hoew truthful are Estate Agents?

AdrianC

Pay what you think the place is worth to you. If they think it's worth more, then so be it.

indianabones

I'll tell you my experience of how dishonest EAs are.

A house which is now sold via auction was originally on rightmove via Connells. I was very interested in the house but wasn't prepared to go up to 200k which is what the vendor wanted.

During the 4/5 week period from when I was interested up until it sold in the auction. I got my friend to call up and ask about the property. They told me that the highest offer they had was 207k, they told my friend the highest offer they had was 204k. They told me the vendor was looking for a quick sale, they told my friend that they were prepared to wait for the right offer.

They told me there would be no way the vendor would agree to 195k or less. It turns out the house had a reservation price of 188k in the auction and I attended the auction and it sold for 192k.

Bottom line is, from the start to the end the EAs at Connells in Great Barr, Birmingham lied. There wasn't a single thing they told me which was truthful and when I called them up afterwards to tell them where they had lied and they continued to lie.

I had the final say about 3 weeks ago when I made my final call to them and I said: Due to your lies, greed and incompetence the vendor has sold the house at auction for less than what I was prepared to pay. In the end you lost a sale, the vendor lost out on money and I lost out on a home that I wanted.

Ended the call and then called the vendor, who's number I got from the neighbours and told her exactly how it was.

So what I've learnt here is the same as what many others will tell you. EAs lie, they lie from the break of dawn till the sun comes down and they don't have any shame in doing it.

indianabones

Another story from my colleague. About 10 years ago in an area he liked there was one plot remaining in Stratford, in order to get that plan, which he had reserved, he needed to agree a sale of his then home asap. I think he had very little time. So he put the house on via a local EA and he put it on for less than the average market price. It was marketed at 90k, when they valued it at 97-100k. He was prepared to go as low as 80k. Eventually it sold for 84k.

Fast forward a few months after the sale he became friends with the lady who bought it and she said, initially she wasn't going to go that high and was tempted to pull out. The EA told her, that the vendor (my colleague) had multiple properties and was in no hurry at all. It also turns out that the EA did not present the initial and 2nd offer that this woman had made.

How truthful are EAs? That's not even a question worth asking.

marksoton

Connells to be fair are the worst of the worst. I won't ever engage with them again.

For balance i dealt with a very good firm when purchasing. They are out there, and tend to be local agents not nationals.

BrassicWoman

marksoton wrote: »

Connells to be fair are the worst of the worst. I won't ever engage with them again.

For balance i dealt with a very good firm when purchasing. They are out there, and tend to be local agents not nationals.

me three. They told me they would get more for my house by getting my buyer a bigger mortgage. Call me daft for having morals, but it is worth what it is worth, and I don't want to cause debt by price gouging.

I'm very happy with my current (local) EA.

The woman I am trying to buy from is selling with Connells. She has been moving in with partner, now buying alone. needs more money, has dad helping her so it is ok... basically will go as fast/ slow as I need varied by the day of the week and the weather.

I just left my offer sitting on the table until they realised I wasn't budging, and eventually it was accepted. However I am still looking for a backup property as they are shifty so and sos and I don't feel confident.

pandapeepers

I admit I would be suspicious and was worried about that situation when I made my offer on the house I'm buying.

Just to give a slightly different story to are Estate Agents honest question, the one I've been dealing with has actually been really helpful and saved me £3,500 as I after I'd made me first 2 offers she advised me to hold off and not offer again but give the seller time to think about it and reconsider my offer. I do get the feeling the seller may have got the EAs back up slightly as they weren't accepting offers that the EA thought were reasonable. All in all every time I've phoned with silly questions (ftb) she's been really helpful and not made me feel like I'm being a nuisance even when I've asked about stuff that I feel weren't strictly her job to help with.

Tyler119

My recent experiences include a sale and a purchase.

House on sale for 280k, few viewings but no offers. Then one weekend a new viewing and an offer. The offer was 240k, which of course we said no to. They then increased to 250k, still too low but the EA kept wanting to talk about it in more depth with me.

I called them and they advised me that 250k was in their expert opinion, where the sale on this house would end up and that the couple who put the offer in would be over paying at that.

It should be noted that the original asking price was set by myself, only after months of research and analysis. I had decided to price it slightly above what I realistically knew was a reasonable price to me.

So I told EA that I was declining the offer, but was happy for the couple to try again. Next day they came back with an offer of 270k, which I accepted, it was bang on what I wanted for the property.

Not listening to the EA was worth 20k in the end. The problem in our area is that EVERY ea offers only fixed prices for selling so there is zero incentive for them to get the best price possible.

Recent purchase (small investment property) that needs a full refurbishment. I offered 10k less than the asking price, which to fair was cheap anyway due to the amount of work that the house needs done. Still cheap considering what surrounding properties are selling for in a reasonable condition.

I was told by the ea that they would put it to the vendor, but they had already rejected higher offers, and would I care to re think my offer. I declined and said I had other properties to look at (which I did). Next day they asked if I could raise it by 5k. I told them they 3 days to either reject it or I move on. 4.50pm on the third day, email to say the offer had been accepted.

I do not think that EA are dishonest in a malicious manner. I think that like any sales job, they have targets to meet and pressures from above. As in most sales professions, sometimes people respond to that pressure poorly which makes them say things that are not entirely true. This sort of actions unfortunately can become endemic within an industry.

If you have time, you can do a more in depth research and analysis on property than any EA can.

John_Pierpoint

Estate Agents here in England and Wales are accountable to your local Trading Standards office.

And not before time.

They are now meant to inform buyers of all material facts about the sale, answering questions the buyer forgets to ask.

It has been like this for several years now BUT councils are stressed for cash and it is not in the interests of the surveyors, conveyancers and estate agentys to comply. If we are not careful this attempt to improve the lot of the vulnerable punter and make the process faster and cheaper will go the way of the HIP.

https://www.tpos.co.uk/members/faq-s#q16

For a start I would ban the use of those fish eye camera lenses; the ones that make the gardens look twice as long as they really are..

In the mean time there is really no substitute for doing your own research.

I feel the ombudsman is in the pocket of the Agents - take this as an example:

{Ther punter discovers many days and poounds later that the seller is selling land they don't own}

I was persuaded from the information provided that the Agent had some local knowledge that the Council owned land to the rear of the properties in the street and that there was an option for residents to rent a section of land in order to extend their gardens. However, it was clear that the neighbouring properties gardens were longer than the property’s garden. Furthermore, the documentation within the Agent's branch file provided no indication that the Seller had informed them that not all of the garden was included in the sale. I, therefore, did not consider it unreasonable for the Agent to have concluded that the garden in its entirety formed part of the property.

It costs £3 on line there and then to print off the plan of the boundaries from the Land Registry plus another £3 to get a summary of the legal ownership. While Estate Agents are not required even to do this I woud recommend that all house hunters invest the £6 before even viewing a property they fancy.

googler

.. but the definition of 'material fact' in the legislation covering this is as vague as vague can be.

John_Pierpoint

we need some court cases