Is everything an Estate Agent says, utter BS?

[jaybee]

Agree 100% there.

Ive had two mortgages/done two mortgage applications. 5 years apart and different houses etc.

Both times the offer was wrong. On the first one the bank had put the wrong house number on it. On the second one, they spelt my wife's name wrong....

The name thing REALLY wound me up. They ask you to supply them with six billion forms of ID and proof of who you are/funds etc etc etc. Yet they still go and spell the name wrong.

The world is hilariously incompetent.

During our one and only house purchase, my solicitor sent me a different customer's entire moving pack by mistake with over 100 pages worth of sensitive documents exposing addresses, financial details etc. I wrote to my solicitor complaining and they transferred my case to the owner at a different office. Service improved greatly after this and they gave me a heavy discount on the fees.

I completely agree with you regarding names and addresses. It's rule 1 of things to get right for a company who's job it is, is to send hundreds of sensitive letters day to day. When they fail on that account, trust levels hit the floor for me.

 

[Jono8]

During our one and only house purchase, my solicitor sent me a different customer's entire moving pack by mistake with over 100 pages worth of sensitive documents exposing addresses, financial details etc. I wrote to my solicitor complaining and they transferred my case to the owner at a different office. Service improved greatly after this and they gave me a heavy discount on the fees.

I completely agree with you regarding names and addresses. It's rule 1 of things to get right for a company who's job it is, is to send hundreds of sensitive letters day to day. When they fail on that account, trust levels hit the floor for me.

Yeh, it is absurd. They claim to be so hot on identity etc and then can't even be bothered to get names right! Also, we were buying a new build which we almost lost as they had to reissue the mortgage offer which took them another few weeks.

 

[Zefan]

What are the actual alternative to using an Estate agent? Whenever I look at reviews of Purple Bricks, they are awful and people generally recommend going with an actual dedicated estate agent instead.

We had a great experience on the buyer end of things back in Autumn 2021. It was towards the end of (but still, very much during) the "Offers over" phase that went on. I really liked the fact that we could send a message directly to the buyers, submit offers and receive responses directly on the portal. The "agent" who showed us around the place was direct with us and we dodged the entire bidding war/blind bids situation which seemingly went on with every other house we were looking at. I think, if you can take good pictures of your place, and know how to write up a good listing, then I don't really see why you wouldn't use them. We had to pay £££ for our photographer with a local estate agent (could've had free, but chose to pay more) and although they were good, they were nothing amazingly special and the provided photos/service side of things was limited, what was submitted to the agent was all they could use and there was no back and forth at all. When it comes to the agent specifically, we had to correct their description and suggested additions, essentially re-writing it ourselves, to be honest it would have been easier if we just wrote it ourselves in the first place.

I wrote to my solicitor complaining and they transferred my case to the owner at a different office. Service improved greatly after this and they gave me a heavy discount on the fees.

Hush money... reckon the data subject ever found out about that?

 

[BDEE]

What are the actual alternative to using an Estate agent? Whenever I look at reviews of Purple Bricks, they are awful and people generally recommend going with an actual dedicated estate agent instead.

The estate agent we had to use when we were first time buyers was a nasty piece of work. She lied to our faces and withheld information. She also was rubbish at getting back to us on all our queries.
Towards the end of the chain during COVID, a buyer at the top of the chain got very demanding and tried to make everyone in the chain sign a COVID insurance waver. It seems I was the only one in the chain who spotted it for what it was. I can't remember the exact details but it was something like the ability for anyone to back out even after exchange citing COVID as a reason. My solicitor advised I didn't sign it but my estate agent rang me claiming that everyone else in the chain had signed it and it was just me that hadn't.
We assumed this was lies, but even if it were true, I told her we wouldn't sign it and she screamed down the phone at me and said I would be the reason for the entire chain collapsing. Everyone then supposedly followed my lead and refused to sign it. Sale proceeded.

I have sold two houses and never used an agent.

First one I sold in 2007 using a site called "House Ladder". Bascially a DIY kit with a sales board and a listing on a few websites. It had previously been on with an EA for 6 months. I had two sales fall through, one because of not being able to get a mortgage and one because the buyer was trying to commit fraud and they wanted me to tell the valuer that I was selling the house for more than the price we had agreed. I refused to lie, sacked the agent and then sold the place myself within a month.

Second one I sold to my builder who did the extention on the house . We just dealt directly with each other. I dropped the price a bit given I had no agents to pay, we were both happy. Although this is clearly quite an uncommon situation to be in that your builder wants to buy your house off you!

 

[Nutty667]

They always try to sell themselves as having a massive network of buyers who don't look at Rightmove. It's all nonsense. We put this house on market before covid, they did virtually nothing to help the sales process.

Next time I'll be using a cheap online company to save the money.

 

[jaybee]

We had a great experience on the buyer end of things back in Autumn 2021. It was towards the end of (but still, very much during) the "Offers over" phase that went on. I really liked the fact that we could send a message directly to the buyers, submit offers and receive responses directly on the portal. The "agent" who showed us around the place was direct with us and we dodged the entire bidding war/blind bids situation which seemingly went on with every other house we were looking at. I think, if you can take good pictures of your place, and know how to write up a good listing, then I don't really see why you wouldn't use them. We had to pay £££ for our photographer with a local estate agent (could've had free, but chose to pay more) and although they were good, they were nothing amazingly special and the provided photos/service side of things was limited, what was submitted to the agent was all they could use and there was no back and forth at all. When it comes to the agent specifically, we had to correct their description and suggested additions, essentially re-writing it ourselves, to be honest it would have been easier if we just wrote it ourselves in the first place.


Hush money... reckon the data subject ever found out about that?

I am ashamed to have taken the money discounts in a way, but due to various factors, we stayed quiet and took the discount and improved service to better our position in a move that was already vert stressful. You would think they should have informed the customer but I doubt they did. I didn't, in fear of triggering unrequired further stress/complexities. I didn't fancy upsetting a solicitor let alone my own actual one.

 

[Jono8]

They always try to sell themselves as having a massive network of buyers who don't look at Rightmove. It's all nonsense. We put this house on market before covid, they did virtually nothing to help the sales process.

Next time I'll be using a cheap online company to save the money.

Yep. They basically want thousands of pounds for putting an advert on rightmove and making a few phone calls/sending a few emails now and then.

 

[danlightbulb]

Who? lol. I don't think anyone at all has said that. If it was directed to me, I am just highlighting how you have all misunderstood the role of an EA. Ironically it seems some of you are advocating for them to hard sell a house (like that Simpsons episode where Marge sells the murder house).

Not you specifically, I was more referring to the other thread we had a while back where we were discussing the achievement of the best price and the bidding system.

 

[dlockers]

Not you specifically, I was more referring to the other thread we had a while back where we were discussing the achievement of the best price and the bidding system.

Oh, where you kept describing an auction without saying the word auction? D:

 

[jaybee]

They always try to sell themselves as having a massive network of buyers who don't look at Rightmove. It's all nonsense. We put this house on market before covid, they did virtually nothing to help the sales process.

Next time I'll be using a cheap online company to save the money.

One of the things we noticed when looking though, was that we would phone to arrange a booking on a house that literally just went up new on Right Move, only to learn that offers had already been submitted and viewings taken place. So I think there is some element to that where the Agent does ring round their lists first before they put it up on t'internet?

 

[Nutty667]

One of the things we noticed when looking though, was that we would phone to arrange a booking on a house that literally just went up new on Right Move, only to learn that offers had already been submitted and viewings taken place. So I think there is some element to that where the Agent does ring round their lists first before they put it up on t'internet?

Perhaps for certain types of properties.
Never been the case for my 2 house sales.

 

[Rroff]

One of the things we noticed when looking though, was that we would phone to arrange a booking on a house that literally just went up new on Right Move, only to learn that offers had already been submitted and viewings taken place. So I think there is some element to that where the Agent does ring round their lists first before they put it up on t'internet?

They do all kinds of things - we had massive issues with the estate agent when selling my gran's place of them falsely telling people places were or weren't available, etc. to try and move on properties they were struggling to shift and/or to try and get people buying higher priced places.

 

[danlightbulb]

Oh, where you kept describing an auction without saying the word auction? D:

Yes a negotiation lol.

 

[dlockers]

Yes a negotiation lol.

A negotiation where you know the current highest bid price someone else has negotiated?

It is so difficult to describe your method without thinking of eBay for some reason

 

[wozzizname]

A near neighbour had the agent in recently to value their deceased parents property, a three bedroom detached house on a large plot in one of the most desirable roads in the area. Apparently they'd struggle to sell it as 'no-one wants a large garden anymore'.

 

[Mysterae_]

What are the actual alternative to using an Estate agent? Whenever I look at reviews of Purple Bricks, they are awful and people generally recommend going with an actual dedicated estate agent instead.

I used Purple Bricks to sell and apart from (as has already been mentioned) improving the description and photos they do and not using their suggested solicitor I found them okay. The messenger feature on their app to communicate with the buyer/seller is a bit of a poisoned chalice; I had no end of asinine messages and requests from the buyers even after the completion date. I soon deleted the app!

The sellers of the house we bought had employed a fixed-fee estate agent so there was no hard upselling or the rigmarole of a bidding war. I was the first person to view it, put in an offer which was accepted and the house was off the market the same day it went on. I often wonder what that EA did for their fixed fee - lots of photos, a nice description, putting it on Rightmove and speaking with me to liaise a viewing (which the owner did with me). I never even met with their EA in person. I'd wonder where the value for money was if I'd paid thousands for an EA to do so little.

 

[jaybee]

If right move allowed private listings from a non estate agent for a fixed fee, surely they would still profit massively and it would wipe out most estate agents over night. Win win?

 

[Mysterae_]

If right move allowed private listings from a non estate agent for a fixed fee, surely they would still profit massively and it would wipe out most estate agents over night. Win win?

Very true, but the EA cartels would just stop using them en masse.

Imagine if Autotrader was the same as Rightmove!

 

[BDEE]

If right move allowed private listings from a non estate agent for a fixed fee, surely they would still profit massively and it would wipe out most estate agents over night. Win win?

Rightmove IS the estate agents.

It is owned jointly between a number of the large corporates along with some banking partners.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

All sales people are full of ****, no matter what they're selling. It doesn't matter if you're doorstep charity fundraising, selling windows, houses or life insurance they're all singing from the same hymn sheet. It's all psychological tricks like fomo or NLP. The difference is, the really good sales people do it so well you've no idea you're being played. The vast majority just think they're good and come across as slime.

This is objectively untrue. I work with 10+ technical sales people. They're honest, and they know a hell of a lot more than the consultants we work with.