How would we manage without Estate Agents?

[ploughman]

In the news today: Estate Agents say they arent worried about losing business to private internet house selling. Obviously they are, as it wouldnt be on the news. It would be a tragic loss if these honest hardworking professionals went out of business by the hundred. Fees for selling a �200,000 house can be as low as �3000. The work involved is phenomenal- several minutes have to be spent making phone calls and reading documents, and I for one think they offer excellent value. Yes I know the actual cost of selling a house is only a few hundred pounds including legal fees, but I would rather pay to keep these wonderful people in their Porsches, country houses and Spanish villas. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ESTATE AGENT!! (OR NOT)

[jno]

who are you going to sue when an internet sale goes wrong - eBay?

[Glossopswift]

Too right, Ploughman. On top of a hard working day they even make the effort to come to my house once a week to tell me that they have sold a house on my street and would like to sell mine. That is so sweet of them. I have long begged them to get involved in all aspects of my life to make things easier. I want some chops for my tea tonight and can�t help thinking it would be easier to have a photo of all the chops in my town displayed in the window of a third party. I could then approach this third party to enquire about the availability of the chops I like and ask to be taken to see them, then offer a price. They could then contact the butcher, then contact me, then contact the butcher until we all agreed a price for the chops. Wouldn�t life be so much easier? Or they could just pimp prossies.

[ploughman]

You arent an estate agent by any chance are you jno??? Suing an estate agent is no easy task either. Many of them are also solicitors, especially in Scotland,so its not even an option.

Nice one glossop! Couldnt have put it better myself. They are the scum of th earth and I view the prospect of their demise with some relish.

[noxlumos]

What do you call three dead Estate Agents?

A good start :)

[smudge]

I totally agree with you ploughman & Glossop!

IMHO, it's money for old rope. The last time we sold & bought, I had to do most of the conveyancing myself - thanks to the very lax performance of a very well known Estate Agent & Solicitors - it still cost us the earth though! I tar them all with the same brush me - greedy scavengers!

[smudge]

Nice one Nox!

[Hgrove]

Totally agree! Someone I know sold her flat through Loot (London small ads paper) and was delighted!

[flip-flop]

Parasites - I sold my house, bought my new house and the guy I bought from sold his house and bought his new house all through the same Estate Agent.

I also did my new mortgate through them as it was implied that people who do so are, shall we say, looked after better than those that don't.

I conservatively estimate that they must've earned between us �20K in fees and commissions.

Throughout the whole process it was me and the guy I was buying from who did all the leg work.

Even after the prices had been agreed upon, these pond life continued to try to get my seller to accept more viewings - thankfully, he had integrity and told them to poke it.

This breed are right up there with solicitors and traffic wardens - they are parasitic vermin.

And worse of all, when they deliver a crap service (not if - becuase they will give a crap service), you can't reduce their bill appropriately because the solicitors pay them.

Barstewards, every one of them.

[gessoo]

Last time we moved (quite a long time ago) I seemed to be doing all the running around, etc. instead of the solicitor. When his bill came I deducted the hours I had spent doing what he should have done and paid the remainder. He never questioned it!

Estate Agents are no better.

Am involved at present involved in complaint procedures against a solictor with the Law Society. I believe the Law Society will probably completely take the solicitor's side in which case I will take it forward as a criminal complaint for fraud.

I am sure there are some very honourable solicitors and estate agents (I have a gem of a solicitor now), but, together with accountants, I think there are a lot of suspect ones. I am sorry if this might cause offence to any ABers, but I needed that rant!!!

[gessoo]

and I am fed up with TV programmes about property development because it rubs salt into the wounds for me. Rich people making more and more money at the expense of people needing homes desparately - but that's another issue.

[natalie_1982]

I worked for an estate agents for a year (as admin not sales don't kill me) and I would completely agree with everyone apart from jno!

The whole company (the biggest in the UK) was on the fiddle. The directors drove brand new Jag's with personalised number plates and sat on their fat a*ses doing nothing.

They are scum, do little work, are smarmy, get paid for 9-5 and roll in at 10, sloping off after and extended lunch break at around 3. They make me sick. I didn't know you could buy/ sell through the internet, I will deifinitely consider that from now on!

[natalie_1982]

And breathe.......

[jno]

I'm not an estate agent but my comment still stands. I trust the internet even less than I trust estate agents. If you can track down a seller who will happily take your money and not gazump you and the house is perfect for you, great, go for it. But estate agents are just like any other middlemen from bankers to greengrocers; you pay them to do the looking for you. Or you put in a lot of time surfing the net yourself - as people are increasingly doing for holidays - or reading Loot or whatever. I've given up booking holidays through the internet because there's too much available and it takes forever to find it and it's seldom any better than what a travel agent can do in a quarter of the time. I'd feel the same about moving house.

I should say it's been more than 20 years since I did move house, and the estate agents were great, found exactly what I wanted very quickly, and charged reasonable fees for a good deal of hard work. Sorry if I got the only good ones in the country.

[Glossopswift]

If the company is still going, jno, can they put me in touch with a chop?