Estate agents - are things so good they don`t have to bother

[Rob.]

There should be a question mark on the end of that but it would`nt fit, anyway.

I find myself looking for a new house, and in the last 36 hours have attempted to arrange 3 different viewings through 3 different agents. My details and what I`m looking for are all noted and a call back when the vendor can be contacted to arrange requested viewing is promised along with e-mails of particulars and other properties which may be of interest.
I`m still waiting for a single call back or even any other contact, so I`m guessing things must be really good for them and no effort needs to be made to sell? For what it`s worth, I have a property to sell and this is on the market - obviously the agents are made aware of this.

Any estate agents on here or anyone with a similar experiences when trying to buy to because this attitude is beginning to boil my ps.

[okgo]

That's sales people in general, the biggest problem is doing what you say you are going to do.

[andy400]

Previously, they didn't have to lift a finger to sell properties and make ridiculous commission for themselves.

Now they need to put some effort in, but they're too stupid to realise it......

[okgo]

@ Ridiculous commission. The commission is dogst on the whole.

[s3fella]

okgo said:

@ Ridiculous commission. The commission is dogst on the whole.

I think for what they did on my last two moves, the commissions paid were VERY good! Most of it with two different ageints, I had to do myself! Including ALL the viewings round my house and dealing with my buyer throug every one of his "concerns".
They got 4k for 5 digi photos, (the others I did!) and sticking it on their website!_

[Deerfoot]

s3fella said:

I think for what they did on my last two moves, the commissions paid were VERY good! Most of it with two different ageints, I had to do myself! Including ALL the viewings round my house and dealing with my buyer throug every one of his "concerns".
They got 4k for 5 digi photos, (the others I did!) and sticking it on their website!_

Do you have a talent for selecting very poor estate agents?

[okgo]

s3fella said:

okgo said:

@ Ridiculous commission. The commission is dogst on the whole.

I think for what they did on my last two moves, the commissions paid were VERY good! Most of it with two different ageints, I had to do myself! Including ALL the viewings round my house and dealing with my buyer throug every one of his "concerns".
They got 4k for 5 digi photos, (the others I did!) and sticking it on their website!_

I was referring to the actual agent as opposed to the company. Sorry.

[KingRichard]

s3fella said:

okgo said:

@ Ridiculous commission. The commission is dogst on the whole.

I think for what they did on my last two moves, the commissions paid were VERY good! Most of it with two different ageints, I had to do myself! Including ALL the viewings round my house and dealing with my buyer throug every one of his "concerns".
They got 4k for 5 digi photos, (the others I did!) and sticking it on their website!_

Hmm, 4k that goes to the agency. Of that 5% goes to the selling negotiator, and 2% goes to the guy that listed it. Then the business has to pay rent on the office, usually in a place with high footfall, which is expensive. They pay memberships to rightmove/primelocation etc. They pay for several pages of advertising in every local rag. They produce you details. They have a massive phone bill, as well as rent/rates etc. They don't find a buyer for some of their properties which means the effort is wasted. They have salaries to pay. They have to put up with literally hundreds of people just passing the time of day. They have to pay for company cars/phones/computers.

After all that, there is hardly anything left. The margins in estate agency are CRAP.

There is no excuse for the sales people being lazy, but perhaps it's a little bit of apathy in this market. After all that, you can't blame them, really. Can you?

[Trikster]

This is driving me crazy at the moment too.

Wasn't able to select the options we want from the various internet searches and phone enquiries were going nowhere. So made the effort one weekend and physically visited a few agents in person to hopefully get the human touch - price, area, land etc that we're looking for - we're actually looking over a wide area with a healthy budget, cash ready, so you'd think they'd be falling over themselves to help.. but no.

Just the usual circulars with no thought put into what is sent to us - and the couple of viewings we've tried to make the agent has tried to get us to fit around their plans, not ours.. I don't care if it's your day off, surely a colleague can help...!!! We're out of the country a lot so we try to give plenty of notice, but we both want to be there to view... arrggh!

[KingRichard]

Trikster said:

This is driving me crazy at the moment too.

Wasn't able to select the options we want from the various internet searches and phone enquiries were going nowhere. So made the effort one weekend and physically visited a few agents in person to hopefully get the human touch - price, area, land etc that we're looking for - we're actually looking over a wide area with a healthy budget, cash ready, so you'd think they'd be falling over themselves to help.. but no.

Just the usual circulars with no thought put into what is sent to us - and the couple of viewings we've tried to make the agent has tried to get us to fit around their plans, not ours.. I don't care if it's your day off, surely a colleague can help...!!! We're out of the country a lot so we try to give plenty of notice, but we both want to be there to view... arrggh!

Some agencies, the salesperson loses the commission if they don't conduct the viewing and take the offer. Backward thinking but hey ho

[Herman Toothrot]

I think they are burying their heads in the sand and thinking "no point".

My parents had a house on the market 18 months, finally gave up and rented it as they had under 10 viewings in the whole time, over the 18 months they also dropped the price £100K. Two months after it got rented a collegue of a friend mentioned they'd been looking for houses in the same area in the price range for the last 8 months and was registered with all the local agents including the one my parents had the house with but couldn't find anywhere, friend said well thats odd this house was for sale. They never mentioned it, guy was really pissed off and said it would have been perfect. He has since approached my parents and is so keen he's willing to buy it with sitting tenants and wait to move in when their contracts up.