Interesting week Met a couple who bought a bungalow for £400,000 2 years ago have applied for planning permission to turn it into flats we valued the land at £1,000,000, there's a nice return!
Invited to market a property, a nice 30s terrace house. Sent 3 or 4 people round then hesitated as the vendor refused to allow me to prepare details and would not sign my contract.Turns out as I discovered he has the house under offer with another agent and was trying to Gazump his buyer. We walked away, but it does make you cynical. And on that note. Sold a flat that the vendor had tried 7 times to sell prior to asking us. It had occured to me not to deal with the property but we went for it nonetheless. The vendor signed a multi agent agreement, so we rushed to get it sold. We found a buyer and importantly the vendor WILLINGLY accepted the offer. Then our invoice arrived on exchange of contracts and he called asking to reduce our previously agreed commission. I refused stating he had tried 2 other agents and a private sale and we had done well to achieve a sale, period! He said you did not get a very good price for me', did you. Ha! Charming I thought. He accepted it at the time, no doubt out of desperation. Again makes you cynical where's my thank you for a job well done!?
"The greatest trick the Devil played, was convincing us all that he did not exist"
As a Conveyancing Solicitor I find a lot of people don't really understand what estate agents do, so it's interesting for people on this form to see the kind of stuff that happens formt the agent's side!
Sold a flat today that we took instructions on Friday. The vendor had a private sale running. We had told him that we were confident of achieving substantially more including our fee. I did not expect to get 20k more after sealed bids Sold 8 properties over the week end for a strong surge for our end of month figures although our fall through rate this month is a staggering 50% (of January arranged sales)
"The greatest trick the Devil played, was convincing us all that he did not exist"
Immy, I would be interested in the reasons for sales falling through. I pulled out of a purchase last year because of lack of building regs on an extension - could not get an indemnity policy because I had asked building control about it. The EA sacked the vendor (really) because of this. What kind of things do you come across? SM
Keep it up Immy - I know you try and put the agent's side a lot on the forum, and sometimes get a rather short response! It'd be really interesting to see what goes on in your day to day work that sometimes gives you this slightly "cynical" edge. Might give us a bit more of an insight, and get you a more generous hearing!
Had a lady today ask for a valuation for her house for insurance purposes in other words the rebuild value of her house for the insurance company application form. And she was expecting me to come round and give a full marketing appraisel for free. The thing is it is not free for us, as It takes me away from other highly pressing matters that do pay, including customers that don't get a return phone call as we are soo busy!
"The greatest trick the Devil played, was convincing us all that he did not exist"
Originally posted by SpampMan: Immy, I would be interested in the reasons for sales falling through. What kind of things do you come across? SM
A befriended EA (yes i do have friends in low/high places ) told me they're recently having more than an average number of sales fall through. Mainly because of funding/lending problems. People seem to rush into buying before having their finances properly in order.
Originally posted by immy21: Had a lady today ask for a valuation for her house for insurance purposes in other words the rebuild value of her house for the insurance company application form. And she was expecting me to come round and give a full marketing appraisel for free.
Shouldn't she be seeking the advice of a Quantity Surveyor about the rebuild cost?
Immy, you will love my sister: she is going to get her (and her hubby's) 1970s timewarp bungalow valued when all the works are done on it. She just want to know what it will be worth. She popped round mine this weekend to take a look at my new kitchen. "Are you going to get your flat valued?" She asked me. "No" I replied, "I'm not in a position to sell it yet. If I want to get an idea of what the value is, I'll go by similar flats on the market" She always had bugged me at times.
Originally posted by immy21: Had a lady today ask for a valuation for her house for insurance purposes in other words the rebuild value of her house for the insurance company application form. And she was expecting me to come round and give a full marketing appraisel for free. The thing is it is not free for us, as It takes me away from other highly pressing matters that do pay, including customers that don't get a return phone call as we are soo busy!
Yes, we have that problem as well..........
Bathrooms accident damaged bath/basin/wc etc. Flood Damage/burst pipes etc.
Cust. Can you give a quote for replacement?
Me. Insurance quote?
Cust.Yes
Me. Yes.... it is £60 payable now but refunded to you in cash as soon as we start the job.
Cust. Oh! it's not a free quote then?
Me. Yes, it is, Your £60 is being refunded to you...and consider this.... why should we take time, trouble and effort to write letters to your Insurance Company or travel miles to a job to assess the damage and also perhaps wait weeks for payment, if we get the job that is, or you, armed with a written quote from us get your Mate in to the job and split the difference.
Originally posted by immy21: Had a lady today ask for a valuation for her house for insurance purposes in other words the rebuild value of her house for the insurance company application form. And she was expecting me to come round and give a full marketing appraisel for free. The thing is it is not free for us, as It takes me away from other highly pressing matters that do pay, including customers that don't get a return phone call as we are soo busy!
I thought they'd stopped that. In recent years when I've been searching for home insurance deals as it comes up for renewal they mostly seem to have a set amount of up to ....... in my case its £1,000,000 which obviously covers for full rebuild. I've found it's the case with cars as well - they no longer ask you for a valuation of your vehicle because it is mostly irrelevant as it's always been 'market value'.
You do have to spend a little time making sure that your contents cover is sufficient though.
*It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them. -- Pierre De Beaumarchais
I know that cos I was double checking the other week on what I was covered for as I got into a bit of paranoid episode having just watched a docu about tornados and the increasing incidence of them in the UK.
Anyway, sorry immy - carry on, more tales please....
*It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them. -- Pierre De Beaumarchais
Originally posted by bclark1: The rebuild value is never as high as the market value anyway. The rebuild value is for the cost of the bricks and mortar etc if it were to fall down.
An Estate Agent would give a market value which is completely different. some people!
That's because the re-build cost doesn't include the cost of the land it stands on - which is possibly just as expensive as the bricks and mortar. The EA's valaution includes the land.
Unless the land itself were to be completely destroyed, in which case...
Originally posted by immy21: Invited to market a property, a nice 30s terrace house. Sent 3 or 4 people round then hesitated as the vendor refused to allow me to prepare details and would not sign my contract.Turns out as I discovered he has the house under offer with another agent and was trying to Gazump his buyer. We walked away, but it does make you cynical.
Quite right too - gazumping is a practice that should not be encouraged
quote:
Originally posted by immy21: Sold a flat today that we took instructions on Friday. The vendor had a private sale running. We had told him that we were confident of achieving substantially more including our fee. I did not expect to get 20k more after sealed bids
Erm, hold on a minute. Slight incongruity here methinks. Are you saying that you encouraged the person to kick his private buyer into touch in order to try for a higher sale price? Isn't that gazumping?
No he came to us and the sale to the private buyer was just days old. Gazumping by definition is when a sale has proceeded at least until the buyer has parted with cash that they can't retrieve. The private buyer had lost a 'steal' so good luck to the vendor I say. Backs up my argument too that agents more often than not can achieve substantially more than private sellers because their resources are so much greater.
"The greatest trick the Devil played, was convincing us all that he did not exist"
bit of a rant.
She always had bugged me at times.
