Dodgy RE Agents..

[k1w1]

You'd think, given the current market, RE agents would be a bit nicer.

I send a simple, no-nonsense, first enquiry email to an agent asking for further info on a property, and I get this back....


Thank you for your enquiry. I have provided quite a lot of info about this property on the website. What in particular would you like to know?

Please see out website www.WeSuckAsAgents.co.nz [address changed to hide identities] as there may be other properties you are interested in as well.

Are you a serious buyer looking to invest in property or someone just browsing?


Is it just me being too sensitive? I'd never ask my customers if they are "serious" or not, especially not on their 1st ever enquiry, FFS!

[Aston]

Is it just me being too sensitive?

No, you're right. I think it's rude and I would never bother with that particular agent again.

I've experienced this sort of thing before also and I've then called the Company and asked to speak to "any agent other than Mr Smith, because he is a very rude person"

[SwissKiwi]

The silver lining is that you have weeded out an agent that is not suitable for you to work with.

[rueben]

I agree that its rude but when I ask for further info I always ask exactly what I want to know.

That way they know from my questions that I'm not a tyre kicker.

I agree with Aston - ring the company and speak to another agent.

[Judge]

About 6 months ago i sent emails to about 5-6 RE agents in central Wellington introducing myself as a beginning property investor looking for a property and offered each one of them to meet for a coffee in the CBD to discuss what i am looking for and see if they can help. Not one of them wanted to meet with me. Half did not respond in person, but rather used their PAs to write to me.
I have learned that residential RE agents are not interested in purchasers. They only want to meet vendors who list with them and pay their fee. In my view this is pretty short sighted, but this is reality.

[ChundaMars]

k1w1, I agree that the message came across quite blunt (although I would suggest that is at least partially because of the very nature of email communication being quite detached and hard to judge emotions from), however from that agents reply, can I assume you sent a generic "Please provide more information on this property" email? Because that's a very broad question and you can hardly blame the agent for asking for some clarification of what it is exactly that you are asking. After all, if they wrote a novel to every person who said "Tell me more" they'd never leave the office!

[Bluekiwi]

"Useless / Unhelpful Agents"

Funny I was just about to create a thread with a title something famaliar.

Generally I find the useless ones are great to deal with, as you know the property will have a lack of buyers / offers and you can pick it up cheap.
And your perserverance where the normal person gives up, may give you a deal.

Such as the agent that sold me my family home, he was so hopeless that he missed our first 2 appointments at the house. We were only people at auction and I paid 10% less that what I would have.

Other type I am highly suspicious of:

THE UNHELPFUL TYPE:
But why so unhelpful to sell a nice property with lots of opportunities.
Decidely unco-operative even answering simple questions.

Because I reckon they are getting their backhanding mates to get the place at a nice price at Auction.
Case in point is a mortgage auction 2/7.

The agent bluntly refuses to tell me anything, I know he knows stuff as he would have to be a complete idiot not to on a 900k property.

1. What do you reckon selling range is - no answer
2. What has happened here, why did bank foreclose - nothing
3. Some more questions - nothing

But they are not idiots, they are smart .... crooks !!

Only answer was:

"I dont have any of the answers to your questions. The bank tells us nothing. Go to the council to start your search if you want to get to research more about this property".

Very.... very... suspicious.

[halfempty]

Get your own back....

Wait 3 months till the same agent is mower your lawn or pumping your gas and then just to really anoy them be really really nice to them.

It will drive them insane.

Have fun.

[Davo36]

K1W1, Yeah I'm not sure I agree.

I used to be a real estate agent and now I'm an investor.

When you're an agent 95% of your time or more is wasted. Simply wasted by people who are never going to buy, buy something completely different from what they say they wanted or buy through someone else (and not because the any particular agent has done them a disservice, but because they can and see no reason to have any sort of loyalty to one agent etc.)

I had a conversation with someone today who had worked as an agent (now a recruiter) who was saying who often they spent time showing properties to people who already had a deal in place but were just checking they had done the right thing. It may sound unbelievable but people will intentionally waste salespeople's time to further their own causes. Of course they do, every day. And you don't hear agents whinging about the "dodgy public".

So many people run agents ragged and then either don't buy, or don't have the money or whatever.

This has lead to agents tying up properties (getting a sole agency) by tying up the vendors. If you have the properties, the buyers have to come to you. I can't say I blame them for this way of doing things.

If you want the good deals you need to impress on the agent that you're a a serious buyer, you can make decisions reasonably quickly and have the wherewithall to settle.

Having said all that, I too struggle to even get an agent to call back after a phone message etc. They have had it very good for some time now. They will definitely have to change their service but so will people sending through emails asking basic/dumb questions. That is just so lazy, they don't know who you are - you could even be another agent! I'd say you're lucky to have had the reply you've had. Ring them for Pete's sake. Show a little gumption at least!

David

[k1w1]

I DID ring them, twice. No reply. So I emailed.

Email is a perfectly acceptable form of communication, especially if I want them to send me some paperwork as attachments.

My annoyance was at the immediate reply to a first enquiry that tried to say, basically, unless you're a serious buyer, I don't want to know.

I'd be out of business pretty damn quick if I treated everyone who phoned/emailed me like that, let me tell you.

[Green Fish]

The reason for all of this nonsense is that the agent wants to get into a "phone call" thing with the potential buyer, while the potential buyer just wants the information, without having to put up with a whole lot of phone calls from a starving real estate agent.

Vendors should just dump the agent. Put 20 good photos on Trade-Me, with all the other info - and a realistic asking price.

[k1w1]

No, you're wrong Greenfish. I called - I don't mind a wee chat on the dog. But this person wasn't there (twice) so I emailed instead.

I get your point though, except I ain't seeing too many realistic prices on TradeMe so far.

[AndrewK]

No, you're wrong Greenfish. I called - I don't mind a wee chat on the dog. But this person wasn't there (twice) so I emailed instead.

I get your point though, except I ain't seeing too many realistic prices on TradeMe so far.

its not about the prices on trademe its about how willing they are to accept your offer - no one can sell you something you havent tried to buy.

[Bluekiwi]

K1W1, Yeah I'm not sure I agree.

I used to be a real estate agent and now I'm an investor.

When you're an agent 95% of your time or more is wasted. Simply wasted by people who are never going to buy, buy something completely different from what they say they wanted or buy through someone else (and not because the any particular agent has done them a disservice, but because they can and see no reason to have any sort of loyalty to one agent etc.)

I had a conversation with someone today who had worked as an agent (now a recruiter) who was saying who often they spent time showing properties to people who already had a deal in place but were just checking they had done the right thing. It may sound unbelievable but people will intentionally waste salespeople's time to further their own causes. Of course they do, every day. And you don't hear agents whinging about the "dodgy public".

So many people run agents ragged and then either don't buy, or don't have the money or whatever.

This has lead to agents tying up properties (getting a sole agency) by tying up the vendors. If you have the properties, the buyers have to come to you. I can't say I blame them for this way of doing things.

If you want the good deals you need to impress on the agent that you're a a serious buyer, you can make decisions reasonably quickly and have the wherewithall to settle.

Having said all that, I too struggle to even get an agent to call back after a phone message etc. They have had it very good for some time now. They will definitely have to change their service but so will people sending through emails asking basic/dumb questions. That is just so lazy, they don't know who you are - you could even be another agent! I'd say you're lucky to have had the reply you've had. Ring them for Pete's sake. Show a little gumption at least!

David

Did you sell many properties to your property developer mates or associates ?

[Richcrooks]

RE Agents

Hi Kiwi,
We had a similar experience with an agent in Rotorua. My wife asked a question on Trademe and requested that the Agent ring her back. We got an email reply saying "phone calls cost money".
My email reply was "our time is worth money - sorry we wasted yours".
Needlss to say we haven't heard back from that agent and they may have lost a potential sale.
Richcrooks