Estate agent here, please feel free to ask me anything. Im happy to help :)

leanneslow

adg1 wrote: »

Firstly, hello Leanne. and welcome to this board.

Secondly:


Perhaps this is why there is such a disparity in fees charged by agents!? Agents that don't charge as much have less money, hence service levels are lower, and photos are, indeed, rubbish (agreed). Agents that charge more can spend more money on marketing your house, potentially getting you more money, and, obviously, buy better cameras with this increase in money, leading to better photographs.

Perhaps.

Would appear so but i work in a small agents, we are local not national and we have a brilliant camera. We dont charge lots or in fact a small amount. We believe you get out what you put in. Of course, the bigger agencys can be worse than the smaller ones remember.

leanneslow

hp2009 wrote: »

Hi I'm new here, hope you can help me, I'm desperate to sell my place but in a tricky situation:
I' ve got my flat up with two estate agents on a winner takes all basis, since Feb.

Had a viewer last week with agent no. 1.
Then agent no. 2 phoned me today to say same viewer had gone to them and liked flat but didn't like or want to deal with agent no. 1.
Viewer wants to do second viewing with estate agent no. 2 and then will probably put in an offer.
Agent no. 2 told me we/they/viewer/whoever would have to tell white lie to agent no. 1 if they ever asked name of buyer as they would be entitled to their fee if they knew it was their original viewer.
Not prepared to do that so will tell viewer on Fri that it's agent no. 1 or no one BUT if I have second viewing on Fri (only way I can speak to client) with agent no. 2 will that mean I'll have to pay them their fee as well as sellers agent no. 1 anyway???

I'm so confused and feel in the middle of something illegal by estate agent no. 2 .

Please help.

If the same person decides to buy your property through number 2- then you may be liable to pay 2 fees. As the 1st agent introduced them to the property. It is very risky and i would not recommend it at all.

noo66

Are EAs legally obliged to provide buyers with written confirmation of all offers they have made on a property? If they don't, can they make the excuse later that they 'assumed, as offers were made in quick succession, that the buyer did not want written confirmation.'

Thanks in advance for your reply!

leanneslow

noo66 wrote: »

Are EAs legally obliged to provide buyers with written confirmation of all offers they have made on a property? If they don't, can they make the excuse later that they 'assumed, as offers were made in quick succession, that the buyer did not want written confirmation.'

Thanks in advance for your reply!

They should really. If a formal offer has bene made then yes they should.

456789

why do they list an email address or allow emails to be sent through rightmove but then never reply?

My theory is if you phone up they can ask you lots of questions so they can send you info about properties you are probably not interested in......

leanneslow

456789 wrote: »

why do they list an email address or allow emails to be sent through rightmove but then never reply?

My theory is if you phone up they can ask you lots of questions so they can send you info about properties you are probably not interested in......

That is very much dependant on each agency. Some emails go through to head office or their main office, then they're forwarded onto the relevant office. Our office has them send to us straight away and our emails are open all day to check. So very dependant on each office day to day sorry.

AND yes, some do send you random rubbish. Price up to 150k so they send u a 500k mansion! lol

noo66

Thanks for that Leanneslow.

Another little one! Should an EA forward an email from a buyer, addressed to and meant for the EA, to their vendor, which then caused ill-feeling from the vendor towards the buyer and caused the sale to crash and burn, without asking the buyer's permission. Yet same EA asked their clinet for permission before forwarding any emails to the buyer- obviously not exercising same courtesy to both parties.

(Yea, I have had a bad EA experience recently!)

leanneslow

In my office the answer is NO!!!!! That is what solicitors and EA's are for! That is also why we only do accompanied viewings to avoid the above happening!

Which EA did you use?

elfen

I know some EA's are also LA's so I'll ask....Why are the fees so high for a little paperwork and a credit check that the potential tenant can do themselves cheaper and then give a copy of to you? I do understand that some may lie but is there any leeway within the credit check (i.e. if defaults are 4 to 5 years old and there is a valid reason would it still affect someone with a decent credit history after?)

noo66

A local independent agent- they only have 1 office. The vendor got really annoyed about the content of my email, which actually wasn't contentious but was strongly worded, and everything went downhill.
They also failed to inform us that the vendor had asked them to put the house back on the market until we saw it advertised and rang up- then they said they had tried to ring my husband on his mobile, not realising that all missed call numbers are stored and so we have a record of the fact that they didn't call. These were just a few of the issues we had with them.

We sent a letter of complaint to them, which they forwarded to an independent assessor (don't know much about this process), who has decided the EA is blameless. To be honest, I couldn't actually follow the reasoning given in his letter for this ruling- they didn't seem to address the specifics of our complaint accurately.

We're not leaving it there, and will forward a complaint to the Property Ombudsman.