Shady estate agents

I really wanted to ask the forum for their stories about property buying in Sheffield.

My experience has been dreadful. I wanted a 2nd house as a buy to let. I found the property, negotiated the price and found contractors to update the home to a high standard.

However, the property had a useage issue which needed local authority paperwork. It should have been simple but no mainstream lender would fund the house simply due to it's use class.

Instead, I was told on many occasions that I would need a bridging loan costing a collosal £7000 per MONTH interest until the council had made it's changes!

Five months later and dozens of phone calls, the Est agent has gazumpt my bid for someone elses and the whole process has been a waste of time for me.

The agent has been useless. Failing to keep in touch, failing to ask even once whether I needed any help to buy the house.

The moral of this story is - do not hesitate with the right property for you, and dont trust estate agents who are there for their own commission and their clients, not for you the buyer.

I don't mean to be brutal, you're obviously smarting - but that's exactly what an Agent is there for - they work for the seller, not the buyer. The seller is the one paying them. The buyer doesn't pay them anything. It's not reasonable to really expect anything different. That you understand this, now, will put you in a much better position in the future, I'm sure.

To expect a selling Agent to be 'there' for you, the buyer, is overly optimistic.

People renting property often fall into this trap with Agents, they think that the Agent is, somehow, on their side... failing to realise they are the Agent of the Landlord, and it's only the Landlord that pays them. People can be very strange.

Even worse, some Agents can get this mixed-up and start to believe they're in it for the benefit of both sides, or weighted in favour of the Tenants.

Even worse, some Agents can get this mixed-up and start to believe they're in it for the benefit of both sides, or weighted in favour of the Tenants.

But a void (empty property) means no one gets paid. So to some extent they do have to help tenants to avoid that.

All agents are shady. I spotted a repo I liked, that had only been listed that week. I rung to arrange a viewing and was told, yes we could, but they already had an offer of full asking price.

Now who offers, as a first offer, the full asking price on a repo?? I mean come on. Next they changed the ad to say "We are in offer of xxxxxx, please contact us if you wish to offer more"

This was a month ago, and its still on Rightmove. So I think they are pretending to have that offer, to get higher offer, and it aint working. Who wants to get into a bidding war when everyone knows we are heading towards a huge recession due to Brexit.

The other strange "trick" I am noticing is sold signs on properties that are still listed as available on Rightmove, even reducing properties after the sold sign is outside.

Obviously not what I was talking about, but it's still not helping Tenants in any way, shape or form - it's just 'selling' what's on the truck, to anyone who'll buy.

But a void (empty property) means no one gets paid. So to some extent they do have to help tenants to avoid that.

 

All agents are shady. I spotted a repo I liked, that had only been listed that week. I rung to arrange a viewing and was told, yes we could, but they already had an offer of full asking price.

 

Now who offers, as a first offer, the full asking price on a repo?? I mean come on. Next they changed the ad to say "We are in offer of xxxxxx, please contact us if you wish to offer more"

 

This was a month ago, and its still on Rightmove. So I think they are pretending to have that offer, to get higher offer, and it aint working. Who wants to get into a bidding war when everyone knows we are heading towards a huge recession due to Brexit.

 

The other strange "trick" I am noticing is sold signs on properties that are still listed as available on Rightmove, even reducing properties after the sold sign is outside.

Usually when a sold signgoes up it also says subject to contract and when I sold mine recently the estate agent asked me do I want to leave it advertised on right move until contracts had been exchanged which I replied yes .as for them reducing price of a property with a sold sign ,perhaps the sale fell through and they have not had time to remove the sold sign ?

Aren't the only properties which need extra council approval either HMO's or those in Page Hall?

I really wanted to ask the forum for their stories about property buying in Sheffield.

 

My experience has been dreadful. I wanted a 2nd house as a buy to let. I found the property, negotiated the price and found contractors to update the home to a high standard.

 

However, the property had a useage issue which needed local authority paperwork. It should have been simple but no mainstream lender would fund the house simply due to it's use class.

Instead, I was told on many occasions that I would need a bridging loan costing a collosal £7000 per MONTH interest until the council had made it's changes!

 

Five months later and dozens of phone calls, the Est agent has gazumpt my bid for someone elses and the whole process has been a waste of time for me.

 

The agent has been useless. Failing to keep in touch, failing to ask even once whether I needed any help to buy the house.

 

The moral of this story is - do not hesitate with the right property for you, and dont trust estate agents who are there for their own commission and their clients, not for you the buyer.

I got a completely different moral from this story.

Sorry you weren't able to make a profit from a second property.....#prayforspectra

Didn't take long for a green eyed troll to appear :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Didn't take long for a green eyed troll to appear :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Green eyed troll ???

Aren't the only properties which need extra council approval either HMO's or those in Page Hall?

Sorry for not adding any insight to this thread, but the above made guffaw!

I got a completely different moral from this story.

 

Sorry you weren't able to make a profit from a second property.....#prayforspectra

Shady Estate Agents vs Shady Buy-to-Let Sharks. Little sympathy either way.

A bridging loan costing £7k a month in interest? Tell us another.