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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be completely pissed off with estate agents?

53 replies

ginghamstarfish · 20/05/2022 11:00

Just sold my house, and been looking to buy for a while now. I am appalled at the poor standard of most estate agents - and also amazed that the sellers of houses don't check their listings to see what a poor job the agents do and pull them up on it! Some of our gripes -
listings come on with no photos - what's the point of that?


  • don't say what kind of heating (we now realise that if it doesn't say it's because it's electric, oil or lpg, and they don't want to say so) but how annoying to have to wade through the whole description to find it's not there when it should be a bullet point at the top

  • don't have floorplan

  • don't have EPC (thought this was mandatory), even after many weeks on the market - again we have realised that if told it's 'not yet available' it means they have it and it's very poor

  • poor photos, often many of same room, none of some rooms, often none showing front of house clearly, nor back of house

  • if clicked on maps say 'streetview not available in this location' why don't they get off their arse and take a photo, from the street, and add it?

  • they can't be arsed to take 2 minutes to put the map pin on the actual house (yes it can be done as we got our agent to do so) so you spend ages up and down the street trying to find the house you're looking at

  • no outline plan to show the boundary or extent of the garden/land (often very hard to distinguish with rural properties) - even when it's a piece of land for sale

  • don't say how many m2 which would be very helpful for comparisons

Why is everyone putting up with this pathetic service? They get thousands of pounds for each house sold, god knows how they justify this for what little they do. Please tell me others feel the same!

OP posts:
HitsAndMrs · 20/05/2022 18:28

We've just sold our house and I've been surprised that all they do is literally open the door and let them in. They didn't ask any questions about the house, nor can they answer any questions about houses we view.
Maybe I've watched too many American programmes!

Lincslady53 · 20/05/2022 18:53

The omission that annoys me is on leasehold properties, when the details do not list how long is left on the lease. This is essential info, as if there is less than 80ish years it starts to become tricky to get a mortgage, maybe not this time but when this seller wants to sell in a few years......

Back in the 80s, some regulations came in restricting the flowery sales spiel on EA details to more general details. One EA in Maidstone used to make us laugh before these changes. One of their most overused phrases was 'Move in and put your feet up'

webuiltthiscityonrockandwheat · 20/05/2022 19:03

Not the point of the thread but what’s wrong with oil??

countrygirl99 · 20/05/2022 19:06

webuiltthiscityonrockandwheat · 20/05/2022 19:03

Not the point of the thread but what’s wrong with oil??

Not subject to price caps and currently v expensive.

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 20/05/2022 20:20

And oil is highly nickable. Several tanks have been drained or deliveries redirected locally, this year.

SleepingFrog · 20/05/2022 20:31

When we sold before lockdown we did the viewings ourselves (through a national, online estate agent where this is normal rather than a local one to the area where this might be strange). The reason we did this was because every time we viewed a property with an estate agent they stood in the hallway and told us to look around, knew nothing about the house or local roads/neighbours etc. You'd think with their job being sales that they'd actually make an effort to "sell' the property to you 🤦

The number of grammatical errors, spelling mistakes or just lack of information on their adverts drives me mad as well.

SleepingFrog · 20/05/2022 20:45

Also to add we have one company who seem to get a lot of properties in our area to sell. They price the properties so highly then a month later they reduce it a lot because it's not getting interest or selling. I think they only do it so the vendors agree to sell through them but anyone watching Rightmove can see it's their strategy. The problem is it makes the sellers think they can get the original price and they still sit on the market for ages. It has also meant that many properties are out of reach of the buyers because the pricing has gone so high, yet properties are now sitting online for weeks/months which a few months ago wasn't happening as prices were more realistic to property size in our area.

Lavenderlast · 20/05/2022 20:59

I’m no fan of estate agents, but… A lot of your examples seem to be the agent making the house look as good as possible, which is literally their job. If the floorplan will put off potential buyers then they are right not to upload it.

They aren’t there to help the buyer find their perfect house, they work for the seller and are there to get as many potential buyers as possible in through the door, in the hope that one of them falls in love with it.

I know what you’re thinking - but agents have learned from experience that the buyer who claims they will only buy a house with gas central heating may fall in love with an oil-fired farmhouse, and the man who said he wanted a new build may suddenly decide to buy a Victorian terrace instead.

SuperTiredAgain · 20/05/2022 21:28

I can't stand estate agents. No honest bones in their body. We r selling at the moment and the estate agents are so rude and pushy, yet are taking all our money!! Crazy.

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 20/05/2022 21:40

@Lavenderlast but these terrible pictures and details being omitted are putting people off even viewing, and those that do get to be viewed are likely to be viewed from a negative standpoint. That’s not good for the sellers who want /need to sell for the highest price.

worriedaboutmoney2022 · 20/05/2022 22:02

thinking123 · 20/05/2022 11:17

My impression is always, if no floor plan they have something to hide.

This!!!!
My friends mum wants a bungalow and the number of people who stick a conservatory into the back of a bedroom so you have to walk thru a bedroom to get to it is just annoying - who on earth thinks this is a good idea????

justfiveminutes · 20/05/2022 22:50

If the bedroom has a conservatory attached, it's a dining room that they're relabelling 'bedroom' to increase the asking price.

If the downstairs loo is in a room without a window, it's not a proper room it's a cupboard.

WalkingOnTheCracks · 20/05/2022 22:57

They work for the seller

No, they work for the commission, and they’ll screw the seller if necessary.

For instance, the going rate for the house may be half a million, every house in the street may have gone for half a million and half a million may be what the seller needs to get, but the estate agent would rather have the commission on 425 this week than risk spending another month looking for a buyer who’ll offer 490. So they’ll advise you to take 425 right now - state of the market, cash buyer, no one wants tiled floors any more.

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 20/05/2022 23:01

Or drop their friend the builder a mid to a cheap so up and flip house - get in quick they are desperate to be able to pay care home fees. …

Cherrysoup · 20/05/2022 23:03

Lack of photos on one I was interested in was due to speed and wanting to get it on the market after a Bank holiday weekend so there would be interest over the weekend. There were awful quality exterior pics, none inside. I think it would have generated interest anyway, typical property with a bit of land that everyone wants.

worriedaboutmoney2022 · 20/05/2022 23:09

justfiveminutes · 20/05/2022 22:50

If the bedroom has a conservatory attached, it's a dining room that they're relabelling 'bedroom' to increase the asking price.

If the downstairs loo is in a room without a window, it's not a proper room it's a cupboard.

Yes except it's usually the smaller bedroom that can't be used for anything other than a single bedroom it's just weird isn't it?

FruitToast · 20/05/2022 23:11

We went to view a house today that needs loads of work and the vendor wants £150k too much for. EA insisted it wasn't extended even though you can see the different brick colours where they have extended over the garage, that the heating was a back boiler behind the fire, even though there was a gas boiler in the garage, and when DH pointed out that the cracks and roof bowing pointed to subsidence of the extension the EA pretty much threw us out because obviously the property wasn't extended. Pictures did actually made it look better than it was for once though!

L1ttledrummergirl · 20/05/2022 23:12

We are in the process of trying to sell a retirement flat.
It's in a saught out location, nicely presented in a beautiful quiet village on the coast. Historically people have been queuing to buy these.
We've had 4 viewings in four weeks, one of those didn't want to live in that area and one had two fancy cars and wanted designated parking for them both.
Neither should have looked at the flat as it was clearly not what they were looking for.
Other than posting stuff online I haven't seen any active marketing from the agents.
There are now five flats in that complex on the market within £25k of each other and none of them have sold.
Yanbu.

L1ttledrummergirl · 20/05/2022 23:12

*Sought

mistermagpie · 20/05/2022 23:15

My neighbours house is for sale. It's a tiny 2 bed new-build, the kind where the stairs are in the living room (not judging, my own house is the tiny 3 bed version) and their estate agent listing is ridiculous. The floor plan has no measurements on it and all the photos have been taken with a really wide lense so the rooms look about three times their actual size. I wonder what the point is? As soon as people get inside the house they will know the truth, so why waste everyone's time like this?

ottanxious · 20/05/2022 23:19

Absolutely this.
So many have awful photos, and estate agents don't know things like age of house etc.
You have to do so much background research on each and every property it drives me mad!
The system is very broken.
I wish like Scotland the surveys were done as a pack so you got info before you put offer in.

Crikeyalmighty · 20/05/2022 23:26

Just as bad on the rental side- listings not saying if it's furnished/unfurnished/part
Floor plans and square footage listings just save wasting people's time- particularly when renting as I don't have the opportunity to extend or knock rooms through etc and pictures are vitaas it's rare to be able to change the decor.

justfiveminutes · 21/05/2022 07:25

One of my neighbours recently separated from her husband and is selling her house. I had never been inside but the EA told her it wasn't ready for market and needed a serious declutter. Neighbour then confided that she was a hoarder and showed me some of the rooms - honestly just mounds of rubbish, I have never seen anything like it. However, neighbour has insisted she cannot wait so yesterday it appeared on rm - only one exterior photo and 'photos to follow'. Blurb reads 'this lovely family home has so much potential...' So now I know what 'photos to follow' means.

Mercurial123 · 21/05/2022 10:37

So now I know what 'photos to follow' means.

I agree in this case. But when I bought my current house, the EA had a reputation of only putting a photo of the exterior of the house. It was to generate more interest I think as they seem to do it with quite a few houses they are marketing.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 21/05/2022 15:11

I’ve known good and bad, but more poor than good.
I’ve tried to avoid any whose blurbs are littered with basic SPAG errors - to me it indicates a sloppy, unprofessional attitude. Not always poss to avoid them, though.

My main gripe has often been sheer cluelessness about basic info, e.g. length of lease of a flat. Or no floor plan, or one without room sizes.

AFAIK, EAs in the UK need no particular qualifications - and all too often it shows. I gather that in the US they have to be qualified and are way more professional, but OTOH the charge a lot more. According to a sister across the pond, 5-6% when selling is quite usual.