Each week, we also round-up the best comments, emails and letters to the site and pick one reader contribution as our Star Letter. This week’s award goes to:
Estate agents must manage vendor expectations, brokers warn
My experience is that if the agent doesn’t pin down the mortgage deal in-house; they pretty much don’t bother with broker liaison. On most occasions that can’t even get the property details right or there are important omissions. Length of lease, service and ground rent etc etc – fundamental property information is missing.
Some agents can’t even understand tenure, especially when it comes to share of freehold and the implications that has on a mortgage. From my experience with London agents they are definitely fuelling buyer and seller anxiety and putting undue stress on all parties, making excessive demands and on occasion threats of property withdrawal; which is not instigated by the vendor.
Where you are dealing with a commission based industry the objective is to close the deal asap in order to be paid. The financial services industry has been penalised for this remuneration method and financial advisers have been forced to take drastic action; maybe one day estate agents will be properly regulated and forced down the same route.
New build sales reps are just as bad; misleading potential buyers in respect of mortgage arrangements and implying property cannot be secured unless they arrange the finance – it was so long ago these new homes reps were begging customers to reserve and offering anything they could to persuade them. How things change – and not always for the best!
Pointed
