Can estate agents be helpful

[soundevenfruity]

We are starting the big hunt for our forever home and I am dreading all the business of dealing with estate agents. Last time we had to resort to leaflet dropping and eventually bought privately. Estate agents weren't very helpful and were showing us properties that had very little in common with our brief. In current climate it looks even worse. Can anybody share any tricks?

Be friendly and nice and hopefully you'll find a nice one. Leaflet drop anyway - you might as well be belt and braces in the current market.

Be cynical though. In my area, agents are trying to talk up prices to vendors to grab the little business there is as houses aren't coming on the market. There is then a complete price stand off between buyers and sellers. It is a joke.

I suspected as much. There are too many unrealistically priced properties and houses that would struggle to sell in a more buoyant market.

I suspect I am not the right kind of "nice" for estate agents.

Nice for estate agents probably means 'incredibly gullible and incapable of looking at sold prices on Zoopla'. Some of mine seemed shocked that I actually knew what things had sold for on the road.

50% of my conversations have gone.
Estate agent: 'yeah houses sell for about 800k on this road'
Me: 'Actually, the highest ever price achieved was 600k this year'
Agent (shocked) 'Oh, buyers know so much these days'

I kid you not.

I would say, be very very specific about what you are looking for. Say that you have thought a lot about your criteria and really are not going to be interested in places that don't fit.

When told about a new property, ask lots and lots of questions to ensure you know whether it fits the brief (eg "What size are the bedrooms" "Which way does it face") and also about any obvious negatives ("Is there something I should know eg is it on a very busy road?) before you go and view.

If it doesn't fit the brief, refuse (politely) to view it.

They might lie I guess but they know if they do you will realise as soon as you see the place.

IME agents like a viewer who knows what they want (assuming that their criteria are actually possible/realistic for their budget) because it means when the right thing comes up, they know you are very likely to be keen and even make an offer.