Sending emails to EA's via RightMove/other property websites?

chaotic_j

Hi people!

I've been looking at some houses online, and a couple have been POA with the same EA. I've emailed the EA via RightMove to request the prices but over 48 hours later and they haven't got back to me :rolleyes:.

When I emailed another EA via another property website several weeks ago, I never actually received a response .

Do any of these EA's actually respond to emails sent via RightMove or other property websites?

I am new to the house hunting game but from what I gather when you sell a house with an EA they sometimes take an initial fee and all of them take a chunk of the sale price for selling it - surely therefore they should be answering emails in a timely manner if not for their sale commission :T then for their clients? (who have effectively paid them to do so?)

Would it be awful for me to say.. drop by the property in question to ask the occupier how much it was, if I don't receive a response to the second email I've sent to the EA? has anyone had to do this before?

PasturesNew

How about ... phoning the EA.

amy104

I have had replys but not all EAs replied very promptly. Don't get me wrong, some were great but during my whole house hunting experience I started to wonder whether the few I dealt with were actually interested in selling houses full stop! We had EAs not turn up for viewing on more than one occassions, they never phone you back etc etc.

bmunky7

PasturesNew wrote: »

How about ... phoning the EA.

Seems the whole property selling industry from mortgage advisors to banks to estate agents to vendors and solicitors are on a go-slow and need constantly harassed to do anything. In my experience.

chaotic_j

Good idea about phoning, I was considering that but I actually sent another email a few mins ago with the details of the previous one I'd sent explaining how no response was received and I've now received a response! fast!

Unfortunately they can't tell me the price of either of the properties I asked about.. awaiting a price for the most recently listed one which they expect to receive mid next week.

However the property that I asked about a few weeks ago they still don't have a price on so I am guessing that they won't have a price for the most recent one mid next week either.

Bit of a waste of time TBH. I find emailing a lot easier because I can plan out better exactly what I want to ask and it is a lot less hassle, I'm on my computer a lot anyway due to work.

Oh as I type I've just received an email from them, apparently I've registered my details with their office and so now they are going to be constantly in touch or something? hmm not what I wanted! maybe this is why they have properties as POA that never get priced up?

The daft thing is this email has the price of the property in it! Expensive to say it requires updating! :rolleyes:

sarah_elton

Phone is much better than email with EAs. It's a business that's all about talking to people, building relationships... If you're looking to buy, ring round or better still go into all the EAs and register, explaining what you want and why you're a good buyer. You want to be top of their list to call when something new comes on the market.

Soot2006

I sent out many enquiry e-mails at first contact (with all my details so they could copy into their system), but once I had "favourite" EAs, I only phoned

adg1

Depending on the size of the EA and their stock levels it could take a while to trawl through all the emails they receive and respond.

You will hear back at some point.

On the other hand, why wait? We are in a market where sales property that is priced correctly for the market is being snapped up very quickly. Call the agent! Their phone number is even printed on Rightmoves website.

chaotic_j

Thanks for the advice, well I've got a rough idea of the price now and it is within my budget however the property needs full modernisation, it is also located in between a busy road and a railway line. I'll keep an eye on it but for the time being it is a thumbs down.

My property requirements are extremely specific, if I register with some estate agents I can imagine being deluged with phone calls about properties that just aren't suitable which is why at the moment I'm sticking to looking on RightMove et al.

adg1

chaotic_j wrote: »

My property requirements are extremely specific, if I register with some estate agents I can imagine being deluged with phone calls about properties that just aren't suitable which is why at the moment I'm sticking to looking on RightMove et al.

Then tell the agents that you have specific requirements. Even if all they ask is price/size/location TELL them your specific requirements. If you don't register then you will not be the first to view. It can take a week or so to get a property on rightmove in which time there will have been viewings and potentially offers.

togarama

Some always reply and others never do. I think the smaller ones just don't have anyone in the office while they're out on viewings.

I understand preferring to email, at least to begin with. There's so many Estate Agents out there and to get to know the area and property market as a FTB the high volume approach to requesting details and viewing suited me. (In the end I viewed over 100 properties before we found the place we're buying .) I couldn't have kept track by phone.

Having said that, we found the flat we're buying because we were on an EA list of proceedable FTBs and they phoned us up to see if we were interested in a repo.