Estate agents and getting appointments

sparts

So rang a estate agent today to arrange a viewing of a house, before the agent would give me an appointment he wanted to know how I intended to purchase said house didn't mind that bit. He then went on to say viewing were on Wednesday this week , I explained to him Wednesday afternoon was impossible for me and could we arrange for another date or time , reasonable request You would think. I was totally shocked when he said that he was not going to be travelling back and forth to the house and if there was another group viewing he would let me know. Maddness! !!!

on_my_oe

Agh that's normal unfortunately - I've been trying to view the Hampton Wood development with Hooke and MacDonald for over a month; four voicemails, three emails finally spoke to the agent and said I was available anytime but Tuesday as had exam - sure enough, got an email later that week offering me Tuesday. I emailed a further three times and rang twice to organise another time, but nothing apart from a "Don't call us, we'll call you" generic reply...
All I can say is, I'm noting down which agents have been helpful so that when I'm a vendor, I know which ones to use and which ones to avoid

eclectichoney

Have had the exact same experience with H&M so never got to view a property. In fairness most other estate agents have been pretty accommodating (as they should be) when it comes to viewings.

sparts

The mind boggles why these people should have a position in sales,

on_my_oe

Unfortunately I had similar issues with mason estates; the first property they never turned up, the second property the viewing was abruptly cancelled the same day the second property appeared in the sales register as having been sold with the date registered as the date of the intended viewing.
So far my list of 'good agents' is a little short on content, but I would say that DMPC has been good, as has Wilson Moore - it's just unfortunate they haven't had properties (yet!) that I want to buy

Victor

Realise you aren't buying a bar of chocolate that is mass produced and available in every corner shop.

The estate agent may be on a very modest fee and getting an appointment may be difficult with an uncooperative resident.

dpofloinn

Victor wrote: »

Realise you aren't buying a bar of chocolate that is mass produced and available in every corner shop.

The estate agent may be on a very modest fee and getting an appointment may be difficult with an uncooperative resident.

Firstly, granted you are not buying a bar of chocolate, but unlike a bar of chocolate individual houses do not enjoy a potential market of 100% of the population. Most houses will only ever have 1 or 2 potential buyers. The entire purpose of EA's is to sell houses so if that means meeting people for viewings at 6pm on a Friday or 1 pm on a Tuesday then so be it.

Imagine if you went into your local shop looking for a chocolate bar but the shop keeper says to you ''I sell them but you cant have one til next Thursday because I cant be arsed putting them through the till'' What would happen? You would leave and go elsewhere and the shop would have lost a customer

If that is the case then the EA should not have taken on the responsibility of the sale. The more people see the property the sooner the property will sell, which means the sooner the EA will get paid. If the EA cant agree a proper fee then they shouldn't be in business. As for difficult residents,if the houses are occupied it is usually by the seller, so it would be in their interest to make the property available for viewing. It is very rare to have tenants in a house that is for sale, for the simple reason that it would be impossible to give time frames to tenants on the speed of the sale. A deal for the house could be done within weeks leaving the tenants with nowhere to go.

SpaceTime

During the boom a relative of mine from the states had a huge argument on the phone with a Dublin estate agent because she kept asking 'how much do you want to spend' and she replied 'as little as possible for the best house possible: here are my specs...'

She responded : if you're not going to tell me what your budget is i'm not wasting my time!!

dpofloinn

You can see both arguments ''the best possible house for the least amount of money'' could be anything ranging from a cow shed to Georgian mansion impossible to figure out without a baseline to work from. On the other hand if your relative gave specifics like a 3 bed semi D in Lucan near bus routes and near schools then the EA could definitely have handled it differently. However your relative surely must have known how much of a budget the had to work with?

SpaceTime

dpofloinn wrote: »

You can see both arguments ''the best possible house for the least amount of money'' could be anything ranging from a cow shed to Georgian mansion impossible to figure out without a baseline to work from. On the other hand if your relative gave specifics like a 3 bed semi D in Lucan near bus routes and near schools then the EA could definitely have handled it differently. However your relative surely must have known how much of a budget the had to work with?

She gave them a concise specification of number of bedrooms, type of house and locations.

All the EA cared about was her maximum budget which she wasn't prepared to reveal. It's like showing your hand in a game of poker! She's just going to jack the price up to your maximum budget.

Her budget was pretty big. EA lost a sale though and she actually moved back to the US, probably avoiding being stung in the bubble here.

dpofloinn

Fair enough, if they know your upper limit they will only show you properties at the upper end of that scale. However they will get a fair idea of your budget based on the properties you enquire about or show most interest in. It would still be difficult for the EA to determine what to consider suitable for your relative for example 2 identical properties on the same street . One newly renovated to a good standard being sold for E350,000 the second somewhat dilapidated and in need of renovation being sold for E325,000 .Which one should they suggest? Which one is the best possible house? Is there any point looking at these houses? because maybe the buyer only has E300,000