Estate agent- annoying? Or just doing job?

[catlady1234]

Hi,

We are in the process of selling and buying.

The estate agent of our purchase is understandably asking about the chain progress. We are in the enquiry stage.
But they keep chasing us about things to do with our sale and contacting our solicitor about things to do with our sale.
For example 'iv contacted your solicitor today and please can you make sure you complete X form today about the sale of your property'

I know they want things to progress timely (as do we) but should they know every single details about our sale? When they are acting for their seller? Not our buyer?

It's annoying me because they aren't always in the know of what's going on and they are just complicating things with their involvement. Keep asking things that have already been discussed with our buyer etc.

Is this normal?

Thanks

My EA is exactly the same, probably not too busy at the moment so have the time to be chasing everyone. It's annoying but helpful at the same time!

We kept nagging our estate agents to be on top of our buyers because our buyers were useless.

They probably want to complete the sale and their onward purchase before a mortgage offer expires.

I expect that with mortgage offers running out they're getting harassed to make sure you're moving as fast as possible.

Yes, this is essentially part of their role, and a fairly important one.

The vast majority of people haven't the first idea about the process of buying/selling, and simply sending out a sales memorandum and crossing fingers whilst hoping for the best doesn't tend to be a successful strategy for ensuring everything reaches exchange of contracts stage.

However, if they're going to be involved like this they really should always be in the know, as if they're not it can spread confusing messages, as you highlight.

Estate agents can be a pain but are also worth their weight in gold when someone in the chain has a slow solicitor or is a slow/clueless seller (first-time buyers can be particularly bad for dithering because they get nervous about searches and surveys). They often work with the same solicitors over and over again but have thick skin and aren't afraid to be a pain if it gets things moving.

I do understand they might want an update but why are they getting involved in details for our sale.

I know our sale will have a knock on effect for the chain but it's just too many cooks atm.

Everything is moving quickly and they are confusing everyone by asking about things that have already been resolved or have reasons why it's not been done.

I can't help but think they should focus on our purchase (which is going along at pace) rather than interfering in our sale

But if your sale doesn't go through as quickly as your purchase it causes problems for them.

You can ask them to deal directly with your estate agent.

Because any housing chain only moves as quickly as its slowest link.

Perhaps in this case their involvement is with the best of intentions, but a little off the mark if they're causing confusion.

A decent agent should know just as much about the buyer's sale as the onward purchase, as it helps to identify potential problems, and begin resolving them.

@girlmom21 I understand that but them meddling isn't actually helping. Them going between all EA/ solicitors/ buyers and chasing specifics is just adding stress to everyone

Do estate agents normally chase all people in the chain about individual enquiries etc?

Yesterday morning I got a query from our solicitor. I replied saying il provide the info after work.
5 mins later I get an email from our estate agent chasing the same thing.
30 mins after that I get a call/ voicemail and email from our purchase estate agent asking the same thing as the others.

I replied last night to our solicitors.

I get another call/ voicemail and email from the purchase estate agent this morning asking when it will be done 🙈

It's not urgent info. It's just a box I missed on the contents/ fitting form about the garden for a flat with no garden 🙄

I guess it's the combination of all them asking the same things that's frustrating. I can see why the other are involved as they are dealing with it but the purchase estate agent just seems like an added annoyance

This. I so wish the agent had done this in both the last two transactions I’ve been involved with which had sloth solicitors.

Tbh some estate agents make the difference between chains going through or breaking.

I'm not sure what they are doing could be described as meddling, but they've obviously annoyed you and it sounds like you don't like them very much, which probably isn't helping things.

There'll be a post here sooner or later bemoaning the fact that someone's estate agent isn't chasing their buyer up at all and why is the whole thing taking so long.

Most transactions need to be chivvied along, as a surprisingly large number of people haven't any great idea of what is involved and need to be prompted to do things.

Sounds like they are doing their job to me. Solicitors will be used to EAs chasing, and it's really only a 2 minute conversation. If the E is being told they are waiting for x form from you, it's not his fault if in fact you have already given it in but the solicitor hasn't seen it yet.

@Mildura
I actually really like the estate agent that's annoying me. He's been great with the negotiations etc. I'm just finding him jumping on everything tedious, especially when he doesn't need to. Everything is moving fast and we are in no way holding anything up. We haven't even discussed dates etc yet.
If he was chasing because we were holding up exchange or something then I'd understand.

Okay, il just have to suck it up and be grateful that they are pushing things in the right direction

It sounds like this is normal. Iv never had it with purchases or sales before 🤷🏻‍♀️

I can see that they are just trying to help move things along but like you it would also irritate me. I would probably just suck it up but I’d also be muttering eff off as I type my “polite” reply to their emails. I would also make a point of telling them every single time that “As I have already informed [XYZ solicitors], form 2 has been completed.” Etc.

Good ones do, but honestly ask them to liaise directly with your EA and your EA to liaise directly with your solicitor.

yes, It's a huge part of our job and why we charge a fee. finding a buyer is a very small part of what we do. When chains are on the verge of collapse, it's us who can pull rabbits out of hats to keep everyone happy and we can only do this if we know what's happening throughout the chain.

Our vendors EA has been a little like this. I get that they are progressing the sale but each time they’ve chased up OUR solicitor they’ve come back with incorrect information. They chased us a few weeks ago as they told us our solicitor hadn’t received the mortgage offer (they had) and last week they chased us saying that our solicitor hadn’t got the details of the solicitor dealing with our house sale (they had) so each time it’s been me chasing my solicitor unnecessarily for information that wasn’t correct

@wimbler

I agree they should know what's going on. But it's frustrating that they are actively following up on things that are under control. They aren't chasing things that are overdue. They are adding themselves into conversation that they don't need to and contacting the wrong people about things that are already resolved etc.

I'm going to tell them to just speak to my estate agent and to stop contacting us.

@RM2013

That's similar to what iv been dealing with. They keep chasing things that don't need to be chased.
And they go between our estate agent, our solicitor, their solicitors, me and then my partner.
It just gets soo confusing and stressful because they aren't even talking about the right thing. They will send emails to our solicitor (cc me in) saying they have spoken to us. Then I call my partner and ask what was said. But he hasn't spoken to them 🤷🏻‍♀️ it all just goes round and round.

Il just tell them to only speak to my estate agent so it's all combined

We had buyers who were nervous. Our agent was really good about calming them, chasing them and generally pushing the sale forward. They were in rented and we were moving to a rental whilst the house we were buying was finished.

This is often overlooked but so crucial. We’ve had a significant delay in our purchase and to begin with the sales progressor wasn’t that engaged - they had a big case load and had never seen an issue like ours before. We spent ages building a relationship with them, once they were on our side and fully understood our concerns they brought everyone else on board which created pressure on the top of chain to sort it out. We’ve now got a date for a resolution and really good communication going.