Am I expecting too much from my estate agent?

[heylottie]

Long story short: two days before exchange our buyers pulled out. Everything was ready, survey, searches everything.

We had no choice but to remarket our house (as did the person we were buying from), dropping the price in order to hopefully get a new buyer and proceed with the sale/purchase.

We are both with the same agent.

We have had two crappy viewings since we went back on the market. Estate agent has called a couple of times bemoaning the weather ( we live in a cottage in a holiday town).

Last week I browse their website. The house we were two days away from buying is listed SOLD STC.

I call them. 'Were you going to tell me you had sold the house to someone else?'

Them: we've only just changed the details on the website

Me: But you should have told me first, as soon as it sold to another party -you know this is massively disappointing

Them: Well they're cash buyers so it will go through

Me: Erm. Ok. Well. ...

Them: Ok bye.

And that's it. Is it too much to ask for some sympathy? A call to say 'look we'll really try and sell your house ... plenty of fish in the sea... something else will come up'?

The estate agent is not my mother, but I am their client - do they not care that we were financially and emotionally invested in the house?

I have been seething about this off hand approach for the last week and am very close to marching down and expressing myself...

Many sympathies,

this happens a lot, just keep going with your house, It will be fine, you will find somewhere you love, get in the position of being a cash buyer,

It is everyday stuff to them, if you want to continue having a working relationship with them you will have to let it go,

wishing you luck,

are you just with one estate agent?

Poor you, I'd be spitting blood if it were me.

Have you thought about taking it off the market for a while and then selling through another, less ineffectual agent? The market is going to be pretty dead between now and September, so unless you think it's going to sell quickly at your new price, you might be better waiting if you don't need to move urgently. If you take it off and put it back on in a couple of months, it will look new to the market, which can make a house look more attractive to buyers.

Sympathies, but look at ti form the position of teh vendor - it was your buyer who pulled out, and since then you have not had serious viewings so tehy may not see you asa potential buyer and need to take any chance thy can get

Is changing agent an option?

Thanks for all your replies. We can't go with another agent as we have to see out the notice period (agreed when we relisted the house iyswim). It's the complacency that infuriates. May pop in and express my 'disappointment' with the customer care, then sit it out til Sept.

But you could see out your notice period off the market couldn't you? Or does it not work like that?

My great sympathies. You just wanted a bit of human decency, didn't you? We lost a house because we couldn't go under offer and a cash buyer came along. The agent called and was very kind about it but they followed it up with a letter saying 'we understand you are withdrawing from this purchase', which was rather galling.