Why are estate agents unable to count to 3?

mrstinchcombe

theartfullodger wrote: »

The situation is quite simple really... do you want whinge & moan about incompetent EAs or do you want to find a property to buy??

Why cant we do both?

beccad

Richard_Webster wrote: »

It will be to do with what facilities they have to query their database. It might, for instance only allow them to list properties in price ranges and not by the number of bedrooms.

But they can't even get that right :rotfl: they can't seem to get ANYTHING right with the properties they send to us :mad: Number of bedrooms, location, type of property, price (some have been as much as 50% over our budget :eek: ). I'm fairly certain they just send us through everything they get in the hope that we're stupid enough to buy something we didn't ask for :T

AppleCore

I think its to do with getting people through the door and keeping the vendor happy. The vendor will probably be happier with 10 totally unsuitable viewers rather than no viewings at all. Many properties I was shown were massively over budget but the EA promised that the sellers were very open to offers which I found out in many cases they were not.

iB1

I just did all my initial "viewing" via RightMove. Totally stress free and you can save yourself loads of hassle and beat the EA's at their game:

E.g.:

EA: We have a fantastic property new to the market on XYZ street
iB1: Oh is that the place that's opposite the car garage and 5 mins walk from the footie ground? No thanks
EA: A.rse

beccad

iB1 wrote: »

I just did all my initial "viewing" via RightMove. Totally stress free and you can save yourself loads of hassle and beat the EA's at their game:

E.g.:

EA: We have a fantastic property new to the market on XYZ street
iB1: Oh is that the place that's opposite the car garage and 5 mins walk from the footie ground? No thanks
EA: A.rse

I make very good use of Google Streetview

pararct

mrstinchcombe wrote: »

And whats the bet that if you offer £105k on a £118k property the EA will say "I'm not sure they will accept that".

Numpties

To which the potential buyer responds why recommend a viewing then when you know my top limit is £105,000 or do you not read the notes?

Numpties indeed!! :rotfl:

When_is_the_reset?

theartfullodger wrote: »

The situation is quite simple really... do you want whinge & moan about incompetent EAs or do you want to find a property to buy??

If the latter may I suggest the following...

a) Go round and see each local EA relevant, at least once a week: Explain what you want, confirm by email, expect EAs to leave brain out when arriving at work....
b) Go through the pile of printed/emailed stuff they send you, discard the irrelevant, pursue the interesting...
c) Flatter the darling EA staff: Tell them how helpful they are. Tell them there's a magnum of (good) champagne to the staff member that produces the place you finally buy (or some other gesture..).. Be surprised when you start to get some attention?? I think not... Bet nobody else does it...
d) Give them the magnum when you buy: Nae dropping to their levels laddie!!!

It really ain't that hard.. Sadly if you wish to go through life only dealing with competent & sensible people there will be at least 2 consequences...
i) If you take that position you'll end up doing almost nothing with anyone...
ii) Were it to be the case that everyone else was competent & sensible, how would most of us ever get a job against competition like that, eh???

Cheers!

Artful

They wouldn't even get a Wall's Magnum ice-cream off me - they are generally a complete waste of time.

95% of the stuff available is on Rightmove and the other 5% is on some other site.

It would seem that the days of houses selling so fast they don't get to the advertising stage are temporarily gone and will not be back for a few years. There is no need to even talk to an estate agent if you don't want to.

Buyers are currently on top.

theartfullodger

When_is_the_reset? wrote: »

Buyers are currently on top.

Aye right... not worth bothering with that little extra that gets you extra attention & earlier notification...

Hey ho, back to worrying about my various houses...


Best wishes to all, including those who disagree with me...

Artful

Eric1

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I would have thought its pretty simple.

"I want details of three bedroom properties, in X Y Z price range and area."

"Great, we have some of those, we'll send you out details."

So why 24 hours later is my inbox full of 2 bedroom houses?

Because they know from experience that many buyers can be easily manipulated and persuaded to buy something they never thought they would.
Besides, some 2-beds are bigger and more comfortable than standard 3-bed houses.

giddypenguin

We went into a sales office of a new build on Saturday, said our budget was 290k, 300k at an absolute push of an upper limit, so she begins showing us houses at 320k, and we nicely tell her that's out of our budget, then go and look at the show homes, come back to fill out the contact forms, to findd she's already written that our budget is 320k. We tell her that's wrong again and she just laughs it off. Just a waste of everyone's time.