Experiences - agents at viewings?

girl_withno_name

Evening!!

What have people's experiences been with estate agents at viewings?

I know that this is quite a broad question, and that the answers will possibly be quite varied, I'm just wondering... Most of our viewings have been on Saturdays so far, which estate agents seem to find it difficult to attend, so these have mainly been with the vendors directly. Those that have been with agents have felt rushed as they're eager to get to the next viewing and they don't seem to really show us around, let alone 'sell' the property to us. Don't get me wrong - I can live without the hard sell, but I'd been expecting some effort on their part to point out features & advantages of the property at least! Not sure I'd be impressed if I were vendor around here...

Or is that just me??

Better_Days

No, its not just you:)

EA's in my experience don't seem to be very knowledgeable about the properties they are selling. (although there maybe also an element of saying little as they don't want to mislead) We have been shown a few properties by EA's. We have been getting 'this is the kitchen', this is the bedroom' level of explanation, with the odd 'this is a nice sunny room'. I hate hard sell, but I do like some extra info too.

We looked at a property recently and I asked about the boiler as I hadn't seen it whilst looking round. Oil boilers can be very smelly and I hate the smell of them. Luckily the vendor was in and the EA came back and said the boiler is in the loft and it is about 10 years old. Then he added or about 10-15 years old.:)

Another property we looked at a couple of weeks ago the EA was late arriving. The vendor was a frail lady in her 80's. We waited for him in our car in the drive, as we didn't want the vendor to feel pressured into showing us round when she clearly had problems getting around. In the end she came out and offered to show us round. While we were there the EA rang for directions which my husband gave to him. EA seemed to be innocent of the idea of sat nav's and maps:eek:

A property we looked at which was a repossession the EA couldn't get the keys to work. So we had to sit and wait for 20 minutes for someone from the office to come out with another set of keys! Luckily it was a nice sunny day, and not cold, so we just sat and chatted. It was 10 days before we could get to see this property as the EA was so busy.

To be fair I don't think we have been rushed with viewings. The frustration is when questions are asked and the EA doesn't know, but also makes no effort to find out.

Quite a few of our viewings have been on empty properties and EA's often have a few people looking round at the same time, but again none of these have been rushed. We are in a rural area and the pace of life may be somewhat slower than in cities.

cattie

One of the reasons I've always insisted on showing viewers around my property myself is because I feel you never get quite enough time for a good look when an agent conducts a viewing. I like to show people round, pointing out the good in each room & then let them have a wander round alone at their leisure.

With vendor based viewings, the vendor can answer promptly any questions that the viewer may have, which is something an EA cannot do generally, so it is a far more positive experience all round to my mind.

Personally I don't enjoy viewing any property when accompanied by an EA, but unfortunately if a property is vacant, then there is no other option.

PasturesNew

It's not just you. Many agents are shut on Saturday afternoons and Sundays - bizarre as they're in an industry when most people would be available to do viewings at weekends more readily.

And they don't know everything about the house, even if you tell them they won't remember it. And usually only one agent sees the house and deals with the viewings on that one, so if that agent isn't available then viewers can get the run around of when they can see it.

girl_withno_name

My OH went to a few today - mostly with vendors again and although he initially dreaded viewing someone else's house with them there, he actually prefers this to EAs now... the vendors at least tend to know the answers to our questions (like, combi boiler or water tank... or length on lease?)!

He met with one agent though, who we've met on previous viewings and seems to be rushing around constantly... today he didn't have the keys to one property and sounds like he had a bit of attitude when my OH accidentally asked a question twice, and again when he asked about council tax (why should he know when we can look it up!?) We previously placed an offer for a property with this EA, although there was no point in him attending any of the viewings and we felt it was over priced so offered lower than the asking price... today he was all smug that "they'd" got close to the asking price in the end - I wouldn't say he had much to do with it though! If we buy and later resell in the area then I'd be avoiding this EA like the plague for selling!!

The good news is - there were houses that my OH liked, included one which I keep being drawn back to online

bf206

People are being shown round the house we're renting currently and it's hilarious to hear the rubbish the agent peddles. Often we end up pitching in and helping him out!

One woman with her baby the other day was asking about local school catchment areas (which we know enough about as currently doing applications) and we heard him basically telling her completely the wrong info! We did intervene and she was grateful.

In fairness to the agent, I think it's more, in my experience, if they don't know the answer to a question, they'd rather make one up than say they're not sure...

I often make sure we get to viewings a bit early- often you then beat the agent to it and the people there might be happy to show you round.

geoffky

I would never let one show me around because i would end up laughing in his/her face with all the crap they came out with..i do not get on with Bull-sh1tters. and they are the worst as far as i am concerned...
You can corner a seller with some hard questions and get some truth out of them but with a agent its all bluster