Do you think high street estate agents will die?

[sandrabedminster]

I don't see how they can carry on competing with online.

They do ask a lot of their services compared with online. 6 times in my case!

My ea is pretty shit. They messed up the right move listing, I took most of the photos myself as theirs were shit. I've ended up showing people around myself as they seem to be too lazy to work Saturdays. They've scratched the floor and trampled mud everywhere.

The only thing they do and online doesn't is local paper adverts. But I doubt many even reed papers anymore.

Thanks evrybuddy - I thought it was just me. That explains the bonkers replys on here.

If someone can't be bothered to spend 30 seconds registering with a site for a viewing I'd rather they didn't view my house as they obviously aren't going to buy it.

I remeber the same conversations 15 years ago about online shop, "oh buying online is awful as Mary from work bought something and it stopped working after a few months!"

It's nuts - if the EAs posting on here think a few patently obvious BS positive comments are going to rescue the future of high street estate agency then they're more deluded than I thought.

Perhaps they should give it a try with Tata and the steel industry.

ah of course, silly me, you are absolutely right. I'll just keep quiet then and not share my experience of dealing with the public and the feedback received frequently. I will not share my experience that English online agents have no concept and no willingness to learn about Scottish property law. But heyho, it's just my job, one at which I have earned awards for. Silly, silly me clearly I have no clue.

I think it will be like the Travel Agency market, where there is a place for the very good, proactive ones. I must say I haven't bought or sold a house for over 20 years and it's been a real eye opener! Frankly our 'carefully chosen' EA is doing is bugger all!

For the fee my EA will potentially earn I'd expected some thought around who might buy my sort of house, some proactive marketing, input as to how we can best present the house, regular updates on our property and others in the area, plus the sales related admin.

So far all they have done is take some photos (which were very 'functional' and I had to suggest a large number of improvements), list it on right move, send us website stats once and called us to set up 2 viewings. I definitely feel I could have done this for a fraction of the cost with Purple Bricks.

I think if EAs want to survive they need to prove their worth!

The estate agents our sellers used were downright dishonest and extremely unprofessional. They didnt know anything about the property, didnt turn up twice when we had to view, a neighbour had to show us around. They also lied to us and the sellers about completion dates, arranging viewing etc. Also they were hounding us to talk to hire their solicitor, and their mortgage guy. And they are the largest company in our area. I viewed some properties through purple bricks.

It was so straight forward and they sold even before we could arrange a second viewing.

So I stated I wouldn't use an online EA, ergo I must be a high street EA. That really is crackers and a lot of your comments are bloody rude too evrybuddy.

Our buyers lost their first sale due to their online EA failing to check their potential buyer out. Our high street EA worked to keep the chain together when their online EA nearly lost them their second buyer by failing to update them.

As potential purchasers we tried to view two houses which were on with different online EAs - we couldn't arrange viewings because the so-called EAs were incapable of contacting their clients and the agents themselves don't conduct viewings. We viewed a total of 8 houses before we saw the house we bought.

EAs are not my favourite people - when it comes to the marketing blurb and the photos too many are still shockingly poor. We had a disagreement with our EA over the way they handled a potential purchaser, but they did listen to us and turn things around. Their sales progression was faultless and it's that which is, imo, key. They also did all the viewings of our house apart from our eventual purchaser's' second viewing. They earned their fee.

For the people happy to carry on living where they don't want to live rather than use an online agent - good luck!

No rational person would conclude that it is the state of being online or not, which determines whether an agent is goood or bad.

It's the individual agent.

It's no coincidence that the sector has, like many other sales driven occupations, a very low entry bar.

Estate agency attracts people after a quick buck.

It's had a lously reputation for years and that won't change until estate agency changes.

Online Estate Agency just gives us punters the chance to pay less to be fucked over.

Equally, we may be lucky and get a decent service.
My experience has been better online.

evrybuddy I'm not an estate agent and as I mentioned in my post online agents haven't cracked my local market, I would have thought you'd have been aware of this what with being an online agent yourself 😉

In all seriousness though I think just as with pretty much everything else that you can both get on and offline they will continue to exist side by side, with the good ones doing well and the bad ones not so well

My experiences of booking viewings through online agencies have been incredibly poor, and much poorer than any of the local EAs.

I would never use an online EA on this basis, and I'd be put off a house because they were using an online EA. If I want to buy the house, then I'd like the EA to be easy to reach and deal with. I don't want to go through a bloody call centre.

DH and I are a lot younger than 65.

I've sold twice through Housenetwork but never viewed a house for sale through them.

I've viewed through Purplebricks and a couple of other smaller online agencies - never sold through them.

I've sold through at least 6 other high st agents and bought the same amount through them.

I welcome call centres and email.

I no longer have to put up with - 'Darren's not in the office now - he's the only one that knows about that'

Or the favourite of all local agents when you want to view a house -
'Can we come and value your house - no obligation' - more frequent now as the market gets harder for them.

Estate agency per se - needs to stop employing school leavers to do grown-ups' jobs.

The days when I will put up with an 18 year old of any sex coming round to tell me how much he knows about selling half a million pounds worth and a fair chunk of my life - are long gone.

Hoping in the Mini or Fiat 500 and getting on the phone to his pains going 'Smashed that! Muppet! Another £5k in the bag!!!'

Go fuck yourself (you know who you are) - give me a faceless call centre with staff on regulated salaries any day.

And anyone who thinks they don't act like that...

We live in a small place where there aren't that many houses coming up and the one main local estate agents ended up organising for us to 'house swap' with someone else (before their house was even online) because they knew that it would suit us both. This has considerably reduced chain related hassle so we are very happy with them! I think that would be a lot trickier for an online company who doesn't have a large number of properties in one area. But I can also see that it probably wouldn't happen with a high street agent in London either. We have absolutely no idea what we are doing in terms of selling a property and couldn't possibly have done the viewings ourselves (either at work or with a toddler in tow - tantrums probably a bit offputting to a prospective buyer) so we didn't even consider an internet agent.

*No rational person would conclude that it is the state of being online or not, which determines whether an agent is goood or bad.

It's the individual agent.

It's no coincidence that the sector has, like many other sales driven occupations, a very low entry bar.

Estate agency attracts people after a quick buck.*

I wish I could like posts! Spot on!

If anything the online agents are more expedienced as in my area they are long time ea s who wanted to go self employed and realised they would need 15-20k a month coming in yo have a high street shop.

I can't think of what experience you would need to show someone your house. When I've bought houses it had nothing to do with who was showing me around. I doubt anyone is silly enough yo be "sold" a house by an agent.

Totally agree about ea having s very very low bar.

I'm really not sure it's better to have a call centre full of people who know bugger all about the house or area, beyond what they read off a screen, than to have to wait for Darren to call you back.

I for one would rather have one point of contact than have to ring a call centre.

The notion that a call centre full of people know less about your house than the high street agent selling it is a rib tickler!

The number of flats I've been to see with high st agents....

How long is the lease? Don't know
What's the service charge? You'd have to get your solicitor to check.
Why are they selling? Don't know

The number of flats I've seen marketed on Rightmove by high street agents that don't even say what floor they are on...

Still, you get what you pay for and a monkey never refused nuts - neither a handfull nor a lorry load.

You can pay what you like and still get monkeys.

If we all took the view that we'd be happy to wait for Darren to get back, there'd be no ASOS, no Confused.com, no Direct Line, - no need for them. We're all easygoing us, nothing better to do than frig ourselves off while we wait for Darren to get back.

No need for a call centre for your utilities ... in fact I could crack out my quill and get that wee lad down from the chimney where I last left him, get him running about on errands again.

Worth stating that all of the online agents I've dealt with have had named account managers that you can speak to and email directly. You have evidence of everything said and written through online chat print offs too.

Now Darren, when I spoke to Chloe this morning about that offer...
Chloe didn't mention that.
Are you sure it was Chloe?
When I said they were first time buyers, I meant from us.
I haven't go me own email just use the info@peanutsformonkeyshousesales
Oh I'll definitely get that
Yep, I'll call you back
ha ha ha

Yeah, I prefer dealing in person with Darrren too - my arse!

Some of the assumptions are staggering like all EA being on commission. I can assure you I am not. I am also qualified and regulated by the law society. I don't dive a mini or a fiat 500 but hey I'll just go and fuck myself

I get that you're in Scotland and it's like property utopia up there - I get it!

I'm not in Scotland. I've not mentioned Scotland once.
All Scottish EAs are no doubt closer to God than I'll ever be.

I suspect you know just as little about estate agency south of the border.

It's well known that EAs in England are mistrusted like MPs and double-glazing salespeople. It's just a thing, you know!
Have you not heard of this?

It's pointless to defend Scottish EAs to me because I'm not criticising them - happy?

DFOD. Jesus. Get out of bed the wrong side?

cheez! There's no pleasing some people.

ps. I don't know what DFOD means?

So easy to wind up

DFOD do fuck off dear.

It's not for the EA to tell you about the lease and the service charge of a flat just as it isn't for them to give you the title details of a house. Those are due diligence matters for the buyer's conveyancer.

Call centres have their place, but when it comes to buying and selling your primary asset I think they suck. And the high street agents who have actually been to the property and met the parties involved in the transaction have the edge.

But what do I know and does my opinion, based on experience, count for anything?

So we have another target for the mn bile spewers now? The thread started with a reasonable question.

I note that it is half term....

Scottish hospitality and general cheery demeanor - cheers! I'll have a jakey juice on you too - on the national express to utopia.

I do find it stunning when you get the obvious real life estate agents on here getting all hot under the collar about the way in which they're perceived by the public.

I mean, c'mon! This isn't a new thing. Everybody has known this since the beginning of the internet when we all started comparing experiences.

It's the antics of your fellow 'professionals' hah!!! that give you a bad name - not me - it's them - and it's up to you in the NAEA or whatever, to get off their shiny arses and do something about it.

But you know what, they never have and they never will, because it's a business model entirely governed by short-term/quick-buck thinking and to be blunt - they know the game is up.

Why feck about fixing a sinking ship?

They've never been able to regulate themselves and they never will.

And like Top Gear - they will go the way of the dinosaurs.