A Which? survey uncovered that nine out of ten people don't trust estate agents.
With its image of dodgy deals, slick sales talk and flash suits, the estate agency profession has earned a reputation for underhand tactics. That said, a good estate agent offers insider knowledge and expert local property market advice.
Tell us your experiences of using an estate agent.
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Mark (South Derbyshire), on 04/08/2008 at 21:34
A lot of the negative comments being aired here come from people who obviously have little experience of housing transactions. Estate agents work very hard and offer everything to a customer FREE is they are unsucessful. The flip side of that is that if they ARE sucessful and agree a sale, then the seller pays a slightly higher fee.
The alternative is for you to pay your agent a flat fee (which would be MUCH cheaper) whther he sells the house or not - but how hard will he work for you when your money is already in his bank account?
The greed surrounding property is caused almost entirely by the greed of house SELLERS and not the agent. If the agent knows he can get £100k for a house, but that the first time buyers are struggling a bit, and says "You could get £100k, but how 'bout you offer it for £90k so that nurse can buy it?" he would be kicked out so fast his feet wouldn't touch the ground.
Having said all that, there are A LOT of shoddy Estate Agents, and I, like Paul (above), would LOVE regulation to be put in place, but in the meantime, sellers should shop around, pretend to be a buyer and see how hard the agent tries to get you to view a house. THAT is the agent to use, 'cos any agent worth his sald knows that ads, internet, pretty pictures, etc. DO NOT sell houses. They make the agents phone ring, but VIEWINGS SELL HOUSES.
And, I repeat, most problems are caused by greedy, or unreasonable, buyers and sellers - NOT AGENTS !
Kiki (Waltham Forest), on 18/01/2008 at 21:41
Please note that in the US and Canada Real Estate Agents as they are called do ALOT more than estate agents do here in the UK. In North America buyers do not look for houses by themselves the agent finds the houses and ESCORTS THEM to the viewing. THe sellers ALSO have an agent present and if buyers like the property negotiation is done right away. Also, North American estate agents hold open houses where as many as 20 or 30 people show up. They are registered, qualified and trained. U must pass tests and exams in order to qualify unlike the UK. So therefore they charge more of a commission and it is justified.
My experience here in the UK has not been good. Estate agents do nothing except act as a go between. You would do just as well to sell your house yourself. You can list it on gumtree.co.uk and Loot, local and national papers. Some sites will charge you 60 pounds to list it on Hot Property websites, find a property and National newspapers like the Sun and the Mirror.
From a safety point of view using an estate agent may be smart if you are single or vulnerable. However, if you are carefull and shrewd selling your house yourself in the uK is a good option.
formbypc (East Lothian), on 14/01/2008 at 14:20
George wrote:
over the years the price of houses have rocketed. but the estate agency fees are still paid on percentive. I cannot see what they do. most people look on right move or up my street to get all the detail they want. and what qualifications do they have to have to get all that money.
... and what exactly do you mean by "all that money" - makes it sound as though every sale is a lottery win, which it isn't (see my earlier posts).
formbypc (East Lothian), on 10/01/2008 at 20:24
George wrote:
over the years the price of houses have rocketed. but the estate agency fees are still paid on percentive. I cannot see what they do. most people look on right move or up my street to get all the detail they want. and what qualifications do they have to have to get all that money.
..and what do you do?
What's your line of work, and how much do you get paid?
George (Congleton), on 06/01/2008 at 15:35
over the years the price of houses have rocketed. but the estate agency fees are still paid on percentive. I cannot see what they do. most people look on right move or up my street to get all the detail they want. and what qualifications do they have to have to get all that money.
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formbypc (East Lothian), on 17/12/2007 at 21:27
Freya Bletsoe wrote:
fran wrote:
formbypc wrote:
To those who advise the DIY approach; it may work for you, but it's not for everyone.
Case in point are my two most recent clients; both OAP couples, not one personal computer to be found in either of their houses, so no way that they were going to upload their own listing to Rightmove or get a listing onto other portals, eBay, You Tube, whatever.
I valued their homes, prepared website listings, ordered schedules, arranged and conducted ALL their viewings, conducted all negotiations with buyers, co-ordinated offers, monitored ours and buyer's solicitors right up to closing/settlement. For this they each agreed to pay me & my office between 1 and 1.5% of the sale price. Some of you would consider this an excessive fee, I'm sure. I don't. They didn't have to lift a finger except to sign an agreement with me, and sign the paperwork at settlement. Both their homes were under offer within 12 days.
Would anyone like to suggest how these OAPs would have managed without my services? Does anyone believe that if they'd put up a self-made sign in the garden, and a postcard in the local newsagent's window, that they would have managed just fine?
i think that you are the exception to the rule and for those % rates i would expect you to do what you listed. My experience however was that I paid almost £6,000 for an introduction and a 'Masterclass' on how to get money for old rope. The industry SHOULD be compulsorily regulated
Yes actually, I can think of a way they could have sold without your service...they could have used our "sell for Free service" by picking up the phone, calling our office and one of our researchers would have taken the details of their property and placed it onto the our system for them - all sans computer for Mr and Mrs OAP! All this for no charge unlike EAs who seem to think they have got this part of the market cornered...you haven't quite frankly - thank goodness!! ;-)
Let's assume for a minute that you DID have 2 or 3 people on your books that were looking for a similar home to the one my clients were selling; not necessarily their home, but one that fits the matching criteria on your website; what then?
They come and look at it, and decide "Nah, not really what I'm looking for" - where are further buyer prospects going to come from?
What then?
formbypc (East Lothian), on 17/12/2007 at 21:18
Sorry, that should have read TEN postings since February in homefinder's forums....
formbypc (East Lothian), on 17/12/2007 at 20:17
Freya Bletsoe wrote:
Jimmy wrote:
An excellent book called Freakonomics showed that US estate agents, on average, sold properties from their own portfolio for 3% more than equivalent clients properties, I was surprised the difference wasn't higher!
This is another industry which will be hit hard by the Internet. The Internet can provide your marketing very cheaply and effectively (I'm looking for house and I am only using the Internet) which leaves showing viewe
rs around, valuation and negotiation. If your time is very valuable or inflexible, or you are very poor at presenting things, or your a poor negotiator then the £3000-£6000 fee might be worth it. I suspect a good section of sellers in the UK will begin to move away from Estate agents and the agents will respond with a tiered fee aproach depending on what you use.
I too have read the book freakonics and had exactly the same thought about EAs. I must come clean at this stage though and tell you that I'm the founder and one of the Directors of Homefinder UK Ltd and we are doing all in our power to offer the British public a different way to buy and sell property. Heres what we do differently (and this was bourne out of my personal frustration with having to deal with EAs on a regualr basis when I was building my property portfolio in the early 90's!) We have a "Sell your House for Free" service...we can do this service for free because we are homefinders and are paid by our clients to find homes for them. That's how we as a company make our money! This means that vendors no longer have to pay an EA to sell, we tell the vendor in 48 hours if we do or don't have a potential purchaser on our books who will be interested in buying their home/office/land. The benefit to our paying clients is that they get to hear about off market properties prior to the general public/EAs hearing about them. Whilst we currently get offered something in the region of 400-500 off market properties a month this figure will only grow as we are franchising our company out...and would you believe the majority of our enquiries come from EAs who are savy enough to realise that we will stop their business in it's tracks as we grow and they'd rather be "in the tent" than outside of it - so to speak! So there is hope for the British Homebuyer!! ;-)
I've just looked at your website, which, whilst you offer a 'sell for free' service, suggests that you're merely acting as a buyer's agent, and charging the buyers accordingly. Therefore, what the public gain on the swings, they lose on the roundabouts, and whilst most folks at the moment are charged by an EA when they sell, you're merely switching the charge from the seller to the buyer.
What incentive would there be for my clients to have used your 'sell for free' service when there's no positive indication that you have any buyer prospects for them, nor appear to have significant visitor traffic? The forums in your site have apparently had only SEVEN postings since February of this year, so that's not encouraging. Since your head office and three (!) franchised offices are all in England and Wales, how would you demonstrate to a prospective seller in Scotland that buyers are actually registered with you, or actively looking at your site?
formbypc (East Lothian), on 17/12/2007 at 19:21
Ste wrote:
Scots Estate Agent wrote:
Marise wrote;
"They are only after one thing; money"
Certainly - how else to pay for all the stuff that adds up to provide a QUALITY SERVICE for the client;
Office, signage, desks, equipment, etc
Rates, phones, utilities for the above
Mobile PC, office PC, etc
Staff costs
Print media adverts
Online media - websites, portal membership, etc
Car(s), with all their attendant expenses
The 'free' advertising that the office pays for, and which clients benefit from
Marketing and promoting the business
Other general running costs
Professional fees, m'ship of NAEA etc
Note that 'sharp suits' are not included in my list. My only new clothing has been shoes; I wear them out going door-to-door with my promotional leaflets (otherwise I'd have to PAY someone else to do it!).
Note also that after a 7 day week including evening & weekend viewings & valuations, and paying for all of the above, I still need something from my fee to keep myself alive; you know the kind of thing; a roof over my head, food.
.....and now that Pav Sheen has published his little diary, the general public thinks it's all fair to 'beat' me, whether by reneging on the terms of the contract they signed with me, or by suggesting that I should charge less than everybody else in the local area in order to secure their business, or by a variety of other means.
So an EA earns approx 1.5% fee. On a £100,000 house, that's £1,500. In my job in customer services, it would take me 4-6 weeks to earn that sum, or 160-200 hours. I didn't realise EAs were putting that much time into the sale of my property. Assuming they are, then fair enough, that's value for money. And as for the long hours, it seems EAs have overlooked the long hours culture in Britain. The hours teachers work make EAs look like their on a permanent holiday.
Also, the comment earlier that it is the sellers who pay, and so get more service than the buyer, well that sums up British business. Buyers are also potential future sellers, so anyone with half a brain would value their custom. Not EAs I guess......
Ste wrote; "So an EA earns approx 1.5% fee. On a £100,000 house, that's £1,500. In my job in customer services, it would take me 4-6 weeks to earn that sum, or 160-200 hours."
You're confusing 'salary' with 'business income'.
You apparently work within the customer service dept of a company, and from that company's business income, you receive a salary. The business income meets other running costs as well; premises, other staff salaries, etc.
The commission on each sale is the full business income for that transaction, not a salary; a proportion of every business expense that I'm liable for must be paid out of this business income.
How many of your company's running costs do you have to meet out of your salary? None, I'll bet.
Ste also wrote "And as for the long hours, it seems EAs have overlooked the long hours culture in Britain."
Which bit of what I said implied this?
Paul (Birmingham), on 22/11/2007 at 09:57
Ste wrote:
Scots Estate Agent wrote:
Marise wrote;
"They are only after one thing; money"
Certainly - how else to pay for all the stuff that adds up to provide a QUALITY SERVICE for the client;
Office, signage, desks, equipment, etc
Rates, phones, utilities for the above
Mobile PC, office PC, etc
Staff costs
Print media adverts
Online media - websites, portal membership, etc
Car(s), with all their attendant expenses
The 'free' advertising that the office pays for, and which clients benefit from
Marketing and promoting the business
Other general running costs
Professional fees, m'ship of NAEA etc
Note that 'sharp suits' are not included in my list. My only new clothing has been shoes; I wear them out going door-to-door with my promotional leaflets (otherwise I'd have to PAY someone else to do it!).
Note also that after a 7 day week including evening & weekend viewings & valuations, and paying for all of the above, I still need something from my fee to keep myself alive; you know the kind of thing; a roof over my head, food.
.....and now that Pav Sheen has published his little diary, the general public thinks it's all fair to 'beat' me, whether by reneging on the terms of the contract they signed with me, or by suggesting that I should charge less than everybody else in the local area in order to secure their business, or by a variety of other means.
So an EA earns approx 1.5% fee. On a £100,000 house, that's £1,500. In my job in customer services, it would take me 4-6 weeks to earn that sum, or 160-200 hours. I didn't realise EAs were putting that much time into the sale of my property. Assuming they are, then fair enough, that's value for money. And as for the long hours, it seems EAs have overlooked the long hours culture in Britain. The hours teachers work make EAs look like their on a permanent holiday.
Also, the comment earlier that it is the sellers who pay, and so get more service than the buyer, well that sums up British business. Buyers are also potential future sellers, so anyone with half a brain would value their custom. Not EAs I guess......
True some properties sell in record time, the fastest I have had an involvement with was three days, and the vendor had the gall to say it was the easiest money he had ever seen made. Obviously a sentiment you all agree with?
The fact that it was a client of mine that bought it a guy ,whom i had worked with for years and he trusted me so that when I rang him he bought it sight unseen and is happy with the purchase, evidently has nothing to do with it.
Also that if it had been on the market for a month or two longer and then sold, the sellers would have paid two more months mortgage which added up to less than my fee.
Or how about a house i sold that took me 14 months and 27 accompanied viewings to sell, along with numerous open houses, thousands of leaflets (my money), paying for newspaper ads (my money) and with a contract with the seller that had lapsed but he was happy for me to keep going with the marketing.
When was the last time anyone on here worked for almost one and a half years for free??????
Anyone, anyone... no?
I thought not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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