Saturday, March 17, 2012

Help! Need to find a decent estate agent

It's that time again when I have to engage with estate agents. You may recall the nightmare I had last time when I was moving house. You would think I would have learned by now, having moved so often, but I never cease to be disappointed by estate agents and their total lack of customer service.

Day one: I go to the estate agent I think I may choose to sell with. It is Saturday at 4.30pm, the lights are on and there is a woman sitting at a desk inside, but the door is locked. She shakes her head at me and indicates that they are closed. I get back in the car and because I can see the phone number on a poster, I call them to see if I can leave an answering machine message asking about making an appointment for them to come round. The woman inside does not answer the phone and no machine kicks in.  I drive away having failed to make any contact with them. What if I wanted to make a bid on a house I had just visited? Or wanted to make an appointment to visit a house? The impetus is clearly on me to persevere. Is this good customer service?

I will be letting you know how things progress, I know every day will hold frustrations, but in the meantime, which of the many agents, ideally on Allerton Road, would you recommend I try?

1 comment:

Stuart Bruce said...

Last time I sold a house I did it myself by buying a sign and sticking it up outside. Designed and printed my own details. If there are houses nearby for sale then people will see yours as they drive past. An estate agent does very little for the money, nothing you can't do better yourself. Even valuations are pointless as mine proved to be in exactly the same range as those from estate agents.