Do agents really operate a ‘mysterious’ business model that makes pyramid selling look like a school tuck shop?
That is the accusation of property writer Jayne Dowle in the Spectator, under the headline that suggests what agents do is money for old rope.
She makes a number of claims, finding out first-hand that selling and buying a home really is stressful (we honestly think our readers know that).
However Dowle has issues. These include that the valuer might not be the negotiator; and that his (Dowle doesn’t seem to think it might be ‘her’) job is simply to get the listing.
Dowle also argues that the valuer’s clipboard bearing local comparables is actually designed to make sellers drop their price by £10,000 – and is equally unreliable.
Then there’s the whole sordid business of flogging mortgages and conveyancing.
Not to mention the agents outside London who don’t open on Saturdays, who expect sellers to do all their own viewings, and who still use local newspaper advertising because they don’t do social media.
Dowle also complains about the long lock-in contracts.
The piece is well written and interesting. It may be nothing like the way you operate; on the other hand, it may ring some bells.
If so, should they be alarm bells?
The interesting thing for a national property writer like Dowle is – how many estate agents will continue to trust her with their take on the market, when she portrays many as so shifty.
Thinking about it, could what agents do be worse than pyramid selling? That, after all, is when no one actually sells anything.
But agents do have to sell a real piece of real estate before they make their money
Well, most (not all) do!
So what’s her take on the likes of Hybrid and Purple Bricks because everything she complains about is precisely what they do. At least the punter has the option of no sale = no fee. Is her next foray into estate agency going to be one sided, if not she will be printing a book about on-liners.
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(Hybrid is the same as high street, just without a high street window)
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I think Jayne Dowle just put herself in the cross hairs!
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Given the YOPA advert and the usual stereotypical tosh from a regurgitation journalist this one comment made the whole thing backfire
“My experience of online agents is dire, particularly as a would be buyer. The staff, if they bother to even answer your calls, are remote and have next to no understanding of local dynamics. For example as a Landlord you always want to know what a place would expect to rent for, and a good local agent will generally know the answer, whereas these remote web monkeys are clueless”
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Ive just spat my morning coffee out! who does this woman think she is? i could select pretty much any industry i want and find a load of ‘sharks’. (journalists would be at the top of that list by the way) Im so fed up with ‘journalists’ continually dredging up the same old critique because they have a deadline to finish an article so look for an easy target.
I have a few responses to your article JAYNE.
1. I dont know a single agent within a 50 mile radius of me that it closed on a Saturday (and yes, im outside London)
2. We ask for a sole agency period because we work on a no sale, no fee basis – I think its fair to ask for some protected time.
3. Fly blown sales details? really? did you actually see this or are you just making it up? mmmm?
4. your ‘fantasy office’ sound like my real one. come and visit me any time JAYNE and you will find a smart, modern office full of polite professional people either talking on the phone or tapping away on their keyboards.
5. We still advertise in the newspaper, because people still read it. We also use internet portals, social media, and any other channel with will give your precious house the exposure needed to sell it. – I would tell you all this on the valuation if you invited me out.
LASTLY – and perhaps most telling, why didn’t you use the agent that sold you the house in the first place!!!!!!!!
I’m not saying there aren’t any rubbish agents out there, but surely, in this day and age and with all your digital ‘journo’ skills, you would have been able to source 3 agents that offered all the things you wanted and didn’t do all the things you hated?
I put it to you JAYNE that you either deliberately hired the **** agent so you could sensationalise it for your ‘article’ or you just made the whole lot up.
If you cant write anything more factual and objective that this drivel, go and get a different job – I hear VIZ are hiring.
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YOPA sponsored advert? It is a variation of the cliché stuff the Telegraph have been pumping out for a few years; Boo hiss Estate agents are expensive blah blah blah 5 comment says no-one read it, just as well the woman and whoever spoon fed her the content about valuation advice in a falling market are clueless.
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Lazy journalism at best.
There’s no mileage (or pay cheque) for writing about how normal everything went. Stick to tea towel reviews or whatever other lifestyle dribble makes for your lowbrow audience…
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Bit of a Spectator fan and all that but there’s no getting away from the point that a bit of old school estate agent bashing might be journalism at its laziest and all has a whiff of 1999 about it but fair play to her, deadline for a column to meet so why not?
Anyway, while we are at it, here’s an idea for a story by a low level / not read much / tomorrow’s chip wrapper journalist – come and spend a day working with an estate agent then who ever they do it with can do a day as a journalist……
Jonnie
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