Estate Agents – Good or Bad?
I was an Estate Agent for 25 years and formed some good lasting relationships with clients I am still friendly with today. I am interested to see what the general opinion of them is today? I would be more interested in educated, informed opinions not just slagging them off because of the stereotype?
Interesting cross section of opinion, Michael, I really pleased you nailed those idiots…. that kind of activity is unforgivable!!!
Paul, I doubt you are more educated than me, you obviously have had some very bad experiences which makes you think all agents are the same, in my opinion that is an un-educated observation and you may want to re-consider who you call scum!!!
Just to confirm, I am an ex-agent not a current agent!
Rent Back Fast
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My experience is they are pretty useless… Some have been OK and a couple have been wonderful but most haven’t been?
Up until a year ago, I worked as a Branch Administrator in an estate agents. I really enjoyed it. I think there is a stereotypical view of estate agents – of course they want to earn commission and make money, it’s their driving force. I think a lot of people are suspicious that that is all estate agents are interested in but I don’t think it’s true for all of them. And of course they have their standard sales patter and some can be a little over the top and gushing! I think that’s what gives agents the stereotypical image.
With regard to reputation in general, I think it varies from company to company. Luckily, the agents I worked for had a good reputation and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them, they were a great team.
I will never use a real estate agent again, The last home I was selling had a 6 mo. contract and I gave the agent 1 key and (in writing) said make NO COPIES of my key. Well the 6 mo. came and went and only 1 open house(contract said they would have at least 5) and no offers, no ads were run. 2 mo. after end of contract I arrive home to find 2 differant agents(both from 2 differant companies) were in my house showing it to their clients.I asked them what were they doing in my house and how did they get in?(I had called police before I went in to my home also I carry a weapon, I have a CWP to carry it)one of the agents said the house was still listed as they showed me papers to the fact(forged of course) and that my original agent’s office gave them the key (they had made 5 copies of it)then the police arrived and I had them all arrested for trespassing and home invasion.I then found out that my home had been shown 3 other times within the last 2 mo. so I sued the main company that I originally contracted and it took a year,but I won $250,000 and they did pay after their appeals were denied.
Bad. Just thinking of my experiences with Estate Agent makes me angry. I received a notice of eviction, without my landlord being aware of it, merely because the agent wanted to negotiate another contract and gain commission. Needless to say, I’m still here. I’ve had bad experiences with agents both as a purchaser and as a tenant. From the wording of your question this is obviously not what you want to hear and I suspect that I’m far better educated than you are. If I were to select an Estate Agent at random, posing as a landlord, asking for assistance with the eviction of tenant so that I could put my property on the market, the chances are that you would be prepared to help. I’m not talking about evicting a bad tenant: I’m talking about a request like: “Could you call around now because the tenant’s out?” Illegal, I think, but most agents would be happy to do it.
To summarise, I think you’re absolute scum.
So anyone who disagrees with you must be uneducated. I know what I said is a generalisation and I have had good experiences with two estate agents: when I purchased my first flat and when I sold it (over 20 years ago). (Although the second agent marked my flat as sold in the window and told my buyer that they’d just had a flat in at a lower price after I’d just dropped the price.) However the flat hunting had made me quite aware of the bad ones to avoid. IMO anyone who considers getting their client an extra £20 a week more important than someone having a roof over their head is scum. People normally get slagged off for a reason.
They are people like anyone else, but what people don’t like is being lied to. And unfortunately the agents that i have used are liars. They will say they will ring then don’t, they say they will chase things up then don’t. It is a thing of trust.
As a landlord, I’ve had nothing but trouble with estate agents in this country. They lie, they’re pushy, they get up to all sorts of dirty tricks.
Not only that, but they “double dip” too, that is, they charge the landlord for renting a property out, and also charge the tenant for getting them the property. So they get two lots of commission for one property. It’s absolutely appalling.
In my home country of NZ, this doesn’t happen. I have happily had an estate agent managing my properties there and haven’t had any of these issues with them.
I think it can vary from country to country, but certainly in the UK they are on the same par as parking enforcement officers and used car salesmen.
Sorry, but you did ask the question and you’re getting the truth!