To give honest feedback to estate agent?

[Apricotily]

Do you give truthful negative feedback when viewing a house with an estate agent? I'm autistic but can mask what I feel and say, when I know that saying the truth might offend someone. To me, looking at a house with an estate agent isn't this sort of situation. Hope that makes sense.

We've viewed a few houses this week with estate agents. One seemed incredibly offended when I share my thoughts, e.g. she was saying how wonderful the kitchen was, I said that it was clearly 20 years old and even then wasn't a great kitchen. She asked what I meant, so I explained that it was a cheap, plastic kitchen, which it was! It was wood effect laminate and blue plastic worktop. She made me repeat what I had said, presumably to embarass me. What's the point of this?

There were other features that I liked and said so, e.g. the garden was small and mostly pebbles, I said how nice it looked and that we wanted a low maintenance garden. Other people might well have been put off and said they would prefer a larger garden, or a lawn. Surely they need to give genuine feedback to their clients? I've had other estate agents say that it is "refreshing" to hear genuine feedback, which I think is probably indicative that they aren't used to it.

When we sold our house, any feedback was useful. Some of it we could do something about, some not, e.g. people who thought our garden was too small, it's a fair point but nothing we could do. People who thought the kitchen was dated, we could do something about, e.g. new cupboard doors in a more fashionable colour.

You’d made the agent feel foolish, she’d said it was a great kitchen and you told her why it wasn’t in your opinion.

the agent isn’t used to being corrected a you have every right to disagree & tell her why

out of curiosity did you ask her why she thought it was a great kitchen?

So…. What is the next part of the story?

Because you move in to your purchased house and they have ripped apart the bathroom and taken the shower… would have quite a follow on story @Digdongdoo

I’m always very —too— honest!
I told an EA that I wouldn’t let a dog live in the dirty house and why were they wasting my time.
I told them I wouldn’t pay £1200 a month for house with a kitchen that was falling apart and needed every carpet replaced. I said there was no point looking at the rest of the house when the kitchen didn’t have enough storage space. That was for rentals.
when we viewed the house we eventually bought, it was a doer upper. The estate agent kept asking us what we would do with it if we bought it. My partner replied “I’d live in it for 6 months and then decide. I like to take my time” and other more subtle shutdowns after he had told us the (unproceedable!) offers they had received on the house. He gave up in the end and stood in the garden.

I’d be honest. For example, we saw some houses where they’d been refurbished but with kitchen and bathrooms not to my taste. We wouldn’t pay top of our budget for something we didn’t like and it seems wasteful to rip out, never mind you’ve paid for the finished article.

As a vendor I’d rather know. My MIL got offended by any criticism but as others have said if you could change something easily to improve chances of selling, why not do so.

Well we weren't moving straight in as we were still renting. So we installed a new shower and chased some compensation (or whatever they called it) via solicitor. Not an exciting story in the slightest. More just baffling given it was a shit old shower. But I think the lady was a bit nuts...

Yanbu. Some estate agents take it personally as if it were their house they were talking about. Had one show us 3 houses in one day and we didn't really like any of them as they just weren't our taste and the Agent snapped at me saying he found 3 fabulous houses and was clearly annoyed. I replied ill take one if you are buying it for us, otherwise we would like to continue looking for one to our taste. That shut him up pretty quickly.

You got the compensation presumably?

💯 agree with you. I for one would love honest feedback if I was finding it hard to sell

Yes this. I never considered an estate agent would think it’s rude, it’s not their house. I’ve always been honest in a polite way. As in, last house I viewed stunk of smoke. Rather than say ‘it stunk’ I told them the positives (lovely garden, great location) but unfortunately I can tell the vendor smokes indoors and the smell puts me off. Thanks for the viewing though.

Never got the impression they were offended. Maybe it’s down to the way you give the feedback.

They want feedback to give to the owner so they can change things
So things like mentioning smell or clutter is helpful, slagging off the kitchen isn't

But saying that the kitchen and bathroom being dated, and needing replacing in the near future, is directly relevant when it is priced at the top whack for the area. A much larger, detached house with a larger garden on the same road sold last week for a slightly lower price. The estate agent knew this, as we had previously viewed it with them, some months previously, when they had it listed for £130k more. If the interior fittings had been top quality and new, then there could be some attempt at justifying the price.

They'd had an offer on the house from previous viewers, but not accepted, as they knew we were viewing it too. Hopefully my feedback would help them realise that they should snap up the offer, if it was anywhere near to their asking price. Although possibly the other viewers weren't proceedable, which is also something we've found estate agents using as leverage, and house sellers clinging to instead of being more realistic about their prices.

Loving the one estate agent posting on here criticising all of us for being fed up with their unprofessional behaviour. Like someone said above, QED.

Oh dear Op 😆
I am not an estate agent!

And not one post is criticising people for being fed up with estate agents.

Op on the basis of how you see shadows on this thread, I reckon you saw a shadow in this interaction with the EA that may not have been her trying to embarrass you and sniggering at you

I said that it was clearly 20 years old and even then wasn't a great kitchen. She asked what I meant, so I explained that it was a cheap, plastic kitchen, which it was! It was wood effect laminate and blue plastic worktop.

You were stating facts there that I am sure the EA was aware of so that information wasn't helpful.
They are probably also aware of how much other houses nearby had gone for. I am not criticising you, just explaining how your comments may not have been seen as helpful to the EA

Used to work for an estate agent. We definitely never passed anything negative onto the client about their decor/dated kitchen/clutter/dog smell, i.e. anything that could remotely cause offense and spoil the client/agent relationship. Often turned it into something slightly more palatable like "the third bedroom is a little smaller than they hoped for" or "just needs a little more work than they were wanting to do."

People who complained about daft things like dated bathrooms and wallpaper were written off as time wasters, which they always were, and ushered out fairly quickly. People who are actually serious about buying don't give a shit about a dated bathroom or terrible wallpaper.

Oh and if a property is overpriced you can guarantee the agent already knows this and has already tried to convince their client to price it lower. Sadly, people tend to think they know far better than the actual professionals.

This particular estate agency clearly gets clients by flattering the vendors with high prices, generally keeps them on at the high price for 6 months to a year, then works them down gradually. Not all estate agents work in the same way, and it must work for them, or else they wouldn't still be in business.

However, if they had priced the other house more realistically from the off, then we would have bought it from them months ago. Instead the vendor got fed up with them, listed it with another estate agents at a more realistic price, and they sold it to someone whilst we were negotiating on a different house. In the current scant market for 2nd homes, they need to inject some realism into their prices and business practise IMHO.

Am I just meant to agree with the estate agents eulogy about the property they are trying to sell me in order to show I know my place? That seems to be the only outcome some of you will accept. But this is AIBU, so I should know to expect the unpleasantness of some posters, who love to laugh at and have a go at people. It's clear that you are in the minority though, which is useful for me, as I can carry on being honest, rather than tugging my forelock.

No estate agent wants to keep a house on their books for six months priced higher than market value and with no chance of selling. They just don't. It's not worth the time, effort, or miniscule amount of extra commission they would get for pricing it £50k more. Unfortunately, legally, we had to list at whatever price the vendor wanted, no matter how outlandishly high it was. I can guarantee that seller was being greedy and pushing for more money. I've seen it time and time again.

I have just told an agent a particular house was horrible and she agreed with me. So to answer your question, I absolutely tell them what I think. It's not the agent's house, so why would s/he be offended by your critical comments?
So I would say that was bizarre of the agent to be offended. It's not like she picked out the kitchen.
Maybe she is angry that you've caught on that she lies about how nice things are in order to encourage you to buy?

That is so strange. I don't understand why they care what you think of a house which is not theirs.
Maybe it was really that she was upset about not making a sale?

We viewed another house later with the vendor. I didn't tell him how much I disliked the customised radiators that he'd spent a small fortune on, as I felt that would be rude. I will feedback to the estate agent that the price seemed to have been inflated by how much he'd spent on expensive features that weren't to everyone's taste.

It sounds to me like you were extremely diplomatic with that.
Which is incredibly helpful.
The EA might have tried to hint that to the vendor, but ultimately they want the business so won't have told them. However - as a pp said - if they do 10 viewings, and 8/10 people say the same thing, it makes it easier for the EA to go back to the vendor and say that is the feedback they are getting from the overwhelming % of prospective buyers. People often need to hear things several times to begin to believe it.

However I do think people should decorate, furnish and use their own homes exactly how they like. Just don't expect other people to like it as much as you do, if you are hoping to sell within 4 years of purchase at a massive price increase. He was telling me that the chandeliers cost £11k each! I quite liked them but not as much as a new car. But each to their own.

Agreed.
I really don't want to do work when I next move, BUT, if I loved the locations, parking, garden and other things you can't change, I'd rather pay less and have money to do the work, that pay top dollar for something that really isn't to my taste. In fact, I wouldn't pay top price for something with a spanking new kitchen or bathroom I didn't like. (Obviously decor is easier and cheaper to change)

None of us know how you said those things. Tone accounts for a lot of how your words are received and it sounds like she was pretty taken aback by yours.

Goodness you’re one for hyperbole OP. Even how you have misinterpreted the posts on this thread is telling.

Would have been interesting to actually have witnessed this exchange of this EA “trying to embarrass” you, tittering at you, offended etc

Many people upgrade the kitchen anyway or should the current seller put in a new kitchen before sale?

I would be honest and not think twice about what the estate agent reaction was.

Some of OP’s ranting about this estate agent is a personal attack and imo a bit unhinged.

I am also getting the impression OP is being coy and vague but OP is actually really trying hard to convey how wealthy they are talking about second homes and the price range of the houses they are viewing without directly saying it. It comes across to me as OP thinks of herself as superior because of the price bracket she is looking in.

All sounds very unpleasant.

Agreed