What is your most scandalous Estate Agent experience?

Valli

Not a big story really but when we had our house on the market the EA assured us that anyone who walked into our house would want to offer...(was in tip top condition with a recently fitted kitchen and bathroom).

So we put our house on the market...


and waited for viewings...

and waited...

then we were going away for the week to I informed the EA - popped into their offices.
"Are you going to leave a key with us?" they enquired.

"Don't see the point", I said, "you haven't sent anyone to see it yet - if anyone IS interested they can wait a week!"

As it happened it WAS bought by our one and only viewer...

and now I'm subscribed;):D

Eton_Rifle

serious_saver wrote: »

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!

My own experience with estate agents leads me to believe a sizeable proportion of them are pleasant, plump, blond middle-aged women named Sheila.

vikingaero

The time - the late 80's. Big sis moving to Glasgow for University. Dad figured that 4 years rent would be better put towards 4 years worth of mortgage payments and got my sister to buy a new build 1 bed flat in the city centre for £35k. So the agent arranged a mortgage for student sister with Dad as guarantor.

Then came the crunch: the Agent said that the mortgage company had insisted that there would be no mortgage unless Dad had unemployment cover (self employed), PA & Critical Illness Cover and additional life insurance..... and then dropped the bombshell that unemployed student Big Sis also needed unemployment cover, PA & Critical and life insurance. The totals for both sets of crappy insurances were more than the monthly mortgage payments!

Big Sis and Dads solicitor got in touch with the mortgage company who didn't want any cover for anyone as both applicants had good credit ratings.

Arthurian

theGrinch wrote: »

an estate agent under valuing an elderly neighbours house by 40% and buying it themselves. Then fending off all enquiries with its under offer. I guess this is pretty common but a sharp market distorting practice. It just shows how low some of them are.

That happened to someone near where I used to work, too - must have been about 30 years ago, though.

And - I was visiting a relative's flat, relative was out at work as usual, when the door was unlocked and in walked an EA with a couple of ladies. He looked strangely at me, and continued talking to the ladies, pointing out the attributes of the flat. I had no idea this was going to happen, (good job I wasn't in the shower) and on speaking to my relative, after work, neither did they. No idea the place was for sale - completely out of the blue. In spite of my flabber being gasted, and asking what was going on, EA continued to show the prospective purchasers around. Landlord later apologised and as far as we know the effort to sell the flat surreptitiously was abandoned.

Contessa

About seven years ago I saw a house I was very interested in, whilst visiting relatives for the weekend. On Saturday morning I went in to the EA and asked to view the house that weekend-was told it wasn't possible as only one person in the office and would be closed from Saturday 1 pm until Monday morning. I was a cash buyer and it was being sold by the executors. In my naivety/ignorance I said I'd come back next weekend (I live over 300 miles away) and arranged a viewing. Then I got 'flu and had to cancel. But, the following weekend I went down to rebook-the EA told me it had been sold-to a local builder who specialises in buying and renovating properties!
I now agree with someone who told me that it had never really been for sale ( on the open market).
A year later I read on the internet that it had been sold for double the original asking price!
Lessons learned-be wary of the local EA's/builders/developers' !
-be more assertive!

googler

Contessa wrote: »

About seven years ago I saw a house I was very interested in, whilst visiting relatives for the weekend. On Saturday morning I went in to the EA and asked to view the house that weekend-was told it wasn't possible as only one person in the office and would be closed from Saturday 1 pm until Monday morning. I was a cash buyer and it was being sold by the executors. In my naivety/ignorance I said I'd come back next weekend (I live over 300 miles away) and arranged a viewing. Then I got 'flu and had to cancel. But, the following weekend I went down to rebook-the EA told me it had been sold-to a local builder who specialises in buying and renovating properties!
I now agree with someone who told me that it had never really been for sale ( on the open market).
A year later I read on the internet that it had been sold for double the original asking price!
Lessons learned-be wary of the local EA's/builders/developers' !
-be more assertive!

This really is drivel.

If it wasn't for sale on the open market, how did you find out it was for sale?

What's unusual about it selling in the two weeks that you weren't there? Was the EA supposed to keep it for you?

Davesnave

theGrinch wrote: »

an estate agent under valuing an elderly neighbours house by 40% and buying it themselves. Then fending off all enquiries with its under offer. I guess this is pretty common but a sharp market distorting practice. It just shows how low some of them are.

I know of one instance like this from about 2002 where, although hard to prove, things looked pretty fishy.

We saw what looked like an interesting and very well-priced property for something with land. It appeared on the agent's web site, but it was put up on a Saturday. Further, the main picture had been shot from behind a tree! In those days there were only a couple of pictures and they weren't large.

Fortunately, the village concerned isn't large either, so we got into the car on the Sunday and soon found the well-disguised house. There was nothing obviously amiss, and no likelihood of flooding, which was something cheaper properties there were prone to. Basically, it seemed in good nick. There was no 'For Sale' board.

The following Monday we rang to book a viewing, only to be told the house was under offer. We thought that odd, but the Internet was still in its infancy, so we presumed it hadn't been posted quickly.

It wasn't until a few weeks later, when relaying the story to a relative, that she replied, "Oh, my boss bought that one." She worked in a local solicitor's office.

jjlandlord

googler wrote: »

If it wasn't for sale on the open market, how did you find out it was for sale?

If the scenario Contessa told us is true, obviously the EA had to pretend to be trying to sell the property to the seller...

Scully38

Being charged nearly 4k for selling my house (which still is not sold), promising that they advertise on 50 different websites only to find it's only on their own website, advised them and still no feedback about why this is...

Contessa

googler wrote: »

This really is drivel.

If it wasn't for sale on the open market, how did you find out it was for sale?

What's unusual about it selling in the two weeks that you weren't there? Was the EA supposed to keep it for you?

Yes, it was on the open market, in the sense that it was advertised. But not, I suspect, in the sense that a local developer, in a small town, bought it. How nice it would have been if the EA had kept it for me! As it was empty and chain free, and no EA available, I would have liked to have been given the key to view myself (as has happened before).

Maybe the executors may also have liked the EA to have contacted me, as a potential buyer, to confirm a viewing?