estate agents and how to tell if they are any good

princessamy86

I agree totally. If a seller is happy to have/wants a brochure they should pay for it. My comment was mainly aimed at whether they are really needed or not.

I think they probably are needed, we put full brochures on rightmove and people still email and ask for paper copies. I think it's great to have something in your hand to make notes on as you view a property, then when you get home you can actually remember what went where etc! Also good for room sizes.

chickmug

princessamy86 wrote: »

I think they probably are needed, we put full brochures on rightmove and people still email and ask for paper copies. I think it's great to have something in your hand to make notes on as you view a property, then when you get home you can actually remember what went where etc! Also good for room sizes.

Not sure about you but we found the requests for details went from zero many years ago to what seemed like 9 out of 10 of all requests.

In between some asked for them to be faxed which we would not do. Why go to the trouble of good quality coloured details to send them through a fax machine and come out the other end looking like 'you know what'

Gwhiz

princessamy86 wrote: »

I think they probably are needed, we put full brochures on rightmove and people still email and ask for paper copies. I think it's great to have something in your hand to make notes on as you view a property, then when you get home you can actually remember what went where etc! Also good for room sizes.

I'm not talking about having nothing. I'm talking about a free brochure (a few pages of A4 clipped together with pics and words) versus a glossy £500-£2000 job! My experience over many properties is that the glossy isn't required.

Pee

I would try to find one that is qualified. RICS, for instance. They are less likely to be unprofessional, they do have a governing body and if there is a problem with the sale, they will have a better idea as to what can be done.

wheresmydoshat

when we were still looking to buy last summer, the main estate agent in our town had a text message service. one evening, either by error, or desperation, i received over a dozen text messages all reading

"hi, new property for sale.....ring me to book a viewing"

a little over the top i thought, especially as most properties had been on the market for months !

chickmug

Pee wrote: »

I would try to find one that is qualified. RICS, for instance. They are less likely to be unprofessional, they do have a governing body and if there is a problem with the sale, they will have a better idea as to what can be done.

Fully agree with you although there are good and bad whether members of these bodies or not. I was always a member and did find a worthwhile number of clients who would only go with such an agent. I can see why many don't as they need PI Insurance which is several thousands of pounds as well as the various annual subs payments!

Members do have to attend continuous training to keep them aware of updates with legislation, etc and they have weekly email updates and stuff sent in the post.

I found some none members who were breaking the law regarding some of the legislation as they just didn't know about it.

princessamy86

Not sure about you but we found the requests for details went from zero many years ago to what seemed like 9 out of 10 of all requests.

In between some asked for them to be faxed which we would not do. Why go to the trouble of good quality coloured details to send them through a fax machine and come out the other end looking like 'you know what'

I've only been an EA for a couple of years so not really got anything to compare it to, but I would say 99% of potential buyers feel the brochure is very important. Agree about faxing! I'll post or email as a PDF, but our brochures are lovely, glossy A3 size folded over so lots of pictures. (We don't charge extra though unless the house is gigantic and well over £750,000 and then it's like a booklet).

when we were still looking to buy last summer, the main estate agent in our town had a text message service. one evening, either by error, or desperation, i received over a dozen text messages all reading

"hi, new property for sale.....ring me to book a viewing"

a little over the top i thought, especially as most properties had been on the market for months !

We have this service and I NEVER use it. How annoying! Why would I do that when I could phone/email you and actually pick out properties you might like? I'd be willing to bet all the staff were sat in the office having a hotlist night, and they were being lazy and clicking buttons.

googler

Pee wrote: »

I would try to find one that is qualified. RICS, for instance. They are less likely to be unprofessional, they do have a governing body and if there is a problem with the sale, they will have a better idea as to what can be done.

I thought RICS was a surveying qualification, not Estate Agency or Conveyancing...?

chickmug

googler wrote: »

I thought RICS was a surveying qualification, not Estate Agency or Conveyancing...?

Many RICS (surveyors) work in Estate Agents.

54druids

ok so get back to the original post - went in to see the estate agent yestereday. The only person in the office was the sales director - although i believe there were others behind the scenes but i didn't see them. Made my concerns clear and he came out with alot of sales figures showing me how good they were compared to their competitors. Said they had had a problem with their printers re brochures and he would sort out the other problems and was very apologetic. Said they didn't want to harrass their customers or ring them with bad news, hence no phone calls for 4 weeks, Next day received a phonecall to say brochures had arrived (wow that was quick since he told me his suppliers were in ireland and Northern England) and a letter to say he had reduced the commission by .2 per cent. Should i still stay with them? Talked to others around about and they haven't had viewings either.