Dodgy telephone call from a potential purchaser?

Jorgan_2

courtjester wrote:

All agents do is try to discover the buyer's mortgage situation and sell them a mortgage - that is not security 'vetting', which simply doesn't happen.

Have you ever worked as an EA? There are a number of checks that we carry out to ensure where possible the safety of our clients & staff.

alyth

My God, court jester, that's exactly the email address he gave me! Wonderful, I'll just ignore anything else that comes from him.And Jorgan, part of my role is as a property assistant, and I am always being told to push our financial services, there is absolutely no vetting of viewers! With my own estate agent we're selling the house through, they don't particularly follow up viewers either, they just leave one message and hope that the viewer will return the call.

Jorgan_2

alyth wrote:

And Jorgan, part of my role is as a property assistant, and I am always being told to push our financial services, there is absolutely no vetting of viewers! With my own estate agent we're selling the house through, they don't particularly follow up viewers either, they just leave one message and hope that the viewer will return the call.

And people wonder why the industry has a bad name & image.

Why do you not follow up on viewings? You could be missing out on plenty of opportunities to sell other properties to viewers, if you don't know what they are looking for how do you know when you have the right property for them.


Do you work for a corporate agency or an independant? Do you accompany viewings yourself? Are you not concerned you have no information about the viewers you are going to meet, what if the property is empty, you are obviously not concerned about your own security. At what stage do the others in your office become concerned that you haven't returned from a viewing?

alyth

Jorgan, I'm in Scotland where the solicitiors I work has a property department, and cross-selling of services is pushed a lot more than actually selling of properties. Viewers show clients round the properties themselves, unless the property is empty which is very rare, I just basically make appointments with both vendors and viewers, give a quick call to see what if any feedback there is, and as far as my company is concerned that's the end of my job.

However, due to my frustrations in not being able to do my job properly and not assisting clients, I resigned yesterday, hence being at home today!! So I absolutely agree with you in that I have clients who are looking for exactly the right sort of properties I have on the market, but due to internal politics and office procedures I'm unable to spend time "matching" as it's unlikely they would use our legal services, and most people have a mortgage already in place, and short of trying to flog them a will my sales targets have rarely been met! So I absolutely agree with you in that companies such as mine give the industry a bad name, and I didn't feel I was able to help people in the way they wanted to be help, crap phrase but I hope you know what I mean, so the resignation was put in- and accepted!

Jorgan_2

Alyth, thanks for the explanation. Sorry you feel you had to resign, are you intending to stay within the industry or are the majority of the property centres in Scotland run in a similar way? A few years ago I worked for a very short period of time for a company who were more interested in sellin gmortgages than houses, soon left. Best of luck with what ever you choose.

alyth

I suspect many of the solicitors in Scotland work this way, I'd be glad if someone could correct me on this, the property centres I guess are run differently, I don't know a huge amount about how they operate, thanks for your message though, I'll go back to my job-hunting now!