Connells featured on local BBC consumer show for 'forcing' buyer to use their broker.

rosie383

It's the first hour and a half if anyone wants to listen. Can't wait to hear what he was talking about at the end when he said there were some very interesting developments.
For those who don't want to listen, JVS was furious with his EA when they were selling his property. He went away on holiday, very early morning flight, and the EA let people into his flat when it was a mess without his permission. To say he was mad is a huge understatement.

ethank

I don't want any Estate Agent in my financial affairs thank you very much!

Westminster

Incredible scale of the allegations - a very interesting radio show.

We sold our property recently (which we purchased through the Thame branch of Connells in 2003) and never considered listing it with them. We then had marketing letters on 5 occasions since it went live on Rightmove trying to get us to put it with them.

Fortunately we did instruct a great / honest (I know - how unusual) agent who sold us quickly.

We had also tried to view a property listed by the Dunstable branch of Connells but they never returned my numerous messages - looks like I dodged a bullet!

I wonder how many vendors are losing sales due to these (alleged) clowns.

kingstreet

Although there are fewer and fewer about, I always choose a local traditional firm owned and managed by chartered surveyors.

I worked for three estate agents as a mortgage advisor upto 2001 and all three were of this type and I saw none of the kind of behaviour you see today (and then TBH) from the corporates

katejo

I actually had a good experience with a mortgage advisor attached to an estate agent back in 2008 but i wasn't actually buying a property then, just switching mortgage deal. He told me of a really good tracker deal which I wouldn't have found on my own.
That said, I would refuse to deal with any agent which tried to force their advisor on me. I would walk out (and perhaps contact the seller myself to ask if they were aware that this was going on).

Glover1862

Ha ha funny this as I've purchased with Connells luton town centre, the mortgage adviser has been moved to Stopsley. In fairness I kind of knew that should I offer to take my mortgage and use thier solicitors they would put the offer forward with more enthusiasm, exactly that happened, morning after my offer was accepted and property taken off. I needed a mortgage anyway so didn't make a lot of differnce, however the service was rubbish, I knew more than them and basically would have been better doing it myself, but then I wouldn't have got the property. Knew the game and just played it, maybe not right but as mentioned needed mortgage and solicitor anyway, my offer was £4k off asking so probably saved more than the £500 paid them just had too put up with the hassle. The house would have sold in hours so worked out for me. I agree it is bad practice though.

Nicolapicola

We've had the same issue with our local branch. We tried to put an offer on a house just last week and they insisted we speak to their mortgage broker before they would even consider taking down the details. We had already had a mortgage in place (due to a previous sale falling through) and were good to go - my property had sold. They were rude and down right unprofessional. We told them numerous times our situation and they still insisted on 3 months payslips etc etc, I eventually had to tell them that it was our mortgage company that tells us if we can afford it not them. Whilst I appreciate financial checks when putting an offer on a property we could prove we had everything in place. If is wasn't for a house we loved I would've gone elsewhere and never touched them. After writing an email and speaking to a manager the next day, the offer was put forward, financial checks done, offer excepted ! I think we need to be a bit tough and not give in! Time is precious when it comes to buying a home.

terrierlady

works both ways, people offer on properties then cant afford the place ,offer on two mayb three places ,or even fail to apply for mortgages etc, at least if their qualified by the brooker they all know where they stand and mayb just mayb they might be able to produce a better deal.In house solicitors etc are another minefield.

kingstreet

terrierlady wrote: »

works both ways, people offer on properties then cant afford the place ,offer on two mayb three places ,or even fail to apply for mortgages etc, at least if their qualified by the brooker they all know where they stand and mayb just mayb they might be able to produce a better deal.In house solicitors etc are another minefield.

It take two minutes to do a qualification over the phone.

When I was an EA advisor, it was;-

how much do you earn?

how much deposit do you have?

any existing credit commitments?

any previous credit problems?

do you have an agreement in principle?

and that was it...

Westminster

works both ways, people offer on properties then cant afford the place ,offer on two mayb three places ,or even fail to apply for mortgages etc, at least if their qualified by the brooker they all know where they stand and mayb just mayb they might be able to produce a better deal.In house solicitors etc are another minefield.

It does work both ways - but this particular organisation 'appears' to have institutional targets on getting bums on seats in front of the broker which far exceed the commission a given agent receives for the sale. To the extent that they would rather lose out on a sale than miss out on bullying someone into seeing their broker.

On that radio show there was someone who phoned in who (allegedly) was a pure cash buyer and even offered their bank statement to prove it but the Connells agent (allegedly) insisted they had to have a mortgage, it could only come through their broker and they refused to submit the offer.