Traditional Estate Agents29 Mar 2017 11:52
I put this record of my experience with traditional estate agents together in response to a debate on another forum. Thought this would add some perspective for investors or potential investors who continually hear the spin from the Estate Agent Industry in regard to complaints by a small percentage of PB's customers. Constant comparison to only the best Estate Agents.
Back in July 2014 I was Executor to my mother’s estate. She owned a converted coach house which she did herself back in the early 80’s. I got a few Agents around and none of them let on that their fees were negotiable and the thought never even crossed my mind.
One of them valued the house at £215K, then when i said it had been valued before at about £180K he suggested £200K then later on in the conversation said £195K. We had 3 other valuations £185K, £140K and £100K.
I went with the £185K valuation because he seemed very experienced. So we agreed to list at ‘in the region of £180K’.
All this was happening while my 2 nephews were saying to put it on at £130K. My sister trusted my judgement. More fool her!
I listed at £180K and that was the last time I spoke to anybody who I trusted to value the property at that agency. My telephone calls about why there were no viewings were met at first with promises the market would soon pick up and then with “have you thought about reducing the price?”. It didn’t exactly fill me with confidence that they knew what they were talking about. Why was it up to me to think about the price? I’d already been given a value.
Still nothing and I phoned up one day and the lady on the phone was shouting at one of her colleagues saying “imagine how that looks to our customers”. Well it didn’t look too good to me either, Not in respect of either of them.
So nearly 6 months later I spoke to another agent who said £180K was fine but it needed to be marketed better so in January I decided to switch agent with a dual agency for a month and a reduction to £170K being my decision with a plan to reduce every month. The nephews were getting a bit restless but my sister was happy with my plan.
Looking at my emails this switch seemed to take until April. Probably my fault because I was busy. The price reduction was to £165K.
The new agencies office staff seemed much better but again I never spoke to the valuer again. After 2 months I accepted our first offer of £158K which fell through on the same day because they didn’t realise it was next door to a garage.
I must have reduced to £160K at some point because after 3 months we got another offer and I accepted £150K. Some 14 moths after first being listed.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
