Hi mate,
I've always wondered what the point of estate agents is?
Once i see a house i like why do i have to speak to you anymore? You appear to be entirely superfluos at this point and just get in the way of getting it done.
Even if we say you conveying an offer to the vendor is ok, why are you anything to do with it after acceptance? you mention doing deals in the thread but you aren't doing deals, other people are and you are extracting money for nothing as far as i can tell.
Aren't you just glorified advertising space?
It may not sound like a friendly query but it is, genuinely wondered.
cheers.
Haha Tom
It's ok to dislike estate agents as they are rubbish and dont do a lot.
Some do earn their corn though and all you have to remember is that we work for "The Vendor" as they pay the bills and therefore putting your property in the hands of a bad or lazy estate agent could mean the difference in thousands of pounds on your property, I feel that in terms of marketing most agents do the same and the good old basics of estate agency ie COMMUNICATION with buyers and sellers never changes.
But once you get an offer that is where we really earn our corn as we need to squeeze every last penny out of a deal for our vendors but at the same time not losing the purchaser so you need strong negotiating skills and then once "the easy" bit is done you need us to keep your chain together and progress it through to exchange liasing with all links and their respective solicitors for the 8-10 weeks of an average transaction.
For this service we get paid between 1 - 1.75% of the sales price dependant how good you are at negotiating with vendors or showing them how different you are to the other poor agents in your town which is actually one of the lowest %'s in the world for selling property with the average closer to 3%.
As a company we pride ourselves on service, marketing, going the extra mile and yes obv we dont please everyone all the time but strive everyday to make a difference with little things like making sure there is blue sky in the photographs, taking time and care with the internal shots, speaking to our clients a minimum of once per week - more if you are a vendor or have sold through us so some agents are different, but that is why we sell twice as much as our competitors I guess.
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