AIBU to think there must be a special place in hell reserved for estate agents?

[LollieB]

This might be stating the obvious, but are all estate agents completely hideous? It happens that I am currently renting out two flats on behalf of friends who are travelling, selling two places which belonged to family members who have just passed away, selling my own place and buying another. So, dealing with estate agents is pretty much my full time job at the moment. Now, I like to think of myself as a pretty calm and reasonable person, but these estate agents are pushing me to the limit. There isn't one of them who isn't a duplicitous, mendacious bottom-feeder. I'm going crazy dealing with them on a daily basis.

Sounds like you'd be better of training to become one yourself with all that going on at once.

I think you're going to get flamed with the generalisation here.

My last one was slimy as hell but the one before was decent if I remember right.

chocolate don't be silly, estate agents don't need any training! Anyone can become one or set up their own EA/LA company.

That's part of the problem!

I do realise that this is a generalisation, but I can only go on what I see. I'd had dealings with dodgy estate agents in the past, but just thought I was unlucky. Appears not.

I'm inclined to agree with everything you think of them.
My EA is horrific.
The EA who deals with two doors down, also horrific.
Friend who has rental properties, also thinks they are awful and rents out herself now.
Husband is a site manager of a new build housing development, he deals with EAs who deal with the properties that have just been sold. Also thinks they are a pain in the arse

I've met two or three decent ones in 8 years of actively dealing with property sales and lettings.

There's an even specialer place in hell for Foxtons in their entirety, IMO - in my area they routinely advertise stuff that isn't on the market - sometimes because it's been sold by a different agent - to lure in new customers. Isn't this against whatever regulatory body they have governing them, or trading standards, or something?

I'm just about to chose an estate agent to sell my house any tips on what I should be wary of?

Well my neighbour is one and he is the king of knobs.

I don't know many others so am going to agree with you OP

darkest I'd phone up as a potential buyer of a random property and see how helpful / on the ball they are when you ask questions or want to schedule a viewing. The flat I ended up buying (from a national chain that prides itself on service etc) I had to phone five times before I had the privilege of someone actually booking a viewing in and turning up.

InTheDarkestHour, they will give you an over inflated price for your house, just to get you to sign the contract. Then they will blame Brexit/Christmas/any old crock of sh*t for it not selling and force you to reduce the price to what it always should have been if they had been honest, there will be hidden charges in the small print and lack of effort, once you have signed up. Tbh, I think it's best to go on your instinct and just bear in mind that everything they do it not to get the best deal for you, but for themselves.

I agree with Essential about Foxtons! They were so rude and aggressive.

I'm selling and buying atm, my estate agents so far have been good. The one who is selling the house they are buying from is awful. Rude woman and I can't stand her.

YANBU
Out of the 17+ properties I have rented over passed 20 years only one estate agent has been competent.
I have had:
EA standing in the kitchen showing people round as I get home from work, (no notice of a viewing given)
EA charging for carpet cleaning when there hasn't been any
EA charging £50 for altering a date on a contract
EA telling me there's nothing wrong with my hot water that comes out cold
EA putting a 'for sale' sign up giving us all a shock ("Oh yes, landlord wants to sell")
I'd be here all day listing but they're just a few.
They handle vast amounts of money but always seem clueless.
I'm sure there must be some good ones out there but I've never encountered any!

We've also offered full asking price on a property which we really liked and the estate agent used our offer as a springboard to get higher than asking price offers from other potential buyers. Not illegal, but pretty horrible IMO.

I've only met one estate agent that wasn't a class A twat.
I feel the same about conveyancing solicitors.

My only issue with our current agents is that the office is staffed by 'the girls' and they all just seem so young and out of their depth. The EA that showed us round our new house was about 21 and she pretty much just wafted her hands around and told us what we wanted to hear. She seemed to have little understanding of what was involved in buying an older house. The 'sales girls' seem terrified of our older vendor in our chain and don't want to upset her by telling her to get a move on. I'm so tired of hearing 'OK I'll chase that for you' and then not getting an answer.
Incidentally the 'girls' reference is what the company themselves refer to them as, not my words.
I really want a degree of professionalism that we're just not getting at the moment.
Can you tell I'm totally done with moving and days away from exchange???

YANBU.
After a series of events which made me feel like I was being strung along by my EAs, I got my mum to call my EA to pretend she was interested in renting my house. They told her it had already been let.
It hadn't - they were just trying to get me to accept the first person who looked (who was accompanied by a tale of woe and a mountain of inaccuracies in the stories I was given about their debts) & clearly CBA doing any more viewings. I was furious.

sounds like we've been really lucky.

We bought our current and previous property through the same agents and used them for the sale of previous property as well. Our experience was with a local company who knew the area well, dealt well with a very difficult buyer and generally bent over backwards to get sale and purchase through.

On the other hand please don't ask me about the estate agents I had when renting - they told me the damp in the property was MY fault because I had furniture against a north facing wall - the fact it was a fitted wardrobes that the landlord had installed seemed to escape them

I had a bloody wonderful one. Kind, good advice, patient and hard-working. Part of the Croydon massive. So clearly a cut above.

I sent her flowers after the sale.

Having rented two properties out, and also moved five times, selling properties along the way, I'd say the trick is to pick one uou are comfortable with, don't just fall for the one who promises the highest valuation and not read the contract.

Ours were all good, but they needed instruction and we had to remain in control, from the sale price to what was required. They provided their expertise and advice, we discussed, but ultimately all the decisions were ours and as such we were happy with them.

Some of them value really highly to get the business, but if uou know your house isn't worth that then uou shouldn't fall for that crap. They will also often be happy to keep your house on their books and not rush a sale. You have to decide quite realistically the correct price.

Bluntness100, surely they should be giving you an honest valuation in the first place. When we put our place on the market, there was nothing similar to compare it to, so we had to go with what the agents advised. We chose the middle of three valuations and later, after numerous people traipsing through our house continually, we realised that the price was too high.

Our EA was OK when we sold our house but they were rubbish at calling you back, I think the receptionist lied because he was always out

I find recruitment consultants similar ! I am seeking a new part time job and they promise you the earth and deliver nothing

The EA we used to sell our old house was really good. Did all the legwork, kept us well informed and got us a bloody good offer on our house in just under a month at a time when the housing market was still pretty sluggish.
On the other hand...
The company we bought that house through - assholes. They got in trouble as some of the more senior staff were putting up SOLD signs in their own gardens as advertising.
One of the viewings we went to whilst looking for our current house, the EA brought the wrong key. Several seemed out of their depth, others just rather uncaring which was odd as at the time the kind of properties we were looking for were not selling much so you'd think they'd been keen for the business, but no.

In Scotland, negotiations and sales in some areas, are all done through solicitors, so EAs aren't that bad...apart from the sometimes accurate sleazy reputations!

We've also offered full asking price on a property which we really liked and the estate agent used our offer as a springboard to get higher than asking price offers from other potential buyers. Not illegal, but pretty horrible IMO

I'm not sure what the problem is here. if I was selling a house, I'd expect the EA to get the best possible price. Say 3 people were interested, one offered the asking price, I'd expect the EA to communicate with the other two to see if they would better the offer! It's just doing business!