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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be annoyed with Estate Agents?? ** RANT ALERT **

38 replies

sparklesandwine · 16/08/2007 10:00

i got a call at 5.30 last night to ask if someone could view the house at 9.45 this morning not great notice but ok, i was out last night and did a bit before i left then got dp to do the rest and then got up extra early to make sure the dc and house were ready, at 9.35 this morning i get a call from the EA saying that the people have just been into the EA and seen the details and think 3 storeys might be too much for them as they are elderly WTF!!! why couldn't the EA tell them that its 3 storey's in the farking first place and save me the hassle??

Then the EA asked if someone could come tomorrow PM but she didn't know what time so could she 'let me know sometime tomorrow' - i've got 4 dc and we go on holiday on Sat i've done no packing or anything i ended up having a bit of a go saying the late notice was annoying and that she would now have to wait for viewings until we are away as i can't keep the house tidy and pack for 2 weeks hol, do you think thats fair of me to say ((i was a bit snotty with the EA ))

OP posts:
fleacircus · 16/08/2007 10:03

Can I join in? WTF is it with estate agents schlepping buyers round properties that meet absolutely none of their criteria? Wastes the buyer's time, wastes the seller's time, what's the point? Do they think we just wont notice that instead of the three bedrooms and a garden we've asked for there are two bedrooms and a window box? Is the idea that we'll buy it by mistake?

HappyDaddy · 16/08/2007 10:04

Our Estate Agents tried setting viewings for funny hours a couple of times. We refused as dd would be in bed. We gave them times we would let them do viewings, basically 8am - 6pm. Still sold our house in 3 days.

fleacircus · 16/08/2007 10:04

YANBU, by the way, there is no such thing as unreasonable when dealing with EAs.

Katy44 · 16/08/2007 10:12

YANBU
I'm also sick of the big tidy followed by the complete waste of time.
Not to mention when they don't ring to get feedback!

dreamaway · 16/08/2007 10:15

You have every right to stand up to the EA.
Imo EA's dont Always consider the fact that you have a life and a family to contend with as well as trying to sell your house!!

All they think about is the Commission!!

When we were trying to sell last year i was fed up with short notice veiwings, people not turning up and EA's sending people round without telling me it was an unnacompanied veiwing and i would have to do it myself.

In fact the people who put an offer in for our house was a veiwing we did ourselves so basically we did the EA's job for them but had to pay them for the privellage!!!

We went multi agent and even after we accepted the offer, one of the other agents pushed and pushed for more veiwings and we told them we would only accept full asking price from any potential buyers as a price had been agreed with the offer couple.

EA's will go to any length to get another sale on thier books and just dont care how they get it!

i wouldn't worry about any more veiwings until after your holiday. As Selling your house is stressful enough without packing for your holiday as well. Just Chill out and Enjoy!!

RubySlippers · 16/08/2007 10:15

get yourself a new agent!
think you were restrained TBH
they should discuss viewers requirements or it is a waste of everyones' time

MaloryTowersHasManners · 16/08/2007 10:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

fleacircus · 16/08/2007 10:18

Also, read Freakonomics on house selling, they're a bunch of charlatans IIRC whose own houses go for substantially more than their clients'.

HappyDaddy · 16/08/2007 10:18

My mate and her sister like going to view houses just to have a nose. NO intention of putting in an offer, at all.

Then they moan when people waste their time viewing.

Katy44 · 16/08/2007 10:22

We got told our house was "a bit too big"
Right, off to have a shower in the bathing wing.

LIZS · 16/08/2007 10:23

Commented on the other thread , let EA's show while youa re away and not before, serious buyers won't be put off. If you search my name a year or so ago you'll find lots of similar rants ! Too close to station/railway/road (look on the map!), can't park more than 2 cars (er, what about the garage?) too expensive and we only need 3
beds (why view a 4 bed out of budget then )wrong area .... EA like to send people round, it makes them think you think they are doing something .

dreamaway · 16/08/2007 10:24

Katy That's Classic!!

Katy44 · 16/08/2007 10:25

Bearing in mind we've decided that now we have a baby a 3 bed house (one is tiny, all are small) with no storage is too small - they were going to move in with 3 kids over the age of 10!
I think what he meant was -he was a builder and looking for somewhere to live while he built other houses to sell. The more he spent, the less he could spend on his 'project' house iyswim.

pucca · 16/08/2007 10:26

Don't get me started on EA, we are about to pay the robbing sods £2820 for being totally crap! all the probs you have all experienced, and even had one of them say to me the 2nd time i had phoned them "you are not going to be one of THOSE that are always ringing are you? just let me get on with it"

WTF!! tossers the lot of them, although i say that, i am starting a new job today...as a viewing person but there won't be no bull shit off me!

HappyDaddy · 16/08/2007 10:32

We went to 3 EAs and compared them. Told them all what the good points of the others were and asked what they did in comparison. the one we settled on was by far the cheapest but called us weekly with updates, asked if we were still happy with their service.

LIZS · 16/08/2007 10:33

We got to know a couple of the viewings people, saw a couple of properties with each. They don't have the same agenda as "negotiators" and are refreshingly much more honest in their opinion. We saw one house with a lean-to bolted together glazed extension , a complete monstrosity . They hadn't even rendered the old external wall and had a portion of tiled ex-pantry roof and guttering inside it. It was described in the particulars as an "undoubted feature " , boy did we all laugh ! Same house had a trompe d'oeil library shelf on the cloakroom door.

Original poster
sparklesandwine · 16/08/2007 10:35

i've just had enough they don't communicate to each other either which really pisses me off i've told 4 seperate people the dates we'll be away and the girl this morning still sounded shocked to hear we are going away on Sat and could she have the dates to mark down - i told her that i had already given them to 4 others and maybe she could look in our file and communicate with her collegues, which i know i probably shouldn't but i just couldn't help it

i think it was a bad idea to put the house on in the summer hols really i should have known better!

OP posts:
crokky · 16/08/2007 10:37

EA are disgraceful - we viewed a house which was 20 years old and looked fine. After we had paid out on mortgage fees, survey and solicitors, we found out that it had basically fallen down a few years ago and had to have some serious underpinning and rebuilding done (due to being built with wrong materials!). The agent knew all along and just thought he could trick us into buying it - we were later told that things that serious should be in the particulars as everybody's money and time had been totally wasted as we pulled out. We were just lucky our solicitor was good enough to find this as the surveyor (homebuyers survey) wasn't!!!

As a profession, EA is totally unregulated. I think there ought to be a professional body which does exams and you can only be an EA if you have passed the exams. And the exams need to have a serious section on ETHICS!

nomdeplume · 16/08/2007 10:38

Estate Agents are complete nobbos in general (ime).

SweetyDarling · 16/08/2007 10:41

Flame me if you like, but I think YABU.
If the first couple called up and said they wanted to look at houses with A,B & C criteria and your house met those criteria, then the EA would have told them about your house and arranged the viewing. If the couple didn't mention that 3 stories is too much, or didn't even think of that factor until later then how is the EA meant to know?

If you want to sell your home you need to expect lots of viewings at short notice and you need to be aware that some of these viewers will just be tire-kickers. It's just the way it goes. It's not fun, but it is unavoidable. Can you ask your EA to do an "Open House" where they bring in multiple viewers at a set time once or twice a week?

SweetyDarling · 16/08/2007 10:43

Lack of communication etc though is dreadful - not acceptable.

EricL · 16/08/2007 10:44

Yes - i think they are lazy buggers. They don't seem to do much for their hefty commission they get from us.

I have had similar problems. They put an unreasonable price on your house to get you excited, arrange stupid viewing times when they know you have kids and need consatnt phone calls from us to get them to do anything.

I have been burnt TWICE by Countrywide from the other ent too when we were looking to buy. We would put in a low offer to start with and wait....and wait.....and wait. Then we would chase them up and they would tell us that the vendor had accepted a higher offer from someone else. Huh? If they got back to us we would have paid more you stupid ba%&*$ds.

They did EXACTLY the same a few months later and sold a house to someone for a price that we would easily have trumped. Such a basic policy of trying to get the best price for your clients is fluffed - so what the hell do they do for their money?.....

Field a couple of phone calls is all i think.

redtoenails · 16/08/2007 10:50

isn't it outrageous that estate agent s profit from the massive rises in house prices. They still do the same (small) amount of work that they did 10 years ago but get far more money for it as they are paid a percentage!! And don't get me started on stanp duty

Original poster
sparklesandwine · 16/08/2007 10:56

sweetydarling i agree about having to do viewings at short notice etc and i am trying to accomodate where i can because i want to sell but the EA actually said this morning that they knew it was an elderly couple who are basically looking for a bungalow why try and show them a 3 storey house then its just time wasting and irritating

OP posts:
SweetyDarling · 16/08/2007 10:58

OK then based on new info YANBU!

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