Parents selling house, nearly robbed by estate agent

CreepingDeath

Just heard this from the parents.
They had a house on the market for about 9 months in South Dublin.
Got a few viewings and gradually dropped the price to increase interest.

Anyways, the estate agent rang them recently to say they had an offer of €285k and was pushing them to sell at that, saying they wouldn't get a better price.

Turns out that friends of friends had put in an offer of €330k and it hadn't been forwarded to them. The estate agent must've been trying to sell it cheap to one of their friends or himself. :mad:

Anyways, the mother rang up the estate agent and gave them a bollicking, said they weren't paying them anything. Obviously didn't go down well, but feck them.
They tried robbing someone who was already paying them €4500.
Could've cost them of a further €45,000. They're now doing the deal direct with the couple for €330k, and both solicitors were happy with that approach.

Fookers should be charged with fraud if you ask me.

Anyways the Dun Laoghaire based estate agent (won't name and shame for legal reasons), is a member of the IPAV and I see they have a complaints procedure. I'll see if the parents want to go that route.
Although that's just a self-regulatory group I imagine, probably useless.

I saw a Prime Time Investigates episode a few years ago where estate agents were stiffing their own clients ( the sellers ) but it's still sickening to hear it happen so close to home.
They had been doing it either to make their quotas for the month, or to accept backhanders from other parties for a cheaper deal on a property.

athtrasna

I recently had to complain a Dun Laoghaire based agent to the MD of the company for refusing to show us a house we arrived 5 mins late to view because of serious traffic, despite her staying inside the house for 30 mins after she told us she hadn't time to show us around. Wonder if it's the same one

am i bovvered

disgraceful, delighted to hear they got caught.... it won't take long for the name to come out, its a small world.

D3PO

EA's are the scum of the earth. SO many of them are corrupt its unreal.

Why anybody wouldnt sell themselves if beyond me.

As for this instance contact the IAVI and tell them what happened theres every chance they could get struck off. Id personally consider this fraud so I dalso be contacting the gardai and if they cant do anything Id be onto every newspaper & radio station , mailing list and message board telling this story.

absolute disgrace

Kipperhell

Made an offer on a property a few years ago and by chance I ended up talking to the owner a while later. They never heard our offer and sold for less. I then ended up talking to the new owner who told me their friend the estate agent got them a good deal.

I never reported them but never looked at what they had again. they rang me a time later and told them why not to contact me again. They didn't try to even lie. I warned anybody I knew who was looking in the area so it may have effected their business.

Not unique to Ireland as my brother-in-law started receiving letters from people ,just after he agreed a sale, from people who had been trying for a month to see the place.

There is a certain US company that measure performance by volume of sales and that is the ideology they train people with who take the franchise here from my understanding. I could be wrong as they seem happy to keep as much as possible under wraps.