Pushy estate agents-is this normal?

JohnTheSkier · 7 November 2022 at 9:47PM

The EA in my purchase (just exchanged contracts last week) was regularly asking me and my solicitor for updates. That said, they were useful - whenever I mentioend to them that the seller's solicitor was not responding it did seem that they managed to grease the wheels a bit and get things moving again.

EndlessStruggle · 7 November 2022 at 9:58PM

Seems a bit much to be doing it every day but they want their commission.

Both my EAs on sale and purchase check in once a week with updates or to tell me there is no update and that is enough for me.

diystarter7 · 7 November 2022 at 10:02PM

EA's "pushy" lol that is an understatement

Just a warning for anyone not really had to use a EA. They will be your best friends when you want to buy/sell. Come the signatures of exchange of contract and especially completion, you'll be lucky to get a hi from them.

Yes, they are a business and there to make money but from our experiences, they don't need to pretend to be your buddy then ghost you.

If you are buying or selling, you lead not the EA.

powerful_Rogue · 7 November 2022 at 10:06PM

diystarter7 said:

EA's "pushy" lol that is an understatement

Just a warning for anyone not really had to use a EA. They will be your best friends when you want to buy/sell. Come the signatures of exchange of contract and especially completion, you'll be lucky to get a hi from them.

Yes, they are a business and there to make money but from our experiences, they don't need to pretend to be your buddy then ghost you.

If you are buying or selling, you lead not the EA.

Certainly not our expereince.

macman · 7 November 2022 at 10:07PM

Isn't that what you'd expect from them? You employ them to sell your property for the best price, in the shortest time. Once they've done that, their job is done. You're not paying them to be your best buddy for life.

JMA74 · 7 November 2022 at 10:16PM

Martisha said:

propertyrental said:

EAs are pushy because they earn commission if/when the sale Completes.

Sometimes this can be useful eg if they get an overworked conveyancer at a conveyancing warehouse to progress the sale, or a seller/buyer who is not responding to solicitors/whatever.

Other times it's just annoying. Just accept that this is what EAs do!

Ok thanks, I thought it was rather odd for EA to email my solicitor directly and banging email after email.

The EA for our sale is not like that at all! Its opposite!

Do you not feel you are being short changed then? The estate agent you are paying is sitting doing nothing to try help move things forward. Do you know if your buyer has ordered their searches and if their mortgage has been approved? Your solicitor might tell you at some point but the estate agent works for the seller to make sure the buyer actually gets all the ducks in a row to actually buy the house so chasing all these points can really help.

Realistically a solicitor doesnt have time to look at a file multiple times a week. Especially if they are waiting on things to come back. A good sales progressor will help smooth things out that would be a waste of time for a solicitor to chase. For example if the buyer requests a boiler service through the solicitors then it would be more useful for an estate agent to be the one to chase this through and get the seller to send the paperwork to their solicitor once done.

A bad sales progressor doesnt do anything to move the transaction forward and is just another person asking for an update for their file.

After working in estate agents for years, a good progressor can keep transactions together that otherwise would have fallen through.

diystarter7 · 7 November 2022 at 10:55PM

powerful_Rogue said:

diystarter7 said:

EA's "pushy" lol that is an understatement

Just a warning for anyone not really had to use a EA. They will be your best friends when you want to buy/sell. Come the signatures of exchange of contract and especially completion, you'll be lucky to get a hi from them.

Yes, they are a business and there to make money but from our experiences, they don't need to pretend to be your buddy then ghost you.

If you are buying or selling, you lead not the EA.

Certainly not our expereince.

Thank you for sharing but it was for us, all 7/8 of the times we have used them during the past 20 years.

london21 · 8 November 2022 at 12:52AM

You can communicate with the EA.

How far along are you in the process?

MrCarrot · 8 November 2022 at 10:02AM

Emailing you and emailing your conveyancer is normal, it's what sales progressors do and how they keep things progressing. Sometimes a conveyancer or their client will just sit on tasks unless pushed along. With that said, I wouldn't expect chasing more than once a week (unless something suddenly cropped up). Also, as an example, if a broker said a mortgage was going to take 3 weeks to sort and the EA chased the buyer or the broker twice a week for those three weeks I would also say that is unnecessary. I think it's a case of striking a balance between "progressing" and not being a nuisance.

Tiglet2 · 8 November 2022 at 10:11AM

Solicitors will ignore an estate agent if the estate agent becomes very pushy or demanding. There is no obligation on the solicitor's part to update them unless they want to. Solicitors and EAs can work together to their mutual benefit, but the EA is not party to the correspondence between the legal professionals and therefore cannot make demands on the solicitor's time. It sounds as though your EA is not going the right way of enquiring about progression and is probably being ignored by the solicitor now, which may be why the EA is pushing you for information, as they know that the solicitor is more likely to update you than them.