I know it’s a cliché to bash estate agents but I’m at the end of my tether.
For 18 months I have been registered with a clutch of estate agents in Surrey. Despite being a cash buyer with a very comfortable budget and nothing to sell, they all seem half asleep.
Many don’t even respond to enquiries via Rightmove; if they do they just email you the same information that is on all the property portals. None follow up with a phone call to check out my requirements.
2 weeks ago I saw a beautiful house and emailed the agent via Rightmove for more information. Days later I received a desultory email sending me the same pictures that were already online and that was it. No follow up phone call, no suggestion of viewing. When I telephoned I spoke to a disinterested person who knew very little about the house – when I asked about viewing she said that due to lockdown restrictions this wasn’t possible. But now the property market has reopened – albeit with restrictions – I have heard nothing back from her suggesting I view – even just a walk around the garden would give me an idea. This house has been online for 8 months, with such a hopeless agent I’m not surprised.
While property portals make the sellers and buyers life much easier in many ways, they have also had the unfortunate result of making agents even lazier. Before the internet they had to be proactive, calling up prospective buyers and matching house to buyer but now they can’t even be bothered to put a brochure in the post.
I viewed a house last week that I was interested in. The agent followed me around closely, even around the garden – so closely that I wanted to say, “tag me now and get it over with”, (did she think I was going to run off with the garden gnome) annoyingly announcing “this is the kitchen”, “this is the bedroom” and opening cupboards I really didn’t want to see inside. Note to agents: I am not going to buy a house because I like the vendor’s airing cupboard.
After manifestly ignoring any social distancing at all (nurse!) when I asked for a brochure at the end of the viewing, the hapless agent said they weren’t handing out brochures due to corona restrictions. I asked if she could send me one and she reluctantly agreed – a week later and nothing has arrived.
Nothing beats a proper colour brochure that acts as a constant reminder to actually pick up the phone and arrange to view. But agents simply hate having to send them out. Sometimes they pretend they can’t do this as they want to `save paper’ - a likely story.
And then that evening, I saw that this agent has launched 2 other houses in my price range and just what I’m looking for but didn’t bother to even let me know or take me round when I viewed the first.
I’ve found London agents work much harder than country ones. It’s so frustrating that outside London they expect the seller to do all the work. I can’t think of any other industry which is so entirely reactive and doesn’t bother to follow up leads.