Then, his phone rang. I saw my client’s face drop mid conversation as it came to light he had just lost the property.
“Whats happened?” I asked.
“They’ve accepted a higher offer,” he replied.
His face dropped and I felt his pain having been here numerous times before. We continued with our coffee and the disappointment was written all over his face.
After two minutes of me assuring him “it wasn’t the right place”, and that “his REAL home is out there for him” his phone rang again. Whilst I was still debating in my head whether he should have Rihanna as his ring tone, his facial expression changed again and so commenced a rather heated conversation.
“Well there are plenty of other period properties in that area so I’ll continue my search!” he said rather forcefully.
It seemed the agent had phoned back within the two minutes of previously saying that he had lost the property to a higher offer, to now say that if he used their “in-house” mortgage broker, he can have it at the lower price he had offered.
Sorry, what? Did you say “if you use their in house mortgage broker you can have it at the lower price?”
WHAT!
My face dropped and I felt my own pain, having been here numerous times before. We continued with our coffee and the disappointment was written all over my face. Like the film Taken, it was like someone had been kidnapped.
All I could think of was: “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for a ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career (in mortgages). Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my client go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I WILL find you, and I will kill you”.
Okay, so I was never going to kill him, but the fact that someone in this day and age was still using such inappropriate tactics made me incandescent with rage. For years, agents have been repairing their reputations in the industry and such prehistoric tactics I thought were disappearing, but evidently not.
So, rather than embarking on a Liam Neeson revenge mission to claim back my client, who might I point out remained loyal all the way through this process (trust and loyalty Mr Negotiator – something you will never have!) I took it upon myself to look into the estate agents governing bodies/codes. With the assistance from some of the nice guys still in the industry (thank you Mr Chris Woods from Penzance), I stumbled across a couple of rules and regulations that, as brokers, we should be armed with to aid our clients.
Such as this little beauty from The Code of Practice for Estate Agents. A particular code that any estate agent with credibility will subscribe to. Pay particular attention to points 7c and to point 8.
The above has been filed in my desk for future reference. From speaking with various brokers this is not an uncommon practice and I would urge us all as brokers to fight against this. Sure it effects our well being, but ultimately it is a gross misrepresentation to the vendors of the property being sold, and is discriminating against our clients and furthermore, it is forcing clients that are making their biggest investment in their lifetime to either use someone forced upon them, or forfeit their potential new home.
Financial qualification of offers is a completely different matter and to be honest is deemed good practice, but if you come up against this try to renege on quoting Liam Neeson, and quote section 7c of the Code of Conduct for Estate agents which goes like this:
“I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for a ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career (in mortgages). Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my client go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I WILL find you, and I will kill you”.
Oops wrong quote.
Lea Karassavas is a mortgage broker at Prolific Mortgage Finance and has over 14 years expertise in the mortgage industry. Follow him on Twitter @Mortgage_Mind
