Estate Agents Job Description

[yottie]

Can any-one enlighten me on the exact functions of an estate agent.
As they are employed by the seller of the property it would seem to me that they should always "be on his side" ?
Should all (legal) marketing opportunities be employed to sell the property, including any inputs from the seller.
I sometimes get the impression that they place a flyer in their windows, place a couple of adverts in the local press, then sit back waiting ?
Are they allowed to pass on contact details of a prospective buyer to the seller ?
Any other observations would be most welcome.

 

[footprints]

Well the only observation I can make is one a guy made to me some years ago.
Used car dealers are descended from horse thieves and Estate Agents are their illegitimate offspring!

 

[tony1851]

They don't act for the seller, they act in their own interests.

 

[RigidRaider]

Everybody has an estate agent story but I will never be able to forgive the local estate agent in Holcombe Brook, near Bury, who advised me to market my cottage for a ridicuously low price. Two hours later I rang him and told him to add £10,000 and the next day I told him to add another £5,000. He whined that I wouldn't sell it for that price yet within a week I had two young professional singles fighting over it. I accepted the first offer, which was exactly on price and stuck to it despite the estate agent advising me to gazump the buyer.

He was either a complete idiot or just greedy for a quick commission.

 

[securespark]

Surely it was in his best interests to try and get the highest price possible, as he would have been on a %age commission?

 

[footprints]

They do tend to want a quick turnover, 1 percent of an extra £5000 is not worth waiting for.
Same with rentals I found they quoted silly prices just to get their hands on the income, I always got a fair bit more by telling them what I wanted for the property and got it!

 

[EFLImpudence]

Surely it was in his best interests to try and get the highest price possible, as he would have been on a %age commission?

You'd think that but sometimes they do seem to be more interested in a quick sale.

I too have experienced estate agents who valued properties too cheaply.

 

[Himaginn]

Get several agents round to give you a price for the house. Discuss their commission percentages, make notes.

Consider the best price and lowest commission, if that looks like the best option.
The agent is obliged to offer for sale at your price, unless they walk away and refuse the commission.
They are there to advise and guide, not to insist on their assessments.
You can insist on wherever you want to advertise, but they may charge extra than their standard charges.
You can try insisting on knowing the identity of the buyer, but don't be surprised if the agent gets uppity, and walks away. They may suspect that you intend to circumvent the agent, thereby excluding them from the transaction, and thus their commission.

 

[PBC_1966]

Estate agents - real-estate agents or realtors as they are known here - do a lot more to earn their commission here than in Britain. During the process of selling up in England my American wife was amazed at just how little they seem to do beyond taking the particulars, putting up the details, and then just taking calls and sending prospective buyers along to have a look (not to mention how long it took for the sale to go through after everything was signed).

Realtors here don't just make an arrangement with the owners to say "Mr. & Mrs. Smith will see you at 3 p.m. then." They actually meet prospective buyers at the house, or drive them out there. If you're working with a realtor to sell your house and looking at others to buy, then he'll usually be the one to take you around those properties as well. For homes which are empty or where people aren't in much of the time, they have a "lock box" system which licensed realtors in the area have access to for a key. They'll often attend with you while inspections are done as well, if you want.

 

[HawkEye244]

Lying scum ****s just like most people that wear suits to work

 

[misterhelpful]

Estate agents - real-estate agents or realtors as they are known here - do a lot more to earn their commission here than in Britain. During the process of selling up in England my American wife was amazed at just how little they seem to do beyond taking the particulars, putting up the details, and then just taking calls and sending prospective buyers along to have a look (not to mention how long it took for the sale to go through after everything was signed).

Realtors here don't just make an arrangement with the owners to say "Mr. & Mrs. Smith will see you at 3 p.m. then." They actually meet prospective buyers at the house, or drive them out there. If you're working with a realtor to sell your house and looking at others to buy, then he'll usually be the one to take you around those properties as well. For homes which are empty or where people aren't in much of the time, they have a "lock box" system which licensed realtors in the area have access to for a key. They'll often attend with you while inspections are done as well, if you want.

I agree 100% that they do far more here. We recently bought a new house, after renting for the first couple of years after I moved here, and I was extremely surprised at just how on top of things our realtor was. She would call with the slightest bit of info she had on houses we were interested in, chased up the mortgage lender when they were taking forever over trivial matters, ran around for us while we were in work but needed to get something sorted. Even the sellers' realtor did some running around and pushing for us.
I suppose, as stated, they are all in it for their commission, but back in the UK, I don't think they do anywhere near enough legwork as they could to help move things along quickly.
Our biggest disappointment here was when we put an offer in for our 'dream house' and the sellers' disclosures came back with the main page declaring any known issues was left completely blank. We gave them 24 hours to declare anything but they still failed to get the owners to complete the paperwork by the deadline so we backed out. Sadly, it turned out that their realtor's mother had died the day before and that was the reason for the oversight and delay. Our realtor tried to get us to go back in for it, so we didn't miss out, but we had cold feet about it so didn't go any further with it. That said, a month later, we found our real dream house, had our offer accepted, and closed 35 days later - nothing like the three months it took the last time I bought a house in the UK.

 

[Slogger]

On the subject of Estate Agents ..Has anyone come across the dubious practice of them calling their sales AUCTIONS ...Its not an auction in any way shape or form but they say it is so cough up the auction fee ...Rip off artists

I have been looking into setting up as an Estate Agent with the ideals of a cracking deal for the punters

 

[PBC_1966]

had our offer accepted, and closed 35 days later.

Similar time scale for when we bought our present house last year: Offer made and accepted at the end of April, it closed and we moved in May 27. When leaving the U.K. I had a buyer already lined up for my old place in Norfolk, and even though it was a simple cash deal (I owned it outright, buyer was paying cash) it still took about 3 months to be settled and for me to get the money. And I think then it was only because I kept calling them about every other day until they must have been fed up with it.

 

[Himaginn]

The UK agent is only an intermediary, with a specific interest in concluding a deal between an interested seller and an interested buyer.
They'll utilise any and every delaying, advising, suggestive, motivating technique that they can muster in order to ensure a transaction is completed.

They don't want to lose a potential buyer or seller. That is their function. The transaction fee is quite low compared to other countries. Different countries have their different practices, regulations and cultures, but it's not particularly helpful on this occasion.