Poor customer service from Saxton Mee

[Trev 10]

You have to feel for estate agents at the moment, I wouldn’t like to be in their shoes. However, saying that, I think some of their problems are self inflicted. I've spoken to a few estate agent over the last 3-4 months (both local and national branches) and the general feeling I got from them was... as the housing market began to dip some estate agent (not naming any) began to over value property anticipating offers would come in under the asking price (due to the market slow down). Most people selling a property get two or three estate agents for a valuation and to compare agency fees. If one agent tell you they can sell your house for £10k more than the other estate agents, you'd naturally want to go with them. You see where this is going now... Now estate agent 'X' has 60 properties in their books which are overpriced. In the mean time the housing market continues to go downhill. Next thing you know the house at the end of the street comes on the market at £20k less than yours. The people selling this one have seen you haven’t had any luck and therefore gone in with a low price before it gets any worse. The odd few people (brave or stupid, who knows?) who are looking to buy aren’t going to give estate agent 'X' a second glance as all their houses are well over priced. Agent 'X' now starts to panic and begin to try convince their vendors they need to drop their prices by £20k-£30k to bring them on par with the other estate agents!

Anyhow back to the point... Are you saying Saxton Mee will charge you if you with-draw your property no matter how long they've had it on the market for? Surely that aint legal? I know some estate agents request a 30 day period where you can’t sell or go with another agency when leaving, otherwise you pay a fee. If I were you I would instruct Saxton Mee to put the asking price up a silly amount (this will certainly upset them) and then rent it out privately. This way it’s still on the market, you haven’t left Saxton Me, you haven’t broken your contract, however you have a tenant in paying the mortgage. Then it’s just a case of hoping the market picks up sooner rather than later!

 

You're the third or fourth person i've heard with negative comments about Saxton Me... that says it all to me.

[Buttercup80 10]

I think you are very accurate in your opinions on how some agents have overvalued etc.

 

Agents can refuse to market a house at an asking price that is ridiculous as it makes them look stupid to have something so obviously over valued, so it's unlikely they would agree to do that

[BertieBasset 10]

Buttercup's obviously a Blundells employee, Saxtonmee and Blundells always love each other, facing opposite sides of the road on Ecclesall Rd seething at each other!

 

The best advice to the person originally posting is to keep your house up for sale with Saxtonmee, hence you wont have to pay their fees until they sell it. In the meantime you can try your efforts towards renting it out either using your own initiative or a different rental agent.

 

If Saxtonmee are so poor at getting viewings you wont have to worry about upsetting your new tenants with intrusive visitors!

 

Hope this helps.

 

In the meantime I don't blame anyone for gloating over the predicament of estate agents. For the exorbitant fees they charge and their arrogant swagger you'd expect they'd at least have some professional qualifications; but no, most are just cheeky salesreps who print off the latest prices for your road from Rightmove and then adjust the price up or down by a percentage. Very few have any surveying qualifications and the title "valuer" is a complete red herring as to their abilities...any of us could do what they do if we had their affront!

How so? Your complaint is that they will no longer do no sale, no fee, and that fees are increasing as the market gets more difficult. By that definition, that means when the market was hot and things sold themselves, agents were giving lower fees and less restrictions on sellers, therefore not 'cashing in'.

 

Obviously they made a lot of money as the market was very bouyant - but as they are estate agents, that's kind of the point! First and foremost, they are there to make money, like any other business in the marketplace. Less money is coming in (as in, less than 50% compared to last year) so they cannot operate to the same standards and staffing levels without charging more, regardless of how much money they banked in the past.

 

The point is this - you want a service and a high standard, and you want to sell your house. If you choose to do it through an estate agent then you should be prepared to pay the fees they set. If you want to sell privately, and the rest of the country goes along, the estate agency business will go under altogether and your life will be enriched, no doubt!

 

You can't have it both ways - everything else is getting more expensive, this is just one more thing. We can't give you everything you want without charging for it, because the market will not allow us to continue as we were, so we have to charge you more. If you don't like it, don't sell.

 

By the way, i don't work for Saxton Mee. Obviously i work for an agent, but it's not, and never will be, them!

[Buttercup80 10]

Buttercup's obviously a Blundells employee, Saxtonmee and Blundells always love each other, facing opposite sides of the road on Ecclesall Rd seething at each other!

 

You're wrong. I don't work in Sheffield and i certainly don't seethe at people from across the road, i have far better things to do with my day! I don't hate Saxton Mee either, or any other agent. I just wouldn't want to work for them as i don't think any of them are as well structured in their approach or their training of staff as the agent i work for is.

 

Anyway, this isn't about who i work for or who i dislike, i was passing comment as someone who works in the industry and offering another side to the arguments.

[BertieBasset 10]

I notice that you haven't denied working for Blundells though! And there isn't any challenge as to estate agents efforts at valuations!

 

Buttercup's obviously a Blundells employee, Saxtonmee and Blundells always love each other, facing opposite sides of the road on Ecclesall Rd seething at each other!

 

You're wrong. I don't work in Sheffield and i certainly don't seethe at people from across the road, i have far better things to do with my day! I don't hate Saxton Mee either, or any other agent. I just wouldn't want to work for them as i don't think any of them are as well structured in their approach or their training of staff as the agent i work for is.

 

Anyway, this isn't about who i work for or who i dislike, i was passing comment as someone who works in the industry and offering another side to the arguments.

[Buttercup80 10]

Sorry, i wasn't really concentrating on the bottom part of the message! Who i work for is irrelevant and none of anyone's business which is why i have no interest in telling you. As i have said before in a previous thread, i'm not here to sell my company, i'm just on Sheffield Forum like everyone else.

 

Regarding valuers - i don't particularly have any problem with what you said. They are sales people, and as long as you can do that and have the relevant training then no, it's not a difficult job in my opinion. In fact, it irritates me greatly that the valuers get paid about twice as much as i do, yet my job is considerably harder to do. If they all had to get proper qualifications which were time consuming and needed some level of intelligence then i would be happier as i would feel they had gone some way to earning the right to the salary. There are plenty of clueless valuers out there who have their job because of who they are or who they know, and little to do with actual ability and common sense.

 

Before you ask, yes i could do that job but i don't want to because i am not a direct salesperson. I like to deal with people and see something through from the beginning to the end and make people happy when they sell / buy the right house. My motivations to do my job are different to the motivations needed to be a valuer. Which is a shame as i could make a lot more money!

[max 13]

I think you are very accurate in your opinions on how some agents have overvalued etc.

 

Agents can refuse to market a house at an asking price that is ridiculous as it makes them look stupid to have something so obviously over valued, so it's unlikely they would agree to do that

 

Not so. We sold our house in Walkley for £215k 31/2 years ago and Saxton Mee now have it on at £375k and, having looked at the brochure, there has been nothing done to the property to warrant that jump in price. Given that anyone can find out how much a property sold for it seems a bit ambitious in the current market to put it on at such a price.

[Buttercup80 10]

Not so. We sold our house in Walkley for £215k 31/2 years ago and Saxton Mee now have it on at £375k and, having looked at the brochure, there has been nothing done to the property to warrant that jump in price. Given that anyone can find out how much a property sold for it seems a bit ambitious in the current market to put it on at such a price.

 

As i said, they CAN refuse because it makes them look stupid. In this case it appears that they haven't refused and the result is as predicted!

[Guest pegmosaic]

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[BertieBasset 10]

this may be an extremely naive question, but why don't you just be honest with them...? Ooops I forgot you're an estate agent!

 

When we dont want houses on the market, we usally go round to value them and put the commission up if we dont want the house, this usally puts the vendors off, and they go to another agent. This reduces the amount of rubbish that we have to put on, and vendors that will not take our advise on how much to put their houses on the market for.

[ukjazzer 10]

Over the last few years I have been involved in selling properties in various locations in the UK. My experience, with the exception of one agency in East London, is that most Estate agents in the UK and Sheffield are totally useless ! They don't have a clue ! I am really GLAD that the chicken has finally come home to roost and that many Estate agents will be facing unemployment. They are just a bunch of jumped up twerps. If I am ever involved in selling properety again I will market my property myself on the internet with 'rightmove' . Thats all Estate agents do anyway. Market it youself online for peanuts and save a fortune. Thats my advice . Estate Agents are about as useful to society as Solicitors. Overpaid with over inflated opinions.

[BertieBasset 10]

the reason they get away with it so often is because most people only sell houses infrequently and through their own anxieties want to trust someone during the process. Estate agents prey on this and also on people's naivity in initially trusting whatever an estate agent tells them...

 

I like the idea of people advertising their own properties...

 

Over the last few years I have been involved in selling properties in various locations in the UK. My experience, with the exception of one agency in East London, is that most Estate agents in the UK and Sheffield are totally useless ! They don't have a clue ! I am really GLAD that the chicken has finally come home to roost and that many Estate agents will be facing unemployment. They are just a bunch of jumped up twerps. If I am ever involved in selling properety again I will market my property myself on the internet with 'rightmove' . Thats all Estate agents do anyway. Market it youself online for peanuts and save a fortune. Thats my advice . Estate Agents are about as useful to society as Solicitors. Overpaid with over inflated opinions.