Estate Agents!!!

BigH1979

Just a rant really.

We offered on a property back in early November listed with a well known national EA's beginning with C. First we were subjected to a 'Affordability Interview' without which our offer could not be progressed apparently. This turned out to be a very, very uncomfortable hard sell of the EA's in-house Mortgage Services which i repeatedly declined. At this point i was informed that if i took their services then my offer would be looked on more 'favourably' ditto their in-house Solicitors. I again declined both and eventually suprise suprise we lost out to another buyer after repeatedly being urged to up our offer, which we did once.

A week or 2 later we then received a call saying that the other buyer had dropped out and did our offer still stand? No i said, we were up against another buyer then and our offer wasn't deemed good enough so we'll offer 3k less now thank you very much. Another 7-10 days ensued before our offer was finally accepted. During his time we received another call asking us to raise our offer but this time the person on the other end of the phone was the Mortgage Advisor. So this guy knew what our upper borrowing limit was and was acting as an EA trying to get us to offer more!! (Is that illegal?) Anyway we stood firm and secured the deal.

Anyway wind 10 weeks forward and we haven't even received a Draft Contract Pack yet. We were getting so annoyed with the EA's repeated fob offs, lies and assurances that it would be with our Solicitors the next day that we contacted the Sellers directly to find out what was happening. Well would you believe that apparently the EA had talked this nice old couple in their 80's into using their 'trusted partners' which turns out to be a large conveyancing factory up in Leicester (we are in Exeter). Furthermore the EA had told this couple that they should use them because we were also using them and it would make for a quicker sale. Just to be clear we told the EA from the start that we would be using our own local trusted Solicitor.

So the upshot is our whole future plans including our young kids are sitting with a lying, useless Estate Agent (not of our choosing) and a slow, useless, faceless Conveyancing Factory (not of our choosing). We are 10 weeks in and we have nothing to show for it. Conne..... whoops i mean the EA have managed to take an already stressful but relatively straightforward process (we are ready to move, nothing to sell. Vendors are going into a vacant possession) and completely slowed everything down due to their greed. If i lied as much as they did i'd be out of a job....however they will probably get a promotion for it!

Flugelhorn

the only people who can really get the conveyancers to hurry up are the vendors. maybe they would like to swap to solicitor somewhere else?

I must say I have never had a problem with heavy sell of "trusted partners"  -I've just said no and that was that. 

BigH1979

Are you in your 80's and not sold a house in 50yrs though?

I expect they were under the misguided impression that an Estate Agent was there to guide them through the process rather than take kickbacks from the best commission paying Conveyancing Factory?

Flugelhorn

True!  actually 60s and have bought and sold 5 in the last 4 years   

yes - they will have been assuming they would get supported but that isn't the way, are they at risk of losing the onward purchase?

BigH1979

I know that buying/selling houses is bread and butter to some people but others will only do it once or twice in a lifetime and its considerably more of a big deal. Also in our case we previously had an older vendor pull out on the day of exchange after an extended conveyancing period (not the fault of that particular EA i might add) causing considerable financial loss and heartbreak. So we ensured all our ducks were lined up for a quick sale this time…

I don’t know if their onward move is impacted yet. I would like to imagine that theyve thought about the consequences of their conveyancer being slow but again i doubt they are familiar with the process and are unlikely to take advice from me as the ‘buyer’ to move to a more expensive local Solicitor.

dizzyduch

BigH1979 said:

Just a rant really.

We offered on a property back in early November listed with a well known national EA's beginning with C. First we were subjected to a 'Affordability Interview' without which our offer could not be progressed apparently. This turned out to be a very, very uncomfortable hard sell of the EA's in-house Mortgage Services which i repeatedly declined. At this point i was informed that if i took their services then my offer would be looked on more 'favourably' ditto their in-house Solicitors. I again declined both and eventually suprise suprise we lost out to another buyer after repeatedly being urged to up our offer, which we did once.

A week or 2 later we then received a call saying that the other buyer had dropped out and did our offer still stand? No i said, we were up against another buyer then and our offer wasn't deemed good enough so we'll offer 3k less now thank you very much. Another 7-10 days ensued before our offer was finally accepted. During his time we received another call asking us to raise our offer but this time the person on the other end of the phone was the Mortgage Advisor. So this guy knew what our upper borrowing limit was and was acting as an EA trying to get us to offer more!! (Is that illegal?) Anyway we stood firm and secured the deal.

Anyway wind 10 weeks forward and we haven't even received a Draft Contract Pack yet. We were getting so annoyed with the EA's repeated fob offs, lies and assurances that it would be with our Solicitors the next day that we contacted the Sellers directly to find out what was happening. Well would you believe that apparently the EA had talked this nice old couple in their 80's into using their 'trusted partners' which turns out to be a large conveyancing factory up in Leicester (we are in Exeter). Furthermore the EA had told this couple that they should use them because we were also using them and it would make for a quicker sale. Just to be clear we told the EA from the start that we would be using our own local trusted Solicitor.

So the upshot is our whole future plans including our young kids are sitting with a lying, useless Estate Agent (not of our choosing) and a slow, useless, faceless Conveyancing Factory (not of our choosing). We are 10 weeks in and we have nothing to show for it. Conne..... whoops i mean the EA have managed to take an already stressful but relatively straightforward process (we are ready to move, nothing to sell. Vendors are going into a vacant possession) and completely slowed everything down due to their greed. If i lied as much as they did i'd be out of a job....however they will probably get a promotion for it!

We’re buying our house via the same EA and had the same hard sell for mortgages and conveyancing; like you we stood our ground.

Snookie12cat

I used to work for C... If you knew how poorly they pay the staff you will know why they push everything they can on you.  

Rosa_Damascena

Snookie12cat said:

I used to work for C... If you knew how poorly they pay the staff you will know why they push everything they can on you.  

That doesn't do them any favours in the long run though.

GoogleMeNow

The big conveyancing factory could be waiting for their 80 year old clients to submit their completed and signed documents, put monies on account and provide their ID documents.  Big conveyancing factories don't send out draft contract packs until all the preliminary pre-legal stuff has been done. 

The EA should be checking that the sellers have actually done this.  Bear in mind that EA is being paid by the seller, so their contract is not with you.

BigH1979

Snookie12cat said:

I used to work for C... If you knew how poorly they pay the staff you will know why they push everything they can on you.  

You'll find zero sympathy here.

Snookie12cat

BigH1979 said:

Snookie12cat said:

I used to work for C... If you knew how poorly they pay the staff you will know why they push everything they can on you.  

You'll find zero sympathy here.

Everyone has to work, but paying the sales staff less than minimum wage as a basic isn't right. They make it up to min wage if they do not get enough sales, but they actually have to sell a lot to get anywhere near a good salary 🙄 thus it breeds the pushy sales culture.

They would be better off in Lidl sometimes I think. C are a horrific employer and recommend them to no one.