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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To Think Estate Agents Don't Give A Flying Toss After You Have Signed Up With Them????

37 replies

Ticklemonster · 02/03/2007 20:05

I live in a sought after area. We have 150 (yes 150) people looking for a house like yours, was the sales patter. So why are none of these 150 beating a path to my door? Bah Humbug

OP posts:

robbosmum · 02/03/2007 20:17

becos they are all lying w***s, if they don't sort you out witihn 12 weeks of signing i would go elsewhere. i wouls tell them this as well

scatterbrain · 02/03/2007 20:19

Oh to be fair - they're not all like that !!

I know several very lovely and moral ones !!

Also - ours has just sold our house within 10 days - so I can't complain !

littlemissbossy · 02/03/2007 20:23

They're not all lying whatevers. I used to work in an estate agents and you'd be surprised how much work was involved in selling a house for not always a lot of money - compared to other professional firms - honestly!
Was the 150 people quoted in their sales material/brochure?

robbosmum · 02/03/2007 20:27

i think the trouble is they are sometimes not very honest, however, we did buy/sell our house twice thru 1 set of agents who were fantastic, but we have moved lots and these were the minority

WinkyWinkola · 02/03/2007 21:19

I loathe estate agents. My experience is that they are invariably pushy AND lazy.

We used rightmove and minimised any contact with them. It really cheesed off our local wide boy estate agents too. Cheap and brilliant. Or do a private sale if you can. There's no room for estate agents and their silly %'s anymore.

littlemissbossy · 02/03/2007 21:30

I would always advise anyone selling there house to instruct an estate agent who is a member of the NAEA and part of the government Ombudsman scheme - then if you have problems, you can address them through them.
As for selling a property on the net yourself, this is a great idea if you're selling a smaller property, for instance, a flat or something like a new build where you shouldn't have anything raised on a surveyors report... that's when you often need the estate agent when the purchaser wants to knock you down significantly in price and the estate agents job to keep the sale/chain together.

Jamantha · 03/03/2007 10:26

From my experience, just thank your lucky stars you're the seller. When we've bought they've bent over backwards to keep the seller sweet and given absolutely NO thought to how we were coping as buyers. I can't even start to tell you how much they stuck up for the evil cow we bought off, as it'd take far too long and get my blood pressure up, and 4 years have passed since then yet I still get fuming at the thought of it.

robbosmum · 03/03/2007 15:58

I think that as the estate agents are acting on behalf of the seller, and it is the seller who are paying their fees , thats probably about right for everyone

ChippyMinton · 03/03/2007 16:19

You have to keep on at them IME. How long have you signed up for?

They are not all bad - the agent who sold our last house to the first and only viewer half an hour after it went on the market - he really knew his stuff. Smug and slimey but on our side

helenhismadwife · 04/03/2007 09:23

the branch we signed with were next to useless they didnt know the details of the property properly didnt tell the possible buyers very important stuff like there was no chain and we could move to suit the buyer the printed information was incorrect, another branch of the same company though were brilliant the manager a woman from that branch asked if she could come and have a look at the house before bringing potential buyers round so she knew who would be most suited, asked loads of questions, the first person she showed the house to ended up buying it, we complained about the poor service from the branch that marketed the house originally but got a very standard letter back, we were not happy but hey they had our money and didnt care

noddyholder · 04/03/2007 09:28

Ours were full of the patter aswell about the numbers they had looking for a property like ours,have had 2 viewings and no feedback but also no contract so will ditch them soon if they don't improve

cjs76 · 04/03/2007 09:35

dont get me started we tried to sell our flat all sorts of issues buyers oulling out 3 times one was an employee of the estate agents ended up renting it out as was going to loss house prices were going up couldnt afford not to move then as moving to a different area, 3 months later tenants have done a runner, never moved in some sort of scame - we paid the agent over £1100 in nov now he wants another £750 to find a new tenant this is time 2 move anyone see the documentary also featured foxtons - sorry it is a let not a sale but just had to get it off my chest - now have 2 mortgages to pay this month

Original poster

Ticklemonster · 04/03/2007 14:04

We are signed on for 16 weeks. Not a single view over the weekend. I think it is on for too much money. Dh is going to put a rocket under them tomorrow and insist we lower the price substantially. They are only (!) charging 0.95% so I reckon they are putting houses on way over and above the real selling prices, in order to claw back the commission.

OP posts:

hunkermunker · 04/03/2007 14:05

Our agents have been absolutely brilliant - really, really great. Two guys, fledgling company, keen as mustard and really nice too. Nothing is too much trouble. They pulled out all the stops for us and resold our house (having already sold it in under a week) in one day, so we didn't lose the house we had offered on.

Where are you?

Original poster

Ticklemonster · 04/03/2007 14:10

I am in Norfolk. This company started out like yours and had a really good name but have recently expanded. I wish we hadn't gone with them now. Dh was attracted by the 0.95%

OP posts:

hunkermunker · 04/03/2007 14:11

Have they advertised your property? Where? Do they send you reports of how many hits it's getting on rightmove and their own website? How about the local rag - is it in that?

Chase them. Ask them what they're doing to market you.

Original poster

Ticklemonster · 04/03/2007 14:14

No updates about Rightmove. Dh is phoning them tomorrow to see what is going on about the marketing.

Thanks for the pointers

OP posts:

edam · 04/03/2007 14:14

Agree with hunker, get on their case. If they are lazy, you need to give them an incentive to get cracking - and being chased by an irate customer might make them do their bloody job just to get you off their backs.

hunkermunker · 04/03/2007 14:15

Remember they are working for you. Read your contract - what does it say about them marketing you? Or is there anything else in it they're not doing? If so, you might be able to get out it because they're not doing what they said they would, so have broken the contract.

Ours are charging less than 1% too, so it's perfectly possible...

ucm · 04/03/2007 14:17

Many moons ago, I worked as an estate agent and to be frank (or Dave) I can't actually see a need for them now. With companies like rightmove, why on earth does anyone (like a friend of mine recently) pay 6,000 for someone to put an ad in the paper, an ad on rightmove and be at the end of a telephone. Sorry but I wouldn't do it now, I would sell myself.

hunkermunker · 04/03/2007 14:18

UCM, we're not paying anything like that and as DH and I both work full time and haven't slept all night since January 2006, I wanted someone else to deal with it all.

ucm · 04/03/2007 14:18

that should have read, sell it myself, not sell myself as I would only get 50p

ucm · 04/03/2007 14:22

I was very shocked recently with said friend. I couldn't believe that they paid that much. It has really gone up since I worked in that game.

I am very glad that you are not paying that much (phew) as I genuinely don't think that the Estate Agent earnt that money. The house was on market for about 3 weeks and is now sold and completed. All took about 3 months. House only sold for 268k so it REALLY WAS an awful lot.

Perhaps there could be a market for some of us on here who want to work from home, to start up a business doing that whole thing, putting house in internet, ads in paper, taking phone calls. For 1k per sale.... who knows that could be a winner.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 04/03/2007 14:24

ROFL UCM

ucm · 04/03/2007 14:29

Yes, VVV I know, we would be

Estate Agents

But wouldn't have the shop/suits/cufflinks/brand new cars etc to pay for. Just the phone & a pc

If I have missed something here, put it down to post natal brain.

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