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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to want to tell the estate agent what i REALLY thought!

43 replies

countydurhamlass · 14/08/2011 17:58

arranged to go and view a property on Saturday. The pictures in the estate agents website were very nice (although the decor was not to my taste) and it was priced at the top end of the price bracket for similar houses in the area so on that basis i thought it would be in good condition.

turned up to the house to be greeted by the lady of the household. she took us round the house as quick as possible saying this plug is here, that plug is there, this needs doing but i havent had chance (to at least one thing in each room). the house was riddled with damp - it was in every room even though she had tried badly to hide it, the gardens were overgrown and had been for about 6 months with loads of rubbish in the back garden.

i was in, round and out in five minutes! four minutes longer than i wanted to be.

the estate agents will be ringing me in the morning and i really want to say how disappointed i was and how ON EARTH could they value the property at what they did, it wasnt even worth half the amount because of all the work. i feel like wasted my time going to look at it.

OP posts:

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 14/08/2011 17:59

YANBU. Be honest.

SocialButterfly · 14/08/2011 18:01

Oh I always told the estate agent exactly what I thought, saved them trying to show me other houses the same.

GnomeDePlume · 14/08/2011 18:01

Tell them.

When we were selling we would always be grateful for honest rather than false feedback. Just temper that feedback with courtesy!

FakePlasticTrees · 14/08/2011 18:02

YANBU - Tell them the truth. They want to sell it, they need to address the problems, so either get them fixed or lower the price (and probably do the viewings themselves rather than have the homeowner show people around).

It's not like you're telling the owner you hate her home, you're giving genuine feedback to the estate agent.

LuceyLasstic · 14/08/2011 18:02

tell them. they will pass the comments on to the seller that its overpriced - its to her benefit to know

marriedinwhite · 14/08/2011 18:12

All you need to say is that you believed the house was overpriced for the amount of work required to bring it up to what you would consider to be an acceptable standard. How much was it? Where was it (roughly)? What did it have - 2 beds, 3 beds, etc?

MrsCampbellBlack · 14/08/2011 18:14

Be honest.

Quite possible that the vendor has insisted on a price that the Estate Agent thinks is madness.

qwerky · 14/08/2011 18:16

Tell them.

As somebody who tried to sell (and failed :(), the reasons we were given were ludicrous.
If the vendor can make improvements, which it sounds like she can, then tell the agents exactly what you thought.

EssexGurl · 14/08/2011 18:17

Tell them the truth. A house is only worth what someone will pay for it - the EA needs to know what vendors think.

WhereYouLeftIt · 14/08/2011 18:23

Why would you NOT tell them what you really thought? Do you think they would take umbrage and not send you details/pass on your bids if you did? They absolutely will not. Your feedback reflects on how seriously the vendor is trying to sell, not how well/badly they're doing their job.

They don't get paid unless the house is sold. It won't get sold if it's overpriced for what it is , a damp squalid hole. They have probably told the vendor what you have said here, her list of what needs done was probably given to her by her EA! But she's not listening, she's looking at it through fond rose-tinted glasses completely differently. Only when they can tell her that BUYERS said X, Y, Z will she listen and address the problems, by fixing or dropping her price. Especially when the buyers have not put an offer in because of X, Y Z.

NeedaCostume · 14/08/2011 18:29

YANBU. Tell them

scrappydappydoo · 14/08/2011 18:39

Tell them - we saw a house that on paper looked great but in real life it was very shabby and the 'conservatory' was made of drain pipes . the picture of the garden on the details was a masterpiece of estate agent photography - looked huge but was the size of a postage stamp. Anyway we very bluntly told the agent how disappointed we were and how overpriced we thought it was. He agreed but said the vendor insisted on that price and wouldn't negotiate. So not necessarily agents fault..

CustardCake · 14/08/2011 18:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

crazyspaniel · 14/08/2011 18:50

Definitely tell them. I got really cross with an estate agent once - we were moving from Yorkshire to Oxfordshire so it was a real trek to travel down every weekend to look at houses. There was one cottage we looked at where the headroom was so low on the entire first floor that you literally couldn't stand up at all. There was no indication of this at all in the floorplan. The estate agent followed us around on the viewing spouting ridiculous salesspeak until I lost it and made it clear that I expected to live in a house that I could stand up in, and to receive particulars that didn't mislead me and waste my time and travel costs. If you don't make your expectations clear they will continue to waste your time.

Original poster

countydurhamlass · 14/08/2011 19:02

thanks guys,

i really was shocked because the house is about 2 mins from my current house so i am very aware of what houses are selling for and i thought with hit being at the top end it wouldnt be too bad, problems included not only the damp right through the house, but rust on the radiators, wallpaper in every room had been on for a long time and had multiple layers of paint on them to the point where the paper was peeling off, 3ft grass, nettles, weeds etc in the gardens, the wall in the corridor next to the bathroom was that bad the plaster had flaked and bubbled to abour 5ft up the wall and was hidden behind a large unit! the combi boiler was on a wall where you cld just reach the dials and all the pipes were exposed, the electricity box was just stuck on the wall in a make shift box without a front, in the bedrooms were built in makeshift cupboards (mdf painted and nailed to a wooden frame) half had doors and half had curtains pinned to the front of them. she wouldnt even let us look in two of the built in cupboards, one she said was full of junk, the other had a double bed wedged up infront of it (in a room where there was two double beds)

i will make a note of the important things and try and be as diplomatic as possible

OP posts:

WhereYouLeftIt · 14/08/2011 19:13

OP, there is absolutely no need to be diplomatic. If anything, you need to be as blunt as possible. Exactly what you've said on here would be perfect.

Diplomacy is for when you are trying to save someone's feelings from being hurt. The EA will have no feelings, it is purely a business matter. As to the vendor's feelings, you would be doing her a favour if you could make her look at her house more realistically. Seriously, no diplomacy.

DontGoCurly · 14/08/2011 19:15

Why are you trying to be so diplomatic?

It's just business, no need to be rude but absolutely fine to be perfectly frank. If you're too nicey-nicey they'll think you're a pushover.

caughtinanet · 14/08/2011 19:18

Im not sure what you're worried about, if I'd had my expectations raised and then my time wasted like that I wouldn't hesitate about telling the EA exactly what I thought.

Presumably they have visited the house and know what state its in, they are being unprofessional to mislead you.

going · 14/08/2011 19:21

The vendor may have chosen the price thnking her home is as good as the other houses for the same price locally. My mums neighbour did this and only sold when she had dropped £50,000 and 18 months later...

CristinaTheAstonishing · 14/08/2011 19:21

I'd tell the EA. In fact have done so in the past. It's not their house so no need to be diplomatic. You can say it's a dump.

breatheslowly · 14/08/2011 20:32

It won't be a surprise to the EA - they will have seen the house. Perhaps they took on the instruction at that price with the hope that some feedback from viewings would persuade the vendor to drop the price to an appropriate one or to get some offers well under the asking price.

PrincessScrumpy · 14/08/2011 20:35

definitely tell them. btw my mum was always insistent on telling people where plug sockets were - she felt it was important. seemed odd to me.

Xales · 14/08/2011 20:59

I went and saw a house like this. The couple had 2 or 3 dogs and 2 or 3 cats.

I think the dogs must have cocked their legs on the walls.

The haze of cigarettes came half way down the room, the rancid smell of cat and dog urine came up to meet it.

The floors were sticky with I dread to think what.

The garden was a dog/cat latrine totally covered and stank.

We would have to rip out the entire walls and floor as I think they were saturated.

I really cannot explain just how foul the entire house was.

I went home and had a shower I felt so bad.

Phoned the estate agent and told them they really needed to warn anyone before they let them go in that house again.

AnotherJaffaCake · 14/08/2011 21:06

Xales that's disgusting. How could someone even think they could try to sell a house in that condition? Makes me want to vomit just reading about it .

Xales · 14/08/2011 21:21

The couple were sitting in that smoking. Can't believe they were completely unaware and showing us around trying to sell!

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