Estate agents tricks?

millionmystery

Hi,
We have enquired about a property through an estate agent, we had to ask for the price they were looking for it included the property and extra land not included originally So far we have heard from the estate agent that he would get back to us straight away with a figure, then after 4 days I rang and he said he had been unable to contact the seller (which I find hard to believe as the occupier lives there currently) then he told me he would not 'mess me around' and would have an answer the next day. That was three days ago, nothing at all since. I got the vibe when viewing the house that the seller was very eager to sell, so can't understand what's going on. Has anyone any experience of this type of thing? We are just looking for a price so we can then bid, but this is totally putting me off and is very frustrating. Advice please!!

spaceHopper

Put a note in the door of the house with your name and number asking them to get in touch or to have the EA call you. That will move things along and the EA will get a kick in the back side from the seller.

millionmystery

spaceHopper wrote: »

Put a note in the door of the house with your name and number asking them to get in touch or to have the EA call you. That will move things along and the EA will get a kick in the back side from the seller.

Might well have to at this stage! I'm just curious as to what the EA is playing at, wouldn't it be worth his while to have it sold?

doubter

millionmystery wrote: »

Might well have to at this stage! I'm just curious as to what the EA is playing at, wouldn't it be worth his while to have it sold?

Have had experiences like this with an EA here in the area, never got to the bottom of it why he was so laxa daisy.Must say I found it very satisfactory, after he got back to me 6 weeks later on a simple question, to say I'm sorry mate, you took your sweet time, i'm sorted somewhere else.

happypants

We are having the same trouble with EA they don't get back to us or take their time. I suppose there's such demand for houses now they don't have to chase buyers or bother their hole getting back to people anymore. Or (controversial) in one case I have a feeling the EA had a property earmarked for a friend.

Lemming

Could be that the EA has an eye on the property (either for themselves or a family member/friend) and is trying to stack the odds.

Hello Lady!

Having similar issues here and.not just with one EA. On one property its listed as POA. So I phoned and emailed to enquire as to the price and arrange a viewing. Email has gone unanswered and the message I left by phone fell on deaf ears.

On another house I made an offer, followed up in writing to confirm. They didn't even have the decency to contact me to accept or reject the offer. Ten days later we made a higher offer close to the asking price. That was 4 days ago and again they haven't even had the decency to acknowledge the offer. Unknown to the EA I actually have the phone number of the vendor so will be dropping him a text advising him of my offer just to make sure he knows there is an offer on the table.

happypants

Hello Lady! wrote: »

Having similar issues here and.not just with one EA. On one property its listed as POA. So I phoned and emailed to enquire as to the price and arrange a viewing. Email has gone unanswered and the message I left by phone fell on deaf ears.

On another house I made an offer, followed up in writing to confirm. They didn't even have the decency to contact me to accept or reject the offer. Ten days later we made a higher offer close to the asking price. That was 4 days ago and again they haven't even had the decency to acknowledge the offer. Unknown to the EA I actually have the phone number of the vendor so will be dropping him a text advising him of my offer just to make sure he knows there is an offer on the table.

Good for you! My mother said this is going on years, she remembers my aunt was buying a house and put in offers but heard nothing back. She found out who the vendor was and went directly to him, he had no knowledge of any offer and accepted it immediately.

I hope it goes well for you!

gozunda

I believe some auctioneers play games in the liklyhood that buyers will become more eager to purchase. Recently inquired about property advertised in order to arrange viewing. Was told that sellers had it hard from (all?) the viewings and even though no one was currently viewing the auctioneer would get back about property viewing. Wtf?

I suggested that that I did not wish to waste his or my time and told him thanks but no thanks.

If something is up for sale - then the seller is selling - I wonder how many vendors actually know the bs that is being put out about such sales ...

johndaman66

gozunda wrote: »

If something is up for sale - then the seller is selling - I wonder how many vendors actually know the bs that is being put out about such sales ...

Trouble is they aren't always selling it. Some are probably being forced to advertise their house as they are behind in their mortgage repayments and advertising it for sale is part of the agreement between them and the bank. Thats not to leave the EA off the hook either. If they are selling the house i think the onus is on them to figure out if the vendor is serious about selling. If they are having constant trouble contacting the vendor, vendor not willing to entertain any offers etc then EA should seriously consider taking it off their books. That carry on is hardly good for business anyway...word gets around too.

I have found Estate Agents to be incredibly lazy, either that or they are too busy concentrating on their second job where their gravy is at as opposed to selling houses.

Last March I looked at a house nearby me. It was just dropped in price to €135k. I put in what was admittedly a lowball offer of €117k but told the EA I was a serious cash buyer ready to go, which I am. He was to convey my offer back to seller and get back to me. Did he get back to me since......no. While I admit my offer was lowball there was nobody else interested in viewing the house at the time as per EA. For me it was a starting point, I was going to come up which Im sure we'll all agree is the way house buying works in Ireland, even if you get into a bidding war and selling price ends up going above asking price. If vendor said an outright no way he should have conveyed that back to me. House is still for sale as it happens.

Another house I enquired about recently and it is being carried by two estate Agents. It is in at an asking price of €125k. Rang one of the EA's 2 weeks ago, had no more than mentioned the address when they said oh thats gone up to €145k now and they would be updating the ad. Rang the other EA at start of this week. Eventually got through to them after 3 days of calls and emails not being returned or answered and they confirmed the asking price was €125k. Looked at the house this morning (EA being half an hour late from the time agreed and only bringing themselves on when I rang them) and although they said the price is €125k I'm not fully convinced as a lot of the questions I asked they need to firm up with the vendor on. Half thinking of dropping a letter through the door of the house asking seller what story is and if they wish to deal directly with me under the circumstances. Trouble is the house is unoccupied so not sure would one of the EA's get their hands on my note and not the owner. If it takes the EA 3 days to get back to me I'm not sure I want to go through the process of negotiating a sale price with vendor through them. not much in the way of an apology from them either if I got any at all. Oh and first EA still has the house down as €125k on daft.ie despite them renewing the ad only yesterday:rolleyes:

nother EA plagued me for 6 months or more with houses that just did not tick the boxes at all despite me telling him what I want and why they weren't suitable for me.

I could go on but I wont...long enough rant already:)

johndaman66

johndaman66 wrote: »

It was just dropped in price to €135k. I put in what was admittedly a lowball offer of €117k but told the EA I was a serious cash buyer ready to go, which I am. He was to convey my offer back to seller and get back to me. Did he get back to me since......no. While I admit my offer was lowball there was nobody else interested in viewing the house at the time as per EA. For me it was a starting point, I was going to come up which Im sure we'll all agree is the way house buying works in Ireland, even if you get into a bidding war and selling price ends up going above asking price. If vendor said an outright no way he should have conveyed that back to me. House is still for sale as it happens.

Actually I'm half thinking it may not have being that lowball an offer as house is still for sale. Half thinking my offer may have being on the money or as I say a very good starting point any buyer should have being taking

millionmystery

It's crazy, ridiculous- the attitude of some EAs. I've had my first offer straight off shot down, even refused to bring it back to the seller as he said that it was way too low, even told us that we shouldn't be looking at properties outside of our price range. The thing is the offer wasn't that much off and the house in question isn't fully completed so will need work done. Very disappointed today I must say was not expecting how ignorant and blatantly rude the EA was and unsure of what to do next considering he said offer wouldn't be sent on to seller, so not as if it's even a first bid really

Hello Lady!

millionmystery wrote: »

It's crazy, ridiculous- the attitude of some EAs. I've had my first offer straight off shot down, even refused to bring it back to the seller as he said that it was way too low, even told us that we shouldn't be looking at properties outside of our price range. The thing is the offer wasn't that much off and the house in question isn't fully completed so will need work done. Very disappointed today I must say was not expecting how ignorant and blatantly rude the EA was and unsure of what to do next considering he said offer wouldn't be sent on to seller, so not as if it's even a first bid really

Ask them to put the rejection of your offer in writing - even just by email. I would email them asking them to confirm by email that your offer has been deemed too low to present to the vendor and as such has been rejected. They will then either give you such a reply or go to the vendor after all. If they have any sense they won't risk a paper trail. If they reply that they haven't even brought tge offer to the vendor then print that email and if the vendor lives in the house pop it through the letter box. F*ck em.

In the situation I outlined earlier I text my offer to the vendor. An hour later the EA rang me in a flap...why was I contacting the vendor directly? How did I get their number? Basically trying to give me a hard time. I politely pointed out that I have no contract with the EA and can talk to whom I like and if they are not going to take my offer seriously I'm well within my rights to rake it to someone who will. He waffled on how my offer - despite being €5k off the asking price - wasn't high enough and they were confident they'd get above the asking price. In fact they were expecting a "solid" offer in the next 24hrs and were confident the house would be sale agreed by the weekend. I asked for all of this in an email, which wasn't initially forthcoming.

Four days later on the Friday the EA phoned me accepting my offer. I quite frankly told him things had changed and my offer was now €5k lower again. He was literally sick. Our lower offer was accepted on the provision that a booking deposit be paid the following Monday.

what he didn't know is that while all this was going on we had pretty much secured another house, direct sale without an EA. By Monday I got a perverse pleasure in phoning the EA and telling him in polite terms to shove his house up his arse. I made sure he knew how unimpressed I was by his attitude towards us and his lack of manners. A text to the same effect went to the vendor.

In truth I'm delighted not to be dealing with this EA...arsey EAs take the good out if buying a house, something that should be exciting and positive very quickly turns to stress and worry with most of those guys. If the other house hadn't come about we probably would have perservered with the EA as its a nice house and at the lower offer a fair price. But I am much happier buying the house we are without having to swim in the shark pool.

BeatNikDub

millionmystery wrote: »

It's crazy, ridiculous- the attitude of some EAs. I've had my first offer straight off shot down, even refused to bring it back to the seller as he said that it was way too low, even told us that we shouldn't be looking at properties outside of our price range. The thing is the offer wasn't that much off and the house in question isn't fully completed so will need work done. Very disappointed today I must say was not expecting how ignorant and blatantly rude the EA was and unsure of what to do next considering he said offer wouldn't be sent on to seller, so not as if it's even a first bid really

Generally the vendor will have advised a number that they will start looking at offers at. If you are going way below that then they are just being honesty in telling you what they know already in that the vendor will not be in any way interested.
However they do have to record and bring back every offer to their clients, no matter how embarrassingly low they may be. I can see where the agent is coming from in this though, however they do HAVE to make the vendor aware.

BeatNikDub

Hello Lady! wrote: »

Ask them to put the rejection of your offer in writing - even just by email. I would email them asking them to confirm by email that your offer has been deemed too low to present to the vendor and as such has been rejected. They will then either give you such a reply or go to the vendor after all. If they have any sense they won't risk a paper trail. If they reply that they haven't even brought tge offer to the vendor then print that email and if the vendor lives in the house pop it through the letter box. F*ck em.

In the situation I outlined earlier I text my offer to the vendor. An hour later the EA rang me in a flap...why was I contacting the vendor directly? How did I get their number? Basically trying to give me a hard time. I politely pointed out that I have no contract with the EA and can talk to whom I like and if they are not going to take my offer seriously I'm well within my rights to rake it to someone who will. He waffled on how my offer - despite being €5k off the asking price - wasn't high enough and they were confident they'd get above the asking price. In fact they were expecting a "solid" offer in the next 24hrs and were confident the house would be sale agreed by the weekend. I asked for all of this in an email, which wasn't initially forthcoming.

Four days later on the Friday the EA phoned me accepting my offer. I quite frankly told him things had changed and my offer was now €5k lower again. He was literally sick. Our lower offer was accepted on the provision that a booking deposit be paid the following Monday.

what he didn't know is that while all this was going on we had pretty much secured another house, direct sale without an EA. By Monday I got a perverse pleasure in phoning the EA and telling him in polite terms to shove his house up his arse. I made sure he knew how unimpressed I was by his attitude towards us and his lack of manners. A text to the same effect went to the vendor.

In truth I'm delighted not to be dealing with this EA...arsey EAs take the good out if buying a house, something that should be exciting and positive very quickly turns to stress and worry with most of those guys. If the other house hadn't come about we probably would have perservered with the EA as its a nice house and at the lower offer a fair price. But I am much happier buying the house we are without having to swim in the shark pool.

Wow, that is pretty low.

gmisk

BeatNikDub wrote: »

Wow, that is pretty low.

I think fair play to be honest!
Some EAs seriously need a kick up the a$$!

jmayo

Hello Lady! wrote: »

...
On another house I made an offer, followed up in writing to confirm. They didn't even have the decency to contact me to accept or reject the offer. Ten days later we made a higher offer close to the asking price.

Isn't there a chance you are basically bidding against yourself in this case ?

BeatNikDub

gmisk wrote: »

I think fair play to be honest!
Some EAs seriously need a kick up the a$$!

Well you can't expect to be treated fairly in return then.
It's as bad as the bad agents then and no one gets anywhere.
Very unfortunate.

Hello Lady!

jmayo wrote: »

Isn't there a chance you are basically bidding against yourself in this case ?

In a sense, yes that's what happened. However before placing the higher offer, we did eventually get a reply from the EA that the first offer was rejected.

BeatNikDub wrote: »

Wow, that is pretty low.

BeatNikDub wrote: »

Well you can't expect to be treated fairly in return then.
It's as bad as the bad agents then and no one gets anywhere.
Very unfortunate.

No its not. The EA in this case was rude, sarky, and downright unprofessional. He never acknowledged either of my offers. He did not return my calls or emails. Only when I asked to speak with a different member of the team did I find out my original offer was rejected. Upon making the second offer I had to literally chase him down to get an answer. I asked him if any future viewings were scheduled, he said no. Yet not an hour later my sister phoned enquiring and was told there was an open viewing scheduled for the next evening. She asked were there any offers and he said yes four people were interested.

At no point did he relay to me that there were others interested - because there weren't. The "solid" offer he was expecting either fell through or never existed - possibly hoping to push me into a higher offer. Despite several requests to see the bidding book he fobbed me off. When I asked to see the bidding book regarding the last offer that apparently fell through he waffled on and basically said 'look, make another offer close to the last one and you will get the house'. I offered €5k less and it was still accepted.

Clearly the second offer I put in wasn't relayed to the vendor, because an hour after texting the vendor the EA rang me, after me ringing him for a week for an answer on our offer.

This EA wasn't doing me or the vendor any favours here. Totally unprofessional and rude. He was smart and sarky on a number of occasions - and not just with me but with another couple interested in the house, which I found out literally by coincidence just last Saturday (its a small town in many ways!).

I treated the EA better than he treated either me or the vendor and I feel no guilt about it.

And just FYI if I were to do a google search on their name, the negative experiences posted on this forum alone would indicate that I am not the only one who thinks they are a pack of rude and unprofessional shysters.

gmisk

BeatNikDub wrote: »

Well you can't expect to be treated fairly in return then.
It's as bad as the bad agents then and no one gets anywhere.
Very unfortunate.

Did you read what the OP said about this EA?
He was taking the piss and doing a very very poor job for his client IMO, deserves everything he gets.

Rubberchikken

drop a note to the owner. you don't need an EA to purchase a house .
bought mine 20+ years ago, no EA involved.

millionmystery

Do I assume even though EA said he wouldn't forward the bid to seller, that he will anyway? My next step will be to contact the seller and offer Im planning to have no contact with the EA after this as he was so rude , unprofessional and insulting. The thing is I'm unsure how long I should wait presuming the seller got the first bid??