Trying to buy a house - estate agents

LittleMissKitty

Are things done differently here than they are in England? Or have I just landed myself with the worlds laziest estate agent?

I put forward an offer on Monday for a property that's been on the market for nearly 15 months - I've had no news.
I've chased daily and I'm clearly just pi**ing them off now, they keep telling me they'll call the vendor and 'get right back to me', suffice to say I've not had a single returned call.

According to one of the office ladies, despite my offer being taken on Monday (at around 11:15 - not that I've been counting down the minutes ... no, not me ) it wasn't actually put forward to the vendor until after lunch on Tuesday. The vendor needed to talk to her husband and would apparently call them first thing Wednesday (fair enough).

Obviously Wednesday morning came and went, I called at lunchtime and got told something about the vendor talking to her solicitor about a boundary map but no response to the offer - they'd get someone to call me back . .

Called yesterday and barely got a sentence out before they told me the estate agent was about to call the vendor back this instant and would call me back immediately *phone down*. No callback.

The property's also on with two other agents but obviously we don't want to cause issues with agent fees for the vendors. We don't want to walk away from this house as we have quite particular needs (what with having a small army of children) so we're willing to wait for a little while as long as we're kept informed.

Someone tell me if I'm just being 'English' about this please! I won't be offended. Also, any advice on how to get the estate agent to actually tell us ANYTHING would be appreciated too!

warmhands.coldheart

In my opinion and from my experience having bought and sold a property in the south of England many years ago and having bought two properties here in Northern Ireland.... a LOT of estate Agents over here in Northern Ireland are VERY LAZY. and I mean a LOT as in the majority from my experience....
When my OH and I moved back here to Northern Ireland about 9 years ago, we were gobsmacked at the lackadaisical attitude of Estate Agents... never mind the fact none of them opened on a weekend.... In England EVERYONE did the viewings at he weekend. What I found a bit shocking too at the time was, when we went to view a house, it's the vendor that did the viewings, no sign of the Estate Agent at all..... I have NO idea why people over here pay Estate Agents. From what I can see and have experienced, all they do is stick the house details on the websites and stick a sign up (and even then I'm led to believe they even charge you for the sign)..

So I would say keep on their backs and I wouldn't think twice about going to the other agent and make your views known..... It's a buyers market....!!!

Ticked

We had a similar experience 30 plus years back, went straight to the vendor and told them what was happening. Vendor set their solicitor on the agent, got them out of the picture and we got the house.

steveymp

I have to admit I got very good attention from the vendors EA when I bought 3 years ago, even thou the vendor themselves had moved to the States. Their EA bent over backwards to get our offer and their response sorted next day, they then went out of their way to harass both solicitors to complete the contracts in record time.

Maybe 3 years ago the EA needed the commission on the sale more With sales and prices on the up EA's have reverted back to being lazy again

If you have contact info for the vendor themselves it may be worth talking to them to get things moving, good luck.

LittleMissKitty

Excellent, thank you! Unfortunately I can't contact the vendor as the house is empty and the owners are living (ironically) in England.

I shall keep at them and if I'm nowhere by the end of the day I'll call the other agents.

Tansy_1980

I was really surprised when we were buying at how disinterested the agents working for the vendors were. They didn't seem at all interested in following up on viewings or getting any feedback.

We saw about 6 houses where the vendors did the viewings themselves and only with one of these did the agent even bother to contact us after the viewing to find out what we thought and if we were interested.

I much preferred any viewing where the agent was present - it just feels way too personal to be passing judgement on or thinking critically about a property when the owners are showing you around. You're too worried about not hurting their feelings.

LittleMissKitty

We must've gotten lucky! Out of the 6 viewings we had only one was by the owner and 3 out of the 4 agents followed up for feedback.
Unfortunately the one agent who DIDN'T follow up was the one who showed us the house we wanted. Which is fairly typical luck really, lol.

Old_Git

I bought in 2013.I knew the agent had previously lived in the development ,on the other hand he didn't know me.
I offered £81,000 and heard nothing for a month .I finally paid £83,000 .I was determined not to phone the agent at any stage.

LittleMissKitty

Well hubby has popped into the office this afternoon.

He spoke to the 'son' who apparently seems rather more like what we're used to. He has my number and has put a note on the system to say that I should be called back on Monday morning. If I haven't had a call by midday I have his personal mobile number to chase

Apparently the main agent spoke to the vendors this morning and they want to discuss it over the weekend.

I wish I could wait Old Git but we're currently holding up our chain and causing other people problems. If we don't get an opening to negotiations on Monday then we're pulling the offer and going elsewhere.

modelreject

In my opinion, estate agents are not worth paying money to. We bought our house 5 years ago and the, well established, estate agents were a joke.

We all had to chase the estate agent to get updates. Simple questions were not answered. They didn't understand that buying a house is just like buying anything else. In fact they came back with things like, 'well the electricity works, why would you need to get it checked by an electrician'. Same attitude for a lot of other things we asked. They just couldn't be a***d.

Likewise, recently I have had 3 friends try and buy property with similar things happening.

oldhand

Asking this because I havent a clue despite having bought and sold several homes over the years but is there any legal reason you have to use an estate agent?,I realise you need a solicitor for the paperwork involved but what exactly does an ES do for their money?