Why do you dislike Estate Agents?

sonastin

PasturesNew wrote: »

I find them sexist and dismissive. They look down on me.

One EA who came to value my house when I was putting it on the market established that it was MY house when he walked through the door. Then after my b/f had made the tea, the EA proceeded to address all discussion of value and services offered to my b/f (i.e. the teaboy in this transaction!). Needless to say, they didn't get the business.

Another EA asked who would be viewing a particular property with me. As the vendor was conducting the viewing I assumed it was so that they could know who/how many to expect. Now every communication from that EA is addressed to Mr X and Miss Sonastin, despite the fact that my b/f has his own house and I'm buying alone.

I don't usually register sexist behaviour, let alone bother about it but I am getting p!ssed off that I can't seem to buy & sell on my own. Especially as I have been living in my own home for a number of years now :mad:

123robint

hi all

the EA business was supposed to clean its act up some years agoo, but since we suffered appalingly under Browns Nanny britain all manner of semi legalised extortionate practices have blossomed FENSA being one example

in my area, the EAs (there are 3 main national agents all as bad as each other) they are deliberately inflating the asking price of properties they sign up to market by as much as 30%. They have this horrible practice of advertising the price as £130,000 to £150,000. They are deliberately trying to sex up the market. Of course nothing much is selling except for those who desperately need to move.

Here are my tips for house hunting

Yes you have to sign up with them and for security purposes, identify yourself and your current address - thats fair, cant have anonymous stranger snooping around your property, but after that, give them as little info as possible

ie dont give your landline numbers - they will constantly pester you with nuisance calls - they want a phone number give them a mobile number - which they will call you on to check its real, but after that you can switch the ringer off.

when you view properties dont listen to anything verbal, it has no value

if you like a property arrange if poss to meet the sellers and discuss a list of questions based on the solicitors "enquiries before contract" standard form
oyezforms is an example

but note carefully that the form doesnt really cover the areas you are interested in and there are many opportunities to dodge the issue "by saying dont know". Particularly important are matters concerning ongoing claims or disputes, problem neighbours from hell, subsidence un regulated property alterations

I suggest you make your own hand written list rather than bring the form along - less intimidating. No doubt the EA will try to disrupt the proceedings - dont be harrassed if possible try to arrange a meeting without the EA - they wont like that. If the vendor doesnt want to be frank then walk away, he has somethiong to hide.

for your protection you might make a video recording of the interview. You are not obliged to disclose this and you can use this later if you have been serioulsy lied to. (i only discovered this recently and there are some wonderful james bond gadgets around - just cos im paranoid doesnt make me wrong - just a consumer who bites back)

I do most of my house hunting on line via the main portals - just google property for sale

once again when signing up on the web, always use an alter ego (not your main email identity) because the info the suck from you (data mining) will be splashed all over the place and youve no control over this. I always keep a junk email address completly separate from my personal id, where all this trash is directed , the i can delete all of it at one keystroke as needed and not waste time.

As some one else has advised when selling, dont sign up to a sole agency, get several quotes and choose the best 3. Dont agree to a Sold subject to contract arrangement, insist that the property remains on the market and open to other offers. Watch out for the small print and make sure you are not liable for their commission if you accept an offer from another agent

Dont accept any of their so-called ancilliary services, mortgages, insurance, conveyancing its all likely to be as bent as they are.

Sadly its an industry populated by commission orientated sales at any price and pays only lip service to their self regulatory bodies. Bring back Esther Rantzen bless her.

there is so much to say on this topic where a family makes one of the most crucial financial decisions in its life

Ill let some other have a go at this

cheers

Running_Horse

Don't give them your phone number? Invent alter egos? Video the interview?

Can I sell you a tin foil hat?

tbs624

123robint wrote: »

if you like a property arrange if poss to meet the sellers and discuss a list of questions based on the solicitors "enquiries before contract" standard form
oyezforms is an example

but note carefully that the form doesnt really cover the areas you are interested in and there are many opportunities to dodge the issue "by saying dont know".

Exactly, see a fine example from Haringey Council

123robint wrote: »

Particularly important are matters concerning ongoing claims or disputes, problem neighbours from hell, subsidence un regulated property alterations

So the SPIF (sellers property information form)would be of more use,if you were wanting to use a standard form as a basis for your verbal probings of the vendor before spending any of your money.

kaywantsapug

I can't bloody stand estate agents!

I was working in one years ago for about a year and I was rubbish at it. Mainly because I'm not a liar!

The poor people that walk through the doors get harrassed to the point that they decide not to bother looking for a house to save being jumped on by a bunch of manipulative !!!!!!!s!

We were made to take peoples details then ring them up every five minutes with properties that didn't even match what they were looking for.

The thing that really really annoyed me was that I was asked to ring a man up for a viewing, only to be shouted at by his wife as he was dying of cancer. She told me she had told the estate agents 4 times that they were no longer looking and not one of them had written it on the system or taken their details off.

They're all crap at communication and uneducated in my opinion.

mostlycheerful

A concern I’ve got, along with probably a lot of people, is that estate agents are largely unregulated and, like most sales people, some of them frequently routinely get away with a lot of lying, cheating, fraud, conning, back handers, back to back sales, and all sorts of scams. The world is full of thieves and fraudsters and con artists and, as there’s little or no rule of law in UK and world, buyers and sellers alike have to beware and do due diligence and never rely on anything unless it’s truth can be verified. Which is often a pain in the goolies. There are far too many fraudsters getting away with mugging victims all the time.

Why is it important who I am
Cos in the absence of knowing who you are then you might be a wrong’un and, for instance, you might be the kind of person who runs up loads of debts on a limited company and rips lots of people off then just liquidates it and opens up for business under a different name the next day etc. On the other hand you might be a thoroughly nice decent chap with high moral values. So if I’m going to give you input for your report then I’d like to know if you’re worthy or not. However, an invitation to slag off scumbag sales people in print gives me a millisecond of gratification and so overrides my desire to not contribute to a possible/probable wrong’un so here it is above, an answer to your question.

and if I am being paid to write this report.
Cos if you are then it’s relevant to make this known up front. It’s suspicious that you didn’t make this clear at the start and still aren’t, despite being challenged. If you’re at college writing a dissertation, for instance, then, fine, I’d probably be happy to help you. However if you’re just another dodgy sales twit and you want me to give you info for free which you then sell, like a lot of market researchers, then, no kiddo, you’re just yet another irritating time wasting nuisance ponce, taking and not giving back, and you’re having a larf, on yer bike. And if you’re a journo wanting to write a story then I want to know this as well, then which publication and in particular whether it’s neutral, or trade publication, or consumer expose etc. If consumer expose then I’d probably be disposed to help, if just a trade publication for sales people to get benefit from, well, no, probably don’t want to line their pockets with my effort.

I can assure you that this is not spam or to promote my services.
Good, if that’s true. However, you should have indicated this at the start.

I have been approached with the idea of opening an estate agency in my local area and I thought I would get out on the UK forum's and hear the general public's thoughts/concerns about the industry. Market Research!!!
Fine, if that’s true. But nevertheless still a bit mysterious as to why you might want evidence of what you must already know ie that it is a well known, widely held almost universal belief that, like most sales people, they’re mostly only motivated to get their commissions and are therefore often liars, cheats, wrong’uns and a4seholes, as bad as builders, car mechanics, time share salesmen, snake oil salesmen etc. Your question is rather like asking people to tell you if thieves do thieving. You know they do so why would you ask for examples of it rather than just reading about all the exposes already available. Definitely sounds suss.

Yeah, if you’re that rare thing, an honest sincere decent person, then I wish you good luck. However, if you’re like the majority of dog eat dog never give a sucker an even break type of salesman scumbag and if you’re just a con artist on the rob all the time, well, no matey, there’s the door and you know how to use it and may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your wotsit.

split_second

ooooooh can i tell my e.a stories

go in, tell them i want a house in one of 3 towns, ones that need doing up are fine.............
budget is too low she sneers like the 'computer says no' woman from little britain.

funny the agents 3 doors down has plenty for me.

then i end up buying through the agency 3 doors down, 'another offer very close by' ok i am upping my offer by £100- ONE HUNDRED POUNDS
0.14% of the original offer

i'm now living in that house and have been for over a year

Horasio

Bad agents

Ones who don't get back to you when they say they will - that seems very common where I live.
Can't be bothered to arrange a viewing
Ones who try to be clever with you such as when you want to confirm a price, they say, if you know the price why are you asking?
Encourage gazumping
Ones that look down their nose at you when you tell them what you are looking for - Winchester is bad for that.
Ones that say there is interest from other people as well to pile the pressure on
Act dumb when you ask about a property they are advertising
Ones that show a view that isn't the view you get from the property
They do very little for the money - some do go the extra mile.

Blacksheep1979

rhetta76 wrote: »

I am currently writing a research report on the reasons why the general public dislike Estate Agent Companies.

I am hoping you can assist me making a list of "What do you really hate about this industry?"

Please share with me what drives you around the bend!!!

Thanks in Advance...

You do realise 'Advance' isn't a proper noun?