EAs getting desperate?

Poppy9

A friend's parents bought a bungalow 12 months ago for £250k which was considered a pretty good buy at the time. 6 months ago it returned to the market at £250k and has been constantly reduced to £215 and still no offers. In the area the bungalow is located they normally hold their value well as there is demand for them.

HankMcSpank

I got a call from an estate agent this evening.....he said my Pizza order was ready for collection.

Cissi

I phoned up an EA a couple of weeks ago about a property that they were advertising as a "new instruction", and was told that it had been sold. The woman made no effort at all, didn't even ask for my details (even though I'd told her that we're cash buyers, currently in rented accomodation). Oh well, thought I - obviously they don't need us on their books

This w/e we saw the same house still/again being advertised. I phoned up again, was told that the sale had fallen through and made an appointment to view. This time they went overboard in the other direction. How is this for desperate: even though I specifically asked not to be put on their email list as I don't want to be emailed about irrelevant properties in other areas (we're looking to be near a particular school, where DS is enrolled), I was called up 10 min later by a branch some 5 miles away (a good half hour drive, since we're within the M25)! She happened to have a "lovely" property on their books, would we be interested? Umm no :rolleyes:

Tygermoth

Hows this for desperate?

I was walking through our local shopping centre minding my own business when an estate agent dashed out from their shop and stopped me, as he remembered that I was looking for a particular house with them and spouted off that they had just had one come on the books. Shoved the details in my hand with his card... Leaving me a little stunned.

Give him his dues, he had a blinking good memory as we were looking some months earlier

(it turned out to be a great house! right price, size, location and she wanted a quick sale which we were lined up for as the house we had offered on had just fallen through just prior to completion. Then the shady lot offered it to a young lad who was going through their mortgage broker instead.....)

Grrrr

silvercar

Just looked at my local independent EAs website. out of a total of 46 properties listed, only 22 are really for sale, the others being sold, some as long as a year ago. Can 22 properties really support a business?

Round my area, prices aren't falling (yet) but people are not putting their properties on the market in the current climate.

Jorgan_2

silvercar wrote: »

Just looked at my local independent EAs website. out of a total of 46 properties listed, only 22 are really for sale, the others being sold, some as long as a year ago. Can 22 properties really support a business?

Round my area, prices aren't falling (yet) but people are not putting their properties on the market in the current climate.

It depends how quick you can sell the 22 and what replaces it. Five years ago, during the boom, we had six properties on our books, but we were turning those over within the week and taking on another 5-7 each week.

As for now, if they are 22 realistically priced houses with motivated vendors, then they could quite easily support a business. I guess time will tell.

Dan:_4

Some of my local estate agents keep sticking leaflets through my door asking if I would like to sell as they have buyers waiting, i got another one today infact.

I dont believe them.

Cissi

This is getting better! The agent that we have an appointment with for a viewing (and who passed our details to another office way out of our area, see above) called yesterday, supposedly to "confirm the appointment". He then went on to say that he'd spoken to a financial adviser, and they wanted to propose a scheme whereby we'd make big savings on stamp duty - when would be a good time to discuss this in detail?

Umm - maybe after we've seen the property and decide if we're interested? Could it be that they know the house is ridiculously overpriced and that nobody in their right mind would offer anything near asking price (we certainly wouldn't)?

Cissi

This is getting increasingly ridiculous (and annoying)! I thought I'd made myself very clear to the EA, saying please do NOT get your financial adviser to contact us, we're not interested, and we haven't even SEEN the property yet. You've guessed it: yesterday I was called up by said financial adviser, supposedly at my request!?!

I'm tempted to cancel the viewing, only we really would like to see this house, as a reference point - who knows, at the right price we might be interested But this guy had better stop giving my number to people I've asked him not to pass it on to :mad:

VickyA_2

Two years ago, DH and I were looking to buy. One of the houses that we looked at (and offered on, vendor decided not to sell because he didn't want to move in with his girlfriend) went back on the market last year and is still on at 10k over what we offered.

Another house that I viewed TWO YEARS AGO is still on the market after 2 years. It even failed to sell at auction with a guide price of £125k. It was on at £155k when I first viewed it.