What is your most scandalous Estate Agent experience?

happy_2008

Wasnt really an EA but the salesman of a property developer.

We viewed the property originally with another sales lady on this development who advised us of the normal reservation to secure plot etc and all was good for us to go away and think about the property. Decided that we wanted another viewing so we arranged another time to view the the flat and potentially discuss a price for the flat. This is where things start going down hill since we are dealing with another sales person.

According to this sales man we wouldnt be able to discuss a price unless we placed a £1,000 reservation fee fully refundable in the form of cheque or credit card details. Apparently this is only to show that we were genuine and that prices could then be negoitated. I challenged this saying and he quickly interupted saying how they (Bellway) were a big company and they would never bank the cheque etc. I decided that it was not worth discussing the matter and promptly decided to leave and on my way out i bumped into the originally sales lady and ask her about the reservation fee. She again repeated that reservation fees are only taken once we were committed to the plot and price agreed. I told her of my dealings with her colleague and she then had the cheek to reply "oh just go by his words then".

Upon checking there website it then became clear that the fee was indeed refundable bar £250 could be retained for administration fees. I found the head quarters email and promptly fired off a complaint email on my dealings with the salesman.

FTBFun

Not particulary scandalous but I had the same agent show me three leasehold flats, all with less than 80 years on the lease, which was apparently "fine". A quick google showed that in fact this wasn't the case.

They weren't particulary priced to bear this in mind, given the one I eventually bought with a long lease via a different agent.

Glyndwr2000

We also arranged to go see another house in another village. Duly turned up (half an hours drive) to find the place deserted. Waited until 20 minutes past the agreed time and rang the EAs office. "Isnt he with you?" - "err no". Oh I dont know where he is, he will turn up Im sure".

Waited another 10 minutes then got a call saying he had double booked and would we like to rearrange for another day. I politely declined as the house wasnt what we were looking for. Cue the phone calls until I had to get abusive to get us off his books.

Strangely, my daughters school did a "be an estate agent" project and this guy turned up. As a governor I was invited to the day and introduced to him. At first he pretended not to recognise me, but the look in his eye gave him away. He then disappeared before the end of the day leaving the kids without any recognition or assessment. Strange guy.

Ulfar

Glyndwr2000 wrote: »

Strangely, my daughters school did a "be an estate agent" project and this guy turned up. As a governor I was invited to the day and introduced to him. At first he pretended not to recognise me, but the look in his eye gave him away. He then disappeared before the end of the day leaving the kids without any recognition or assessment. Strange guy.

Given that it requires no knowledge, skills or qualifications to be an estate agent, all of the kids could do a better job. I bet they are a lot more honest than any estate agent.

drc

Glyndwr2000 wrote: »

Strangely, my daughters school did a "be an estate agent" project and this guy turned up. As a governor I was invited to the day and introduced to him. At first he pretended not to recognise me, but the look in his eye gave him away. He then disappeared before the end of the day leaving the kids without any recognition or assessment. Strange guy.

In my day, kids wanted to be astronauts and policemen. Do kids really aspire to be EAs? Oh dear, values really have declined...

Glyndwr2000

drc wrote: »

In my day, kids wanted to be astronauts and policemen. Do kids really aspire to be EAs? Oh dear, values really have declined...

It was a activity to introduce the kids to selling (although what they could learn from an estate agent Im not sure). The big benefit was the creative writing and maths aspects.

The estate agent was a complete tool though so at least that was a perfect representation of their breed !

Lirin

Arranged to see a derelict small primary school with an EA. Knew it would need some work, just wanted in to assess how much....

EA very nice on the phone, told us there was a little 'decorative' work and the place was in good condition.

On the day, we waited at the locked gates for a while, before phoning the EA's office. We got told by a helpful girl the place had been derelict for a 3 years, and the EA wouldn't be bothered coming out to it. Asking what we were to do, she told us that they usually advised potential viewers to break in.....

Did, as the place was fairly rural. Didn't do any damage. The 'decorative work' we'd been told would need done included foundation problems, the roof completely missing for a section of three rooms, and asbestos in every wall I checked.... Strangly, while we were there, a connected landline phone rang. It was sitting under a foot of water with an exposed electric cable dipping into it, so we declined to see who was on the other end.....

Skint_Catt

492800 wrote: »

Me: "Hi mr estate agent, Id like to make an offer on the property"

EA: "that'd be great, thank you. But im sure your offer would be much more attractive if you were to use our onsite mortgage broker, the vendor would appreciate this and your offer would more likely get accepted"

(and I stupidly agreed)

and was it accepted? or is that a REALLY stupid question? :rotfl:

serious_saver

1) Wanted to rent a property. I knew the neighbours and liked the area. Waited at the address for the viewing and they didn't turn up. When I phoned up they said they had spoken to me and cancelled because the flat had been let (I think I would have remembered). The flat hadn't been let at that point but two weeks later the Letting agent had negotiated cheaper rent on the house for her niece.

2) Not so scandelous but very annoying. The same branch of EA but this time we were viewing to buy. We tried to arrange a viewing for a Saturday morning but we were told they were fully booked and had to wait another full week and view the next Saturday. As we were pulling into the street for our viewing we got a phonecall to say the EA didn't have a key and the vendor was out. We pulled up anyway so I could show my OH the outside of the house and watched the EA leaving from the front door. When we spoke to her it turned out they hadn't told the vendor about the viewing and the vendor didn't want to let us in because it wasn't tidy. We had to wait another full week to see it.

serious_saver

drc wrote: »

I've twice gone to see properties where the EA has forgotten the keys. In one of the instances we had driven over 100 miles. I was then treated to delightful daily text spam from said EA and had to ask them 3 times to remove me from their mailing list. How can you forget the keys to a property you are showing to potential buyers?

The other day I inquired about a property but the EA said it was under offer. He then took my details, assuring me that I would not get any spam emails/phone calls. Not only did I get 2 spam emails within the hour, but one of them was solely advertising the property that was apparently "under offer" and no longer available.

This particular EA didn't happen to have a name that began with 'D'. I've been have very similar experiences with a certain estate agent. The text Spam is driving me nuts!