Estate agent standard

work

Sorry to bash estate agents but...
Can anyone give advice on the following.

I saw a house advertised that I can afford as a holiday home ( finance arranged) I emailed the agent through daft, then directly, then made numerous calls. I estimate I have tried at least 10 times to contact them and the selling agent has still not returned a single call or email. This is a well known company <MOD SNIP >

I spoke to their receptionist who never seemed too bothered. The receptionist once explained the selling price had increased, though not on daft as far as I see, and asked me IF I WAS SCARED BY THE PRICE as it increased. At the time I said no ( I can afford fortunately) though I was taken aback and annoyed as I wanted to be in their good books.

I am not local and a friend of mine managed to chat to the agent directly and asked them to call me. Nothing happened.

I have found out this is a sale for a bank but other than that I have a few questions and genuinely want to make an offer.

My questions?
Is there any obligation on an agent to return calls?
As a bank sale. Could they be contacted about this, surley they should want or require the best price?
Does an agent need to log offers to prove the increase is real?
Are there any regulatory bodies for agents or any laws that apply to their job?

Finally if I can try and contact the vendor directly?

Can you compel an agent to deal with you......strange situation.

Hope my questions make sense

Thanks

athtrasna

Please do not name companies on this forum

Mod

April 73

It sounds like this is forced sale that the owner won't facilitate. You showed interest & the price went up. The owners don't want to sell. It's the only thing that makes sense.

Seth Brundle

I'm in the process of moving house and have been all year. They say that it's a stressful process but in my view the only stress has been dealing with the Estate Agents.

Two different estate agents that we dealt with did not bother returning calls on bids. I suspect that they are busy, not that this is an excuse.
One of the two did not bother informing us of subsequent bids once we placed a bid - with two separate properties (we weren't bidding on the two properties at the same time). The estate agent was aware that we had the finance ready and were good to go. As an example, in one case, I called placed a bid on the Tuesday following the May bank holiday. The Wednesday of the following week I phoned again for an update (as I felt that 8 days was plenty for the vendors to mull it over) and was told that a higher bid was placed the day after mine.

Thankfully we found a house and have gone sale agreed (our own house is sale agreed some time now). The homes we're selling and buying are being dealt with by a company different from the above. However, when talking to the people we're buying from, they asked their estate agent to help them find another house. He didn't suggest one place to them.

My conclusion from my own experience this year is that they are too busy to show any form of business acumen or "customer" service. The market has picked up so people will do the hard work and they don't have to be bothered doing to much; they'll get their commission regardless.
They get a few people to show people around a house and wait for the calls to come in. the two companies who did not bother calling me following bids, I had not met the sales agent, only people who were under pressure to get to the next showing. Also, for all the effort required in getting a sale from say 380k to 410k, is there that much reward for them?