No show viewers

Doozergirl

new_home_owner wrote: »

the estate agency industry is bent, this thread is about viewers not turning up, it wouldnt surprise me anything a estate agent will do, it needs to be regulated, i think in the future traditional estate agent will fade a way.

I know you are probably estate agents , but in my opinion finding a good honest estate agent, is like finding rocking horse !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not an agent. It frustrates me though when people will say anything and believe anything about estate agents as long as it involves them being liars and theives. I've read some ridiculous theories on here by people who just assume that the agent is out to fleece them.

I'd say that many, many agents are inept. I've met many. I'm glad that bramble1 tries to match buyers and properties; I wish more did. I've not really come across many that were out and out liars. I know of one and I've met a couple that have tried to manipulate me but that is really them trying to get the sale sewn up. It's not an entirely pleasant situation but when you think that vendors and buyers are often at completely opposing ends that the EA can have their work cut out to get an agreement. You can be pushed but ultimately you'll not buy or sell for anything other than the price that you wanted to pay/accept.

whitesatin

What a lot of interesting comments I have woken up to read this morning.

I will be calling the agent tomorrow to see if there is a reasonable explanation for the no show. That is always a possibility, with the agency being closed early, you just never know what might have happened. I will give the viewer the benefit of the doubt till I speak to agent.

I will ask the agent to, at the very least, ring to confirm viewing in the morning. These are most likely to be on Saturdays and I don't relish the thought of staying at home for nothing as I have a lot to do at weekends. I will endeavour to find out what information they actually have on their viewers, i.e. do they have a contact number, address etc. Do they know the position these viewers are in, for example. I will ask if the viewers can be accompanied where possible and for an out of hours contact, if available. I will be paying these people £6000 for selling the house so I think I can at least try to call some shots. This is a well established agency, not a national one but they have agencies throughout the county. Our house is small fry in comparison to most of the houses they have on their books but I would not like to think of it as being marginalized. I do trust them, for the moment anyway, I have to as we are tied in for quite a while. It seemed the right thing to do at the time and I am holding onto that thought.

My own house-hunting will involve travelling about seventy miles and will have to be very focused, not to mention reliant upon good public transport but I will not let anyone down except in emergency situations.

Oh well, onwards and upwards.....

googler

new_home_owner wrote: »

What about all the work the EA has to do that isn't directly linked to your property?

What have you missed?

You've missed lots. The business of 'running a business', as opposed to merely 'listing/selling your individual property'. General advertising, general admin, trade association memberships, professional indemnity insurance, upkeep of premises, utilities, rates, other expenses.

All you've done is the work for your own property. Why should you pay for anything else, you ask.

Do you have car insurance? Your premiums don't just relate to your insurance - they vary according to the claims history of the company as a whole. Anything else that you pay for - baked beans at the supermarket, your daily newspaper - has a margin over and above the base cost of the article. Why should estate agency be any different? When someone's child knocks over a jar of some product in the supermarket, and walks away, who bears the cost of the wasted food? Could it be the supermarket, by any chance?

For every successful sale like yours, the EA has to bear the cost of the 'wasted food' - viewers who don't turn up (assuming they're doing accompanied viewings), sellers who ask 3-4 EAs to visit and value their home when they have no intention of using any of them, and a host of other miscellaneouses that the general public expects for free but which have to paid for in some way out of the EA's successful sales.

If they have an office, that costs them. If they have a website, that costs them. General advertising - that costs them. Business taxation - that costs them. etc etc

This is what the margin over and above the base cost of the sale of your house has to cover, in the same way as any other business.

new_home_owner_3

Im not othered about their overheads, im on about the actual cost to sell a house and working hours taken to sell 1 property.

if you think the work is worth 6000 pound like the op said then fill your boots, but ill never use a tradtional one.

new_home_owner_3

bramble1 wrote: »

how do you mean a well know estate agency use countywide?

selling your house through an online agency may be the cheapest but i'd never sell my house online..... you never actually meet the agent and you let strangers found by this online agent go round your house? do they do the viewing or do you?

You can get HIPS cheaper than than from an agent....but agents get them quicker so you can market sooner....

didnt you read my post the card the hip porvider gave had a website address they was using them and charging there so called valued vendors 125 pound for the pleasure.

poppysarah

We'd rung an EA to book a viewing and she rang a couple of days later sounding really worried "Did I tell you the viewing was an hour ago?" ... nope she hadn't!

dickieg

Doozergirl wrote: »

Your son's girlfriend says that she books imaginary viewings for vendors? (yes, I'm putting words in your mouth - is this as much hearsay as the original comment?) I cannot imagine to what end an EA would book a vewing to which no-one was ever going to turn up. The only result of this is an annoyed vendor

And they can afford not to sell houses because they make their money from banking? :rotfl:

If the sellers change to a different EAs the original sellers EAs normally have written into the contract something along the lines of "if we introduced you to the buyer we are entitled to 1.5 % commision if you sell within the next 12 months" So basically preassuring the seller into stopping with them. After all who would want to pay 1.5% to one EA and then 1.5% to another for doiung nothing.

googler

new_home_owner wrote: »

Im not othered about their overheads, im on about the actual cost to sell a house and working hours taken to sell 1 property.

if you think the work is worth 6000 pound like the op said then fill your boots, but ill never use a tradtional one.

Well, you're not comparing like with like, are you?

In order to hire someone who's running a business to provide their business service to you, they have to cover their overheads, otherwise they're making a loss and running the business for fun and satisfaction, rather than profit. This applies to any business.

You've extracted a few of the tasks related to selling your property, and are trying to draw a direct comparison with what an EA might charge you - and as I say, this isn't a like-for-like comparison.

To take one of the things you did - you took the photos. You were at the house already, so you didn't have to travel to take them. If the EA does this, then unless the house is within walking distance of them, they need a car - so factor in petrol, maintenance, road tax, insurance, etc and there's an overhead.

You didn't do any work relating to anyone else's property - but the EA has to, in order to sustain the current expected model of a) providing free valuations to anyone who asks, with no guarantee of any income, and b) only getting paid when a sale goes to a successful conclusion, with the possibly of losing a sale and the possible income through no fault of their own (failure to get mortgage, chain breakdown, etc.)

As regards the OP and their £6000 fee, you and I don't know what's included in that fee. Does it cover just the EA fee, or does it include conveyancing, press advertising, costs to external suppliers (sale boards, printers, etc). Does it include costs to upload to paid-for portals, etc? This would have to be answered (and the selling price of the house established) before we can determine if it's reasonable or not.

dickieg

Look at EAs and compare them to the big supermarkets, like the big supermarkets who can for example sell beer at a loss knowing they will entice customers to buy something else while they are in the shop, EAs with a full window of houses will look as though they are the best sellers of houses, and if you are selling and buying at the same time, the chances are you may have your mortgage, insurance, solicitors. surveys, etc off of them. Thus like supermarkets leaving the smaller companies fighting for the scraps

mrbrightside842

When we went to view the house we're in now, we sat outside of the house for 30 mins waiting for the EA to turn up as he said he would as the owners were not at home. It wasn't til the lights went on inside the house went on, that we realised the owners were home. We knocked and they showed us around, I felt terrible that we'd left them waiting whilst we were sat outside.