Rip Off Estate Agents!!! any suggestions??

Kazza_P

Having terminated the contract of our estate agent recently - our property had been on the market with them for 3 prime months and not a single viewing! Down to their lack of extremely poor sales efforts - I do think a lot of agents think by posting your house onto the websites they've done the job for you!! I know they were rubbish after I did 2 test calls into the office, so I know how poor their attempts at selling were! Little or no feedback from the agent and they couldn't tell me how many people they had marketed our property to or what feedback they had - they didn't keep that information!! However, I now find myself in the disgraceful postion. We paid the agent £190 to 'market' our property to start with. We also (unfortunately) signed up to the 'one stop shop' approach - conveyancing, HIP etc. So we now find ourselves having to pay for a HIP, which is absolutely no use or ornament to us for the extortianate fee of £399 +vat. I would hazard a guess not what they paid for it! So £600 lighter and still no prospective buyer - how can that be fair??? anyone else had similar issues?

neas

you paid them to market the property... they did market it on their website, made brochures and took viewings...

We look for all our houses via websites.. I think your asking price was way over what it needed to be if you got 0 viewings in 3 months... and you are looking to blame the agent. It seems like haart (they offer prime service).... and they are constantly ringing us (buyers) to sell their properties.

you paid for a HIP... you got one (these start at 250-300 quid) so yes you prob overpaid 100 quid... and you paid to market it.

I dont think you got so screwed over... its the same as someone paying for a mortgage and survey and then seller pulling out... they lose 450-500 quid too... its part of process.

zappahey

So you signed a contract, knowing the costs up front, and you now have to honour that contract. Where's the rip off?

The HIP was a legal requirement, so you have no gripe with the EA there as you knew the price before you signed, and it looks like you got the marketing that you paid for.

I'm curious what feedback you expect, when no one had actually viewed, though I would expect the Rightmove stats to be provided.

Did you complain at the time?

Wee_Willy_Harris

At the time the property went on the market, you had to have the HIP. £399 is a pretty typical estate agents charge for this. I'm not sure how much "marketing" in 3 months you expect for £190 but even a card in a post office window would have a cost involved.

Kazza_P

are you all estate agents???? and do you know anything about sales?? yes Rightmove will market a property, but if propsective leads/buyers aren't followed up or responded to properly they aren't going to convert to a buyer - ermm thats why we pay an estate agent!! And, they justify their fee by their 'pro-active' approach and the clients they will actively market your property to. This agent had no evidence of this whatsoever, and obviously didn't pro-actively sell our property. If the house was over priced, they would surely have the feedback to justify that having spoken to people .... and they have to market the property to get their percentage from the end price - so yes I would expect them to market heavily. sorry are you people in cuckoo land???

zappahey

Kazza_P wrote: »

sorry are you people in cuckoo land???

No, not at all but I don't walk into a contract without knowing exactly what I have agreed to and what it will cost me.

Your complaint is about poor performance of your agent, not about any rip off fees. You have paid for a HIP and marketing (costs incurred bythe agent, but also profit centres for them), you got both.

If you can't see the difference, there's no help that can be offered.

Wee_Willy_Harris

If you feel that way, perhaps you should complain to them, not us?

zappahey

Wee_Willy_Harris wrote: »

If you feel that way, perhaps you should complain to them, not us?

He/she would be better to hang around for a while and will soon realise that there is little sympathy for estate agents on this board.

They might also recognise the unwritten rule that any post with "rip off" in the subject is never actually a rip off, just someone not understanding what they have signed and agreed to.

Wee_Willy_Harris

zappahey wrote: »

He/she would be better to hang around for a while and will soon realise that there is little sympathy for estate agents on this board.

They might also recognise the unwritten rule that any post with "rip off" in the subject is never actually a rip off, just someone not understanding what they have signed and agreed to.

I agree, on both points. But asking advice then accusing those who comment of being estate agents (the shame of it) living in cuckoo land is hardly going to elicit too much sympathy on here.

neas

It was overpriced.... they had no body come view it in 3 months... what other feedback could you get? nobody was looking at it.. even though it comes up in rightmove.... which means its probably 10-15% overpriced...... because people realise even after negotiation it would be still overpriced and therefore not worth the effort even looking at.

I'm a buyer and thats how i view properties... i have my limit... i research the area... and i see what houses sell for in the area and sold for previously on land registry. Any house can sell if properly priced.

So are you going to provide some details or just want to whine at the agent? 3 bedroom? What area? What price were you asking for?

Just to give you some food for thought.. two houes on same street which are on for 170k now... were initially priced at £185,000. Negotation with the estate agent one of her comments was... 'Its valued at £185,000 she has already dropped it to 170,000... shes looking around the 60's'.

I said if the valuation was correct it would've sold at that price and the vendor wouldn't have needed to drop the price so much in the last 4 months. Estate agents purposely put up the asking price when offering valuations... as they get more profit... and you as a vendor see more £££s so its win-win right? Well not really if its not what the market dictates.

Kazza_P

Thanks all for your comments - think my 'sin' was signing a contract that we expected to be fulfilled, and undertaken the required actions to fulfill the contract, in all honesty if they had done a good job I wouldn't have changed agents. Take your point, yes we signed the contract and yes thank you we did understand what we agreed to, no need for pomposity! And as to feeling ripped off - yes I do. Whichever way you look at it, we have paid out a reasonable amount of money for NO results, that to me is a rip off. I work in a business environment that means if you don't fulfill your obligations on a contract you don't get paid! Estate Agents seem to come from the school of over promise and under deliver, and thats ok! Yes we did take up our concerns on a number of occasions with the estate agent, and he openly admitted that the staff in the office required training, especially since a key member of the team had left and they weren't reaching the levels the should be. It is not sufficient, especially in this climate to post information on a website and hope for a sale!! So thanks Wee Willy, we did of course take our complaints to them. Not been a lot of help here guys but has been at least cathartic to put down in writing!!