What do you expect from your estate agent?

[Thistledew]

I really don't know if IABU.

I accepted an offer on my house, and had an offer accepted on the new house about two months ago.

I am the only link in the chain: my purchaser is a cash buyer and the property I am buying is vacant.

Surveys were completed on 2nd July.

Our solicitor had completed all the searches on the new house about 10 days ago.

My purchaser's solicitor had all the information we needed to provide last Wednesday.

I was ready to exchange on Monday, and on Friday proposed a completion date of 4th August.

My purchaser's solicitor seems to have been moving very slowly- sending her client various 'reports' for approval and coming back to my solicitor with new queries, most of which have been totally irrelevant or had already been answered.

The thing that has been really annoying me is that I have nearly had to employ the services of several wild horses to drag any information from the estate agent about how my purchaser is progressing with her side of things.

For example, as I have been expecting for the last two days to get a message that my purchaser has signed the contract of sale and transferred the deposit so that we can exchange on my house and the new house, I contacted him this morning to ask for an update. We had a long discussion at lunch time when he went on about how naive my purchaser is and that she is really difficult to deal with. I asked him to let me know when she is intending to be ready for exchange. I have not heard back from him yet.

It is all quite stressful, as I need to complete on the 4th. If I can't do so and move on that day, due to various work and family commitments, I will not be able to move until September. My purchaser knows this.

Am I being unreasonable in expecting the estate agent to keep me informed of how things are progressing with my purchaser, without me having to chase him for information every day? What service do you expect from your estate agent?

[SloanyPony]

This is the problem with Estate Agents. Their contractual obligation is to find you a buyer, that leads to exchanging contracts and eventually completion. That is what triggers their fee being paid. Nothing else. In other words, if you said you would only pay half because they were crap at progressing the sale, you would be legally in the wrong, etc. Its very much that exchange and completion that they are getting paid for.

What baffles me, though, is that if they dont progress the sale, then they dont convert their pipeline as quickly. If they just pushed things along a bit, they could help the sale along, get paid quicker, and move on.

A really good Estate Agent in terms of actual customer service will be excellent at communication like this. But in reality, they are incentivised, quite heavily, to sell properties and by that I mean matching their database of buyers to their database of available properties. They spend a lot of their time doing as much of this as possible because it is inevitable that a proportion will fall through not due to anything they can control.

I've always found that the best way of approaching the sale of your house in terms of attitude is to view the Estate Agent as a slightly useless vessel of grease in a suit who has a lovely shop front that you need. You want your house in their window, on their website, and them to get on the blower and tell their hot buyers (people like your buyer - cash, in a postion to proceed, and looking for a house like yours) that your house is on the market.

Expect nothing else from them, and you wont be dissapointed. If at all possible, if your buyer comes for a second viewing to measure up for curtains or similar after having their offer accepted, always get their mobile number and give yours so you can communicate with each other without going through the office. No, you shouldn't have to but it just makes things a lot easier in terms of knowing where things are. Then, when you finally complete and send your cheque off with their invoice, spit in the envelope, mutter something about useless c-words in suits and move on.

[Thistledew]

Thanks for the reply.

On the other hand, the agent for the place I am buying is really good. He is from a company that got a lot of bad press a little while ago, but he has done a really good job in terms of finding me the right house, and making sure that that end is progressing properly according to the agreed timetable.

It seems hardly worth using an agent any more. All the properties go on rightmove etc, so it is not even as if they have to look for buyers.

[whatname]

Definitely talk to your buyer direct if possible. We had a sale take 10 months because no-one was telling us straight, it only came together when the buyers started talking to each other. They told us in July we were ready to exchange and we finally exchanged in jan!!!

[Thistledew]

Don't say that!

The worst thing is the lack of communication. The agent has been telling us for weeks that the buyer is really keen, but now we are trying to get the legalities done, someone, somewhere is not with the timetable. And we don't know who or why.

[whatname]

Sorry!!
Our problem was a divorce somewhere up the chain, and until that was sorted, one buyer didn't have the funds so was stalling.

[Thistledew]

That's what I don't get- I am the only link in the chain. Why can't they get their act together!

Sorry- having a bit of a rant.

[LynetteScavo]

Some solicitors are just incredibly slow, and it's frustrating all round. Estate agents cannot physically force solicitors to get a move on, and they can only strongly encourage people to get all their paper work to the solicitors. They can't actually do it for them.

"If they just pushed things along a bit, they could help the sale along, get paid quicker, and move on."

Do you really think estate agents have never thought of that?

[SloanyPony]

"It seems hardly worth using an agent any more. All the properties go on rightmove etc, so it is not even as if they have to look for buyers"

Yes and no. Rightmove, and indeed the Estate Agent's own website, is merely an extension of their shop front.

Say hypothetically Rightmove was a website that allowed buyers to contact you directly, sort of like eBay but for houses (but not auctions)

You would have to field a lot of calls. You would open up your house to people to look through only to find that they couldn't afford your house and were deluded about being able to get a mortgage of that amount. (Whilst EA's dont vet potential buyers as a requirement to view a property, in reality, many will get mortgage advice through them and by walking into an EA, even if its not yours, will end up with a good realistic view of what they can afford BEFORE they get to the viewing stage).

The negotiation process would be done by yourselves as well - for your sale this may not have seemed a significant part, but trust me if you end up with sealed bids or a bidding war or some such, you want an experienced sales negotiator acting on your behalf, unless you are particularly good at this yourself.

It would be easy also to sell to the person who you liked the most, but EA's are ruthless pricks who are also rather good generally at having a feel for who is a better buyer in terms of not backing out, in a position to proceed, etc. Not always but they can save more naive sellers from some mistakes.

Once you have your buyer, if THEIR buyer falls through, its all over BUT if you have a good EA acting for you they have contacts (in the form of lots of buyers) and can get straight on the phone to people looking for that kind of property and salvage the situation - whereas if you were all acting for yourselves, your buyer would have to go back on Rightmove and start from scratch, and so would you. A good EA with a decent database of "hot buyers" can reinstate your chain by the end of the next day if not sooner.

There's a whole host of potential situations where it really is better to have an EA - not necessarily obvious to you now, but there's a reason they still exist!

But I feel your pain! Just hang in there!

[Thistledew]

Surely it is part of their job to liaise with my buyer so that I have some idea of whether my completion date is attainable? My solicitor has asked, and has had no response, but they have not actually said no either.

[Thistledew]

Sloany- I do see your point. And as I said from the other end I can see that a good agent is really worth their fee. I just was not sure whether the standard I should expect is that offered by the good agent, or that offered by the one who requires me to remind him to do his job. Grrr

[SloanyPony]

"If they just pushed things along a bit, they could help the sale along, get paid quicker, and move on."

Do you really think estate agents have never thought of that?

Lynette Scarvo - some of them have trouble grasping that concept. It was the thing that would come up again and again and again at profit and loss, KPI and pipeline conversion meetings where I used to work. Our MD and area manager would turn up unannounced at offices and demand to see various files to see if various phone calles that customers who were complaining had been told had been made had ACTUALLY been made.

There were various offices and managers that were constantly being bashed about doing more sales progression and pipeline conversion because they were spending too much time on canvassing etc.

It just depends on the individual office whether or not they are doing enough of this, and whether the manager is delegating enough of it to available staff with capacity.