why are estate agents such useless scum?

Grrr, annoying estate agent – we’re looking for a 3 bed house in Belper. Which is a small town in Derbyshire.

Called her up about a particular house. First told me the house was sold, then I said erm it’s on your website, checked and turned out she was fibbing. Then, wouldn’t let me book an appointment until I’d a)given my life history, b)told her that I was looking for, and c)she’d told me about 3 houses she has that they obviously want to offload. Best one was (bearing in mind we’re looking for a 3 bedroom old house, within easy walking distance of the town centre, train station etc.), a 2 bedroom relatively modern house, 2 miles from the town centre, and I kid you not she actually said to me “they’ve had the cellar tanked out, they use it as an office, you could use that as a bedroom”.

Now she’s called me up today about a house we saw last month with another agent saying it was new on the market, I said, we’ve seen it, “no you can’t have, not been on the market for years”, so I booked an appointment, got back to check my lists, it’s the same one that was on last month like I said.

We’ve got a 35-45% deposit, both got good jobs (probably looking at borrowing 3x one of our incomes), first time buyers, so basically we’re exactly what the estate agents round there are desperate for, people who can actually buy a house, and can do it quickly with no hassles, and I’m sure they’re very keen, but for goodness sake why can’t they stop wasting our time viewing useless stuff that we obviously won’t be interested in, and find us stuff we might actually want, and stop blatantly lying to us.

Joe

They can’t help it. It’s genetic, or glandular, or something similar.

You understand that they don’t work for you, don’t you? If you want someone who does, be prepared to pay 2-3% of final purchase price to a finding agent.

Because they’re so well qualified to deal with the huge life changing financial transactions that take place.

What are the qualifications required to be a travel agent again…………?

Very poor rant. Good spelling, no swearing and totally coherent.

Must try harder.

bloody dog…grrrrrr estate agent !

At least with Property Bee[/url] we can avoid the lies about how long things have been on the market, and what the price drops have been.

Joe

I wouldn’t worry. They won’t be around for much longer

Just be grateful you’re not the one paying them to be useless.

We once had some brainless bimbo try to sell us the house next door

You understand that they don’t work for you, don’t you? If you want someone who does, be prepared to pay 2-3% of final purchase price to a finding agent.

They only don’t work for you in a market where there are more people to buy the houses than people who want to sell, so it’s just a matter of pushing the price up as high as possible.

In a market like the current one, it is to their financial advantage to get through sales at any price, rather than to work on behalf of the seller to maximise the price. If they worked rationally, they’d be working for us, no matter who the commission actually comes from in the end. They get way more commission if they sell two houses, than if they manage to sell one at a slightly higher price.

Similarly, there is so much on the market, and so many agents, that it isn’t to their advantage to piss off buyers, as buyers can just choose not to use them (especially with a lot of houses being on with 2 agents).

Joe

Which is a small town in Derbyshire.

No it isn’t

joemarshall

the propertybee plugin for Firefox is awesome. Anyone househunting should use it.

That’s true Joe, but you do not choose to buy from a particular agent, you choose to buy a house. You’ll ultimately buy the house you want, even if the agent is a lazy, patronising, stupid, arrogant, tool with a horrible shirt, over-large tie-knot, naff car and a stench of Calvin Klein aftershave. Thye know that, and have some interest in showing you as many houses as they possibly, possibly can rather than just showing you the good ones.

🙂

No it isn’t

D’you mean it isn’t in Derbyshire, or it isn’t small?

Cos it is, and 20,000 people isn’t that big a town, and it is small in the sense of having a compact town centre at least.

Joe

That’s true Joe, but you do not choose to buy from a particular agent, you choose to buy a house. You’ll ultimately buy the house you want, even if the agent is a lazy, patronising, stupid, arrogant, tool with a horrible shirt, over-large tie-knot, naff car and a stench of Calvin Klein aftershave. Thye know that, and have some interest in showing you as many houses as they possibly, possibly can rather than just showing you the good ones.

Not when houses are on with multiple agents, which several of the ones we’re looking at are. And we’ve already just said no to one viewing because it was too much hassle sorting out a simple first viewing, and the agent was too dodgy.

Joe

Put a letter through the door of the house you want to buy and tell them about the problems with their estate agent ,I am sure they will give the agent a good attitude adjustment

Poor Estate agents. They can only sell houses to you that fit your criteria. If they cant tick 100% of the boxes then of course the push the next best thenthe next best thing.

Dont forget they probably get some real numpties going the other way as well.

This coming from me who when in the process of putting an offer in on a stunning two-level detatched ski-lodge style house was told by the vendor that their agents just recommended that they raise/revise their asking price by 50k. I couldnt get my head round that. 3months on and the house is still unsold.

Hora no offence but they must have thought you looked stupid enough to buy that one

was told by the vendor that their agents just recommended that they raise/revise their asking price by 50k. I couldnt get my head round that. 3months on and the house is still unsold.

or more likely the vendor hadn’t found what they’d wanted themselves, but figured if they sold at +50k it would be worth them renting a while?

we viewed and second viewed a house we liked, price set just above the stamp threshold ( 5k or something? ), and offered just below, as anyone in their right mind would expect i think, and we waited over a week, before we eventually phoned the agent and asked what the hell was going on. we were also in a position to move very quickly. we never did get a sensible answer out of them, and eventually went elsewhere. she was very pretty, but completely listless, couldn’t actually sell or remember any details, wasn’t pro-active in any way, and i quickly lost patience with her.
eventually found our house, saw it twice, made an offer, and i think we wrapped it all up in three weeks.

or more likely the vendor hadn’t found what they’d wanted themselves,

House was surplus to requirements. Children had flown the nest and they were living in their holiday home.

It was perfect. All internal walls were plaster/studwalls so you could rip out very easily and either have open plan or make up your own room design very easily. GF (as always!) needed convincing. I think the estate agents saw the level of interest (this was at the start of the ‘R’) and thought there was some mileage in trying for more money. Dont get it as their commission increase must have been derisory?!