Lying Estate Agent

emg

The Rightmove thing can be misleading. I had an offer accepted on a place before christmas. The EA called me to say they had received the instructions to sell it that day. I looked that evening and made an asking price offer. The property didnt come onto Rightmove until about 4 days later and was already marked on there as sold.

When that one fell through (*sigh*) I took a week off work to view and badgered all the EAs in town. I got a phone call from one of them to say they had just done a valuation on a flat that they thought I might like. I viewed it about an hour later and had an offer accepted the next day. The EA hadnt done measurements or photos at the time I viewed. A few days later it made it onto Rightmove, again marked as sold.

I wondered if they have to put them onto rightmove to fulfill some kind of contractual obligation. In both cases they put the properties on there with one external photo and very few details about the inside.

I think your EA could be telling the truth. They could have done a valuation, have someone look round that same day, gone to do measurements the next day and have an offer made at the same time. You need to get onto all the EAs 'hotlists', this means you are one of their keen buyers who they will contact quickly when they have something suitable. It seems all the best places are snapped up before they get to the papers, rightmove or even have the 'for sale' signs put up.

Redbedhead

emg - I know things can happen like that, it is the lying I am narked off with. Why he couldn't tell us the truth, if that was the case I am not sure. I understand they have people on their books that are waiting for properties.

I have now registered with all local estate agents (or I will have done by the end of today!)

ds1980

EA would always put a house on rightmove as old. "look at how wonderful we are and how quick we can get a sale" Would you want to put your house on with an estate agent that seems to be able to sell a house before he's/she's even seen it!

A house i was after about 4 months ago has just been puit back on the market for £50k more than it was advertised for when i enquired. Probably needed £10k worth of work. Phoned continuosly and got fobbed off time after time. All blatant lies. Went on rightmove a week later as sold. Of course its dodgy and of course they lied but heh hoh thats life move on. If theyve got people that want to buy somewhere without them having to do a great deal then fair play to them i say.

All estate agents are complete idiots in my eyes but you use them to your own advantage. It works both ways. If an estate agent turned around to you after you'd accepted an offer saying they think they can get £10k more for your house or they said theyve offered £5k less than asking price but im pretty certain theyre going to give you the full asking price would you call them a liar then?

PS i am certainly not an estate agent!

PPS not all estate agents are on rightmove remember!

david29dpo

note to all future developers. it is common practice in "the trade" to offer a "finders fee" to agents. in the real world this means... when you think a house i will be interested comes your way, tell me quick. in return a wad of used notes is handed over to the "bent" employee. you better believe it, it happens, a LOT!!

mchu6am4

snails's_pace wrote: »

http://www.oea.co.uk/downloads/codeofpractice.pdf

this is the code of practice relating to estate agents

and this link below is helpful to people who are gonna be renting from april 6th

http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1152035

Not many EA follow this.

snails's_pace

mchu6am4 wrote: »

Not many EA follow this.

i know that. i thought it would be useful for people to read
and a lot of them do...theyre not all conmen you know

dnwilliams

It’s not unusual for a property to be waiting in the wings for a number of weeks before it is fully marketed. The agent could be waiting for Misdescriptions to be satisfied, or documents relating to Money Laundering to be filed, before the properties text based marketing goes live. In this time many potential buyers could be contacted.

Indeed the EA may only get to take full details once a potential buyer is found in order to send these to solicitors etc.

olly300

The EA may not have realised that the potential buyer had made contact with the vendors which is why they arrange your viewing.

When I was looking for a property I viewed properties the day before they came on RightMove.

On the property I brought I was negiogating on it the day it came on RightMove website. I had made direct contact with the vendors stating I was interested after my viewing. The next day I made contact with the EA. The EA had also agreed to other viewings without the vendors knowing on the day I viewed for a few days later. When the property appeared on Rightmove the vendors where not accepting any more viewings.

On another property I was allowed to view with a different EA. The vendors explained that it was put back on the market due to the first potential buyers mucking them around. I was not allowed to put an offer on it unless the first potential buyers had clearly pulled out which they hadn't.

Flash_2

I have had problems with estate agents being less than honest. It seems {to me anyway} that the multiple chain agencies don't have to try quite as hard at maintaining a good reputation as the individual agency does & therefore, you get less of a service from them.

kingkano

dnwilliams wrote: »

It’s not unusual for a property to be waiting in the wings for a number of weeks before it is fully marketed. The agent could be waiting for Misdescriptions to be satisfied, or documents relating to Money Laundering to be filed, before the properties text based marketing goes live. In this time many potential buyers could be contacted.

Indeed the EA may only get to take full details once a potential buyer is found in order to send these to solicitors etc.

spot on. we are about to market our flat and we had 1 ea come for a valuation. He knows the kitchen is being fitted right now but keeps pestering us to get it listed. If he has people on the books waiting, hopefully he has told them its coming.....

sorry to add, he could have been waiting for it to be finished.