Are all EA’s awful

[kirinm]

I’m so unbelievably sick of people who lie and are massively incompetent being heavily involved in one of the biggest purchases of your life

EA1: house we are officially ‘buying’ - can’t even get a basic question answered by the seller or their solicitor despite us being nearly 10 weeks into a fucking impossible purchase.

EA2: made an offer, she called broker to check we could borrow what we offered and then tried to find out if we could borrow more.

EA3: have been trying to arrange a viewing for over a week. We are excellent buyers due to being ready in our other purchase but willing to pull out if something else comes on. (EA doesn’t know we have had an offer accepted). Only responds by email every 24 hours to say oh no more viewing slots can you do X day only to then say, it’s pretty full up.

And you have zero option but to have to stay pleasant with these people. There are some agents we simply won’t deal with due to their conduct but when you’re as desperate as we are at the moment, you have to start considering compromising your morals. (There is one agent we absolutely won’t deal with as her overvaluing is nuts and she’s renowned for it where we are - she’s pure greed).

Sorry, just a rant. I’m so pissed off with this whole nightmare.

It has nothing to do with this other estate agent. Makes absolutely no difference to us viewing a property.

I think you need to remember OP that if you are buying, Estate Agents aren't your friends. They work for the vendor and their brief is to get the best price they can.

IMO you are correct not to inform them you've had an offer accepted. Keep your options open because that offer might not work out.

This is a fair point but it also feels like they’re letting their client down by being so ineffective. Tbf, we sold our place with EA1 and they tried to get us to sell it massively under what we sold for.

This is a fair point but it also feels like they’re letting their client down by being so ineffective.

We had a few of these sort when we were moving. They couldn't seem to be bothered to arrange a viewing for us. They said they would "get back to us" and never did.

they tried to get us to sell it massively under what we sold for.

That's unusual because normally they want the highest price they can get.
I would suspect they had a buyer (relative/friend) who wanted your house and they were trying to give them a good deal,

I think they wanted a quick sale. We’d had an offer about £50k under asking in the first week and they wanted us to take it. They actually said, accept it and we can keep doing viewings! We had 3 asking price offers in week 4.

Most of them have the capacity to be awful.

Generally I don't trust a word any of them say. They are gatekeepers to information so have significant power which some of them will use to their advantage. And they rarely suffer the consequences of behaving in a bad way as it is difficult to prove when they do.

Also it's worth reminding yourself that literally anyone can become an estate agent. It's a job that requires zero formal qualifications.

Gatekeepers of information???

What info?

Significant power???

What power?

EA know little to nothing about the houses they sell and its not their job to know anything, they are simply a facilitator of sale for the seller. They have zero power, everything the do is the decision of the seller they simply relay that.

The only remote area they could be said to have any 'power' is over viewings and I have only met one estate agent like that out of a dozen. Most just want to books viewings as fast as possible to sell as fast as possible, they get NOTHING from making more work for themselves by being picky or playing email ping pong.

And to the OP 10 weeks for buying a house is not long at all, I'm a no chain cash buyer at 8 weeks and its not done yet and this is considered a fast sale. If you pull out and start again it will almost certainly take 10+ weeks again but you'll be back at week 0.

Errr it’s 10 weeks into a sale where absolutely nothing has happened. Not 10 weeks into a sale where everyone is doing what they’re meant to do.

I’m quite aware of how a sales process works having completed my own 2 months ago (within 12 weeks).

It is their job to do due diligence.

it is their job not to be dishonest at the start of the process and tell you what they think you want to hear rather than what they actually know.

It is their job to organise viewings.

To be at inquiry stage of asking questions to the sellers solicitor then most stuff HAS to have happened. That is the last step before exchange not the first step in buying. You literally cannot have the relivant questions without the other steps.

They are usually the bottom of the pile types.
Poor vocabulary.
Dress awfully.

I’m not at enquiry stage. I’m at chasing the estate agent for a response to a question I asked at viewing stage. That the seller won’t answer but something they should have been asked before the estate agent agreed to market the place. When did you apply for probate. Not a hard question to answer.

https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-buying/estate-agents-tricks/

Ta da.

They deal with people who are under a lot of stress, all day, every day. People who are making one of the biggest financial decisions in their lives, people who are making very significant and important decisions, people who may be making those decisions because of other distressing situations ( death, divorce, redundancy). As the intermediary they often have responsibity without power, they can’t force the other parties in the transaction to be reasonable, accommodating or even efficient. By your own admission, OP, you are withholding information about your situation, but you expect openness and commitment from other people.

Estate Agents are pretty much like other people, some are very good, some are pretty inefficient, some just do enough to get by. We’ve bought and sold a lot of houses, in three countries, and I have met several of the incompetents, two or three arrogant idiots, one criminal by their own code( attempted to buy at a low price for a family member) and one who became a good friend (though that was in France where they are more integrated into the process and known in the community).

So I think you are being unreasonable.

I phoned up my estate agent when I had sold to see a property. The estate agent wouldn’t let me view as “it’s a bit council and you won’t like it”. I wondered how many people had phoned up to see my house that they had put off for one reason or another. And for that seller I was angry on their behalf- I was a few weeks off completion, and a proceedable buyer!

If it wasn’t for the experience and good people management/ problem solving skills of 2 sets of EAs in our chain, the whole thing (5 or 6 properties) would have collapsed.

They work for the vendors, and can only work with what they get. Vendors are difficult about viewings, fail to complete forms (which is in any case for your solicitor to chase) and dither about offers.

Of course it does.

Do you have any idea how much effort goes into preparing a house for a viewing? My husband is disabled so any physical work in the property or gardens is on me. I wouldn’t entertain a viewer who is already proceeding with another property.

I’ve worked with a few who were ok but one was outstanding. She was the EA of the house we were buying and really helped move the sale on with very difficult sellers.

I’m withholding information from one estate agent. People seem to be purposely ignoring the other two estate agents. Given that the idiot can’t even arrange a viewing, I don’t see what relevance it is anyway.

EA’s don’t need to lie or be dishonest. It’s as simple as that. They recommend using their ‘preferred’ solicitors who are invariably crap. They don’t offer up that they likely receive some form of referral fee. I am not stupid enough to accept their recommendations and have instructed somebody who is actually a solicitor and not a factory farm of paralegals working for an absolute pittance.

Lots of us have stressful jobs. It isn’t an excuse for incompetence.

I would also be worried that if they dicked around one set of sellers that they would do it to me later down the line as well if they did put in an offer.

Yes I want good money for my house, but I also want an easy/stress free sale

The person we initially had on our sale (of our home) was great. Unfortunately she left.

We are every much the ones being dicked around. We’ve done literally everything we can do. We still want to buy the house but can’t wait forever.