Lets design a NEW Estate Agency.....

earner

My estate agent hasn't been pre-qualifying viewers. I've been inundated with people viewing, interrupting me (I work from home taking inbound phone calls), yet quite a few I know weren't in a position to put an offer in. One woman I showed round (estate agent couldn't do the viewing) hadn't even told her husband she was looking!

Estate agent wasn't selling the house, just showing people round. Mostly the estate agent didn't even know anything about the viewer, having got the booking through one of their group offices.

Also, the estate agent is only open office hours and saturday mornings. They don't do any evening viewings nor weekends.

epz_2

as a FTB i was pretty horrified at how little most estate agents even try, ive got cash money to spend and the average till monkey at argos trys harder to upsell you a £5 warrarnty on some bit of electronic tat than they do.

walked into one asking if they had any 2 bed flats in a specific area and they the pointed me at the property pages and went back to ignoring me. the most they seem to do is take a couple of photos, some general measurments and post it on the internet, hardly a couple of grands work.

i even went to see one flat and the estate agent never showed up so i had some forgin bloke with poor english show me round his place, !!!!!! you would have though the EA might have mentioned to the bloke that replaceing broken lightbulbs and cleaning the grime out the kitchen might have helped sell the place.

Encantador

Anyone got any theories as to why they have remained largely unchanged?

A number of property shops with a fixed fee of a few hundred pounds have come and gone. Surely, if they were doing the same crap job for a lot less, that`s better than what we seem to have now.

Is it because most are also surveyors and they make so much money from that, they are not really interested in their house sellers.

Or is it because the great british public just put up with them because they can`t be bothered with finding another way.

I am sure we all know people who have sold by themselves, then just put it in the hands of their respective solicitors. EA`s would argue that they do a lot of work to make sure everything happens right up to moving day, but do they.....?

Intrigued.........

virgo149

Encantador wrote:

EA`s would argue that they do a lot of work to make sure everything happens right up to moving day, but do they.....?

Intrigued.........

A good question. If our house sale had gone through, we would of paid ours £2350. Lets see what they did for that:

Week 1 - signed up and sales details issued. Told 2 sales staff had left so only one left to run office for 6 weeks.

Week 2 - 10. Advertised property 3 times in local papers. Once with price missing, twice with typos on address. Papers 'forgot' to put us in once but were told that counts as still being advertised as it wasn't the EA's fault!

4 viewings - 3 from people unable to offer as they were not even on market yet. Last viewing resulted in offer (which fell through 2 days before exchange just before xmas). Only ever contacted by EA to arrange viewing - we were never contacted 'just because'. Issued with statistics from Rightmove website once. Issued paperwork for offer from buyers and then told us that it was now up to the solicitors from then on.

That's it. How many think, from the buyer's perspective I know, think that is worth over £2000??

So because of this catalogue of perceived errors, we've taken our house off the market now, so if they did do work worth this money, they've blown it. Plus it's always worth remembering the saying, 'a satisfied customer tells a friend, a dissatisfied customer tells the world'. Guess what we will do to anyone we know who will be selling up?

moov-in

I'm so glad I found this site, been meaning to visit for a while.

Having read many of the posts in this thread, it's dismaying to hear what you've all gone through.

There are ways, however, to identify the good from the bad, so here goes...

Sellers

Before you ask any valuer into your home...

Do your research.
There are estate agents that take their job seriously and are upfront and honest with you, but you'll only know this if you've done your research.

The unprofessional valuers will nearly always try to get you to sign up with them using greed. They'll purposefully overvalue your home.

We come across this type of valuation most days and we love it because it's so easy to deal with.

You're probably scratching your head wondering what they get out of this, as it certainly won't be a sale.

But don't forget the fact they will also ask you to sign a contract for a certain period of time, usually 8-10 weeks and this is how they make you pay.

They know full well your property won't sell at the price you've got it on for right now but who cares, they've got you under contract for the next few months!

All they have to do is wait for you to get fed up and lower the price, easy. OK, they've probably had to put up with a few grumblings from you by phone or email but it's worth it.

They make a few grand for misleading you, wasting your time, stressing you out and end up selling your property for a price one of the other agents valued it at 10 weeks earlier!

Get the facts and arm yourself with ACTUAL sold prices for property like yours in your area, we use nethouseprices.com.

How else can you combat this problem?

...Ask them some questions
When they give you their opinion (and remember, that's all it is) ask them how they got to this. Does the valuer have a sample of properties that they've sold recently for similar prices and ask to see details.

Can he/she show you actual sold prices for similar properties right there and then. But remember not to show them your research, you want to be coming from a position of strength.

If they know you've done your research they'll change tack.

In most circumstances this will weed them out, and you'll have a little smile inside as you see them squirming and coming up with more and more ridiculous excuses why they've not come with some documentary proof.

You'll already know there isn't any proof as you've done your research and know there aren't any houses sold for the price they quoted.

Any valuer worth his/her salt will have fully researched the property before visiting you and will have all the necessary documentation to back up what he is saying.

We've got loads of buyers for this it'll sell within the week!
My advice if you hear this, help him pack his crystal ball away and show him to the door. :rotfl:

Seriously though, no one knows who'll buy your house and sometimes it's the one person you knew was not interested that ends up paying you the asking price.

If you hear this kind of statement he/she should be ready to back up that claim. Ask to see all the buyers that are looking for your type of property and most importantly make sure they are in a position to buy.

Good valuers will know who's the hot buyers are and what position they are in.

Let me do a one off viewing for you
"I know the buyers for you and can get them viewing immeditely". Say ok and watch them smile as they pull out their contract for you to sign.

But let them know you'll accept the viewing from them but won't sign a contract, then watch the smile disappear. If they really have a hot buyer for your property then 24 hours won't make much difference.

What the valuer is hoping for is a signature on a contract, they'll then rush back to the office and get all the negotiators ringing anybody to get you as many viewings as possible.

They trick you into thinking they've done a superb job by being able to send so many people so quickly.

A one off viewing has just turned into a full agreement as if by magic.

I hope this helps people who read it and helps change your view of us werewolves in sheeps clothing.

If anybody would like any advice at all just pm me and I'll try and help.