is it me or is anyone else finding that most estate agents are a little laid-back given that it's a seller market?

[PerkinWarbeck]

Just wanted to have a quick moan. We've just started looking for something to buy after relocating to a new area. We've had viewing appointments cancelled left, right and centre for properties that have been on the market quite a while. no apologies, no attempts to reschedule, and calls not returned.

I am sure that the vendors of the properties we want to view would be going mad if they knew.

Ummm, I think in most areas it is completely a buyers market at present, providing they can secure a mortgage.
Nothing is selling here! Properties are still completely over-priced as sellers are desperate to keep hold of the 'profit' they have made

Arrrgh! Buyers Market!! I meant that! My brain has been fried by trying to speak to farking estate agents in words of one syllable.

We're trying to buy and no-one will show us anything!

it's ok! I think estate agents are crap all of the time, aren't they?
was it you who linked to the house in P/w the other day?
Looked like a nice property- much wider than most of similar size... and my friend grew up just around the corner too!

It could be because they are closing offices and making people redundant as they try to save costs. A lot of agents are in a bit of a state at the moment.

Yup, that's me in PW .

I hope we'll find somewhere soon, but no-one seems to want to return our calls. We've got a huge deposit burning a hole in our pockets, and renting sucks. I feel sorry for the poor bloody vendors as well - some no doubt desperate to move.

It must be so frustrating for everyone perkinwarbeck. I hope you find something soon.

Some of it could just be general crapness but I suspect much of it is because many agents are on the verge of closure. My friend had just one weeks notice from his job as an estate agent two weeks agao and in all honesty he spent most of that week trying to find another job so that might be the case in your area.

gosh, twofalls, sorry to hear about your friend.

This is so true.

We recently offered on a house and the estate agent snorted at our offer and then failed to get back to us for a week. When I chased he simply said "oh yeah, they rejected the offer out of hand". Was he ever going to tell me.

The offer was 17% under the asking price but in line with the prices of other houses in the area.

We offered 3% more a few days later and again have heard nothing.

We are buyers who have a chain free offer on their own house and 75% equity to invest in a new home. You would think we might be of interest to bored agents.

Oh no, artichokes - you too?

I thought we had done the hard bit when we sold our flat a couple of months ago .

I say by-pass the estate agents, go direct to the vendor, even if that means popping a note through their door to let them know you are interested.

Then the vendor knows that the EA isn't really working for the money that they will be paying.

Ah, ah, we got the same treatment, basically they are playing a nasty game, overpricing properties and then not arranging any viewings. I think they are trying to put competitors out of business, more than selling houses. We threatened to go and knock on doors and guess what, we got the viewing. In another case we told another estate agent we couldn't view his competitor's property and it was madness as there are very few buyers, so he knocked on the door for us and the original estate agent came back angry to us and granted the viewing (I guess the home owner forced them to arrange it). We are cash buyers, they should be fawning on us, but no, they have some other agenda. So we started leafeting and got a few responses. Got another call for a house on Saturday from people who want to sell but are worried in this market. We printed a nice leaflet saying: we are cash buyer, we want to buy, we are genuine, bla, bla and it posted it in the streets we liked. Still, not sure if this house is for us, so hoping to have more houses to view.

Oh, it's just rubbish, isn't it?

Most recent experience - agent laughing at an offer of only 12% under the asking price .

on a separate note, when we sold our flat, we left keys with the agents, which we thought was fairly normal for working people who were after a quick sale. I am at the number of vendors who claim to want a quick sale, but won;t leave a key with the agent, and could only possibly accommodate me between 7.30-7.45pm on the first wednesday of the month, or some such.

"I say by-pass the estate agents, go direct to the vendor, even if that means popping a note through their door to let them know you are interested."

I totally agree - obviously it is wrong to see a house for sale in an estate agent's window and then approach th vendor directly, but when my mum was buying - cash - a couple of years ago she made a perfectly reasonable offer which the estate agent refused to put to the vedor unless she came into the office and discussed finances with one of their advisors! I told him that unless he put the offer to the vendor we would do it ourselves, and would support the vendor in any legal action to avoid the agency's fees if the sale went ahead.

Funnily enough, he was back on the phone half an hour later to say the offer was accepted.

I suspect it's more a case of vendors refusing low (or what they still consider to be low offers) and estate agents getting totally fed up with banging their heads agains brick walls trying to make sales go through whe they know vendors won't agree to offers, and it's highly unlikely Joe Blogs off the street will be able to get a mortgage anyway.

PerkinWarbeck - your situation does sound odd though!

The irony is that we have the cash in the bank, still they are not interested. To be in this situation we had to sell and go into renting in a cheaper area. I'd really like to have my own home, renting with my stuff in storage in the garage is like holding on.