Estate Agents - what to ask and what they should tell?

[hanahsaunt]

Embarking on house hunt #2 after the first sale went belly up due to a combination of reticent vendors and reticent estate agent (are we the only people ever to try to buy a house which was then valued at £0?). We're coming from another system which is a (wee) bit more upfront and I think we've been taken for a ride to a certain extent.

So - what detailed questions should we be asking of an EA and what are they legally obliged to answer and to pre-emptively disclose?

[QZ]

Not sure- I am getting really fucked off with EAs who are obviously in cahoots with developers and not taking offers seriously atm.

[minipie]

If a previous offer has fallen through, they are obliged to tell you why (for example if something bad came up on the survey).

Otherwise, I am pretty sure there is nothing they have to proactively tell you.

As regards questions you ask - I think they probably strictly speaking shouldn't lie or mislead you - but I suspect many agents will simply fall back on "I don't know" if the answer is unpalatable.

[schloss]

Ha, shouldn't lie.........went to see a house, told for sale as one of vendors (husband and wife) had died. EA hopeless at dealing with grade 2 listing questions so we managed to contact the vendors solicitors directly, for sale by private treaty so solicitors details on sales brochure, mentioned did not want to bother vendors due to the bereavement. Reply from solicitor "I can advise you both my clients are very much alive!"

[minipie]

schloss. and what a daft lie to tell - obviously any buyer would find out at some point that the house still had two (living) owners!

[EdlessAllenPoe]

seen my fourth EA..much of a muchness - only one unsold himself (by not giving a straight valuation, and not being straight about fees.)

other three really depends on 1) fees charged and 2) pricing strategy..

we can go up 10k and spend longer finding a buyer, or pitch lower and take much longer....

[EdlessAllenPoe]

..i think they aren't experts on PP or building surveyors so nothing they say on actual important topics is authoritative..

probing them about the buyer is probably what they are good for, or looking for positive things about the house you may not have noticed...(don't think thy can be relied on for negatives, except perhaps legal reality of sale eg, must be cash only..)

they shouldn't mislead on things though so 'i don't know' is a safer answer for them.

unless you actually want to buy, not much use....so far!

[schloss]

Personally I think you can ask as many questions of an EA you want but as you may or may not be experiencing, you end up with no definitive answers.

Not much help I know to OP, I wouldn't rely on information provided by an EA. If a sale has fallen through for example due to the valuation not being agreed by a surveyor, is the EA going to tell another prospective buyer?

[IHeartKingThistle]

They're all gits.

HTH

[schloss]

Well said IHeartKingThistle! I tend to agree!

[gregssausageroll]

I am not a git IHeart!

[greentown]

So - what detailed questions should we be asking of an EA and what are they legally obliged to answer and to pre-emptively disclose?

They are governed by the Property Misdescriptions Act - so should describe properties truthfully - tends to mean they give very limited details - unless they are very 'professional' agents - which is not as commonplace as it should be in the UK.

They are legally obliged to put all offers received to a vendor - it's almost impossible to prove whether they have or haven't - so they can't be relied upon in this.

They should declare in the details if they have an interest in any property they are selling.

Other than that, take everything they say with a pinch of salt and relate with them in the same way as a market trader.
They operate on their own account, entirely for their own gain and their business objective is to earn their payment as soon as possible and with as little expense or outlay as possible - they have no allegiance to either vendor or purchaser even though they are instructed and paid by the vendor - their objective is solely to complete the sale and move on to the next one.

They are often suspected of being involved in underhand dealings with property developers and builders and misleading vendors and purchasers to their own ends and for their own advantage.

Very hard to 'prove' these suspicions but best to have them at the forefront of your mind.

[IHeartKingThistle]

oops

[Northernlurker]

I agree with greentown. What you are basically asking is how can you ensure the EA is honest with you. The answer is you can't ensure it.

If there are specific things you want to know about, that would be dealbreakers, then you need to ask about those things very precisely. That's all anybody can do really - plus consider if you need a full survey.

[Busyoldfool]

An EA is precisely that, an agent. They act as the go-between between vendors and buyers. Vendors lie to agents all the time, vendors don't want to face the tricky questions or look as if they are hiding something so they let the agent do it. Buyers also lie to agents all the time. They pretend they have a mortgage offer in place or a buyer for their property when they haven't and waste hours of the agent's time looking at houses just for fun. The agents are in the middle and they are always going to be the bad guy. (Some of them are bad guys but no more so than any other profession).

The good questions to ask are about the area, they usually know what's sold recently for how much, what the schools are like, what other people in the street have done, ( eg loft conversions). They can usually suggest how the property might be improved. They will know how long the property has been on the market and will tell you if your offer is likely to be refused/ accepted. They may be able to tell you about the vendor's circumstances, (he wants a quick sale because.....), but will only do that if the vendor has told them.

The serious info on a property comes from the lawyer and the surveyor, (not all of whom are honest either I fear!)

[greentown]

Fair enough - an agent's perspective.

Vendors lie to agents all the time, vendors don't want to face the tricky questions or look as if they are hiding something so they let the agent do it

So the agent pretends not to know the answe and/or lies - so whose reputation suffers? That of the estate agent - when agents do this they simply add to the widespread mistrust buyers have for them.

will tell you if your offer is likely to be refused/ accepted

They should do that. But actually, they will dissemble about what offers they have already had. They will pretend they are not 'legally' allowed discuss existing offers - all to elicit a bid from you. Then suddenly, when you have put in a bid - they magically are able to tell you what the other bids are as they try to add fuel to a bidding war.

To try and equate estate agency with law and surveying is ridiculous.
There is no formal training required for estate agency.
There is no compulsory professional register.
Any Tom, Dick or Harry can open up as an estate agent this afternoon and close up next week.
They can employ any sort of person, send them out to do viewings and deal with the largest financial transaction of someone's life - and they could be eighteen without a GCSE to their name.
There is no structured, enforceable, regulation of their behaviour whatsoever.

And because this situation exists and disreputable, unprofessional, often criminal behaviour occurs, people rightly have difficulties trusting estate agents.

You might expect the 'professional' agents would want to do something about this, about the slurs which affect them all.
You might expect to see them lobbying government to bring in compulsory registration, to tighten up the rules governing the behaviour which allows cowboys to flourish.
You might expect that - but you won't get it.
Ask yourself why, even the 'professionals' don't push for greater controls.
Doesn't suit them, does it? Why?

[Busyoldfool]

By the way - I am not an agent. Completely different job.

I didn't mean to equate EAs with surveyors or lawyers - what I meant was it is their job to deal with the serious legal/ financial/ structural stuff. The agent is the go-between.

I also said that buyers and sellers are not straight with agents so they don't know all the answers, NOT that agents do the lying for them!!! ( How many times have we seen advice on threads to tell the agent this or that to make him think you are/ are not interested for example?).

Sounds as if you have met some real bad guys greentown.

I'm not out to defend agents I was just trying to answer the OP's point about what are the best things to ask and what the agent wd be most likely to be able to help with.