Estate Agent dirty tricks!!!

wuzzypoo

Hi,

I've lived in my house for 20 years and put my house up last year. Firstly I went with a usual estate agent charging 1800 + VAT for home under 80k which is a lot, so they didn't bring in any viewings so went with Emoov and paid the £475 upfront. They haven't hardly brought viewers in, and now I'm approaching the end of the year I paid for with Emoov and things are getting messy.

Over last few weeks I've had 8 viewings booked, 6 no shows!!! When I got the last viewing request I told Emoov to tell the woman they are going to be checking up. She changed her mind and said she'd asked to view wrong house!!! I spoke to Emoov on Monday and they seem to think it could be another estate agent up to dirty tricks!! After thinking about it, I had one viewing a few weeks ago from young lad, he didn't ask many questions etc and did think was a bit odd but thought it was just him, then exactly after he left, he was still sat outside in his car when another estate agent rung to ask me to put my house up with them. Thought it was a bit odd at the time, but now getting all these faux viewings really annoying me!

When Emoov rung me about this they will do nothing about it as they said they have too much to do. The only solution the offered was to give MY phone number out! Obviously I said no. Apart from this they won't monitor my viewing, contact the viewers or anything. I did ask what I was paying them for if they don't want to deal with problems. It's not as though it's me creating problems, it's others.

Has anyone else had this? If so what did you do?

The house is realistically priced for the area, is in good condition but just don't think anything is selling in this area. Have been thinking about going through one of those "we buy any house . Com" type of thing but heard bad things. I just want to move as soon as I can. Can anyone offer any advice of how to get things moving without giving the house away?

Thanks

alchemist.1

wuzzypoo wrote: »

Hi,

I've lived in my house for 20 years and put my house up last year. Firstly I went with a usual estate agent charging 1800 + VAT for home under 80k which is a lot, so they didn't bring in any viewings so went with Emoov and paid the £475 upfront. They haven't hardly brought viewers in, and now I'm approaching the end of the year I paid for with Emoov and things are getting messy.

Over last few weeks I've had 8 viewings booked, 6 no shows!!! When I got the last viewing request I told Emoov to tell the woman they are going to be checking up. She changed her mind and said she'd asked to view wrong house!!! I spoke to Emoov on Monday and they seem to think it could be another estate agent up to dirty tricks!! After thinking about it, I had one viewing a few weeks ago from young lad, he didn't ask many questions etc and did think was a bit odd but thought it was just him, then exactly after he left, he was still sat outside in his car when another estate agent rung to ask me to put my house up with them. Thought it was a bit odd at the time, but now getting all these faux viewings really annoying me!

When Emoov rung me about this they will do nothing about it as they said they have too much to do. The only solution the offered was to give MY phone number out! Obviously I said no. Apart from this they won't monitor my viewing, contact the viewers or anything. I did ask what I was paying them for if they don't want to deal with problems. It's not as though it's me creating problems, it's others.

Has anyone else had this? If so what did you do?

The house is realistically priced for the area, is in good condition but just don't think anything is selling in this area. Have been thinking about going through one of those "we buy any house . Com" type of thing but heard bad things. I just want to move as soon as I can. Can anyone offer any advice of how to get things moving without giving the house away?

Thanks

I would have thought this is the downside of cheap online estate agents. In a good market, you dont need the additional aspects of the service.

Azure11

Maybe go with an agent that has sold boards out in your area for similar types of houses. I have used both online and standard agents before and you really have to have a house that sells itself to use the online ones. I think you might just have to write off the money you spent at emoov though :-(

You do need to be a bit picky about the EA you use - I had one very well known agent give me no viewings in 3 months and then another agent sold the property in the first week of them getting it.

wuzzypoo

Hi,

Thank you both for your replies. I have been looking at the sold houses and the ones still for sale and it just doesn't look like any things moving in this area. House that are up have been up for ages, and the sold ones are from a while ago.

I have a good idea of who the EA is who's making the fake viewing so will have a look at other in area and see how much they charge.

Thanks again.

eddddy

I'd suggest you get 3 or 4 more agents in to give you their opinion, not just one.

Ask them about the local market conditions, how much you'd have to market it at to get a quick sale etc. They might all be a bit overoptimistic, but it should give you a flavour.

And tell them if you've had a lower commission quote from somebody else. Many EAs will price match.

Or if you just mention that you are talking to other agents, they may voluntarily offer you a lower fee - without you having to ask.

ReadingTim

Your main problem is that you've paid Emoov upfront so there's very little incentive for them to do any work at all, and aside from arranging no-show viewings and hosting your property particulars, they're not really doing anything either. In fact, they could make a nice living simply doing that, and not actually have to sell any properties!

Suggest you terminate the contract with Emoove, accepting the £500 loss, beauty parade 3-4 local agents and go with the best. Price "to sell" and get the agent to do the viewings (so no shows are wasting the agent's time, not yours). Assuming the market's not completely stagnant, you should sell the place, and even if it is, and you want out, keep dropping the price until it does sell!

clark090

Just be aware of downside real estate agents. Hire the reputable highly experienced real estate agent which can guide or help you in better way.

Surrey_EA

wuzzypoo wrote: »

The house is realistically priced for the area, is in good condition but just don't think anything is selling in this area.

The chances are your house is on at too high a price. If it were realistically priced someone would have made you an offer over the past year.

Somewhere between £0 and £80,000 there is a buyer for your property, but remember any property is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

ReadingTim

Surrey_EA wrote: »

The chances are your house is on at too high a price. If it were realistically priced someone would have made you an offer over the past year.

Not always - few, or even a single buyer can distort prices in the same way as a few or even a single seller. Google "monopsony", which is an inverted monopoly (which I'm sure you're familiar with). I appreciate this is all a bit a-level economics, but the housing market does not reflect perfect competition, and there's usually more to it than simply price.