Estate agents

nuttynutz

Hi everyone I,m new to this site, and I was talking to my neighbour tonight about our houses being on the market and how the viewings are going and blah blah and she says estate agents have "bogus viewers "what are on the payroll to go and view propertys just to keep their clients happy so we dont change estate agents. Now I am really as this is our first house sale and I dont know if she was winding me up or not ,Please can anybody put me straight on this as i,m now really stressed about this horrible selling lark lol
Thanks in advance Nicki
(sorry if this is posted in wrong place:o )

A_Nice_Englishman

The Ombudsman for Estate Agents' Code of Practice should be essential reading for both sellers and buyers.
http://www.oea.co.uk/downloads/codeofpractice.pdf
as should this Office of Fair Trading document 'the estate agency guide'
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/oft031.pdf

The second says that it is illegal for an estate agent to state that he has potential buyers unless he can prove it is true. So ask yours directly how many buyers he has on his books who are looking for properties like yours and drop the above into the conversation.

nuttynutz

Thank you very much for your quick reply , we are very new to all this buying and selling as we were tenants that bought from our council and it was all quite straight forward back then lol Thanks again going to read the links you sent now

Doozergirl

Why would they? What would be the financial benefit to an EA of paying someone, who has no intention of purchasing a house, to view them? What would the recruitment process be?! Why has no one ever said 'I've done this'? They must be well paid to keep such a secret! There are people who view houses for something to do on a Sunday afternoon, I'm sure, but EAs in on it? It's not happening.

I know people who have overpriced their house and reckon the fact that their two most local agents both came in at the same (correct IMO) price means they are colluding together to rip them off Maybe it's just a case of it being a very common house type, therefore having quite a clear ceiling price!

A_Nice_Englishman

You're welcome nuttynutz.

I learned a LOT about estate agency law and practice while selling my last house and will be happy to offer any advice I can, as will others I'm sure.

annie123

nuttynutz wrote: »

Hi everyone I,m new to this site, and I was talking to my neighbour tonight about our houses being on the market and how the viewings are going and blah blah and she says estate agents have "bogus viewers "what are on the payroll to go and view propertys just to keep their clients happy so we dont change estate agents. Now I am really as this is our first house sale and I dont know if she was winding me up or not ,Please can anybody put me straight on this as i,m now really stressed about this horrible selling lark lol
Thanks in advance Nicki
(sorry if this is posted in wrong place:o )

total nonsense

I am an ea and there is no reason that I can think of why any ea would want to do that,

We only get paid if we introduce a buyer that exchanges contracts with you. A bogus viewer won't so a waste of our time.

Good luck with your sale

nuttynutz

Thanks Annie for your advice I now see how gullible I look to my neighbour lol god she could probably say aliens are living next to me lol and would of believed her but hey hoo "live and learn" my nerves are sooo shredded by all of this paranoia is setting in lol!!!!

Running_Horse

If that was true it would be cheaper and better use of resources to drum up potential viewers on the phone. Most estate agent offices I have dealt with have simply been too busy for what you suggest. But nothing would surprise me. I take it your neighbour has some kind of evidence.