Is everything an Estate Agent says, utter BS?

[D-Ranged]

I've had my house for sale for 5 months, had 4 viewings in that time with the first agent. They did nothing to help, I had to keep calling them asking whether it was a good idea to lower the price etc.

I moved to a different one last Saturday, maybe against my better judgement, because the waffle that comes out of their mouths is just insane.

They know I didn't have many viewings with the previous agent. In the first 4 days of my house being with them, i get 3 viewings booked. Great, I thought.

Then, the first one cancelled a few hours before, apparently "They had an offer accepted on another house". I thought that was a bit weird, but fair enough it must happen. Second one got cancelled the day before. Exactly the same excuse... Now I am starting to question whether they even existed.

I had another one this morning. They did actually arrive. When I signed the contract, with the EA i said i will do the viewings, I have 3 dogs and a cat, they are all rescues with issues, so its easier for me to manage the house and them in it, rather than try and get them all out the house. I showed the family around, funnily enough they are from where i grew up, so had a chat about that. Then 20 minutes after the appointment started, the door bell rings. I open it and its the estate agent stroppy with me because i left her waiting for 2 minutes while i was in the middle of talking to the people looking around my house. She comes in and starts trying to take over. She's never been in my house. She is talking absolute crap. I look at the family and can see they see right through her.

The people who came to view asked "Dont you have a first time buyer coming to view" i said no, they cancelled. Then the estate agent piped up again saying there has been huge amounts of interest and all sorts of other rubbish which i just didn't bother opening my mouth about, as obviously that does benefit me. I then heard her outside talking to them, feeding them another load of BS!

It then makes me think back about viewings I've had looking at houses we want to buy, with her and other estate agent companies in this area. Pretty much all of them have played the same card, like this house already has 2 offers on it, they just aren't what the vendor wants, but they'll accept X amount, or similar things.

I know you shouldn't believe much, if anything that comes out of their mouths, but my eyes have been opened even more this week.

I guess i answered my own question there, and it was more of a rant! But interested to know if anyone else had any similar experiences??

 

[Diddums]

Estate agents can all get Tae ****.

 

[Ayahuasca]

They’re glorified salespeople so of course.

 

[slinxy]

Estate agents are very low on my list of occupations that add any value.
They see themselves as more important than they actually are.. or it could be that they play that role so they can justify their costs…

Try selling the house yourself via purple bricks or via the local papers mate… saves the headache for both yourself and potential buyers of having to deal with estate agents.

 

[Drollic]

The question is, when you find these wafflers that don't actually do anything, can you waffle them out.

Is it possible to waffle out a waffler, and if so, at what point do they stop waffling.

I've tried before and they tell me 'we're going round in circles'. I know they like circles though as they waffle in them.

 

[ianh]

95% of them seem to be utter scum from my own, my family, my friends and my work colleagues experiences with them.

 

[Diddums]

Brian Is Real Estate Agent!

youtu.be

"You failed at life's safety net job"

 

[moon man]

I've had bad ones and the old house in Yorkshire had no interest in 18 months but ones down the road on the Karen Mathews estate were selling for more like hot cakes than got a good one who sold it in weeks.
One obvious thing is don't pay a lesser up front fee but make then have to sell to earn

 

[BDEE]

Estate agents and letting agents are 95% absoloute lying scum.

They believe they have a license to print money. Income to qualifications ratio is probably the highest of any job, given you need zero qualifications to do these jobs (other than maybe the ability to sell your own granny to the devil) and in particular the letting agents rob people dry.

It is a big shame as there are a few good ones out there who are let down by the rest of this parasitic industry.


My favourite one is "You can't put an offer on that house until you have been financially qualified by our mortgage advisor" (we want to sell you our financial services products, even if you dont want to deal with us for this). Which is total BS as it is illegal to withhold an offer from the vendor for any reason. They also make up things like "The vendor has instructed us only to take offers from people who are using us for their mortgage to ensure it all goes smoothly).

Hate them.

 

[Pipe & Slippers]

They’re glorified salespeople so of course.

Glorified implies a higher status than salespeople!

 

[Mysterae_]

Estate agents and letting agents are 95% absoloute lying scum.

As with all walks of life there's the good and bad, but with estate agents the ratio of bad, sleezy and borderline corrupt seems to be disproportionally higher than the good ones.

Unfortunately when you are selling it's can pay to have the devil on your side. Nobody wants their house languishing on the market so most get the pentagrams out and start sacrificing lambs, virgins (if you can find one) and ignore the virtues of their own religion.

Until there is a fundamental shift in the way houses are bought and sold it will always be this way.

 

[LostCorpse]

i think its also important to understand how the estate agents earn money.
this i think ties in to the problem. money once a deals completed. not per hour they worked on selling.

having spoken to a neighbour whos selling the market isnt great out there in general.

but like others have said they are sales persons, they are paid to sell properties or rents/services

 

[EvilRob]

They’re glorified salespeople so of course.

Glorified??

 

[loftie]

I think it massively depends on who you get tbh. Someone I know has been looking for a place and one of the estate agents who I've met has been pretty helpful and honest. We dropped into the office unannounced just to see if they had anything and he was quite clearly telling them to avoid certain ones and look at others - and the ones that he said to avoid were viewed anyway and he was right.

On the other hand, they made an offer on a house (different agent) while having no chain and were pretty much ready to go only for the offer to be rejected - a bit under the asking price. Then we found out that a bit later (maybe 2/3 months) the house has sold for, iirc, 100k less than they offered and they never got back in touch.

 

[Ayahuasca]

Glorified??

Yes, what’s so difficult to understand?

They are represented as or like to appear more elevated or special than is the case.

 

[EvilRob]

Yes, what’s so difficult to understand?

They are represented as or like to appear more elevated or special than is the case.

I don't think they are glorified all. Everyone knows they are just (scummy) sales people and it's pretty obvious.

 

[LostCorpse]

Then we found out that a bit later (maybe 2/3 months) the house has sold for, iirc, 100k less than they offered and they never got back in touch.

sounds a bit sus, first thought was money laundering. or inside trading/backhanded deals.

 

[Ayahuasca]

I don't think they are glorified all. Everyone knows they are just (scummy) sales people and it's pretty obvious.

I don’t think everyone holds that belief of them. There are still many who believe they’re higher status than say someone selling phone contracts in a call centre.

The job is glorified and made out to be something it isn’t. In recent years we’ve seen a rise in Netflix shows on realtors and estate agents, who are essentially just jumped up versions of Deano who sells properties in your local area.

 

[loftie]

sounds a bit sus, first thought was money laundering. or inside trading/backhanded deals.

Yep, we thought so too. I know they'd considered talking to the neighbour as they were in contact with the previous owners and they'd spoken when they'd viewed the house.

 

[China Man]

There are good ones and there are really really bad ones.

Some agents lives local and know the area and can answer buyers question like school catchment area (changes each year), school rating, hospitals (maternity wards beds) and down to the local pubs and grubs. Anyone could learn those but not many bothered, the new ones are usually green and just BS they way through.