Castle Estate Agents - stressing me out!

Victor

iratira wrote: »

I then emailed them to ask for more info on the house and 3 days later no reply.

Maybe they are waiting on the client for information or instructions.

ronjo

Victor wrote: »

Maybe they are waiting on the client for information or instructions.

Surely a one liner saying this or asking for a few days wouldnt be too much to expect?

Duckjob

Victor wrote: »

Maybe they are waiting on the client for information or instructions.

Hi Buyer,
The sellers are still deciding what they want to do re. the house. I'll let you know the situation as soon as I have further information.
Regards,
Agent

Pretty bog standard, 1 minute communicative email used all the time by professional businesses.

domcq

I've called a few times recently to arrange a viewing and been told that the person dealing with the property isn't in the office but that they'll ring me back later - they rarely call back.

nibtrix

I've looked at several houses advertised by Castle in the last couple of months, and every time it's been a nightmare trying to communicate with them. Constant promises to "ring back today" followed by a call a week later offering a viewing the same day at a ridiculous time etc. etc. The one house we bid on suddenly developed lots of bidders so we dropped out sharpish.

A lot of sellers in the same area seem to have gone with Castle, probably because they don't charge any fees unless the house sells. So if the seller is just "testing the waters" then Castle are a good agent to go with as it will cost them nothing if they pull out.

mikeystipey

OP for this thread here...I never followed up on how things went for us on the house purchase through Castle. Well to make a long story short, over 3 months after paying our deposit the deal fell through as the sellers wouldn't close the deal (they hadn't found where they wanted to move to yet). However, Castle were also a nightmare to deal with, stringing us along and making up excuses to defend the sellers delays, lying to us about letters they said had been sent to our solicitor, and having to be asked several times to issue a refund for our deposit. My advice would be to avoid them like the plague. Totally unprofessional outfit in my opinion.

Dice75

We dealt with Castle when buying our house & had a hard time with them (they worked hard to get the price up - good for the seller).

However, a friend of mine also bought from them & had a demand from them which I'm sure the sellers wouldn't be too happy about.

repsol

Sounds to me like an estate agent who is very focused on sellers and not too bothered about purchasers.Can't really blame them when it is after all the sellers who employ the agent.

Doop

repsol wrote: »

Sounds to me like an estate agent who is very focused on sellers and not too bothered about purchasers.Can't really blame them when it is after all the sellers who employ the agent.

Do sellers not want every potentially interested purchaser to be able to view their property?? the more people who view it the better. The sellers employ them aright.... to find them a buyer.

These guys are cowboys not affiliated to any professional body.

gaius c

odds_on wrote: »

Was the "other couple" a real potential purchaser or a plant by the estate agent to get you to think that there was a real purchaser interested.

To me, it would be unethical to invite two potential purchasers at the same time, especially when one party had already seen the property (and put in an offer.

Just my thoughts.

Yeah, the fact that you were invited to come along and see the "competition" for yourself is a dead giveaway.
Edit: blast. Just saw the date of the OP.

iratira

gaius c wrote: »

Yeah, the fact that you were invited to come along and see the "competition" for yourself is a dead giveaway.
Edit: blast. Just saw the date of the OP.

Yeh sorry resurrected the thread but seems people still getting frustrated with these guys.
Now if I see their name on a property, I skip over it.
Not on for being messed around.

Had a really bad experience with them personally as a purchaser so I expect as mentioned above they are all about the vendor which is understandable.

That said - here is a summary of my dealings.

Called about a house on the market for 2 days and told if I couldn't attend a viewing that weekend I'd probably miss out... Laughed and said this wasn't 2007 and hung up. Got called back by someone else a few minutes later to be told that the market had completely turned around and they had cars queueing up outside to view this place.

Went and viewed it and made a conservative and possibly a little unrealistic offer. Over the next 24 hours they called me 4 times each call the latest offer going up by 10 - 20k which I was dubious about but had to accept at face value. Each time I said I'd think about it and come back but they kept calling and asking if "I was still interested at that level".

It got silly and was 100k clear of my initial offer and around 70 over the asking and I said I had no interest. I got a call around a week later and the top asking had dropped by over 45k as "some messing" had gone on and people had gotten a little excited.

I think I know which people they were referring too.

Vivienne123

Am very nervous reading this thread, went sale agreed on a house on 23rd December with Castle Estates and am concerned about what we have let ourselves in for now! To be fair, we didn't have the same exeprience with them as other users have had - we refused to budge from an initial offer and while it did take some time for the vendors to accept it, I don't think that was the EA's fault, the vendors were just holding out for more. EA we dealt with was very helpful with viewings and also put up a "sale agreed" sign as soon as we paid our deposit but we are now waiting for contracts to be sent from the vendors solicitors to our solicitors (valuation done, survey done). Think will put a call into the EA now to see how it's going, we only have 9 weeks to complete before we have to move out of our rented house so will keep the pressure on!

Vivienne123

Vivienne123 wrote: »

Am very nervous reading this thread, went sale agreed on a house on 23rd December with Castle Estates and am concerned about what we have let ourselves in for now! To be fair, we didn't have the same exeprience with them as other users have had - we refused to budge from an initial offer and while it did take some time for the vendors to accept it, I don't think that was the EA's fault, the vendors were just holding out for more. EA we dealt with was very helpful with viewings and also put up a "sale agreed" sign as soon as we paid our deposit but we are now waiting for contracts to be sent from the vendors solicitors to our solicitors (valuation done, survey done). Think will put a call into the EA now to see how it's going, we only have 9 weeks to complete before we have to move out of our rented house so will keep the pressure on!

Sounds like you are getting a reasonable service. Performance and attitude doesn't necessarily have to be uniform across a company, no matter how many bad experiences people have had.

We had an ok experience with our EA, though they didn't do anything to help get us closed and it took around 4 - 5 months of waiting and stressing.

mikeystipey

Vivienne123 wrote: »

Am very nervous reading this thread, went sale agreed on a house on 23rd December with Castle Estates and am concerned about what we have let ourselves in for now! To be fair, we didn't have the same exeprience with them as other users have had - we refused to budge from an initial offer and while it did take some time for the vendors to accept it, I don't think that was the EA's fault, the vendors were just holding out for more. EA we dealt with was very helpful with viewings and also put up a "sale agreed" sign as soon as we paid our deposit but we are now waiting for contracts to be sent from the vendors solicitors to our solicitors (valuation done, survey done). Think will put a call into the EA now to see how it's going, we only have 9 weeks to complete before we have to move out of our rented house so will keep the pressure on!

In fairness it was mostly the fault of the sellers themselves that our deal fell through in the end, so since you've sale agreed already there's no need to be overly concerned about Castle Vivienne. What really stressed me out about Castle was getting them to return calls, send letters etc. Because the guy we dealt with only gave us a hand-written receipt for our deposit I was anxious for our solicitor to get something in writing re price agreed etc. However he put us in the embarassing situation of calling our solictior several times asking had letters or faxes been received when I'm certain he never sent them. We had to go their Office eventually to confront him and even then he was insistent about having sent promised correspondence.

I'm sure everything will work out fine for you, just keep a bit of pressure on the sellers.

Dymo

Because the guy we dealt with only gave us a hand-written receipt for our deposit I was anxious for our solicitor to get something in writing re price agreed

No good solicitor would act on a sale or exchange contracts with out this information, how did your solicitor even put the sale in motion if they didn't have this information? When a sale is agreed the estate agent sends these details to the purchasers solicitors who in turn draws up the contracts and sends them to the vendors solicitor. They need the address of the vendors solicitor, the address of the house, the sale price, the deposit paid and fixtures and fittings amount.

Once a Sale Agreed is done it's then down to the solicitors to work out the deal and contracts

mikeystipey

Dymo wrote: »

No good solicitor would act on a sale or exchange contracts with out this information, how did your solicitor even put the sale in motion if they didn't have this information? When a sale is agreed the estate agent sends these details to the purchasers solicitors who in turn draws up the contracts and sends them to the vendors solicitor. They need the address of the vendors solicitor, the address of the house, the sale price, the deposit paid and fixtures and fittings amount.

Once a Sale Agreed is done it's then down to the solicitors to work out the deal and contracts

indeed Dymo, the Sale Agreed letter is very important in kick-starting the conveyancing process, that's why we were anxious that Castle would send this letter to our solicitor asap. We were particularly keen to get the sale closed as quickly as possible as it was Autumn 2011 and there was talk of mortgage interest relief coming to an end (the estate agent was aware of this too). But yet a week after we had paid our 10K booking deposit, our solicitor hadn't received this letter. If the EA had said he hadn't got round to sending it yet I would have said fair enough but he kep insisting that the letter had been sent. After my rather irate wife rang him again he promised to fax a copy of it. Another phone call to our solicitor and no fax had been received. So we went to his office in person to confront him and only then did our solicitor get the fax. Our solicitor never received the promised letter by post (the fax was sufficient) so we could rule out delays in the post. The whole thing was quite perplexing and embarassing.

Re some points from other posters that an estate agent is employed by the seller - well there's no seller without a buyer so it helps for the EA to keep the buyer onside too.

Dymo

Sorry my last post I mixed up vendor and purchaser

mikeystipey wrote: »

But yet a week after we had paid our 10K booking deposit, our solicitor hadn't received this letter.

The estate agent doesn't send anything to your solicitors he sends it to the sellers solicitor and then it's down to the sellers solicitor to organise the contracts before sending them to your solicitor. This could easily take longer than 10 days.

If the EA had said he hadn't got round to sending it yet I would have said fair enough but he kept insisting that the letter had been sent.

If he sent the letter he can't control what the sellers solicitor does, its the sellers solicitor that is then looking after the legal part of the sale not the estate agent. From my experience an awful lot of solicitors are very slow in dealing with things plus if then send over a rushed contract of sale it could delay the sale even more.

AlanG

These guys are amazing. Rang about a property they have advertised that include pictures of the side garden, converted garage and measurements for a converted garage. Arranged a viewing. Only at the viewing I heard someone else ask about the side garden and they were told that actually the garden was not included in the sale. Upon further questions the revealed that the garage would also be demolished. None of this information was volunteered by Castle. A crazy operation. Their explanation was that they never specifically said the garden was included with the house.
Beware, they think it’s 2007. Although mortgage approved I wouldn't even view any house they have again.

Vector56

I was laughing when I saw the OP. Went through almost the identical process when bidding on a house recently with a EA from Castle (EA now works for Wilson Moore). Fund the whole process odd, unnecessarily messily and of no benefit to the Vendor.

kites

My experience with Castle Estate agents was similar to the posts above. Unfortunately the approach/tactics of the agent was a carbon copy of what I’ve read in others posts. It was an extremely frustrating and time wasting process for me.
However, for any bidder who has any issue with any agent there is something we can all do about it….

In line with the regulation that was introduced by National Property Services Regulatory Authority (around the time of the property price register being published online) ALL bids must be documented by agents on a form specified by the regulator. The agent must document, the value of the bid, how the bid was received (email/person/phone), who the bidder is and how/when they communicated this bid to the vendor. This process is to remove the scenario of phantom bidders and to ensure the agent is presenting an accurate version of the bidding situation.

A member of the public can’t ask to see these forms however the NPSRA can ask for copies of the bids and the agent ,whose license is from this regulatory authority, must produce them. I have been advised by the NPSRA that when they reach out to a bidder to verify their bid it is a criminal offence if the 'bidder' isn't truthful at this point.
To get the NPSRA involved in the process you've to complete the following form and give some background on the communications you've had with the agent.

Complaints Form:
Complaints form

The Property Price register has led to transparency on what’s selling for what price. It would be great to have a public register of bids.

Naive

BE VERY CAREFUL - We were thinking of selling and went to view a property. Castles, who were selling the property, encouraged us to put our own house on the market with them and insisted our beautiful and valuable home would sell very quickly. Our immediate offer was accepted by Castles on behalf of the vendor so we put our home on the market with Castles for quick sale. Over the next few weeks we were really put through the mill and the stress of viewings etc. After the first month it was suggested we look at other properties in the Castles portfolio and also drop our asking price although we insisted we were only interested in the property Castles told us we were sale agreed on. Each time we rang the office to check on bids on our home we dealt with a different negotiator and got different figures and although there was an offer a little lower than our asking price after a month of viewings it was suggested that we hold out a week or two longer for a slightly higher offer. After a further two weeks when we began to get nervous and asked for contracts and inquired why our house was not on view every weekend we were told that another bidder was preferred by the vendor completely out of the blue. We were devastated. On reflection it seems that with certain agents there may be a practice in Dublin of encouraging a number of potential purchasers that are interested in buying a property to bid on same while simultaneously putting their own property on the market with the same estate agent and whomever signs contracts first makes the sale and purchase -however while this is ongoing each purchaser believes they are sale agreed on the property they believe they are buying while the estate agent constantly encourages them to view other properties on their books because the agent knows that they cannot all buy the same property. It is interesting to note that properties with Castles in Dublin regularly have price drops prices and I notice many are taken off the market and never appear as sold properties on the property price register. This leads me to believe that other families have experienced the same stress and disappointment as mine. I believe we were lucky insofar as we didn’t sign a contract to sell our home and I did meet a couple recently who had found themselves in that awful position in a rising market who sold their home and couldn't secure a purchase. Whatever way you choose to approach this mine field yourself I have concluded by far the safest approach is to cut out agents when selling a property so that you can see the genuine bids - I also suggest you get legal advice when putting a booking deposit on a house and insist on contracts been drawn up asap. BEST OF LUCK!

forgetting

Naive, I can well believe your story. They are a shower of cowboys to be avoided at all costs.

I thought I had posted our experience here before but I can't see it, basically we were told we were sale agreed and we only found out that the vendor had no intention of selling to us at our offered bid when we went up and knocked on the vendor's door, as a few things that the Castle EA were saying to us didn't add up. Thank god we found out sooner rather than later as I guess their intention was to try and squeeze the extra money out of us when we we further along the process. I would not touch anything for sale with them.

BeatNikDub

Yikes, so much bad practice there it is hard to know where to start.
Just steer clear of these guys in my experience, buying or selling!

Weyhey

I dread when I see that a property for sale that I am interested in is being sold by Castle.

Gasherbraun

Weyhey wrote: »

I dread when I see that a property for sale that I am interested in is being sold by Castle.

I agree. We bought earlier this year and whilst I would not have ruled out a property on their books I would have had serious reservations due to what I have heard. We actually bought through Vincent Finnegan who were very good (and no I do do not work for them)

Woshy

We had a terrible experience with Castle too. We also stopped looking at properties that they had for sale and chose not to go view them etc. I understand that they work for the vendor but I certainly would never use them if/when I come to sell a house, as well as being very reluctant to purchase a property through them so surely their practices are not working out for them in the long run.

The estate agent we did buy the house through were a pleasure to deal with. Pleasant, professional and quick to respond (as was one other estate agent that we dealt with, in fairness). There a noticeably huge difference in the interactions we had with Castle and other estate agents.

hulio5

These have to be the worst estate agents ireland has to offer. They are so focused on winning new clients they forget about their existing ones.

Purchasers are treated like an inconvenience. Phonecalls are never answered, questions are never answered.

Buyers and sellers beware!!

BSTONE

We also had very bad experience with Castle recently.
We made many phone calls pre the third week open view and the agent was always not available and went to the next open view, made the offer to the agent face to face as we really like the house. He told us to send him an email on the offer which we also did on the same night (Tuesday night). We waited 2days and no update on the offer. We emailed and rang the agent on Friday which was hung up straight away and got an email back that he was away and would give us a call back on Monday which he never did.(I thought he was out of credit?!?!). We rang him many times on Tuesday and finally got a voice message back that the house went sale agreed at a price below our offer. The reason he gave us was the vendor chose the bidder and it's out of his control. We never got a chance to know the vendor and what vendor rely on to choose the bidder. We are very disappointed would never viewing any house with them again.

jackal

Had the same experience with them when we were trying to buy (stillorgan office). Absolute hucksters. You will never get the same story twice about anything, they seem to make it up as they go along, and they are always playing a game.

They seem to have preferred bidders, and the bidding process does not appear to be fair. Perhaps if you are "in" with them its a different story. Very fishy.

We stopped going to view castle marketed properties altogether and eventually bought via a reputable, established agent who actually did the normal everyday things that you would expect of someone managing the biggest purchase of your life.