Buyers agents: Know they're not recommended but hear me out. And property ombudsman scheme question

Dcluk95

Hi all, FTB beginning the long journey of buying a home. Have looked around and booked in calls with 3 buyers agents. Not sure if I will use one yet but I feel like the calls will be a very good way for me to quickly learn what I need to learn in the whole "what can you do for me?" Section of the call. 

however, one I have found isn't a member of the property ombudsman scheme, whereas the other 2 are. Is this a massive red flag? And does them being members of the scheme mean I can go after them if they screw me over?

Want to emphasise still very much undecided on using one. Am clueless and would love the time save but they seem to have awful reputations in general from what I've seen. 

They still a bad idea ? Are there good ones out there who work with roughly £1m homes in outskirts of London?

I'm self employed and paid hourly, hence the time saved with a GOOD buying agent would actually pay for itself, hence why I'm still undecided despite their general rep.

Any advice appreciated !

propertyrental

All agents must belong to a scheme. One of the two.

* The Property Ombudsman
* Property Redress Scheme

ReadingTim

Whilst I get your comment about the time saving aspect, a budget of £1m in and around London won't go that far - whilst it's a huge amount on paper, it's a long way from the sort of properties and amounts where a buyer's agent could really add value - you'd need to be dropping ten to twenty times that amount to enter that kind of world I should imagine.  

So you're therefore paying for someone else to trawl Rightmove on your behalf, but given the various filters and search criteria you can select yourself, I don't know think they'll do much more for you, and given you'll have to provide your basic criteria to them in the first place, you may as well just cut out the middleman and do it yourself.  Save some searches on RM, set up alerts when new properties are listed, and go from there.  Assuming you know the area you want to live in, just start viewing properties that meet your requirements and you'll soon get yourself known to the local estate agents, and once they realise you're serious, they'll start calling you with properties before they hit the online portals - whilst those agents are paid for by the seller, they want to sell the place to get their commission, so they'll be pretty keen to contact you - possibly more so that someone who's already got your money!  

Dcluk95

Thank you to both repliers. To the first, I can't find him or his company on either. Red flag???

And to the second, that is a good idea r.e getting to know estate agents - hadnt thought of that. Esp as I'm a cash buyer surely I'm attractive? But I would have no idea how to haggle or anything like that on offer prices --- any advice r.e how I can learn that/thoughts?

Still gonna have the clls with the agents though because I bet I learn loads of things to add to my 'learn about' list!

user1977

Dcluk95 said:

Esp as I'm a cash buyer surely I'm attractive?

It doesn't make much difference, and the fact you're a FTB might put some off.

If you want advice about haggling etc, ask something specific here when the time comes.

eddddy

Dcluk95 said:

But I would have no idea how to haggle or anything like that on offer prices --- any advice r.e how I can learn that/thoughts?

Typically, you'll be making an offer to estate agent, not directly to the seller - so it's not really you who has to negotiate (or 'haggle') with the seller.

It normally works like this:

• You make an offer to the estate agent

• The estate agent puts your offer to the seller - and tries to persuade the seller to accept it (because then the estate agent is on the path to getting paid commission)

• If the seller refuses your offer, the estate agent will come back to you and try to persuade you to increase your offer.

Trying to negotiate/haggle with the estate agent won't help you - as the estate agent doesn't have the power to accept your offer.

Instead you would try to work with the estate agent, by telling them 'plus points' that they can use to help persuade the seller to accept your offer. Example 'plus points' might include...

• You're a cash buyer
• You're an FTB with no chain below you
• You're able to move quickly (if that's what the seller wants) or you're happy to wait a while (if that's what the seller wants).
• etc, etc

Dcluk95

Thank you - that is extremely helpful to know as I detest haggling. Sounds like I just make an offer, including all my 'pluses' and then hear back later and can choose to increase or walk away. Out of interest, are lies about current offers already received common and, additionally, since I am so 'green' a good estate agent would probablynadvise the seller to reject and ask for a higher price. Should I expect this kind of bluffing to occur ? Luckily since it's finality a buyer's market and im in no rush to buy, I expect to walk away from a few.

Final question to you extremely helpful people; correct me if im wrong on any of this but: house prices are gonna keep dropping for a bit due to: Lower demand due to mortgage rates and CoL crisis meaning fewer FtB and certainly fewer buy toclets, unfortunate repossesions starting soonish once mortgage fixed terms of 2% start expiring, and more supply as BtL try to sell up as soon not gonna be profitable due to highercmortgqges and additional income band dropping, and CGT being slashed in Apr 23  gives them incentive to sell asap.

All this means that I think houses are gonnanbe going fornway below list price. As suxh, how the hell do I come upnwith the right 
Offer price.

MikeJXE

The property market is on a downward spiral and no one know how long it will be or how much it will drop. The large builders are making their new builds waterproof and shutting up shop. I'm an ex builder and have bought and sold personally 12 times in 60 years, In my experience estate agents do not try to push you to increase the offer. You make the offer they put it to the seller and come back to you with a reply. It's a buyers market, prices will differ  even on the same property same location. View as many as you can, note the prices mark them up in a list of preference. Perfect 10 rubbish 0. After time you will get to know who is asking a reasonable price and who is trying to rip you off. Be prepared to be gazumped one way or another. Only you can decide if the price is what you want to pay. Do your homework. The three top requirements position position position still reign. 

silvercar

at your at your price range and area, you may well find that there are properties which don’t reach the open market and the portals because the sellers want privacy, either because they are 2nd rate celebs or because they are well known within their communities.

In my little area alone (outskirts of London, so maybe your target area) there are 3 properties on Rightmove listed as “secret” 2 others that I know are selling through an agent without advertising and one ex WAGs house for sale ( though that one is about £4m).

Dcluk95

silvercar said:

at your at your price range and area, you may well find that there are properties which don’t reach the open market and the portals because the sellers want privacy, either because they are 2nd rate celebs or because they are well known within their communities.

In my little area alone (outskirts of London, so maybe your target area) there are 3 properties on Rightmove listed as “secret” 2 others that I know are selling through an agent without advertising and one ex WAGs house for sale ( though that one is about £4m).

while I appreciate the reply, up to £1m really doesn't seem special enoigh for that, does it? anyway, assuming it was, are these secret others actually worth knowing about? as in are they any better than what shows up there? guessing buying agent would know of them?

JMA74

i've worked in many estate agents offices over the years for different companies and the one constant is that they always rolled their eyes whenever one of these property experts called to ask to be informed about new properties. And the details were very rarely saved.  

Estate agents make a lot of money by pitching and selling other services to buyers.  Whey would they waste time dealing with a buyers agent and not even be allowed to speak to the buyer in the first place?  They'll just call someone else. 

The only time this works in my experience is either:

1.  Land and/or significant renovations (cant sell to the open market, selling agents like to have someone they can just call and pitch it to someone who will have a buyer of some sort for it)
2. High High High Value properties that dont hit the general market.    Standard agents wont do this as the whole point of their business is that they want to be seen to list and sell the high value properties.   They dont want to do deals under the table as no one will see that they have done a good job