games estate agents play

nobblyned

pulliptears wrote: »

Oooh and I forgot the one who we dealt with when looking to buy 11 years ago. We found a house, had an offer accepted. They then took more people to view, told them how much we had offered and they offered more! EA then came back to us, told us how much the second couple had offered and asked if we wanted to "beat it".

We politely told them where to stick it...

I agree that EAs are a dodgy bunch, but you can't complain about the above, they work for the vendor, not for you! They are doing their job getting the best price for the vendor.

The thing to bear in mind is the motivation for an EA, which seems to be firstly - getting their commission quickly at virtually any price and secondly - their duty to the vendor.

EAs have no interest in the what's best for the buyer at all, if you remember that in all dealings you will be better prepared.

full-time-mum

Another tip when dealing with estate agents is to sign up for as few weeks as possible.

1st time we were in the market for selling a house, we got tied up for 16 weeks as we didn't know any better. We had hardly any viewings (despite the old cliches mentioned above) but couldn't move and try another agent. Now we would try and sign up for 4 weeks if possible although 8 weeks is probably more realisitic. Its amazing what the threat of taking business elsewhere does for the number of viewings!
I think you do have to give the estate agent a fair chance to sell but don't let them take you for a mug.

pulliptears

nobblyned wrote: »

I agree that EAs are a dodgy bunch, but you can't complain about the above, they work for the vendor, not for you! They are doing their job getting the best price for the vendor.

The thing to bear in mind is the motivation for an EA, which seems to be firstly - getting their commission quickly at virtually any price and secondly - their duty to the vendor.

EAs have no interest in the what's best for the buyer at all, if you remember that in all dealings you will be better prepared.

I was under the impression our offer was confidential and not for the EA to discuss with further viewers. If the seller had wanted a bidding war he should have taken it to auction.

pulliptears

Reading the EA code of conduct the following should have happened:

we should have been informed in writing that the vendor was continuing to accept viewings. We werent.

we should have been informed that it was in the EA's practice to inform other buyers of the amount offered. We werent.

So I think we were quite justified in being a little narked at them dont you?

gaz310

how about this

our house on for 190K sold about 6 weeks ago asking price all moving along nicely paperwork searches etc,chain would have completed at the start of this week
house across the road same agent 188k vacant been up about two weeks
we see the people who agreed to buy ours looking at that one we were only told by agent after we challenged them about it
guess what
they now put an offer in for that one and withdrawn the offer on ours
so chain all stop i feel sorry for the people above us
but the agent he's ok i do think his attitude would have been different if both properties were not on with them and the purchaser you've got it ex estate agent !!
three things have put a smile on my face though just
1 this agent will not sell my house now as long as i have a breath in my body
2 purchaser has me as a neighbour
3 i tell every body i meet what has happened and who the agent is

31 days till he can stick his contract to sell my house
thanks for reading

RabbitMad

pulliptears wrote: »

I was under the impression our offer was confidential and not for the EA to discuss with further viewers. If the seller had wanted a bidding war he should have taken it to auction.

The EA works for the vendor. He has to do what the vendor asks unless its illegal.

I recently instructed my estate agent to call all others that had viewed my property or offered on it and tell then I had received an offer of x that I would be accepting. Nobody was in a position to beat it so I accepted the offer.

Oh and here's a great story I heard from a friend.
1. He views house and makes an offer of A
2. The offer is rejected and so ups it a couple of K to B
3. He moves in and there is a letter incorrectly addressed to him. Its from the agent to the vendor and basically includes a copy of the EAs contract. The vendor paid 1% commission if the EA achieved a sale price of just below A and 50% commission on anything above that value.

Thats how to incentivise an EA to maximise your price

nobblyned

pulliptears wrote: »

Reading the EA code of conduct the following should have happened:

we should have been informed in writing that the vendor was continuing to accept viewings. We werent.

we should have been informed that it was in the EA's practice to inform other buyers of the amount offered. We werent.

So I think we were quite justified in being a little narked at them dont you?

A voluntary code of conduct for a body that they are not required to be a member of is worthless.

They got the best price for the vendor in an unregulated market. I'd be annoyed at the vendor if anyone, they clearly agreed, or instructed, to continue with further viewings after accepting an offer from you.

fimonkey

Re; sale of my late mother's house, first to view put in an offer, we accepted. EA's arranged her mortgage, then told us they were advising the buyer to go for another mortgage with a company they didn't normall deal with, so we'd have to wait for them to set this up..... THEN the mortgage offer fell through cos this new company didn't offer mortgages to buyers in her position..... 7WEEKS THIS ALL TOOK! ..

So house back on market, and within 2 hours another offer put in. This time a really low offer from a developer, EA's advised us strongly that we MUST take this offer, at which point I threatened to take our business elsewhere, to an agent that would act in our best interests. Low and behold, that same afternoon, ANOTHER offer from another developer, .. and cue a bidding war, but with the EA's still advising we go for the first developer who offered low because "the second developer is dodgy" .. THEIR EXACT WORDS!!

House now sold, Due to complete on Friday, and phone call from EA's this morning asking us when we're completing and what's going on? I thought it was their job to tell me that!!

.. I could go on.... As a potential FTB you'd think EA's would be falling over me, but most of them can't even be bothered to return my phone calls! There is one EA who's been lovely to me, followed up for feedback for the vendor on proprties I've viewd so far, and has a real feel for what I'm looking for..... WELL DONE HIM! HE CERTAINLY GETS MY VOTE IF I EVER NEED TO SELL IN THE AREA!

lynzpower

gaz310 wrote: »

how about this

our house on for 190K sold about 6 weeks ago asking price all moving along nicely paperwork searches etc,chain would have completed at the start of this week
house across the road same agent 188k vacant been up about two weeks
we see the people who agreed to buy ours looking at that one we were only told by agent after we challenged them about it
guess what
they now put an offer in for that one and withdrawn the offer on ours
so chain all stop i feel sorry for the people above us
but the agent he's ok i do think his attitude would have been different if both properties were not on with them and the purchaser you've got it ex estate agent !!
three things have put a smile on my face though just
1 this agent will not sell my house now as long as i have a breath in my body
2 purchaser has me as a neighbour
3 i tell every body i meet what has happened and who the agent is

31 days till he can stick his contract to sell my house
thanks for reading

I do sympathise? But out of interest, what would you have preferred the EA to do ? NOT shown the buyers to the other house ( thus negating thier duty to sell houses- imagine how youd feel if you were your neighbour vendor)

Destined_to_be_skint

Here's a trick, they ring up pretending to be from the mortgage arm of your bank and they can't access your details, so please can you confirm your salaries. This happened when we put in a low offer on a house that another agent had told us was ridiculously overpriced. It needed £50K spent on it and completely gutting and the house next door was on for £20K more, all done up. Am pleased to see that it sold for £500 more than our original offer, and the developer has put it back on the market at a whopping £125k more than they paid for it!!! Still not sold though!!