Estate Agents - am I expecting too much (long and a bit ranty)

[Pennies]

Our house is for sale and has been on the market for 8 weeks now and we had no offers at all - not even bonkers ones that are taking the piss. It's been completely done up in the last 2 years and has new carpets, new kitchen and new bathroom. All decorating done "tastefully" (all neutral colours as per house doctor et al) and to a high spec. I've also dropped the price because we were over a natural bracket and I wanted to catch those people who might be just under it IYSWIM.

Agent thought it would be a doddle to sell but it's just not happening. When I've been here when they are showing people round I can't hear any active selling at all. They also keep trying to get me to show people round despite the fact i've got two kids under 2 and I can baely make myelf a cup of tea when they're around let alone make it immaculate and then show people round. Today they said they were showing some-one round at noon so I got it all ready. At 12.20 I noticed a woman sitting in her car ourside looking p'd off. After 5 mins I asked if she was from the agents and she said she was the viewer, so as the agent hadn't showed I took her round. I spoke to the agent about this and he said he'd waited for her outside until 12.20 but she hadn't showed nor had she called to say she was late. Now I don't think she was late and either way, I know he had her mobile number so why didn't he call her?

Should I ditch the agent and try someone else or is this just par for the course?

BTW have enlisted someone to 'mystery shop them'!

I'd ditch them

Have not tried to sell a house yet, but was absolutely flabbergasted by the lack of interest when I tried to buy one - I was a cash buyer and everything but the majority never bothered to send me the house details I asked for (you would think that even if they had lots of interest in those properties already, it would still be worth their while to encourage potential buyers in case the sale fell through) and when I went into the offices and described what I wanted they would say they hadn't got anything, even when there were several in the window. They were utterly cr*p.

can't you sign on with two or even three?

They sound shit.

Go with another one.

Is your house online with this agent? In the local paper?

sack them. and make sure you do it in writing, dated, so the little b***s don't try to sting you for fees if you sell privately/through another agent.

It's a local agent and the house is also on Rightmove / Find a Propert.com (can't remember which). It's also got a sign outside it as well.

Don't want to go multiple agent as comission doubles then.

did you sign a contract with this agent? and if so how long was it for. Generally agents sign you up for a 16 week contract, and if you want out before that you have to give 4 weeks notice. Signing up with 2/3 agents is a bad idea as signing up with more than one agent usually increases the percentage they charge for selling the house.

They do sound poor. Did you sign a contract? you may find yourself locked in and have to give them so many weeks notice before you can go elsewhere unless you want to go duel-agent but then the commission goes up. Maybe worth speaking to the manager and explaining the situation about how they think things are going and how you think things are going. They quite often give you patter on how easy it would be to sell just to get you on their books. Shite all round really.

A friend ahd a similar experience selling her flat. She discovered it wasn't so easy to ditch them and had to give them 28 days notice (she'd signed a contract when she'd decided to put it on the market and hadn't known how it was going to pan out).
So I'd check out the notice period and give it and may be even hand it in in person so that you can remind them about the commission they'll lose. You never know thatmay be enough of a prompt.

Pennies ,we've been on the market 6 months with no offers, dropped price etc. tbh hearing other people's painful stories I just don't believe the press about it being such a buoyant market. Specific properties sell quickly and yours sounds nice and may be one.

We're considering swapping agents but just as we are about to issue notice another couple of viewings come along and I don't really want to start all over again if I can avoid it. Most enquires come via the internet (Right Move etc) so not sure how much difference a particular agent can make.

I've done most of the viewings and suspect those they have done have been similar to what you describe. They can't make the assertions the vendor can as regards when things were updated and guarantees and answer subjective queries without having it all in black and white. Perhaps it would be better if you could be out when they show people around ? I also ahd one viewer who abscially grunted at everything I sadi, only asking how old the house was and what was that flaw in the plaster ! Others are just completely detached and view loads in a short spadce of time so probably don't take much in or remember it in anyway. I'd say we only get feedback later from about 50% of viewings.

Have they rescheduled the 12 o'clock lady ? That is terrible but I would have expected either of them to knock on the door had they been kept waiting, out of courtesy to you if nothing else.

good luck

We've just had an offer accepted on a house and I'd agree with Kathy1972, even when we had sold the lack of interest from some EA's was staggering, I had to keep ringing round and asking for details. Get three or more round to value, quiz them about their methods, even go and view some houses with them before you sign up to see what their people are like at selling and keep them on their toes. They get a lot of money from a sale and you need to make them work for it.

Doesn't the contract have something in it about them doing some work?

Our buyer came and viewed 4 times and after each time said it deffinately wasn't the house for them, then they put an offer in?????? Very bizarre - because of all the negativity I was sure they would pull out at the last minute, but fortunately they didn't. There are still loads of the same sorts of houses still for sale 3 months later, I can't believe how lucky we were in the end. Very stressful.

When I was trying to buy a few months ago one very well known estate agent refused to show me round any properties because I had an offer in on one with another agent (I had told them this had been turned down) she was so down right rude and said to me "I presume you are buying 2 properties then" and said that I was a waste of time

I took her name and complained to the area manager and told the person whos house I wanted to view what had happened (they had had it on the market for over 3 months) and they were so pissed off the withdrew from the ea straight away.

IMO most of them think they are Gods especially after this housing boom. Some however are very very nice

yes, we're loked in for 28 dys .

my sentiment exactly hunker

apols for typin like cod - holding dd

Damn, just typed a long message and lost it cos i forgot my password!

We have had ours on the market for 5wks now, and are feeling pi**ed off with our agent too, they sais as it is an ideal 1st time buyers property it would sell quickly, I know its only 5 wks, but It is such hard work keeping the house tidy all the time in case anyone wants to come and look.

We have had ont offer from an investor who wanted to buy to rent it out, but it was 20k under the asking price!

I have been showing people round myself as most people want to come in the evenings, but a few times the agent has rung at about 5pm and said can you show someone laater tonight? I was like ' err no.... the house is a state, im halfway through cooking tea, kids are playing up etc!

I am finding it quite stressful, just want to get it sold! You tend to think it will sell straight away when you put it on the market dont you!

We are unfortunatly tied in with our agent for 16wks, so we cant change till sept, we were a bit silly to sign a contract for that long I think, but its the first time we have sold a house and didnt really know... oh well, you live and learn dont you!

We have found that you really have to keep on the case with them, to start with they put wrong information on the internet site and on the paper details, and it took ages to get them to change that. we have also had a lot of people that just dont turn up for appts...ggrrrr! and we also have to chase them for feedback. Just generally not happy with them, plus they change a high %rate.

Anyway sorry for going on, started a little rant of my own there
FF x

Well how's this for a conundrum !

EA(a) had arranged a viewing last week, colleague (b) was due to visit them last weekend and would get feedback. Spoke to colleague(b) during the week as was already on the phone to the office about another viewing and he said they'd expected more from a 4 bed detached in our location at that price etc etc so not interested. EA(a) hadn't realised Colleague(b) had already given us feedback and just rang to say he'd spoken to the viewer and she'd felt although it was a reasonable price taking into account what "work" is required (purely cosmetic incidentally and non-essential) not for them (she's pg and probably wouldn't like the hassle). So although the outcome is the same , what did they actually think, I wonder ?!

Pennies , did you get any feedback on that viewing ? We've had 2 on Wednesday night and one tomorrow so things are getting busier again.

No didn't get a response, but I got a friend to go in with a spec that would mean that they should have jumped at the chance of plugging our house but they didn't really do it. I'm going to see them today to have a discussion about what theya re doing. I'm also going to another agent to discuss going with them instead. The thing is, as I think they're all w@nkers then is it actually a case of "better the devil you know"...?

My sentiments exactly ! They just don't sem to have any initiative or think do they ? Had one of Wednesday night's which they expected me to do at 8.30pm - er hello it is a weeknight and I have 2 kids to get to bed ! Don't think they really got it though when I said no , had to be earlier.

Anyway original viewing booked for today got cancelled as the woman drove past and decided she didn't want to live here - fair enough, but why book before you look ? Another couple came instead, supposedly already signed on theirs so ready to move and basically looking for a bargain, I suspect.

On the subject of estate agents, there's an interesting bit about estate agents and their incentives in the book Freakonomics, scroll down to the section about real estate

..and what do you know they were clearly looking for a bargain. Made a low offer which we've refused and now say they are not prepared to up it at the present time. Guess we'll have to wait and see next week ...

Pennies, that all sounds pretty normal tbh.

Our house has been on the market 5 months and today we had our first (derisory!) offer. Things are v v slow round here despite the fact that we are 40miles from London with good transport links and nice rural surroundings.

Our agents are pretty good about doing the viewings, but I've drummed it into them that I really don't want to do it myself - I have a 20mo and it's horribly distracting for both me and the viewer. I make sure I'm out of the house when they come, that way I can leave it properly tidy with all toys etc out of the way.

IME as a buyer, all agents are crap at giving out relevant details. We found it much easier to search Rightmove etc ourselves and just call the agents for viewing appointments, so I'm relying on our potential buyers to do the same.

Btw I wouldn't expect an agent to wait more than 20mins for a viewer (although I agree he should have called her rather than leaving her to call him - maybe they don't want to seem to be hassling viewers??).

omg, US real estate agents charge six per cent?

My 1.25% is beginning to sound like a bargain...