Sorry for the long absence. Its been a few weeks since my last blog but when I logged in today I had the pleasant surprise of two new followers 'Counting Pennies ' and ' Annette Webb'. Thank you both for joining.
The last few weeks have flown by. Its now been a month since my house was sold and we are getting on well in the rented place. To be honest my house sale went through quickly and easily so I got suckered into thinking that a new purchase would be the same. Not having bought a property in over 15 years I forgot about the process involved. Dealing with estate agents ( apologies for any estate agents reading ) , I have found them to be dreadful. I have dealt with about 7 different companies and they have all been the same. Silly stories, exaggeration, lack of contact, misinformation and forgetfulness. I am just so glad I didn't have to pay nearly £5k for the privilege of them selling my old house. They seem to look down upon you like something on their shoe. I just don't get it ? We are chain free, have the deposit in the bank and the mortgage agreed. Some of the agents have seen the paperwork to prove it. I kind of thought the phone would be ringing off the hook asking us to view but nothing. I really am surprised. We last went to view a place last weekend. I feel like I'm a bit fed up now. Sometimes the pictures and descriptions are really disappointing when you seem them in real life. One house we went to view, we would ask ' whats this' or 'whats in there', to be told we couldn't look as its a mess !! How do people expect to sell and why do they expect people to buy when you can't look at something ? We have a property in mind that we may ask for a second look.
Paying out the estate agency fee was the thing I most begrudged about moving. I didn't mind paying the solicitor, or the surveyor but the fact that my money had gone to the estate agency really galled me. There was a catalogue of disasters - private letters put into the post without envelopes, requests for copies of things I had paid for that didn't materialise,not bothering to tell me when my buyer had contacted them to let them know the survey was ok and everything was going ahead, ranting at me on moving day because I wasn't out of the house by 12 - I didn't get the keys for the new house until 2, and my buyer was at work all day anyway and had no intention of moving in that day. His Dad came to collect the keys from me as we moved the last things out of the house. He was lovely,had a look around the garden with me while J moved the last bits out of the house and left us with the garage key so we could get the last bits out of there later in the day. He told us to take our time and just put the garage key through the letterbox when we'd finished. No need for all the ranting by the estate agent at all. Luckily, we only looked at empty properties- about 15 of them- so we didn't experience not being able to look in rooms or cupboards. That seems bizarre - the vendors obviously aren't that keen to move. Hope you find somewhere you love very soon.
ReplyDeleteKeep your chin up, Hope something comes up soon,xxx
ReplyDeleteThanks both xx I think the agents are just full of their own self importance. The one we are having a second look at is an empty property.
ReplyDeleteThe right house will come along, don't worry. Perhaps estate agents need reminding who is paying them.
ReplyDeleteJane x
I have to agree 100% with your view on estate agents. I am sure that there are some good, honest ones out there, but my recent dealings with them has been nothing but dishonesty (or at least hiding the truth which is the same thing in my book), money grabbing and a complete lack of integrity. They totally forget who is paying them and are so self important. I see from others comments that we are not alone!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree about estate agents. mine never listened to my reasons for wanting to sell and gave me crap advice- actually no advice! They were not proactive in any way - if they had a decent grasp of the market at the time as I know some good ones do might have managed to salvage something from my house sale - the rubbish ones are devils spawn next to solicitors and tabloid journalists ( apologies to any good ones in this group as well lol)...
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