Opinions on DAFT.ie please

I've been abroad and am now looking to rent a 3-bed house in a fairly specific area of South County Dublin, limited by the location of my daughter's school ... not under any pressure as living with The Crumblies for the moment which is grand.

I had the impression that DAFT was the be all and end all of property rental websites but I'm wondering now if my expectations are too high ...?

I put an advertisement in the Tenant Database and have had one response which didn't correlate at all with the location I specified.

Over the past week or so I've contacted people about three properties which have already been let but are still (today) shown as available on the site.

I've "E-mailed the Advertiser" for six different places in the past two days (one private, five agencies) and haven't had one response.

And I've had to wait for several days to get appointments to see certain houses as the Agents only appear to be available from 9-5, Mon-Fri.

I assume I'll have to start chasing people but I just wondered is this normal? Or would you recommend another website?

Thanks in advance all.

the_syco

The site is good, but EA's in Ireland are still as sh|te as ever. If you give us an idea of where abouts you want to go, we could look at places, but other than that, meh.

If you're looking, the best thing to do is ring the EA.

the_syco

the_syco wrote: »

The site is good, but EA's in Ireland are still as sh|te as ever.

Well I think that answer's my question

Thanks but I'll keep chipping away at it myself.

J-blk

the_syco wrote: »

If you're looking, the best thing to do is ring the EA.

Though this doesn't work always either... the amount of times I was asked to leave my number and they'd get back to me, then not give a s**t about ever returning calls was amazing. It really surprises me that with all the "doom and gloom" talk about the property market in general, EAs can still be so incompetent...

OP, The Syco's answer pretty much covers it... unfortunately, it's up to the advertiser to update/remove an ad after a place has been let and many of them don't bother for ages after the property is gone...

Thanks J-blk, that was my experience too.

Having said that, I followed up one e-mail with a call this morning and got an appointment to see a place tonight.

AND I just got a call from an agent I'd e-mailed who'd been "handed a bundle of messages" (so they're not necessarily getting to see the e-mails) and just had my number. He seemed really professional, very polite and we organised an appointment for Saturday.

So I guess it varies from agency to agency and isn't particularly a DAFT problem.

Fingers crossed

Victor

Many landlords are leaving their properties on daft indefinitely, as it seems the charge is to up the ad up, not to keep it up.

prinz

A few months ago I had call to use daft and remember ringing one place, and getting a fella at the other end who assured me the ad had been put up about 18 months before and had been taken down again. He had no idea why it would be back up, with a new available date. He wasn't happy and told me he was going to have words with Daft.ie. Leads me to think they recycle ads when there isn't much happening, just so they can say '1,000 (or whatever) new properties added today'.

the_syco

J-blk wrote: »

Though this doesn't work always either... the amount of times I was asked to leave my number and they'd get back to me, then not give a s**t about ever returning calls was amazing. It really surprises me that with all the "doom and gloom" talk about the property market in general, EAs can still be so incompetent...

You email, you wait. You ring, get an answer, or move on. If they ask you to leave a number, do so, and move on.

Ste.phen

prinz wrote: »

A few months ago I had call to use daft and remember ringing one place, and getting a fella at the other end who assured me the ad had been put up about 18 months before and had been taken down again. He had no idea why it would be back up, with a new available date. He wasn't happy and told me he was going to have words with Daft.ie. Leads me to think they recycle ads when there isn't much happening, just so they can say '1,000 (or whatever) new properties added today'.

This is almost certainly not the case (it really doesn't make any sense for daft to do something like that), probably a glitch in the matrix.

J-blk

the_syco wrote: »

You email, you wait. You ring, get an answer, or move on. If they ask you to leave a number, do so, and move on.

I did move on... Though I still don't understand why anyone should have to chase EAs down and call them multiple times just to get to see a place. How difficult is it to return a call? If they have no intention of doing so, they shouldn't ask you to leave your contact details in the first place. It almost seems a number of EAs still think they are "doing us a favor" showing us places that have been left empty for ages...

lostexpectation

they consistently have places that have linguering on the site for years , notified as new.

J-blk

J-blk wrote: »

I still don't understand why anyone should have to chase EAs down and call them multiple times just to get to see a place. How difficult is it to return a call?

That was my feeling in the first place ... I've come across two responsive agents this week and the rest I'm having to chase.

I had a chat with "The Good Agent" and he told me part of the problem is that people who were formerly selling houses are now getting more into the business of letting them and simply don't know what they're doing ... the timeline for renting and buying a place is completely different.

And I suspect that if you're working in both selling and letting, you'd focus on the one that will bring in the most cash.

Add to this the fact that, like any company, they've probably had staff cutbacks so you have fewer people dealing with a wider geographical territory (I've had two viewings where the agent was coming to my area from the other side of the city) and you end up with bad service.

I just wonder if their clients are aware of this

As regards DAFT another thing I've noticed (which is an issue of the agents rather than the site) is that the photos don't match the houses, presumably they were taken up to a year ago for the last letting. Sometimes you see 2/3 different agents on the same property, possibly because the client changed the agent but the old ad isn't taken down. And as for what some people call a "bedroom" :rolleyes:

J-blk

Deleted User wrote: »

That was my feeling in the first place ... I've come across two responsive agents this week and the rest I'm having to chase.

At least it's a pretty good time to be looking and there is plenty of choice out there. I better not go on ranting about EAs and completely derail the thread, but even with the bad apples out there, at least now as a renter there are plenty of places to choose from, so if you're not happy with the EA, you just look elsewhere...

I haven't noticed daft having the same ad from multiple agents TBH though - I thought that most agents only worked with a client on an exclusive basis but I could be wrong.

Regardless of the issues you mentioned though, I still think daft is a great resource - I've lived in other European cities where a similar centralized site does not exist and it just makes looking for a place more work for you.

Since you're not under pressure to move anyway, you're in the best possible position, so take your time looking, regardless of the poor attitude of many of the advertisers. At the end of the day, it's their loss not renting the property for longer amounts of time. Best of luck with your search.

J-blk

J-blk wrote: »

I still think daft is a great resource - I've lived in other European cities where a similar centralized site does not exist and it just makes looking for a place more work for you

Agreed! It's become clear to me through this thread and experience that the problems aren't with the site.

Cheers.

J-blk

J-blk wrote: »

I haven't noticed daft having the same ad from multiple agents TBH though - I thought that most agents only worked with a client on an exclusive basis but I could be wrong.

Just thought I'd mention ... so far there have been two places (in my "limited" area) where there were two different agents involved and two different ads on DAFT. I made an appointment with an agent to see a place today and when I called another agent about a property I thought was nearby, he confirmed it was the same place and that "I may as well go and see it with the other agent"