o/t Estate Agents Grrrr! Rant

The housing market sucks all round really.

We want to find somewhere to buy and call our own, and have no problems getting a mortgage but we don't have £20,000 or so required for a deposit, neither of us have our own property to sell to raise the deposit, and we earn between us just too much for the 'part rent part buy' stuff so we're completely stuck too.

Our only option is renting, which although I'm doing at the moment, is not what I want to be doing for the rest of our lives.

So difficult to get anywhere on the housing ladder at the moment.

The estate agents are a complete waste of space up here. The only thing they do is actually stick you in their window. You have to pay for newspaper advertisments. When you do get a vewing they dont show them around they leave it to you to do.

So after asking them what am i paying for exactly and getting quite annoyed with them and them with me we decided not to use them.

Instead i put my own advert in the newspaper for 1 month and sold it ourselfs. Saved a bloody fortune. ?

They just keep saying "Well, everyone looks at the internet these days" True to a certain degree but my argument is I can put it on the internet myself for £50, I can put a board up in the garden for free so the reason I go to an agent is for them to advertise it with the emphasis on "advertise" i.e., not just stick it on rightmove! I'm on rightmove everyday looking at properties but I still look in the paper because not all agents are on rightmove and I think that a lot of agents assume that everyone in the world has the internet and they don't. Many of the properties near us have been bought by single people in their 50's and 60's who've suddenly found themselves having to live on their own for one reason or another. There are loads of people in that age group who don't own computers or know how to work one. All they are interested in is reducing it to a ridiculous level that we wouldn't have enough to buy another decent property with the sale money. I know we are really lucky in that we've paid off the mortgage because we've lived in it 27years but we really want a pretty little bungalow ready for when we're old and decrepid!

You must live down South! In Yorkshire, the prices have tumbled down. We tried to sell it in 2003 and it was up at £185,000. We had lots of interest then but the property we wanted got sold and we couldn't find anywhere else we liked. This time around nearly 8 years later...? Up for £160,000 and they say we'll be lucky to get £150,000 for it despite the fact that it's all been renovated ready for sale. New everything, kitchen, bathroom, neutral decor, the lot. 3 bed, detached house.

i thin its massivley to do with north and south! we bought ours 2 years ago and its now worth 15k more then wen we bought it!

id say go private, put an ad in yourselves, lots of people do it this way as it cuts out faff, and lots of people look for houses that are being sold privatly...my parents did the same!

Ah well, such is life as they say! Keep on plodding on LOL!

I had mine on the market 6 months ago and it was a nightmare. I bought it for £180,000 in 2005 and it is now valued at £270,000

I gave up in the end and have decided yto stay put, it would mean a saving of just £300 a month so I don't see the point. Only thing that we would benefit would be cheaper bills in a smaller house. I think moving is more stressful than planning any weddings!

I didn't think you could advertise on rightmove without an agent?

You're better off not doing that anyway, as the amount you pay in mortgage and top up rent quite often equates to the same amount that you'd be paying for a full mortgage. Schemes where you don't have to pay the top up rent are, however, worth considering. As you say, you have to be earning under a certain amount or be a key worker (teacher, NHS worker etc.)

Hi Rainbow Florist

Which part of yorkshire u in, i am in south yorkshire, and we are struggling to get a mortgage, we are currently renting a house of my parents, and want to buy it, but been told we would be at least £15,000 short on the mortgage we could get, its crazy how theres no help for people anymore.

Sarah

I'm in London and things don't seem much better here- had my flat on the market for 6 months now with minimal interest. And totally agree about estate agents. We're on our third now, and they all seem to be completely useless, lying morons! They really have proved the stereotype to be true.

Hope things get better for you anyway!

We are in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. The market is dead as dodo here! It's not just us, everyone is the same. It's been on the market since March and we've had two viewings and one offer of £125,000 which we told them to shove as far as they could get it!

We're in the same boat as you (and similar area, we're Halifax) - we want to buy together but my OH needs to sell his, he's had it on since august and has not even had one viewing even though its a fab little house. Its soul destroying knowing you want to move but feeling trapped where you are and the estate agents are just not worth the money they are paid - I've never known anyone do so little for so much money!!

My house was on the market 19 months before it sold - I broke the estate agent's record! But it did sell, thats the point. It takes time, thats all, and the market is pretty slow right now. Different estate agents charge different amounts and provide different services so it's worth shopping around.

Patience is a virtue when it copmes to selling, but I'd recommend you let the estate agents do the viewings. I had better esults when I made myself scarce, I think some buyers get intimidated by owners. And owners who have been trying to sell for a long time can sound a bit desperate.

The thing is, property is only worth what someone is willing to pay IYSWIM? I think a lot of sellers (not saying this is you Rainbow Florist, at all) have expectations that are just unrealistic and therefore nothing moves.

You need to keep pushing your agents RF, make them work for their money. It's disgusting what they're saying about the ads. Are they charging you a flat fee or a percentage? Ask them what they're doing to market the house with people they have on their books. Have a look again at the advert - how good are the photos really? Ask your agent to run a report from rightmove which tells you how many people click through to look at your full ad. Have a think about the first impressions people are getting from the pics.

Don't be afraid to tell them off - they're working for you at the end of the day. Aaargh, they're all shits aren't they?!

Firstly I have working in 3 estate agents, as a secretary, and bar the odd person nearly every one there has been a money grabbing b*stard. The whole point is that u pay them a percentage of your selling amount in order for them to advertise your property. However, in a slow economic time, they will only advertise the properties that they think have a chance of selling. not fair, but from their point of view they are trying to make money and will not want to advertise a house over another if they think one is more likely to see than the other.

Have u had a look around at what the other houses similar to yours in the same area are selling at? Sadly with the economic downturn house prices will suffer and go down and being in a buyers market rather than a sellers already puts you at a disadvantage. We also live in a country, where partly due to dear old maggie thatcher, our house prices are already ridiculously over inflated compared to what really they should be another reason why they are dropping a lot.

Im not sure I have any advice to give, bar looking for another agent in the area, see if they will help u more. U can always put it on with another agent as well. Tell both places that you will give it a month and which ever one seems to be working the hardest to sell ur property, u will then put it on with them as a sole agent?

Hope they pull their fingers out of their backside soon!

I can really sympathise with you, my house is on the market, has been since March i've had a few veiwings but no takers.

My downside is its empty, i had tenents but they have gone and now i have a house that i'm having to pay the morgage on thats not being used, i need to see my bank to see what i can do about the morgage cause come january i'll have no funds left to pay it. Its only on now for 80k as i have brought it down from 100k.

I probably shouldn't have read this post. My fiancée found out that there closing his RAF base and he'll have to move base by April (a month before the wedding). He's still not been told where he's going or when exactly it will be! We're hoping to have it on the Market on Thursday so we can get the ball rolling so were ready to go once we know where he's being moved to. It's so annoying to think we could be starting married life living apart if we can't sell, fingers crossed our estate agent isn't too bad!