Estate Agents

Whatever_2

How come the biggest purchase anyone makes in their lives isn't regulated? Why aren't estate agents regulated?

They control the market by still over-inflating property prices which is geared simply so that they earn more money.

Estate agents commission is based on the price you put a property on the market for, not what is eventually sells for, so it's in the estate agents interest to deliberately inflate the price. Of course, sellers want to hear that the agent thinks their property is worth X amount so they go along with it. The Estate Agents don't care when you have to drop the price significantly to sell it. They still get their commission at the original high level for doing next to nothing.

I don't understand how this is still allowed to happen when you consider that everything else is so regulated in this country. I'd like answers from the Government on this.

MissMotivation

Mmmm, I'm a little suspicious about this post......

I would put money on Estate Agency being regulated within the next few years, and as an EA I would welcome it.

A couple of points in your post. Not all agents work on a percentage basis and often it's not the EA that over-inflates the price, it's the Vendor. I think you over-estimate how much control EA's have regarding house prices!

princessamy86

Well....we work on a percentage of selling price. And like missm says, it's often not us who set the asking price. Still, it's easy to say how rubbish we ALL are!

MissMotivation

Having re-read the OP, you are misinformed.....EA's that work on a percentage fee basis, charge the percentage on the selling price and NOT the asking price, therefore their fee does decrease if the selling price is less than the asking price.

Doozergirl

It's people buying property and ultimately (in the majority) their mortgage lenders that decide whether the asking price is worth it.

EAs will value up on previous sales if previous sales occurred quickly, down if they're not happening. They just respond to the market - if the market doesn't agree with the price then the market will decide - no offers for overpriced property, bun fights over that which is perceived to be cheap.

I'd love to set my own for a property but I'm not that naive. I can't decide what it's worth to other people - I can only make an educated guess.

googler

Whatever wrote: »

I don't understand how this is still allowed to happen when you consider that everything else is so regulated in this country. I'd like answers from the Government on this.

Well, you might want to ask the Government why, through the OFT's recent recommendations, they want to 'open up' the house selling market, so that private sales sites can operate alongside EAs and Solicitors.

As far as I can see, there's no regulation on private sales at the moment, nor has the OFT recommended any in the future.

However, the EAs are currently bound by either Property Ombudsman or NAEA Codes of Conduct (if they're members), are subject to the Property Misdescriptions Act, the Estate Agency Act, and can be subject to enquiry by their local Trading Standards Office. They also have to abide by Money-Laundering Regulations.

Unregulated? Are you sure?

When_is_the_reset?

Has anyone on here read 'Freakonomics'? It has a very interesting economic review of a study of estate agents and sold prices.

googler

There's also Planning Regulations relating to the display of Sale Boards etc.