Dodgy Estate Agents?

DaftyDuck

Ah, backhanders... Yep. Bought a house through Lovetts in Kent in 2009. Agent wanted a backhander of £5000 and he'd get the vendor to accept a low, low price (£65k off asking price).... Oh, I haz tapes of him and his slimy ways.... poor quality, but you can certainly get the gist of it.

I would have done something about it, like hand them to his boss/the vendor's solicitor but, since I ignored him and beat the price down by a further £10k anyway, the slimy toad wasn't actually involved in fraud, and he certainly got nothing from me aside from a bit of lip... I guess it would just have made my purchase more difficult at the time if I'd done anything. I do regret not doing the "right thing" though, as the fat slimy slug still sits at the back of the office, probably scamming more vendors... So, M*** of Lovetts, I still have the audio... just in case he looks in...

rrtt

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Ah, backhanders... Yep. Bought a house through Lovetts in Kent in 2009. Agent wanted a backhander of £5000 and he'd get the vendor to accept a low, low price (£65k off asking price).... Oh, I haz tapes of him and his slimy ways.... poor quality, but you can certainly get the gist of it.

I would have done something about it, like hand them to his boss/the vendor's solicitor but, since I ignored him and beat the price down by a further £10k anyway, the slimy toad wasn't actually involved in fraud, and he certainly got nothing from me aside from a bit of lip... I guess it would just have made my purchase more difficult at the time if I'd done anything. I do regret not doing the "right thing" though, as the fat slimy slug still sits at the back of the office, probably scamming more vendors... So, M*** of Lovetts, I still have the audio... just in case he looks in...

OMG!!!! I mean I knew some agents were bad, didn't realise that some were as bent as a boomerang ...they'd better watch out in these days of smartphones having a record capacity tho ...!

DaftyDuck

Well, it was an ancient mp3 player of dubious ebay origin, and the quality is dreadful... but quite clear enough! 1hr 10mins on one visit, 45 mins on another, much of which revolved around how he'd cleverly get her to accept our price, how he'd like paying, and how he'd have to make it look like a hard negotiation... Oh, and taking me to the little back room so the other agents didn't get wind of it, and ... endless fluffery and puff. He was hideous. And sweaty.

Actually I did most of the negotiation directly with the owner (who, as it happens really was a little old lady ... who now lives a stones throw away ) I then went in again without him, and bid 10k lower than he was thinking of bargaining it down to, and got it at that price...

...which goes to prove that not only was he a {*#~~~ing} [w£$$%er], but that he was absolutely carp at negotiating... he didn't even realise that Joe Public could knock more off than he could with his insider knowledge. Oh, there are some gifted agents around, there really are.


(There are some superb agents... really excellent ones... they get tarred with the same filthy brush...)

kwmlondon

Which is why when I found the EAs I got my current flat through to be straight-forward and helpful with me as a buyer, I approached them when it came to time to sell. They came in at the same amount as the other company I got to quote for the place, but I was very happy to use Rocodells in South East London. I like it when you find a company you can do reasonable business with, who treat your relationship as something worth maintaining.