I thought estate agents were being nice to buyers at the moment?

[WhyIsItRaining]

Hmm. Apparently not in London. I just called a couple of places to enquire about arranging viewings for tomorrow. We are chain free, mortgage in place, good deposit. Our budget is reasonable although we are looking for quite a lot from it (e.g. two bathrooms etc). Having scoured the internet, this is achievable (just, if houses are achieving their asking price. Or comfortably if they are going for less than the advertised price).

Two agents I have just called have done the sucking their teeth 'ooh you won't get much for your budget' trick on me.

I thought it would be easier this time around but looks like the London market is still ok?

port and lemon lots for sale with no boards they have been on so long they've taken them down (?given up hope-as they should have asking 700K for a grotty little terrace!) estate agent just shut down last weekend too
critter your post did make me laugh thanks for that

Choking with laughter at the idea the government is going to step in and buy up all the unsold properties. I don't think I could have resisted asking that agent if he should perhaps ask his psychiatrist about taking a higher dose of his anti-hallucinogenic meds.

I mean, WTF?

9dragons some people will believe these twats though, I am starting or joining a campaign for these people to be regulated in some way, the biggest purchse of peoples lives and it's sold to them by car sales men who got lucky.

Agree with TheFallenMadonna. It is a conditioned response, and they just can't help themselves. They've been spinning their lines with success to buyers for so long now, that they don't now know how to deal with buyers in a falling market. BTW, this isn't the agents mentioned; its a 'wine' coloured agents!

find an area you like, find some for sale signs, put a note through the door. the sellers will bite your hand off.

You need Property bee to keep an eye on what is going on. You download it then every time you look at Rightmove it shows you any change of status on that property. It only shows from the first time someone uses it on that postcode but I bet for most of the London ones the data will be there as people are bound to have looked. It is much more accurate than Property snake.

estate agents and nice --- thats the first time ive seen those words in the same sentence.

They are deluded and arrogant. Katiedd, remember that vile house for fil? They turned DOWN £190k!!
and were RUDE to me with it! Wankers

OP they will have to get real eventually, hang in there, they should be biting your hand off

so. here's an old est agt joke from the 90s

Q Why don't est agts look out of the window in the morning?

A: So they've got something to do in the afternoon

boom boom

Well too be honest WW they'll end up taking £150k if they are lucky so they've don't you a massive favour.
I would actually love to be an estate agent now and am seriously considering finding a job because I'd drive all the prices down and tell people like it is, every week the market is getting worse and worse.
In all seriousness, we're all mothers on this site, buy another couple of tins of beans and tinned fruit every week, candles, hot water bottles etc etc. It is going to be a bad winter.

Hi Katiedd, yes, I think rude arrogant est agt should be calling me back and BEGGING me to get fil to offer.

I wonder when they will wake up and smell the coffee?

at the joke WWW but how's FIL's search going? Agent very annoying but the house didn't look that nice, tbh, I'm glad he didn't buy it (without ever having met your FIL or seen the house or anything...).

I don´t know if any of you read this in the Observer at the weekend, but it might cheer you up.

The bit about estate agents, not banks obviously.

Edam FIL can't find anywhere, I agree the house was horrible overvalued and I'm glad he's seen sense and won't go up, it was on the telly, so THEN he believed it!

Thanks for link Hupa

We are Zone 2 West London. Eight months ago we went on the market for £775k but we are now on for £675 and a similar house two doors down just completed at £640k.

This is a popular neighbourhood but prices are plummeting. Our agent is very upfront and despite being the main agent in this area says he did not get one sale agreed last month.

As an aside: avoid Foxtons at all costs. They are agressivley trained liars. I love this quote from that Observer article:

Foxtons has to repay £23m per month to meet its obligations. The business was stress-tested by BC prior to its acquisition but the scenario involved a fall in transactions of 30 per cent. Now that transactions have all but dried up, the business is in trouble, shedding staff and cutting advertising.

Today, BC Partners is locked in talks with the bankers who funded the deal by putting up more than £250m.

"Whether Foxtons will survive the coming year is very much open to debate. The scant comfort for its backers is that they are far from being alone."

Well, there's another set of London agents who IME would give Foxtons a run for their money. They are totally everywhere, and so are their ridiculous prices.

www, sounds like dh - dismisses it when I tell him something but if he hears it from A N other source, it's suddenly gospel truth!

give us a clue critter?

we were plagued by their minis until very recently seriously 8/9/10 in a row and that's just one side of the street only one or two now!

OP- we've been in this situation before. Had sold our property (completed- money in bank) were ready to move and we were 'not allowed' to look at goodness knows how many properties because they had 'sold'. It was boom time and they were being lazy. 6 weeks later the houses we'd not been allowed to view were back on the market.

You would think they would work a bit harder now.

The clue was TOTALLY. They are totally London and wine/burgundy coloured.

KFH

Once a twat, always a twat - I think they're likely to be more nasty than usual as they have to keep the psychology going that they have the upper hand. They've been so used to scaring people into paying high prices, they don't want to stop. The lies told to me by the agent we bought through last year (height of market, don't get me started) are probably grounds for a court case.

We are in the opposite position cash buyer and in rented and they have been soooooooo nice compared to when we were looking lasy year!We have offered low on several properties and they have all been accepted!Not in london though

My friends wanted to live in a particular set of roads..they pushed an A4 sheet through each door on the streets saying "we are interested in buying your house via a private sale etc" and they got 3 people who were interested and they bought a house they wanted in the street they wanted, and paid no estate agents!

whyisitraining - is ruislip any good to you? Our home has 2 baths and 4 beds and study. We are about to put it on the Market as we are moving to east Sussex. I love it here and schools are oversubscribed but walking distance so easy to get into.