OMG! BBC Whistleblower - Estate Agents

never_red_Paul

MORPH3US wrote:

We put an offer in on a house a month ago, house was £152,950 and we offered to meet the seller at £148,000. The EA came back and said "they will only accept £151,000" and when we said that £148,000 was our final offer, another offer of £151k appeared out of nowhere. Of course the vendor preferred to sell to us but only if we could offer £151k. We told them where to go and a month later the house is still on the market!


While the agent was almost certainly lying he may have been doing this with the vendors consent, or even under their instructions - for an extra £3k the agent stands to make an extra what £100 commission, I would have thought they'd have preferred to make the sale at £148k and take the commission as quickly as possible, than mess you about and risk losing the sale for the sake of the commission on £3k.

Just my opinion, and I'll admit I know very little about how EA's work.

Wickedkitten

jenniferpa wrote:

There was one thing in the BBC blurb that struck me as ood. The reporter commented on the fact that buyers were shown only properties that were in their price range. Surely, that's a good thing, unless she meant the property prices varied depending on how much you could pay, or if you were only shown properties at the upper end of the range. Perhaps I misunderstood?

Jennifer

lol, despite the fact that we made known to an EA what our maximum budget was (which is nowhere near what we could have actually borrowed for), they keep insisting on sending us info on properties that are 30% over that price.

NastyMatt

I have used Foxtons (only to view) and went along to a "meeting" with Alexander Hall mortgage advisors. I must admit they admitted right at the beginning (of the meeting not when being referred) that they were owned by the same person who own Foxtons.

This being my second house purchase (and I am now older and wiser) I had already seen another mortgage advisor (referred by a friend) and gone through a lot with him. Got all the facts/figures/details in my head 100%.

AH advisor was sympathetic and enthusiastic to do a deal. They got all the figures for me and assured me there would be no problem doing the deal.

The problem I had was they were £210 per month more expensive than the other advisor. So over the the 2 years (fixed for 2) I'd be paying nearly £5k more!!

AH then started the hard sell "lets forget about the rate.. that means nothing.. you need the money NOW", "no idea how your guy is doing that deal, there is obviously something very dodgy going on there and I wouldn't be happy doing that myself"

mmmm?!?! How about we DO worry about the rate as it's going to cost ME not you... and how about this is not dodgy but cheaper than your deal and you are going to lose commission.

About a week later I had a follow up call from AH and Foxtons. When they asked me what I thought I was honest with them "not impressed, far more expensive than another broker and I had the feeling they just wanted to sell for their commission and not the slightest bit interested in getting me a deal".

A few years ago I probably just would have said "yes" and signed on the dotted line.

Matt
P.S. No good being in the £2 club if you chuck £210 a month at a dodgy mortgage advisor

meanmachine_2

Foxtons are great if you're selling and atrocious if you're buying.

Their valuations always tend to be in fantasy land. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the London market knows how they operate.

In a bullish market their business model just about works. In less exciting times, God help 'em.

Doozergirl

I'd never use Foxtons - I'd resent having to pay over the top to fund those poncy company cars. :wall:

A pet hate of mine is people whose idea of sales technique is to make the customer feel stupid for going anywhere else and bully them into signing.

Milky_Mocha

meanmachine wrote:

Foxtons are great if you're selling and atrocious if you're buying.

Their valuations always tend to be in fantasy land. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the London market knows how they operate.

In a bullish market their business model just about works. In less exciting times, God help 'em.

Speaking of unrealistic valuations, at the other end of the scale there's an EA that imo tends to undervalue, actually correction - they value very realistically - Your Move. Has anyone else observed this? My parents put their semi up for sale about five years ago with YourMove at abt £130k and it was on the market for about 7 weeks. They switched to another EA (don't remember the name) who valued it at £145. Within less than two weeks later an offer was accepted. I think YourMove's problem was that they didn't promote the property enough. In fact they suggested a further reduction twice until the property was eventually on the market at £125 with no joy before we switched. The second EAs got us several viewers through the door within a day of taking our details.

nmiah786

Another vote to "NO FOXTONS". Like an experienced EA said to me "Their a bunch of boys in mens suits driving people around in fancy cramped cars"!!

I would avoid them always......dont know who would buy at their prices!!!

Jorgan_2

When I worked for Your Move we were never given any guidance as to whether we should value high or low. A lot of it depends on the valuer going out. Your Move tried to be a little different in that they had a Valuation Manager who would generally work out of two offices, the problem was they would know one area really well, but not the second area as well. I beleive this has now changed.

Can't speak for Foxtons, never worked for them, heard lots of stories tho, guess we'll all know more at 10pm.

Joe_Bloggs

The program looks like compulsive viewing!
See here.
J_B.

John_M_Business

Just to add my tuppenth to this, I must admit that I was not at all surprised that Foxtons are indulging in this kind of claptrap - they are notorious. My Solicitor said, when I was considering moving agents, 'don't touch with a bargepole'...

And then, when I said that I thought they were good for the vendor, but not the buyer he said that they are terrible for both sides of the equation.

Too true, the agency I was moving from used to be a really well-respected Agency in West-Central London. They were taken over in June, the old Sales Manager (who we really liked) was out the door in July, new one 'ex Foxtons' was appointed in August and then the trouble started.

I came into the office to give them notice and then he started talking down my expectations, telling me that my flat was overvalued... I told him that I had two offers in three months of within 5% of the asking price... so then he tried to get all pally. I told him I wasn't interested. Gave them notice as soon as possible and went somewhere else... He still kept calling me even when I told him... Foxtons were worse, they leafleted my flat for weeks trying to get me on board. Finally I called the to tell them to remove me from the mailing list and then I got about a call a week with the same proposition - which I always turned down.

Going back to the first agency I used the same new sales manager also stitched up a friend of mine by not reporting an offer to her (which was eventually slipped under the door of her flat), forcing her to accept a lower one, and then eventually having to backtrack as the lawyers sharpened their pencils.

Fortunately, having been in the car trade before (not as a Salesperson, but Marketing) I know virtually all the techniques. Even the hot coffee one!

I will be very interested in viewing this programme.