Have Fun with Estate Agents.....

[MudRat]

Next time you are in town, pop into your local branch, when they ask if they can help you, say you are a cash buyer and would like to look at all local properties over 400 grand, when they say 'really', say 'NO' and run out laughing! If you feeling very mean, get them to fill out the paperwork and make you a tea, before taking a fake mobile phone call and going outside to take it, at which point walk away! Happy days! 

 :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

[JumboBeef]

 :shock:

They are people, just like the rest of us, trying to make a living.

Would you like it if someone did that to you?

[V8MoneyPit]

Had a bad experience with an estate agent, per chance Mudrat???  :lol:

[carbore]

From my experience the same thing applies to builders and other trades. Various people let me down re quotes and not returning calls 6 months ago, some of them are now phoning back but the works done and any new stuff will go the way of the people who bothered to turn up for the earlier jobs or had the decency to say they were too busy.

Same applies to the car salesmen who diddnt let me test drive various cars over the years, including a plonker at toyota who said "Your cars (a Scooby) worth 5k Still want a test drive in the MR2", I bought and  Elise the next weekend happen to have owned an MR2 before the Scooby as well.

Treat you customers well when its fair weather and when the storms come they will remember you.

[JumboBeef]

Fair enough having a bit of fun with someone who has let you down/stiched you up, but just to pick on one profession just because of what it is.......?

[piggysteve]

From my experience the same thing applies to builders and other trades. Various people let me down re quotes and not returning calls 6 months ago, some of them are now phoning back but the works done and any new stuff will go the way of the people who bothered to turn up for the earlier jobs or had the decency to say they were too busy.

Same applies to the car salesmen who diddnt let me test drive various cars over the years, including a plonker at toyota who said "Your cars (a Scooby) worth 5k Still want a test drive in the MR2", I bought and  Elise the next weekend happen to have owned an MR2 before the Scooby as well.

Treat you customers well when its fair weather and when the storms come they will remember you.

I had the same at our local VW dealers turned up in the old 110 to look at a Golf. Went from work which if you know me means scruffy, everyone studiously ignored us. On the way out I mentioned loudly to the wife that my £11 000 cash is obviously not legal tender round here by god they jumped then but too late. As I said to the head salesman who was then trying to get me to stay 'you can't judge people by how they are dressed or by what they drive'. I dont know many smart pig farmers  :lol:

Steve

[Mareng]

If you want to wind a car dealer up,  do as one guy did at work today...

Pull up and park your Corsa (other Euro boxes work just as well) on the forecourt, right across the front of the cars for sale, get out, lock up, walk past all the brand new cars on offer on the forecourt you've just parked on, and cross the road to the generic used car dealer directly opposite.

Works a treat, and had our salesman calling the driver all the names under the sun 


Or, if you want to get the petrol station staff all worried, pull up in your 54 plate Merc (again, other vehicles are available) and after filling the tank, start filling 25 ltr cooking oil drums up in the boot (you should get about 2 done before they notice and switch the pumps off before coming out and telling you you have had your fill   :lol:

[MudRat]

why do you think house prices are as high as they are? if estate agents were not on a commision basis, then all our mortgages would be lower!

[Boggert]

Just remember Estate agents just do what they are told, to be fair when I was an estate agent the things the vendors asked us to do were appaling.

Things like...

"Tell the buyer I want another £10 K or I'm not exchanging contracts"
"If you think they have money put the price up"
"Don't tell them about the damp"
We valued the property at £250,000 so the vendor wanted to put it on at £350,000 when we refused he complained to the bosses.
 
The thing is with Estate agents the work for the seller not the buyer. The problem is some buyer think they work for them :roll:

I have more stories of when I worked in Estate agency in Grayshott and Alton than I have in the police!

 But I would not do it again for all the tea in China.

[crazymac]

why do you think house prices are as high as they are? if estate agents were not on a commision basis, then all our mortgages would be lower!

I have to agree with that comment. You want to sell your house so you go to an estate agent and THEY value it! and advise you what to put in on for.

We considered putting our house up two years ago, one estate agent said £430,000!!!  The realistic ones said £275,000

[MudRat]

why do you think house prices are as high as they are? if estate agents were not on a commision basis, then all our mortgages would be lower!

I have to agree with that comment. You want to sell your house so you go to an estate agent and THEY value it! and advise you what to put in on for.

We considered putting our house up two years ago, one estate agent said £430,000!!!  The realistic ones said £275,000


Its true, 3% of £300,000 is alot more than 3% of £250,000.

[Boggert]

why do you think house prices are as high as they are? if estate agents were not on a commision basis, then all our mortgages would be lower!

The comission the average estate agent gets from a house sale is 1.5% say it a £100,000 sale the company gets £1500 the agent then gets up to 6% of that if they are lucky...

You are mad to Pay 3% in the UK

So the Comission earned is £90 from that sale if it goes through.

The basic wage is crap... only the bosses make good money.

Now if you are in America you have to pay a 5-7 % listing feel and a 5-7 % selling fee... :shock:

Tell me how an agent makes his money if he is not allowed comission?????

We have it easy in the UK compared to overseas.

[MudRat]

decent wages or find another job?

[Boggert]

decent wages or find another job?

Yeah but thats the thing if there is no comission there is no insentive to sell the houses.

[MudRat]

apart from pride in your work etc

[Boggert]

apart from pride in your work etc

Well there is that, but in reality how many people in sale have pride in their work... they work to live not live to work.

There is a lady we know who works for an estate agent, she is a single parent and is already on a 3 day week. Soon she will loose her job and she knows it. She is desperately looking for a new job, but so are 1000's of other people.

But the roll on is when she looses her job, we will loose her business as my wife is a child minder and we look after he child... so the rebound is we are £250 a month out of pocket.

I know its life but if one industry falls apart it cane directly affect 1000's of other people and families.

[laser_jock99]

Just remember Estate agents just do what they are told, to be fair when I was an estate agent the things the vendors asked us to do were appaling.

Things like...

"Tell the buyer I want another £10 K or I'm not exchanging contracts"
"If you think they have money put the price up"
"Don't tell them about the damp"
We valued the property at £250,000 so the vendor wanted to put it on at £350,000 when we refused he complained to the bosses.
 
The thing is with Estate agents the work for the seller not the buyer. The problem is some buyer think they work for them :roll:

I have more stories of when I worked in Estate agency in Grayshott and Alton than I have in the police!

 But I would not do it again for all the tea in China.

The boot is firmly on the buyer's foot right now. I'm having great fun whilst looking for a new house at the moment - you can pretty much offer what you like for a house these days and the seller (and estate agent) has to take every offer quite seriously. I'm hoping to get a deal soon on a house which started at 280K in January, for less than 200K. If the seller won't budge- then move on. There are plenty of other sellers who must eventually cave in. What makes me laugh most is the sellers who still think they can sell a house in 2009 for it's 2007 'top of the market' value.....

My advice if you're looking to buy at the moment- start by offering at least 50k under the asking price. There's some serious bargains starting to appear out there.

[cardiff_gareth]

Next time you are in town, pop into your local branch, when they ask if they can help you, say you are a cash buyer and would like to look at all local properties over 400 grand, when they say 'really', say 'NO' and run out laughing! If you feeling very mean, get them to fill out the paperwork and make you a tea, before taking a fake mobile phone call and going outside to take it, at which point walk away! Happy days! 

 :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Cheers for that, I worked for an estate agents and was layed off this week, just before xmas with presents to buy, bills to pay and also a mortgage.

You made me feel a whole lot better :clap:

[pux]

How to wind a teacher up.............Tell em they are well over paid for what they do............................................... :twisted:

[MudRat]

How to wind a teacher up.............Tell em they are well over paid for what they do............................................... :twisted:

 :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: No arguement there!  :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance:

[denviks]

The boot is firmly on the buyer's foot right now. I'm having great fun whilst looking for a new house at the moment - you can pretty much offer what you like for a house these days and the seller (and estate agent) has to take every offer quite seriously. I'm hoping to get a deal soon on a house which started at 280K in January, for less than 200K. If the seller won't budge- then move on. There are plenty of other sellers who must eventually cave in. What makes me laugh most is the sellers who still think they can sell a house in 2009 for it's 2007 'top of the market' value.....

My advice if you're looking to buy at the moment- start by offering at least 50k under the asking price. There's some serious bargains starting to appear out there.

thats why we pulled our house off the market.....people were making really stupid offers.....now we know its a buyers market but we aint that desperate to sell........... roll on 2011 ...we will try again then maybe  ;)

out estate agents were terrible though.....we are still dealing with ethe scam they tried to pull on us 

[laser_jock99]

The boot is firmly on the buyer's foot right now. I'm having great fun whilst looking for a new house at the moment - you can pretty much offer what you like for a house these days and the seller (and estate agent) has to take every offer quite seriously. I'm hoping to get a deal soon on a house which started at 280K in January, for less than 200K. If the seller won't budge- then move on. There are plenty of other sellers who must eventually cave in. What makes me laugh most is the sellers who still think they can sell a house in 2009 for it's 2007 'top of the market' value.....

My advice if you're looking to buy at the moment- start by offering at least 50k under the asking price. There's some serious bargains starting to appear out there.

thats why we pulled our house off the market.....people were making really stupid offers.....now we know its a buyers market but we aint that desperate to sell........... roll on 2011 ...we will try again then maybe  ;)

out estate agents were terrible though.....we are still dealing with ethe scam they tried to pull on us 

Certainly if you do not really need to sell your house at the moment then you did the right thing by taking it off the market. On the plus side though- if your house sold for 50k less than expected then the house you buy will correspondingly be 50K less too. We are all in the same market after all.

[Ridgeback]

I do think that Estate Agents are real people and have a job to do, but I still cant help thinking most of them (before the slow down) were over paid, under qualified and deserving of many of the comments they get.
I went to sell my shared ownership house once.  I only had 25% to sell but all the local agents wanted a percentage based on the 100% property value. I put the house on the market with one Agent and also put my own ad up. I had offers for the asking price within 12 hrs from both the Agent and my own ad. The agent wanted £1500 for a few phone calls and one visit. I think Its because of this greed, that they upset people so much.

Not saying all agents are the same but most I have dealt with will say anything to get a sale.
At least a teacher has to be qualified for what little pay they get.

I am in Technical Sales and design, so I know what it is like when you have targets to hit, however I spent 5 years getting qualified in what I do and would never tell a customer something incorrect just to get the sale.