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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to be fuming with estate agent?

20 replies

wannaBeWhateverIWannaBe · 01/04/2007 15:42

some may have read my many posts about my inability to sell my house, but for those who haven't, house has been on the market since September of last year and we still haven't sold it.

Anyway I took on a new estate agent in February, am still with the original one but now have two agents selling for me.

Anyway we haven't had a viewing for three weeks, despite the fact the house goes in the paper every week/new agent has mailshotted house out to customers etc. new agent hasn't sent one single viewing our way.

Anyway this morning we had a call from the new agent saying they had a viewing for us. so we cleaned house/lit candles/made house nice and ready for viewing, then dh went out with ds to the shops leaving me at home to show viewers around.

About 10 minutes before viewers meant to arrive I had a phone call from the agent, apologising, because they had inadvertantly rung the wrong venders, and it was supposed to be a viewing for a different house in the street.

I am absolutely livid. they've done nothing for us and now they've cocked up into the bargain.

I guess to add to this the sellers of the other house probably had no idea that viewers were coming as the agent rang us instead of them.

would it be really unreasonable of me to march in there tomorrow and to take my house off their books? or should I give them another chance?

OP posts:
AnnabelCaramel · 01/04/2007 15:45

BIN THEM!!!! If there is an alternative, get rid of this lot and start again for sure.

themoon66 · 01/04/2007 15:45

Change agents. They sound hopeless. Although, TBH, I've always wondered what they actually do to justify their huge fees.

No doubt some estate agent MNer will be along in a moment to put me straight

Josie3 · 01/04/2007 15:45

What good will it do to take it off their books? Surely that means you are having less exposure?

Not saying that they don't need a good kick up the backside though ! It sounds like they could do with a bit of 'inspiration'!!

wannaBeWhateverIWannaBe · 01/04/2007 15:47

tbh we're going to take it off the market if not sold by May anyway as ds starts school in Sept and I don't want to move him part way through reception year, but I'm almost tempted just to call it a day now and to take it off the market. it's obviously just not meant to be.

OP posts:
powder28 · 01/04/2007 16:00

Our estate agent had personal problems with one of the solicitors we were dealing with, so much so, that we ended up taking our flat off their books and reporting them to trading standards, who paid them a visit.

noddyholder · 01/04/2007 16:02

well this is the busy time for selling so don't jeopardise your chances just tell them after iykwim.Why do you think it hasn't sold,could you afford to reduce the price?

wannaBeWhateverIWannaBe · 01/04/2007 16:07

we've already reduced the price once, tbh I think a lot of it has to do with the new development up the road - ya know, they'll pay stamp duty/deposit/fit carpets/throw in a year's free crop spraying you get the picture, so the "second hand" houses just arent selling so quickly. but I am totally fed up now.

OP posts:
powder28 · 01/04/2007 16:13

Wannabe, i know what you mean about it being 'not meant to be'

Our situation now is a lot better financially than if we had sold our flat then. We still lost a lot of money though, through no fault of our own.

I would find another agent that you have heard good things about or just wait a few months and put it back on again. Its so stressful trying to sell your house, you can do without an incompetant agent.

Taylormamaloveslindtbunnies · 01/04/2007 16:15

change agents if you have the choice - they need to be working hard on your behalf not cocking up viewings. A good estate agent will help you sell your home - do you get feedback on each viewing and that sort of thing?????

bran · 01/04/2007 16:16

Ask they estate agents why the viewers aren't interested in seeing your house? It might give you some insight into why your house isn't generating the interest it should be (if it's the one I'm thinking of it's a perfectly nice, saleable house).

AnnabelCaramel · 01/04/2007 16:16

Also...if the supposed viewers were seeing another house in your street, why hadn't the agent got them to look at yours too, unless the houses are totally different???

CadburyCremeSquonk · 01/04/2007 16:16

wannabe - before you do anything check your contract. Some estate agents have a clause where even if you remove your house from their books, if the house sells within a certain period of time, you still have to pay them.

aDad · 01/04/2007 16:18

God they annoy me. We are selling too... or trying to, and our agent has done similar things, although at least they have got some viewers in I suppose. But they've told obvious lies, and also not told us that viewers weren't coming etc.

but can you just take your house off their books? Surely you would have signed a contract with them for a set number of weeks (usually more than 6 I think).

Best of luck!

aDad · 01/04/2007 16:19

sorry squonk mentioned the contract thing...

powder28 · 01/04/2007 16:21

adad, our agent lied to us every time we rang up. They jus tkept fobbing us off anmd eventually i lost my rag with them. Then they admitted the personal differences they had wit hone solicitor. I asked him to write it down but he refused, hence the call to trading standards

peachygirl · 01/04/2007 16:31

Wannabe Hi,
I think that estate agents are simply Bl*dy bggers.
We are still in the long and quite frankly emotionally draining process of selling our house and although our EAs get the viewings in they have done everything else to irrate us. (I posted a thread a couple of weekends ago about the whole sorry tale)
The latest incidents being ... arriving unnanounced at 10 in the morning when the baby was about 4 weeks old. DH told them they couldn't come in. And on friday an agent who hasn't been dealing with us rang at 6:45pm to tell us they thought that our sale had gone though again as our buyer hadn't instructed a survey yet.
I rang up on saturday and had a bit of a go about this... we dread the phone ringing now as it seems every time they call it is bad news. Although I claified everything and saturaday and things still look OK It completely ruined our weekend.
I feel it has also really overshadowed the first weeks of our baby's life

powder28 · 01/04/2007 16:41

Peachygirl, i was pregnant when we were selling our flat and our ds1 was only still a few months old. In the end we just gave up becasue the stress was too much

peachygirl · 01/04/2007 17:03

Things do seem to be going OK with this new buyerbut we are very cautious. We are basically keeping going until our mortgae offer runs out, which will be in June

charlottegeorgiaolivermums · 01/04/2007 17:19

WBWIWB,

We put our house on market in Jan 05 at £175,000 and although EA got viewers the feedback was totally weird too small, too large, too dirty (I was mad), too new, too old, too expensive wanted Lounge and Dinning room not a lounge/diner (did they not read the house details before attending).

We reduced price and changed EA and reduced again to £165,000 still didn't sell so took off market in Oct 05.

When I fell PG in Dec 05 had to move again as the house was already too small for dh, sd1, dd1, dd2 & me. So used a different EA one known to over price but we stated that we wanted to go on market in April 06 at £159,950 as we needed to sell fast. EA still recommended £164,999 but we known that although the house was worth this it would take longer to get it and we needed to move out and get settled before ds3 was due in Sept 06.

We got a full asking price offer on May day and luckily with all went through and we moved into my brothers house 31 July 06 (thats another story as the lady I was buying from pulled out on exchange day and I got told 30 min's after I'd exchanged so had to go through with sale and had to start house hunting again).

All we did to sell other than reduce price was clear everything into storage - remove all personal pictures and items, paint every room in pale colours and cleaned all carpets put up some more mirrors and made sure front of the house loved great hanging baskets perfectly clean wood work and windows all plants well looked after etc. Sounds made but we had full asking price offer 5 days after going back on the market so was worth it only cost us about £300.00 in paint, carpet cleaning & storage.

You can give the EA a piece of your mind but check what your contract says if they have done all they have stated to do for you then you'll have to wait it out. If they haven't you could claim breach of contract to get out of it but this could end up costing you more. If they stop marketing your house and you stop using them whilst under a contract if the other EA sells the house you still have to pay them their fee for doing sod all so get them to work for it and if your still unhappy give written notice as stated in the contract and leave them on the day the contract ends and get a EA to start up the next day. You can get all the paperwork done to change agents before the contract ends but ensure they don't do anything with it or the EA could have you for breach of contract. Sorry this isn't what you wanted to hear.

I'd give them a piece of my mind tell them what I want them to do - i.e. put house in paper every week, put big ad in window for at least 2 weeks sell your house's strong points - I've owned a new house and would never buy one again yes they look great and new when you view but once in the walls are paper thin and you have problems finding stubs to hang cupboards on etc.

When we had painted and cleaned everything replaced one old looking carpet in the bedroom and cleared out all items so house looked totally un-lived in (wasn't nice to remove all our stuff but I'd got in the mind set that it wasn't my house anymore anyway) the house looked as good inside as at the local new show houses but cheaper.

My neighbour offered to pay the stamp duty when he sold a month after me for £5000 more and another neighbour offered to pay a 5% deposit to temped 1st time buyers. They both sold very quickly.

One last thing is does the EA have keys to do showings or do they call you to arrange access? Know it's a pain but with the 1st 2 agents we always had to give access hated the idea of someone seeing my house when I was out of whilst at work just in case it wasn't perfect but I lost some viewings this way as they put offers in on houses they had seen earlier in day etc because I couldn't give access when they wanted. With the last agents I gave them a key and although I did the viewing that sold the house it was a last minute booking too the couple where in the office and wanted to come round then pain as we'd arranged a day out but said ok and put plans on hold - good thing I had as that was the viewing that counted. Buyers like to view to their time schedule and don't really care about the sellers schedules and can hold this against them at times!

All the best hope you sell soon

HEIFER · 01/04/2007 17:30

Who are you on with Wannabe (give me initials if you don't want to say)...

There are some very good ones in (where we both live) and some very bad ones...

I know quite a few people round your way that are struggling to sell, for the reasons you have mentioned...

But they all sold eventually, although some had to bring price right down to do so..

I live the other side of town, so won't have that problem, but I am sure other problems will pop up instead...

Hope it goes soon...

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