Rip Off Estate Agents!!! any suggestions??

Niv

totally agree Zap, was about to write the same thing. There was only 1 reason I opened this thread and that was the word 'rip off' in the title. I thought 'here we go someone moaning (probably about Hips) again' and I was right lol

ILW

Kazza_P wrote: »

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!!

In the end, you just bought something that wasn't much good. Happens all the time with all sorts of things. You will know better next time though, so not a total waste.

zappahey

Kazza_P wrote: »

no need for pomposity!

But you called me an estate agent :eek: I think I still owe you some.

Anyway, it's the only way I know

Looking at it dispassionately, you would still have had the HIP to take to the next agent, though I recognise that is of little use now, so that £399 is wasted because of the change in the law.

QTPie

Why on earth would you pay upfront for marketing? What was the commission if sold?

Suggest that you use the usual "no sale no fee" type agreement in future...

As for the HIP, you could have shopped around beforehand: you paid for the convenience of a "one stop shop"...

You didn't have to sign with that agent on those terms....

I am afraid that many estate agents are just as bad(from my experience as both a seller and a buyer). EVEN inthe darkest days of a crash, most are still not competent... You need a good contract and to constantly hassle them.

QT

Kazza_P wrote: »

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???

sonastin

£190 for production of marketing materials - done (unless that's why you had no viewings?!) and therefore needs paying.
£399 for HIP - done and unfortunately no longer necessary, but still needs paying.
fee to estate agent to cover efforts at selling your house - not done, not paid, no need to pay.

The charges you agreed to are higher than necessary, but you agreed to it before hand. The services you're complaining at not receiving haven't been paid for yet. Not seeing where the rip off comes into it

tux900

Kazza_P wrote: »

Not been a lot of help here guys but has been at least cathartic to put down in writing!!

It's not clear what you really expected from posting here.... If everyone had agreed with you that you were ripped off you'd still feeling ripped-off. If everyone disagreed you'd be left feeling annoyed and frustrated, and still ripped off. Your grievance would be better targetted at the agent however I do wonder if you'd have any success.

If it were not for the fact that you sound intelligent I would've felt sorry for you that were indeed ripped off. However, it is apparent that you do have intelligence hence it strikes me that you just made a poor judgement in going with this estate agent.

As you say, estate agents should deliver on their promise - good ones will hence their is no reason whatsoever for them to charge upfront for their services. They will sell your house and get paid for doing so.

I would never, ever, pay upfront for something for which there is no guarantee of receiving (or refunded for non-performance), and would recommend to others that they should take the same stance.

You could always post your RightMove URL as it may be that the property has been badly represented. I would imagine that even the most inept of estate agents should still be able to field phonecalls (and arrange viewings) from potential buyers having found your property via RightMove.

All that said, good luck with your sale - you never know your buyer could be just around the corner!

Mathew