What's going on with state agents in London?

andycorleone

Hi, I started viewing properties on November. I notice lot of estate agents in London are very laid back and slow in setting up viewing. some of them not even respond back. Which is really weird. there is a couple of estateA that we request at lest 4 properties none of them is been possible for viewing. They seem like ghost listings but not sure why.

Please note I'm speaking by my experience in buying properties in Italy, Holland and US where the process is really straightforward with out any delays.

Finally last Friday we decided to put an offer in one property. by Tuesday Morning we haven't hear anything from the seller (we called the estate agent a couple of times but he can't give us a definitely answer). So we decided to put an offer in another properties. At this point we haven't hear anything neither.

I'm not sure what is going on here? in one we offer the asking price and in the other just 1% bellow asking. They don't seem like very motivated to sell or the state agent is not saying the true.
Can anybody have Any ideas? Cheers

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

Surprising, I would probably guess it's just down to bad luck or maybe they are mistaking you for a "timewaster" (not saying that you are one!). My recent experience (east and NE London) has been quite different, with EAs extra motivated due to the slowdown in transactions.

Is it many different EAs or 1-2 specific ones?

How do you make initial contact asking for a viewing/more details, what kind of information do you volunteer?

andycorleone

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser wrote: »

Surprising, I would probably guess it's just down to bad luck or maybe they are mistaking you for a "timewaster" (not saying that you are one!). My recent experience (east and NE London) has been quite different, with EAs extra motivated due to the slowdown in transactions.

Is it many different EAs or 1-2 specific ones?

How do you make initial contact asking for a viewing/more details, what kind of information do you volunteer?

I had been in touch with more than 15 estate agents
I'm 99% certain that the following are publishing ghost listing (or at least the one I want for viewing)some are publish the same interior pictures of the flat in other more expensive properties that they are selling, or simply not showing any inside picture. or using pictures from other listing:

Relocate-me.co.uk
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/estate-agents/agent/relocate-mecouk/London-33012.html

JLL, London
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/estate-agents/agent/JLL/London-WE-Development-Resales-119251.html

MyLondonHome
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/estate-agents/agent/MyLondonHome-South-Bank-Division/Central-London-120835.html#ram

martindow

What's going on with state agents in London?


There are spies everywhere!

eddddy

andycorleone wrote: »

I'm 99% certain that the following are publishing ghost listing (or at least the one I want for viewing)some are publish the same interior pictures of the flat in other more expensive properties that they are selling, or simply not showing any inside picture. or using pictures from other listing:]

Which specific properties do you mean?

Some of the properties advertised by those agents are 'new builds', and some haven't been finished yet.

With 'new builds' (especially if they are not yet finished), they will have no inside pictures and/or they will use standard pictures of similar flats.

How are you contacting the estate agents? Are you phoning them or filling in a Rightmove form?

Phoning them might be the best option.

andycorleone

martindow wrote: »

What's going on with state agents in London?


There are spies everywhere!

No sure if you are serious, but now that you said that maybe these are Data company just collecting information that they sell to banks and investors.

andycorleone

eddddy wrote: »

Which specific properties do you mean?

Some of the properties advertised by those agents are 'new builds', and some haven't been finished yet.

With 'new builds' (especially if they are not yet finished), they will have no inside pictures and/or they will use standard pictures of similar flats.

How are you contacting the estate agents? Are you phoning them or filling in a Rightmove form?

Phoning them might be the best option.

I called them, Email them also been in direct contact with specific people just they don't came back to me. all the flat in question are finished more than 2 years ago.


I just click in 4 properties from relocate-me.co.uk all has been selling for more than 5 months 3 of 4 don't have any interior pictures :

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-75145846.html

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-70977229.html
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72656281.html
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-75584125.html

stator

Are these estate agents that charge their fees up front to the seller?
Perhaps they have enough profit from that, they don't have to bother with all the hassle of actually selling the houses. I hear it causes a lot of paperwork.
Much easier to collect the money and do nothing until the seller finds a proper estate agent

Brock_and_Roll

Well if you do some digging into the EA, Relocate-Me, as you might expect they totally oversell themselves!!

Behind the snazzy website relocate-me.co.uk, actually the company is tiny, only employing 6 people and filing unaudited micro-company accounts.

andycorleone

Brock_and_Roll wrote: »

Well if you do some digging into the EA, Relocate-Me, as you might expect they totally oversell themselves!!

Behind the snazzy website relocate-me.co.uk, actually the company is tiny, only employing 6 people and filing unaudited micro-company accounts.

Interesting, Now I see. Is that information public in a website or something? So I can check before contacting a estate agent?