[Paul and Linda]

As you all are or will become aware, timings are very important for your move, especially when you find yourselves 16 months down the timeline from when you first put your EOI in!

I have a little advice about estate agents.

Don't trust them.

Once you get into the final stages and delay occur, they blame each other, they'll balme the valuers, the negotiators....anyone else they can think of.

They'll (and these are the good ones by the way not the downright dodgy ones~!) tell you 4 to 5 weeks from an off to completeion, then 6 to 8 weeks, and I've just been told 10 to 12 weeks! Progressive stretching of the truth.

We were told a week ago that our buyers had had the survey done on their own house and all was ok. I've just spoken to our buyers and the surveyor is coming tomorrow!

My advice....phone your estate agent every day, if they get sick of this, tell them to phone you back on an arranged date with more info, and don't let it slip.

Honestly, how difficult is it they are only talking to people and acting as intemediaries. The problem is they will only move once pushed. They must, I would assume, have too much work on and only act when they have no choice.

Angry...yes I am, has my time been wasted since day one, yes it has.

Looks like another month at the very least now before exchange/complete! And i was going to put my notice in on monday!

Arghhh! PS this will happen to you, and it will happen when you least need it to.


PUSH PUSH PUSH, buy a horse whip!

Rant over, deep breath, curses......

[Cardiff Irons]

Bad day Paul? :uhoh

[Smiler]

Paul

This is so frustrating for you, especially wanting to put your notice in too. :roll:

It seems most people here have been struggling to sell and it always seems to come back to the agent, no promotion, no pushing, no communication. Yet they are super confident when trying to get your business.

Those three little words again DONT TRUST THEM

Good luck and don't give up.

Deborah

[Paul and Linda]

Cheers Deborah, thanks for the support.

Cardiff, you made me laugh :nice1 , thanks, yes I am a little stressed. However that feeling is shortly abut to be dissolved away with the help of Mr Carlsberg.

:cheers

[Smiler]

See you are feeling better already :clap :clap

Deborah

[Cardiff Irons]

Glad that brightened your mood a little Paul. Anyway, here's something a little more constructive.

Long story, but basically we have a 2 bedroom flat in Bath that we've been trying to get shot of for well over a year now. We've been gradually reducing the price bit by bit and the original selling price of £220 soon dwindled to £185K. But here's the resonance with your story....after about 6-7 months I contacted them and asked why it was always me who had to prompt them to action (i.e. me: "why don't you think we can sell?", them "well, maybe you could reduce the price a bit"). I'll admit to losing it a little because my view was that THEY should be advising ME of what needs to be done to sell the house before I ask them about it.

Anyway, I got them to commit to ringing me at a specfied time each week to update me on progress, what they'd done etc. After they had the property for 12 months, I promptly dropped them and went to another agent. At the time of writing, it looks like we have a suitable offer (lot, lot lower than we were originally after).

So, bottom line is you need to treat them like the thickest employee you've ever known. Give them basic orders that they understand, don't allow them the flexibility of thinking for themselves because they'll mess things up and be prepared to change them if they're not performing.

So Paul, I'll match your rant and raise you one. ;)

Good luck mate.


Steve (currently in the company of Mr. Tetleys :cheers )

[sarahw]

Yep, I second that - we had to chase ours up EVERY day! It got very wearing & they kept acting as if 'why are you phoning us?' but we continued so that they had to have an update ready every morning for us(OK we were in NZ already so it was harder & they were trying to fob my Mum off who is very gullible at the best of times! - at one stage we had an offer & we told them we'd accept it on the proviso that it was a 6-week deal - when we got the written confirmation it said 6 weeks to exchange of contracts not to completion - sneaky b++++'s!!! I think they were as pleased as we were when we finally exchanged because it meant no more daily grillings!!! :laugh

Estate Agents need to take a qualification in NZ - now wouldn't that be a good idea in the UK?! :clap And they all work for themselves (even if they are affiliated to agencies) - so basically they are responsible (they give you their mobile phone numbers & most of them are available 7 days a week!!!) - ours arranged our solicitor, our building report & told us everything we needed to know. He even offered to drive out to our individual offices in the city to get our signatures on the document so he could put our offer in earlier than the next day! Its been the smoothest purchase I've ever experienced (and the quickest) 7 days to going 'unconditional' (the equivalent of exchanging contracts!) - so keep your chin up - its easier by far on this side!!! :nice1

[Paul and Linda]

You got me, I fold.

Why doesn't someone on telly, in simple terms, lay this truth out on the table?

These morons are virtually running the housing market!

Or are they just ruining it?

I hope that in a year or two, Mr Blair will see this as a vote winner and give these monkey's a kick up the backside.

You now you can't drop a bag of litter out in the alleyway on the wrong day of the week where we live without getting fined, and yet these people are allowed to run amock.

It wouldn't surprise me that the ninnies that we have running this country are too dim to realise what's going on here and do anything about it!

I gues I just dealt another hand....game on.

Good luck with your offer.

[Jennie & Rob]

An unusual thing to write but - our estate agents were faultless!!!!!!
Goodman Ingram in Swindon/Wotton Bassett were completely wonderful and highly recommended. We had buyers who could not sell and the whole thing took 10 months but - no complaints whatsoever about the estate agent. I am saying this because it is so unusual. If you live in that area - you are lucky indeed. :P

[Robert Dazzler]

Estate Agents need to take a qualification in NZ - ... (they give you their mobile phone numbers & most of them are available 7 days a week!!!) - ours arranged our solicitor, our building report & told us everything we needed to know. He even offered to drive out to our individual offices in the city to get our signatures on the document so he could put our offer in earlier than the next day!

And they're every bit as slippery and slimey as the ones in the UK so remember that when you get here.

They know you're from the UK, they know you don't know the system too well, they know you don't know the market and they think you've got loads of dosh.

Do not trust real estate agents here any more than the ones in the UK! They're on commission...... The more you pay.... the more they earn.

Bobby

P.S.

Always sort out you're own solicitor and surveyor!

[jubjub]

Paul, no-one in the house sale process seems able to be trusted in UK just now, its a bu**er but thats seems to be the way its going, just dont let them forget you for a minute, maybe you will p*ss them off enough to get a fast result, just to get you off their backs.

I think we were very lucky, I worked for the company anyway, so got a good service (it was just the buyers that were a**holes), but it does seem that English Estate agents are a lot worse than Scottish ones, and seem to operate on their own terms, whereas ours had criteria & timetables for each sale (or maybe it was just my company) and the complaints we received were never as bad as what you guys seem to get putting up with.

But as Sarah says, the estate agents over here cant seem to do enough for you, OK they are money motivated, no sale no wages, so they do whatever they can, running around getting signatures (even picking me up from other side of city before I had a car to see a house), and she was round at 8pm on Saturday to give us keys, try getting a UK estate agent out at that time of night.......

[Paul and Linda]

Yes, lets not forget that it's not only the estate agents, buyers can be b***ers.

[adamsat]

Firstly, lets say I've always had a dislike of estate agents.

However, this time when we sold in the UK beofre coming out I was impressed by the system our agents had in place. Once the sale was agreed our "file" was handed over to a customer service office whose job was to chase all the parties concerned and provide an update to us once a week. They we're available to call anytime, and as their only job was chasing and updating they had no problem with you calling them. It also had the added advantage that they were not estate agents, but admin staff who knew the conveyencing process. Overall it didn't make the house sale process move any quicker, but did make the overall communications flow better.

[Paul and Linda]

Yup that's exactly what we have. But 3 weeks after agreeing the sale, and 2 weeks 2 days after our buyer's buyer went for their mortgage applic. I call up to find that our CSO hasn't even checked the file yet (she said"I check them every week and if a surveyor hasn't been out in 2 weeks I'll get onto it.") well she hadn't and she is now under strict instrucyion to phone me once a week with an update.

Systems are only good if you actually use them..

[clarabell]

This thread made me chuckle! Perhaps with fear as ours will be going on the market in 5 months :uhoh

Paul, I really feel for you. Hang in there. This time next year (if youve exchanged contracts by then ;) ) it will be a tiny fleck on the horizon of your memory while you sit back on a wide empty beach with a can of NZ lager in one hand, a meat and cheese pie in the other and the biggest smile on your face ever :mrgreen: :cheers

[Paul and Linda]

Yeh, and other stuff to freak us out ...... my brother (chef) was working with a relief chef yesterday. Who just turned out to be the chap who had putan offer in 2K above our current buyers, nowhe wants to up it to 4K and a bottle of champagne!

Our buyers had better behave themselves next week!
:bobby

[Karen and Rich Matthews]

God i'm glad it's not just me. Everything was going really well, got PR i handed in my notice (as teacher's have to give a term) and all this was in May.
A REALLY enthusiastic agent came over with the same old "this'll take no time", "blah, blah" and Rich and I fell for it. Luckily we were only tied to an 8 week exclusive contract, but they did leave me so frustrated there were tears! We only had three viewings and have since had the house revalued and there is a 10k discrepency. WE had to do all of the contacting, and it's funny how many times someone can be unavailable to come to the phone, and then NOT return the call. Ended up going to the agents myself every week to get an update. We even wrote them a letter saying WHY we weren't happy, and still they did nothing to rectify this. :?

I do apologise if this sounds like a rant (which it is) but Rich and I so badly want to start our new life. I have had to join a teacher supply agency (my worst nightmare) and we are just hoping that the new agents can get the house sold. I guess what is really weird is that once getting that visa in our passport we thought 'great, we're off!' and it's been a hard come down. NZ seems a lifetime away and we can't plan anything.

Have stopped looking on open2view (!!!) and am trying to be more positive, but estate agents have left a very sour taste indeed. :wah

By the way. Any fellow teachers out there. Just signed up with Hays teaching supply agency. What's really good about them is that they can also find you a job in NZ. They have just opened a new office soley dedicated to finding British teachers jobs in NZ. Thought i should mention it. :nice1

Any positive tales out there???

[Paul and Linda]

Karen one of the major benefits of this forum is that you can have a brilliant rant, and sometimes someone listens and agrees. Sometimes, after 16 months of planning, we just can't stand to listen to each other complain....so we have an on line rant...

Perfick!

Lots of luck

Paul

PS where you heading to?

[Karen and Rich Matthews]

Hopefully, sometime soon we will be heading to Wellington. Really love the look of the place, and Rich loves the idea of hopping over to the South Island for holidays. We've seen a little place called Johnsonville we both love, so the plan is to head there first and see what we think. We don't have children to worry about, just two cats who no doubt will be fairly disgruntled! :uhoh

Hope everything goes well, thanks for the reply. I know what you mean, it isn't complaining as such, it's just that people who aren't going through the same thing keeping using the same lines "it's a slow market", "Just be patient", "New Zealand isn't going anywhere" and really don't seem to get the whole frustration side of things. My little rant tonight really helped :P

[Kenny]

By the way. Any fellow teachers out there. Just signed up with Hays teaching supply agency. What's really good about them is that they can also find you a job in NZ. They have just opened a new office soley dedicated to finding British teachers jobs in NZ. Thought i should mention it. :nice1

Any positive tales out there???

Hi Karen,

We live in Tawa, just a stones throw away from Johnsonville. No doubt my better half, Carol, will reply to you when she gets in from work tonight. She's been a teacher here for 9 year so I'm sure she can give you a good insight into education over here.


As for the area around Johnsonville/Tawa etc. - Ask away

[Mildred]

By the way. Any fellow teachers out there. Just signed up with Hays teaching supply agency.

My husband was a primary school teacher for a couple of years. Before returning back to his old profession as a Heating Engineer with British Gas he did a couple of month's supply teaching with Select in Maidstone. He found them really supportive. Because he managed to stay at a certain Maidstone Junior school which was in special measues for longer than a day (a record apparently) they decided to pay him danger money!!!!! Even a year on he still gets the occasional call from them to see if he's still happy with BG as they've plenty of positions he could fill!

I've got a feeling they have branches in NZ too.

[Avalon]

I know this may be a bit serious for a first post, but reading through this thread i was a bit worried about the view that NZ estate agents are being helpful to people because they make it easy to sign contracts etc. We have had no end of difficulties in getting the agent we are buying through to stop trying to get us signing things without a solicitor looking over it. They have wanted us to use local recommended valuers, solicitors and builders, and it takes a bit of strong talking to get it through to them that we wont be doing that.

Agents here get commisions for referrals (and they wont be upfront about it). And they make it easy for you to sign the contracts because then you cant get out of them. We read a really good (but truly scary) book called "Dont Sign Anything" about what they get up to and the tricks they pull. :eek Worth a read.

On the other hand, our UK agents were brilliant, (Property Shop, Ross On Wye) Cant rate them high enough - though we had problems witha rival company constantly trying to poach us. We even became friends with them, and were always popping in for cups of tea!

Avalon

[Karen and Rich Matthews]

:nice1

Well after the rant we have some good news. We had a couple come over on Friday and then again on Sunday and have put an offer on the house. It's £1500 less the asking price and a condition is that we take our house off the market for two weeks. BUT they have dropped theirs from £137k to £133K and have some first time buyers waiting to put in an offer. :laugh

It's really hard not to get too excited. Suddenly i want to dig out the pet transport quotations and comntact the furniture people. I even sneeked a look at house rental in NZ...BUT decided i needed to ground myself and watched Kirsty Allsop's 'Property Chain' :wah That certain brought me crashing down. SO afer all that negativity about agents, it has only taken the new lot two weeks to get a couple in who were serious.

AND.. the House Doctor decluttering and neutral colours bit does work :clap

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

A much more positive Karen and Rich

[Mildred]

:P