug was from the devils spawn. Reported and it was removed very quickly.

SA/SSR must be a regional thing but only ever used SSR and so did friends in business around the UK. No real need for it prior to about five years or so ago as I felt I could trust all my sellers but then learned the lesson the hard way with several cases where sellers tried to shaft me out of commission. Trouble is some seem to think the EA can afford it and it is seen as revenge by some.

So I guess a few did spoil it for the majority?

Jacks_xxx

Just a quick update.

Given that their listing still had no pictures on it three weeks after signing a sole agent agreement - despite about twenty phonecalls and emails - my father rang the agent and told him to tear the pice of paper up.

If the agent couldn't live up to his end of the bargain to provide an adequate listing then my parents didn't feel obliged to do their part and they wanted to terminate their arrangement.

"Hang on a sec" said the agent, and a few clicks later lo and behold the listing had photographs.

What's he playing at???

They must have asked him 20 times to sort this out - and for three weeks he said it was a problem with the site and he'd "try to sort it out" but all of a sudden all it takes is 45 seconds a few clicks???

:mad:

Love Jacks xxx

poppysarah

If you're really cheesed off with him, then look in the agreement and give him notice to quit. Get a new one. Vet them better