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Why aren't properties advertised with all the key facts?

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  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189
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    dunroving wrote: »
    I interpreted it as meaning the one country was the UK.
    "Apart from the UK, the entire world uses metric. Except one country."
  • Why stop there? I think the government should pass legislation controlling the minimum information that should be placed in any advert stuck up in a newsagent selling a child's bike. It's not like they have anything better to do. The police can then spend all their time reading them and arresting wrongdoers.

    (Home Information Packs are not a bad idea at all. But legislating about what appears in adverts? I mean, come on.)
  • NaughtiusMaximus
    NaughtiusMaximus Posts: 2,832
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    EachPenny wrote: »
    In which case you are utilising your free market right to spend more money purchasing a higher quality product. Will you get a better return on the money you spend? Who knows. Your purchaser might not care a jot about glossy EA presentations and only be interested in the price and getting their own surveys done.

    Fair comment, it may not make any difference in the end, everyone is different. In my case if I see missing info in a house listing I assume the seller is hiding a negative point, eg no photo of the box room = damp problem, no measurements = rooms smaller than the look in the photos, no mention of freehold/leasehold status = leasehold etc etc but not everyone is as cynical as me. Conversely, based on numerous threads here there seem to be a lot of people who believe clutter will put off potential buyers but it doesn't make the slightest difference to me.
    EachPenny wrote: »
    Forcing everyone to get a grade A+++ EA service will result in people having to pay more, without any gain for them.

    I don't think they should be forced to, if a seller thinks price is the only factor to consider in choosing an EA then good luck to them.
  • moneyistooshorttomention
    moneyistooshorttomention Posts: 17,940 Forumite
    edited 11 May 2018 at 6:11AM
    Thinking of the shared ownership thing - and yes....I agree with the frustration on that front...

    The thing that gets me is that there is this recent scheme around whereby one gets all excited thinking "Maybe I can afford my sort of house after all" looking at the headline price of it - and then spots the small print that it's one of those whereby one would only be buying a lifetime interest in it - rather than owning it fully outright as per normal.

    It's not so much the fact of this type of scheme - as it may be a way some people could get to "own" a house they wouldnt otherwise be able to manage. But - people can't see what price they personally would be charged for the house. The small print tells you it's dependent on your personal circumstances. By that they mean your age (so the firm selling can guesstimate how much longer you'll live) and, even more to the point, I betcha these schemes charge women more for the house than a man of the same age would have to pay - and there's no mention of that little bit of discrimination (but I'd be willing to guarantee it's there at present).

    So - "the price you see is the price you pay" wouldn't actually be the case at all (quite over and above whether one would be able to do the standard "make a lower offer" thing). If they're going to do a scheme like that on a house - then they should have a table indicating what price one would pay at what agegroup. If there is sexual discrimination in there - then they should state that too and have a side indicating the higher price per age that a woman would have to pay for it.

    I'm always left looking at the stated price and thinking "How on earth am I even going to find out the figure a man guaranteed not to live beyond 90 would pay for that one then?" to know what it would be fair for "a person that has decided not to live beyond 90 (ie myself)" should pay for it?

    I am seriously looking forward to spotting an article in the press some time in the future where someone born a woman then turns round part-way through buying a house on one of these schemes and says "I self-identify as a man - and you should now lower your price to me on it" LOL if they do go in for sex discrimination (as I suspect). As someone that is fine about having been born a woman (but hates discrimination) - I'll be cheering that person on from the sidelines...
  • csgohan4
    csgohan4 Posts: 10,587
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    disagree with the OP on this one, the advert is only as good as what the vendor will pay for or provide info for.

    Never trust what the EA tells you, always get a cheap £3 LR title and see if it is leasehold,

    That is also what your paying your solicitor to do, to find any issues
    "It is prudent when shopping for something important, not to limit yourself to Pound land/Estate Agents"

    G_M/ Bowlhead99 RIP
  • Surrey_EA
    Surrey_EA Posts: 2,042
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    Thrugelmir wrote: »
    Often an extra that the vendor pays for.

    Really? Are there EAs who charge for floor plans these days?

    There is no EA remotely close to where I am who would contemplate charging extra to provide a floor plan.
  • googler
    googler Posts: 16,103
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    Surrey_EA wrote: »
    Really? Are there EAs who charge for floor plans these days? There is no EA remotely close to where I am who would contemplate charging extra to provide a floor plan.

    There are EAs who vary the photography charge based on the size of the house, since a one-bed flat takes less time and effort than a 12-bed mansion.

    There are those who have different styles of schedule available - single page, double, quadruple, with pricing to match

    Floorplans are offered by some EAs as an option. Some EAs use floorplanning software to generate their own, others contract it out to third parties who charge the EA for this (the third pary is usually named in a copyright notice on the floorplan). They send the sketch away, get a finished plan in return. This is a time-saver for the EA, but chargeable by the third-party. The customer can decide for themselves if they want a floorplan or not. This is a chargeable item, so the customer can 'save' on the floorplan fee if they wish. It's standard in your service, but would you offer a discount to a seller who specifically did not want a floorplan?

    I don't see it as an extra, merely as one element in menu pricing and optional services which the customer can choose to pay for or not.
  • moneyistooshorttomention
    moneyistooshorttomention Posts: 17,940 Forumite
    edited 11 May 2018 at 11:28AM
    Surrey_EA wrote: »
    Really? Are there EAs who charge for floor plans these days?

    There is no EA remotely close to where I am who would contemplate charging extra to provide a floor plan.

    I don't recall any EA's in my last area charging for floor plans. They either did them or didnt do them - end of. One of the reasons I chose the EA I did was because they did do them (rather nice plans too - that decent size type, with bits of furniture, etc, dotted around to convey what the room was like).

    I don't know what they would have charged for the premium service they also provided - because their standard service was actually noticeably better than other EA's provided anyway - and for a very reasonable charge (well.....comparatively speaking:cool:).
  • badmemory
    badmemory Posts: 7,626
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    You can't trust those reports anyway. Had to pay up front for one on my mother's house before sale. It said the house had solid floors. Any idiot stamping their foot would know that was not correct. Absolute refusal to correct it too. You're better off without these reports & paying someone who actually knows what they are doing, not someone they have put through a short course just to keep them off the unemployment numbers.
  • EachPenny
    EachPenny Posts: 12,239
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    Surrey_EA wrote: »
    Really? Are there EAs who charge for floor plans these days?

    There is no EA remotely close to where I am who would contemplate charging extra to provide a floor plan.

    However, those floorplans are often just a pretty picture emblazoned with disclaimers about how they shouldn't be relied on for anything.

    The OP is seeking "A floorplan with detailed measurements". I can imagine a whole new industry being established to obtain precise measurements and convert them into an accurate plan. And then people attempting to take legal action when they discover their bedroom is 5mm shorter than the EA's plan claimed.
    "In the future, everyone will be rich for 15 minutes"
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