games estate agents play

sortofok

No you're right balds.Would't have worked then either if vendors used local EAs

But then timing is everything.

A similar wreck today would be snapped up within hours for about 180k

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Can I just add that the reputation they have is well deserved.

sortofok

Had a bad experience Ad?

lulupense

My estate agent did this to me last year, yep panic and accepted 11K below asking and 7.5K below original offer, they even stuck me again on completion day. I am going to write to them and ask for compensation because I can prove they were working in the buyers interest and not mine.:rolleyes:

Wish me luck

8.5k to go till debt free, ooh, when will it be :eek:

pulliptears wrote: »

One nameless EA near me is known for lying to potential buyers about the availability on property. This company will consistantly tell potential customers that the house is "under offer" or "viewings are not currently available". After a while with seemingly no interest the seller starts getting worried, then along comes a friendly builder (who happens to be extra friendly with EA), makes a ridiculously low offer for the property and seller panics and sells.

Seen this done twice now. Cant prove a thing!

Nenen

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'd agree with you re the primary motivation for an EA (grabbing their commision) but our experience of selling our first house in London in 1987 made me quite sure that the EAs certainly weren't acting in my (vendors) interests at all... our interests didn't even enter into it! I must admit we were very young and naive (many would say stupidly trusting) and they certainly took advantage of that! The following is a saga of how NOT to do it as a seller and made me totally unable to ever trust another EA as long as I live (probably an expensive lesson well learned)!

First they put huge pressure on us to persuade us to accept a really low offer (having first overvalued our house to get us to sign a long tie-in with them). Then they let the 'sale' drag on for almost 5 months (I was pregnant at the time and increasingly desparate to move to be with my dh who had started work in another part of the country). Despite knowing this, they strung us along giving no end of 'excuses' (*down and out lies*) why our buyer wasn't quite ready to exchange.

When we finally put our foot down and gave him until the end of the week or we'd remarket, the EA waited until the day after the ultimatum and tried to pressurise us to 'give him one last chance as he's going away on holiday tomorrow and will sign as soon as he returns'. Fortunately we were so fed up by this time we refused and kept to our ultimatum. When they realised we meant it they put yet more pressure on us and insisted they had two more weeks to market our property (stupidly we didn't reread read the contract at that point and later discovered that was yet another pack of lies).

They then admitted the reason why the buyer wouldn't exchange was because he was a property developer and had applied for planning permission to turn our house into two flats (which he would then convert and sell at a huge profit). The planning permission had been delayed and so he wasn't prepared to sign!:mad: The EA had known this all along but not told us!:mad:

They then told us to remarket at his original offer... 5 months after it had been made and this was at a time when house prices in that area of London were going up £1,000 per month:eek: Unsuprisingly we had three viewings the next day all of whom offered the full asking price (£50K). It wasn't until some months later we realised that, by not suggesting that we put our price up when we remarketed, they had effectively lost us at least 5K or 10% of the total value. :mad: :mad:
I know now that we were foolish to trust them (hindsight being a wonderful thing) but at the time I really believed that as we were employing them (and paying them a hefty fee) they would act in our best interests! :rotfl: :rotfl:

I am so embarrassed by my naivity (OK... I admit it, stupidity) but hope that by admitting to this I can save some other poor trusting person from going through what we did.

Gnid

Don't worry Nenen, the only good thing to come out of it is:

1. you know you won't deal with them again
2. you have told your people about it
3. you have told people on the internet

The final thing you need to do to help everyone is to NAME AND SHAME. Put the Estate agent name(s) and who they worked for here.

That way, they can't keep doing this to innocence people.

RHemmings

This isn't an EA thing. But once an estate agent managed to double book us to see the same rented home twice. When we viewed it, the landlord's agent was telling us about this other family that were interested who were coming to see it a few days later.

sortofok

RHemmings wrote: »

This isn't an EA thing. But once an estate agent managed to double book us to see the same rented home twice. When we viewed it, the landlord's agent was telling us about this other family that were interested who were coming to see it a few days later.

Similarly...

I always tell my prospective tenants that there has been a lot of interest for this property and I've got viewings booked all day.

It's the oldest trick in the book

Eyesparky

A few years ago I found a property I liked and as the market was moving pretty quickly I put in a full asking price offer. The estate agent refused to pass the offer on as they said it had already sold (2nd day on market). I was in a good position as I was not in a chain and could proceed immediately so I asked them politely to pass my offer on anyway and hold me as a reserve in case anything happened to the first persons offer. They refused and said they did not do this kind of thing.

2 weeks later I saw that the property was being advertised again so went straight down to the agents. They told me it had been sold the day before and would give me no indication of the amount it sold for. When pressed they said the original bidder had pulled out and they had found a new buyer. I again tried to put in a full asking price bid and again was refused. I was a little more inexperienced in the property market then and did not push it as much as I would now so that was an end to it.

A few months later I checked the price that the house sold for with the land registry ... it was 10% below my offer. The agent had gone out of their way to keep a higher offer from the attention of the vendor they were supposed to be acting for. I can only assume they were acting with vested interest.

I certainly learned from the experience and have never taken anything an estate agent says on face value since.

RHemmings

Eyesparky wrote: »

A few months later I checked the price that the house sold for with the land registry ... it was 10% below my offer. The agent had gone out of their way to keep a higher offer from the attention of the vendor they were supposed to be acting for. I can only assume they were acting with vested interest.

If you were serious about buying the property, then it might have been interesting to see if you can track down the previous owner. Perhaps they could have sued the EA.