Letting agents not responding

dearg lady

I'm looking for a place to live at the moment, and I'm having so much trouble arranging viewings, many agents aren't getting back to me at all. There's a number of properties I want to view, all with the same agent, I've e-mailed and left messages and no response! There's no direct contact number so I'm a bit at a loss as to what else to do! Any ideas?
One viewing I did manage to arrange, with another agent, the property was gone when I arrived for the viewing. Are we back to the bad old days??

Gillo

If you are having trouble with the letting agent, get a copy on Toms Directory (most big libraries have them) and look up the address, you'll find the actual owner of the property and can try contacting them directly.
From experience and horror stories I don't bother with agents, I prefer to rent from somewhere I am dealing directly with the landlord.

dearg lady

Gillo wrote: »

If you are having trouble with the letting agent, get a copy on Toms Directory (most big libraries have them) and look up the address, you'll find the actual owner of the property and can try contacting them directly.
From experience and horror stories I don't bother with agents, I prefer to rent from somewhere I am dealing directly with the landlord.

I would too! Seems like most properties are through agents though. Even if I found the owners name I'm not sure how I could contact them, I'd probably need a mobile number wouldn't i?

Gillo

Look them up in the phone book they may have a landline or leave a note in the postbox of the house in an envolope addressed to them with your contact details.
Are you looking for a room or a full property?

dearg lady

Thanks Gillo, it's a full property I'm looking for (well a studio) so I don't think a landline will help in this instance! I have just found somewhere, and it was the landlord, not a letting agent I met with. Seems like a lovely, reasonable woman, so fingers crossed all goes well!
Having this experience though, I would say to anyone who's about to rent out a property, to do it themselves if at all possible, or to get a recommendation for a good letting agent, as it seems like many letting agents do very little for the money they're paid.

Lawrence1895

I would pay a visit to their office. Sometimes, they don't reply, just because they don't have vacancies.

dearg lady

Lars1916 wrote: »

I would pay a visit to their office. Sometimes, they don't reply, just because they don't have vacancies.

If that's the case, they shouldn't be posting ads on daft!

Lawrence1895

dearg lady wrote: »

If that's the case, they shouldn't be posting ads on daft!

Of course, they shouldn't. But some of them just leave the ad on Daft or other sides, even if the property is not available any more...or at least, they tell you, the property is gone, because you mention, that you have children, animals, whatsoever

dearg lady

Lars1916 wrote: »

Of course, they shouldn't. But some of them just leave the ad on Daft or other sides, even if the property is not available any more...or at least, they tell you, the property is gone, because you mention, that you have children, animals, whatsoever

But these are new ads, only gone up, I've rang/e-mailed immediately and never got any response. And at this point, they know nothing 'offputting' about me! It's really very stressful, hope I don't have to move again for a while!

the_syco

dearg lady wrote: »

many agents aren't getting back to me at all.

Consider it's a bullet dodged, as if it's like this now, how much fun will it be if anything breaks?

puffishoes

I had to experience this recently on behalf of a friend who was out of the country.

It seems that these EA's are mostly from the boom times where they didn't have to lift a finger to sell or rent a property and after almost 6 years seem to still have failed to adjust and realize they actually suppose to be sales people.

I think we have become so a custom to these incompetent EA's we don't event blink an eye.

Someone with a bit of customer service experience could really clean up in this market if they raised the standard's of ea's y 0.1%

PK2008

I've recently been looking at places - I decided the best thing to do was to just use the email contact facility on Daft and send out about 5 or 6 in a day and just let them contact me- the hit rate was pretty good Id say about 80% responded so overall a positive experience

If I spotted a place I really wanted then I would call, otherwise I just played the numbers- less frustrating then getting your hopes up on one if it doesn't pan out -also I found its good to have a coupe of properties in play so you keep your options open and dont fall for the first that comes along.

dearg lady

PK2008 wrote: »

I've recently been looking at places - I decided the best thing to do was to just use the email contact facility on Daft and send out about 5 or 6 in a day and just let them contact me- the hit rate was pretty good Id say about 80% responded so overall a positive experience

If I spotted a place I really wanted then I would call, otherwise I just played the numbers- less frustrating then getting your hopes up on one if it doesn't pan out -also I found its good to have a coupe of properties in play so you keep your options open and dont fall for the first that comes along.

I have been using both the e-mail contact facility, and phoning if no response. My budget limits me quite a bit, but I'd still say I was contacting on average 3-4 places per day. I'd say my response rate was closer to 20-30%, dunno what I'm doing wrong!

Snoopy1

I'm having the same problem. Everytime I email aN agent from daft only 1 in 5 is getting back to me. And the ones getting back to me, the place was already gone. What's the point in advertising if its already gone.
I just think its so rude and lazy for them to not contact you.
And the one place I went to see today the agent had lost the keys.
Its incompetent.

Lawrence1895

Snoopy1 wrote: »

I'm having the same problem. Everytime I email aN agent from daft only 1 in 5 is getting back to me. And the ones getting back to me, the place was already gone. What's the point in advertising if its already gone.
I just think its so rude and lazy for them to not contact you.
And the one place I went to see today the agent had lost the keys.
Its incompetent.

As if they would pay a fortune for a phone call :mad:

That reminds me of not being contacted at all after applying for a job, just the same, just saying, 'sorry you didn't get it' isn't too much of an effort.