To hate 90% of estate agents (slightly lighthearted)

[Shsussshs]

Kind of expecting to get flamed for this, but some of them are truly awful.

A few reasons why...

Never ring you back when they say they will.

Arrange viewings and cancel at the last minute due to a double booking. I had travelled 40 minutes to be turned away.

Blatantly lie about not knowing when viewings will be available. I went to have a nosy at the place (it was a new build estate so I was going to look at the ‘show home’) and found the estate agent showing people around, asked if I could look whilst he was there and got shown around, he didn’t know I had already rang just hours before

The list goes on...

Any stories of estate agents messing you around?

When we were looking for somewhere to rent, our first useless idiot would pretty much refuse to put us forward for houses we actually liked and kept trying to push us towards horrible tiny flats. She also screwed up our application on purpose, didn't submit my partners info at all and delayed everything so I missed out on one I actually wanted. They also refused to let us put a deposit down on any house or flat to save it.

Went to a different agency and got the first one I saw. Put a deposit down, all sorted in a few days. Much easier than the weeks I spent wasting with the first idiots.

YANBU. I am buying a house currently and the vendors (and their agent) are complete shifty shites. The agent pisses me off more because somehow you expect a "professional" to be better but he just comes up with another pack of lies every time I speak to him. He keeps promising me things are fine with the house which have not been fine

It's annoying because your estate agent has absolutely no control over how long a house purchase/sale will take and yet they will promise you it can be done in 4 weeks etc... etc... Or that everyone is ready to complete on Friday despite being told by solicitors that they are no where near ready.

It is always magically ready to complete on the last day of the month as well when you know their commission is due!

I’ve not long come back from a viewing.
We were going from room to room, with the estate agent not saying anything, I was having to fill in the silence.

Also, the agency have a £240 pet deposit. That’s fine with me, I asked about it to double check and she said due to the fees being scrapped soon, they were changing things. If we were to move in after a certain date, it would be that the rent goes up and there is no deposit needed.

Is that allowed? As I read that there was no evidence to say that rent prices would be afffected by the new law.

The house is barely worth the rent they are asking for now. It’s been up for ages so I don’t know how they think they’d get any more for it.

William H Brown, absolutely awful. We were buying only and they lied, obstructed every step of the way.
They told us we had see their financial manager before they'd pass the offer on. We refused, so they said they'd allow it, just this once.

Our vendors used the in-house conveyancing and mortgage company.
Once we had all the surveys and searches back, everything was so slow.

We asked for a pre exchange viewing and they told us it was most unusual and weren't sure we were allowed. We threatened to pull out, so they let us.

On completion day they arsed us about. They rang us to say they had the keys, we got there and said they didn't have them. They did, they'd been left on a desk instead of in the drawer.

Shsussshs
Purplebricks is the way forward, unfortunately not many people use them in our town (yet)

Make sure you sign up with them soon before they go out of business!!

uk.finance.yahoo.com/quote/PURP.L/

The house is barely worth the rent they are asking for now
Ah! You're talking about letting agents aren't you, not estate agents?

Just had a quick google, the definition of an estate agent is a person whose job involves selling and renting out buildings and land for clients.

I viewed with about 8 different companies last year and each one was crap. I had used an online one to sell and I had done the viewings myself and basically sold it myself and all was good, it was easy and cheap.

Then to buy a house all 8 agencies found ways to screw me over. From not booking the appointment when I have to drive 100 miles to view, not being there when they said, the house being taken off the market that moment of my 2pm appointment when I rang them 2 hours before to double check before driving 100 miles, not putting my offers forwards, not contacting me until I chased them to say my offer had not been accepted. And on and on.

The ones I bought with were horrific but I stuck with it as wanted the house and all the agencies were awful. I did think about putting in a formal complaint but I don't have the energy.

At one point I even started going to house auctions to avoid agents and agencies but I was outbid each time.

I’m currently buying two properties through two different agents. The one I’ve not heard from since the offer was accepted and everything is proceeding beautifully. The other has an incredibly pushy and obnoxious person to handle their sale. I literally cannot wait to complete.

As a former teacher, it’s great to read about an occupation that is even more hated by MNers.

I worked for an estate agent last year in admin - lying, cheating, devious, sneaky, scheming bastards. Just about every word that came out of their mouths was a lie. It was incredible to hear them on the phone. Couldn't stand it so I left. If we sell we will be doing it ourselves.