Vendor's agents are *dreadful* - what can we do?

macaque_2

WozNorfolk

Have you got anything to say or are you just here to advertise?

Running_Horse

happinessfactory wrote: »

I'm going to drop an offer letter of £800k through their letterbox tonight and insert a table of local prices achieved from the land registry. Hopefully it will focus their minds on quite how much the agent has overpriced their house in comparison to properties that have actually sold.

Did this work? As a seller I would find such an approach to be impudent, but would love to be proved wrong. Did they sell to you, sell to someone else, or are they still on the market?

cheltenhamgirl

vet8 wrote: »

I agree with your comments about some estate agents.

Several years ago my brother and myself were trying to sell my father's house in Twickenham after his death. As the house was empty we wanted to shift it a.s.a.p. We asked the EA to price it realistically for a quick sale and he priced it at what we both thought was a ludicrous price. However, as neither of us lived in the area we really had no idea of what it was really worth. We asked the EA several times if that was a reasonable price for a quick sale and he assured us it was.

We were mugs of course. It was vastly overpriced and took over a year to sell even though we lowered the price several times. In the end I contacted another local EA and he said that the price was about 20k too much to start with. He took over the sale and sold it in a few weeks. We wasted a year all because the first EA overpriced it, presumably so he could earn more commission.

An agent won't overvalue to get 'more commission' - if the property doesn't sell (because it's overvalued) the agent never gets paid....what's the point in them doing that! I know everyone likes to believe that agents are stupid, but surely no-one is that stupid?!

Invariably, if an agent over values it's for a combination of two reasons...
1) They have done their research, and managed to get their vendor to let on exactly what they want/need to sell, and valued it at that because if they were to tell the vendor £15k less than they thought, they'd likely be told where to stick it. (Think about it, how often have you had an amount in your head when having valuations, and when you've been told less, how have you reacted?)
2) It's human nature to be greedy. If a vendor has three agents come to value his property, 90% of people go for the 'highest' valuation rather than the agent who they think is best suited to the job. Time and time again I've had people phone me and say 'cheltenhamgirl, I thought you were by far the most professional agent, and most likely to sell, but dodgyestates valued it at 10k more so i'm going with them'....then 12 weeks down the line they come on the market with me, thoroughly p**sed off with their previous agents, and at my original valuation.

So that's why an agent will sometimes overvalue - because of human nature, we have to to get business. So if vendors stopped being so greedy, agents would stop overvlauing, simple as that. Absolutely nothing to do with getting more commission! Every salesperson is selling a 'commodity' - why would estate agents deliberately put a higher value than any of their competitors goods?

Vet8, I'm very sorry that you dealt with what appears to be a useless agent - I would always suggest getting three valuations and asking for exact comparables to prove their valuation. Also, if your agent is not performing, move agents.