We are undecided about what to do about our house at the moment, we bought it a few years ago in a fairly desirable area that was a safe bet as the houses sell well and generally make a good investment. We still love the house but our thinking being if we were looking at making decent money, we could move to a cheaper property and have a smaller mortgage with a large deposit. This would let us ride out the cost of living storm, we are feeling the pinch and this would have a huge impact on our outgoings.
Contacted 3 agents, one small local company with a great reputation, the agent we purchased the house from and YOPA who are online. Local agent did a very in-depth look of the house, lots of questions, no hard sell, spoke equally to myself an my partner, came with all the details of the previous advert for the house to compare what we've done. Some of the best customer service I've ever had actually. Agent we bought the house from compared what we told them to the file the hold on the house from before and gave us an estimate over the phone, they aren't able to come out at the moment. Both of these estimates were fairly close to each other and stated offers above X amount which is 30k more than what we paid for the house. Surprised but very pleased with this.
Then we get to YOPA agent. I was alone for this. He didn't ask any questions at all, glanced briefly at the rooms, as in walked in and back out again, pushed me to give an answer for how soon we wanted to sell, despite highlighting in a previous phone call we are currently unsure what we are doing at the moment. He said he has people who will jump to buy this quickly and he would market the house at Y amount with the view to selling for 5k more than this. Y is 5k less than we paid for the house, so he valued the house at exactly what we paid a few years ago.
I was pretty surprised at this and said so. He looked a little sheepish and then began to steamroller over me and again ask how soon was I looking to sell. I was extremely polite and stated that his valuation simply wasn't acceptable to me, and reiterated the information from the other agents and tried to explain the difference in the house from when we purchased it and what compared houses in our area have sold for, which he then ignored AGAIN. He went on that he could arrange the home report and that would come back he thinks at exactly as it was for the house a few years ago. We have carried out repairs highlighted in that report that affected the value. He simply said oh repairs don't add value and went on with more pushy tactics and that I needed to quickly make a decision and get a new home report to get the house on the market. I highlighted it was a joint decision between me and my partner, and I wasn't making immediate decisions without him present, and suddenly his attitude changed completely and he said well we should perhaps discuss it and give him a call "no rush"...bit of a change of tune eh?!
This is the AIBU part...
I feel like I was treated like a naïve little girl. I do look younger than my years, and compared to the average homeowner in my area, I am fairly young. I was also alone, and his extremely pushy behaviour made me feel extremely uncomfortable in my own home. He was not impressed at my questioning and trying to explain my thoughts and feelings. I did wonder if this would have been different if my partner was also there. Do I chalk this up to just how ruthless the property world can be or do I highlight his behaviour to YOPA as Afterall he is representing their company and potentially losing out on customers and potentially losing their customers a lot of money, not to mention the fact he made me feel so uncomfortable?
.