The most incompetent estate agents in the world?
adi on Mar 28, 2009 in 
- Image by blech via Flickr
I’ve been looking into buying a place here in London recently, with the prices falling and the interest rates making saving practically pointless and all, it seems like a good time. So I’ve been doing some searching on the various property websites out there, found a few that look ok, nice enough areas, within budget and so on. One in particular I clicked on the ‘contact estate agent’ tab, filled in my details and checked to arrange a viewing.
I had left both email and mobile number so figured that the agent would then be in touch to arrange a time. A few days passed and no sign of the estate agents. It got towards a week of silence so I decided to call them up. Got through to a girl at their office and she wasn’t aware of any web based contact (groan), but she’d get an agent to call me to fix something up. A few more days of silence so I called again, same thing, but at least this time someone called back within the hour and we arranged a viewing.
We’re in a seriously depressed market right now, if the media are to be believed there aren’t many buyers out there so I’d have guessed estate agents would be falling over themselves to ’service’ potential buyers like myself, so the difficulty I had getting a viewing was not a good sign, but alas I had one, so that was something.
Unfortunately a booked viewing was not the same as an actual viewing. Yesterday was the day of this much anticipated viewing, so I cycled down to the place in plenty of time and got there a comfortable 10/15 minutes ahead of time. It wasn’t the nicest of days to be hanging about but patiently I did so. 2 o’clock came and went with no sign of anyone from the estate agent. At quarter past I rung them up to see what was going on. They had no record of the viewing but would get one of the sales staff to call me to sort things out.
Some twenty minutes passed and still nothing, so I called for a second time, and this time the girl on the phone promised that she would come out herself, give her 10 minutes and she’ll be there. I waited at the property until 10 to 3, around half an hour after this phone call, before deciding to call it quits and give up on this property.
It turned out that the pictures on the website had glossed over certain things that put me off the property in question, but even if they hadn’t, the antics of the estate agents certainly would have done.
Step forward Haart Estate Agents, you were absolutely bloody awful.
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It’s a baffling story, but one that is most probably common all over.
My sister has been trying to sell her house for almost 18 months, and in that time not one single person has been to view the property. It’s a nice house, detached, and in a decent area with good schools.
The estate agents are just not up to the task it seems, although why I don’t know.
Sure does seem odd. The thing that struck me yesterday as I sat in the cold waiting was that I bet the seller had no idea this was happening. No idea that they had a potential buyer that was put off by inept estate agents. That simply has to change. Much more transparency would help the whole process.
If there wasn’t some kind of legal requirements and all the hidden extras that come with buying/selling property – I think it would make more sense for people to do their own marketing.
http://www.myhouse.7woodstreet-portsunlight.com
That type of thing.
PS: what is all this Added post thing and multiple avatars?
How do you mean, added post and multiple avatars?
I agree about the marketing btw, estate agents have things far too cushy, and judging by the plonkers that seem to work in the industry it makes you wonder how difficult it can be.
Adi
ps the link didn’t load when I tried?
Hi Adi
I am sorry you have felt the need to complain regarding one of our branches. If you wish, I can investigate your comments further and should be grateful if you could please contact me at sarah.clark@spicerhaart.co.uk with a full outline of your concerns.
Sarah
Adi,
That link is not a link, merely a suggestion as to how it could be done. Basically putting the responsibility of selling a property into those who actually want to sell it, instead of allowing other people who may not have as much of a vested interest as the seller.
Aha, gotcha. Does seem to be a trend, with places like GumTree used more and more for finding rented accomodation.
Did you reply to Sarah C?!
No. I didn’t have anything further to add to what I put in the blog.