House hunter horrors: 10 things that estate and letting agents hate
Halloween is nigh, so it’s time for us to make your blood run cold... Brace yourself, here are our top ten things that estate and letting agents hate the most… bwahaha.
The end of October is nigh. So it’s time to brace yourself for Halloween, horror stories, and things that go bump in the night… and this time we’re not referring to the plummeting pound. Instead, we’re going to make your blood run cold by discussing the things that annoy you the most. So without further ado, here are our top ten things that estate and letting agents hate… bwahaha.
1. Time-wasters
We know that your time is precious. But some house hunters just don’t get it. They’ll happily cancel viewings at the last minute, and they won’t hesitate to declare their love for a subsequent property… only to ignore your calls asking if they’d like to make an offer.
Some time-wasters take things even further. They might even make that elusive offer… before ultimately deciding that they can’t afford the home or never liked it in the first place. And don’t even get us started on the window shoppers who only book viewings out of curiosity. They’re enough to make any agent don a Scream mask and go on a rampage.
2. Losing instructions
So you turned on the charm, pitched your credentials perfectly, used empirical evidence (aka sold prices in the area) to support your valuation, but you still lost the instruction to a rival who suggested an inflated asking price? The little monster.
You know what will happen next, don’t you? Months will go by and the blasted property won’t sell until the rival agent finally drops the price to what you suggested in the first place. And then it will sell in a jiffy.
Initially, you’ll feel smug to be proven right. But then you’ll realise who got paid. Aarrgghh. It’s probably time to reach for that Scream mask again.
3. Messy, smelly homes
As a discerning agent with certain standards, you probably turn up for viewings looking sharp and looking for a quick sale… until you realise that the current occupants have left the place in a right state.
How bad are we talking here? Well, there’s probably clutter everywhere, grime galore in the bathroom, and the lounge has probably been freshly decorated with crisps and cigarette ash. What’s more, to top it all off, the occupants have left the smell of cooked fish hanging in the air. Pooey.
No doubt, you’ll be crying in a corner when the viewers arrive. You’ve got zero chance of sealing this particular deal (and only an even chance of convincing them that the bad smell isn’t you).
4. Micromanaging customers
How long have you been an estate or letting agent? Long enough to know your stuff, we imagine. So why do some customers insist on micromanaging every aspect of their listing? They want to choose the photos, tweak (or completely rewrite) the text, and even set the asking price. They probably want to conduct the viewings themselves, which would be a big mistake, too.
Laidback agents might be fine with all this. After all, they’ll still get paid. But you’ve got more pride than that. Why won’t they trust you to get on with what you do best? It’s your job, after all. Hellish clients are definitely in the top ten things that estate and letting agents hate most.
5. Unrealistic expectations
You know that phrase, ‘your dream home’? Sadly, some people take this literally and really believe there’s a pad as perfect as a pixie’s nose out there with their name on it. Therefore, they refuse to compromise over anything, despite their bargain budget, and turn their nose up at homes that tick 99% of their boxes. It’s a nightmare.
Sellers and landlords can be unrealistic, too. Sometimes they overvalue their properties, refuse to budge on the asking price, and then wonder why their home(s) linger on the market like pungent gases surrounding a witch’s cauldron.
6. Low ball offers
Sadly, it’s not just vendors and landlords that get greedy. Buyers and prospective tenants can be nothing but toil and trouble as well - especially when they refuse to meet a perfectly fair asking price on principle.
It’s amazing how many amateurs believe that taking a hard line makes them some kind of genius negotiator. Just pay the money already. Don’t they realise that some homes are deliberately priced low, using the offers in excess of prefix, to spark a bidding war? No amount of hocus-pocus will persuade a seller to accept less than their OIEO floor.
7. Time-consuming admin
Most agents love getting out and about, meeting new people, and helping them to find a new home. But what they usually detest - a dead cert to make any list of things that estate and letting agents hate - is interminable admin: all those registrations, pre-tenancy and tenancy setups, meter readings, spending hours talking to utility companies etc. It’s frighteningly tedious.
Fortunately, however, life’s a lot easier if you sign up for our utility management service, which handles your move ins, move outs, void queries, and all those other thankless tasks as seamlessly as we just integrated that plug for our services. Ahem.
8. Delays
Did you know that it frequently takes over 20 weeks for homes to go from offer to exchange these days? Of course you did. But are you long enough in the tooth, or perhaps I should say “long enough in the vampire’s fang”, to remember when it used to take just 12 weeks?
Either way, conveyancing delays, trouble with inventories, and tardy vendors taking an eternity to fill in property information forms are the bane of property agents’ existence. And don’t get us started on long and complicated chains. It’s no surprise that chains feature prominently in dark, scary dungeons.
9. Bad manners
They say that good manners cost nothing. So why do some customers find it so hard to say “please”, “thank you”, and treat you like a fellow human being? And what’s with ignoring your requests for feedback after a viewing? ‘Ghosting’ is supposed to be for Halloween only.
But it’s not just the personal touch that some people lack. They can also lack tact. How many times have viewers made disparaging remarks about a property when the vendor is within earshot? The ghastly so-and-sos.
10. Property agents’ bad reputation
The final thing that keeps property professionals awake at night - the obvious place to round off our list of things that estate and letting agents hate - is the industry’s bad reputation. After all, research shows that agents are the fifth least trusted professionals in the UK. Ouch.
This one stings because it’s simply not fair. Yes, there’s the odd bad apple out there, but the overwhelming majority of agents are honest to the core. What’s more, recent statistics show that customer satisfaction with estate agents is actually very high.
So we’re going to spread the word that people can trust estate agents. You’re not into tricks. And your great service works a treat.
Happy Halloween all.