Estate Agents .... love them or hate them ???

Has anyone had poor service from an estate agent? Can the word 'professional' ever be applied to them? Do you think that they pay themselves vast amounts of commission that totally unrelates to the actual work done? Do we need them or are there better alternatives to buying and selling properties? Oh, and as the housing market is depressed, are they crying into their coffee with the lack of commission? Nice answers only please ...

Well, I am an estate agent, and have been for 15 years. I am not sure if I am abnormal, but I get tons of thank you cards, chocs and flowers from satisfied customers. I run a very successful office and would like to think good customer service is right up there on my agenda.

Like any sales job, when sales are down we earn a lot less money, but that goes with the career. I do not believe we 'pay ourselves' vast amounts of money, and certainly no more than we deserve. One vendor asked me the other day if it is true that we get 50k basic per year - in my dreams, I replied!

You certainly can sell your house without using an agent, but in my experience you will attract plenty of timewasters who will inevitably pay you average of 10k less than an agent can get you (with advertising, mailing etc), so the fee you pay your agent pays for itself!

I am in Birmingham UK where the market is pretty poor, but I will be (and have been, on a daily basis) walking the streets in all weathers, dropping leaflets and trying to find properties for my 'hot' clients - and for next to nil wages until the market picks up.


Joe C........ it is near on impossible to force someone to buy a house, a persons biggest purchase they will ever make. Its the car salesmen we need to worry about - and they get very high commissions!

Well - its a choice of career....someone has to do it and we don't have to.....I am fascinated by them, most are amoral and have the gift of the gab. Some of them have hearts of gold too. I guess their personalities go with the territory. I wouldn't expect them to be guardians of the moral code and thoroughly trustworthy but they are OK, I think!!

I think they are extremely over paid for what they do, in my experience. The fact that they only get commission on completion seems to make no difference to the amount of effort they put in. It also doesn't matter what time of year you put your house on the market they have an excuse for not gettiing you any viewers - "downturn in the market" "school holidays" "Christmas". I think they get money for nothing and I wouldn't use one againl

hate them

I'm a Realtor in Colorado, USA, and I'm not crying into my coffee due to lack of commissions. I work my tail off for my clients, and, even with a downturn in the economy, I'm busier than ever. It comes down to work ethic.

If you feel that we don't do any work for our commission, please try to sell your own home in this market. I'm not saying it cannot be done, I'm saying that you will find that there is a ton of work in the sale. Don't forget all of the required forms that, if not filled out or filled out incorrectly, can leave you open to litigation in the future from an unscrupulous buyer or seller. We take that liability on, also.

Try to find a good agent and interview him/her and then see what you think.

Love us or hate us ou need us. We bring experience and expertice to help you navigate through the legal and processes of a real estate transaction.

They only really get 2% per sale. 3% goes to sellers and 3% goes to the buyers(finder fee) 1% then goes tho their firm. Unless they have their own firm then they get the full 3%. The only make out like a bandit if they own their own firm, list the property, and find a buyer for that same property. Then they make the 6%. I don't mind them to much.

Hello, I work in an Estate Agency, although I'm NOT an estate agent, I'm a sales negotiator and viewing person.
I'd like to point out that my basic pay is c**p (my 20 year old student son gets a better hourly rate working at Asda) and commission is the only way to make a decent wage.
I'm not crying about it, I knew the facts when I started working there, and I just try to put some money away on a good month to make up for hard times - which as you state, may be just around the corner.

I would also like to point out that I intend to move house next year and will be using an agent, as I know what work goes on behind the scenes and I do NOT want to be personally hassling my buyer to sort out his mortgsge, get a survey, pay for his searches. There's also the constant monitoring of the chain that is required - and all this happens AFTER you think you've sold your house. I did consider trying to sell my house privately, but I do not want the stress of doing all that on my own.

EDIT Michael R I don't know where you got your "facts" from - that's not how my company works. Are you in the USA? I'm in the UK.

EDIT (2) Baboons - what is an agent supposed to tell you if (in a case we had recently) the buyers' MORTGAGE ADVISER tells you his client has a mortgage offer? And then you find out the mortgage adviser hadn't a cat-in-hell's chance of securing a mortgage for his client. We now ask to see an AIP (Agreement in Principle) before we will agree to accept an offer.

I'm in car sales and it always amazes me how little commission estate agents charge so they cant earn that much.
When you get someone who goes into estate agency who has a sales background they allways do really well. This is because there is no selling culture in the property market. How many times have you heard someone complain about being pressured by an estate agent into buying a house ???
For this reason I think they deserve the little that they get.

Hate them. When I bought my last house all the agent did was lie to me constantly. Was told that the people buying my house had a mortgage in place and they didn't. It all fell through and I had to put it on the market again. All in all it took 9 months to move when I was told it would be 6-8 weeks.
A friend of mine refused to pay his agent when his house sale went through, because you can instruct your solicitor not to pay them when the money transfers go through and there is nothing they can do about it. The agents had to contact him afterwards and negotiate a price with him which was greatly reduced because he was not happy with the service..... if more people did this then it might make them think a bit more! and provide a better service.

The good agents and brokers are NOT crying, they are busy as bees. Homes are still being bought and sold. Personally I think they are having to work harder now then before for their clients. You have unrealistic buyers thinking that homes are now free. You have sellers trying to sell without oweing for the next decade or having a tax bill exceeding their yearly income.

I am not selling right now, I am a buyer. My broker spends hours researching each of my purchases, making sure I am making a good, long term investment. I would be lost.....and very poor....without him.

10% of the agents in any area are selling 90% of the properties. There is a reason for that, they are hardworking and trustworthy. Find yourself a good one and you will be happy with the results, buying or selling.

After buying and selling 3 different properties, I've come to find that real estate agents are on a par with used car salesmen. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw him/her.

The facts that:

1: This question is appearing in "Yahoo Answers UK"
2: You're using the term "estate agent" rather than "real estate agent" or "realtor"

makes me suspect that you're talking about the UK rather than the US.

US Realtors typically charge about 5% in commission. UK Estate agents typically charge 1-2% (2% if you're a home-owner selling as a one-off, 1% if you're a property investor bringing them several properties each year.)

Trying to sell ANYTHING, houses, cars, advertising space, or widgets, can be a soul-destroying job, and the majority of people in it don't make large amounts of money.

I agree that the OWNERS of estate agencies - the people with 4 or 5 staff all our selling properties for them - can make a lot of money, but that's true of any business. On the flip side, when the market has a downturn, and months go by without sales, the same people watch those 4 or 5 staff continue to draw salaries out of the owners' savings.

I'm a property investor by profession.

I buy properties through many sources - estate agents, direct adverts, personal contacts, finders, and so on.

I SELL properties only through estate agents. Because, in my experience, the fee they get is MORE than paid for by the extra the house sells for compared to what I could sell it for myself.


Finally, if you REALLY believe that estate agency work is easy money for no effort, then set up an estate agency and give it a go!

Trading Standards get more complaints about letting agents than estate agents BUT note that in the UK the control over estate agents is by negative licensing - i.e. you need no qualification to start but can be banned if you breach the regs.

I understand that in the US you have to be qualified before you start.

The new requirement to belong to a recognised ombudsman scheme should help in the future.

Also estate agents (but not letting agents) will have extended duty of care under the new Money Laundering regs, which should mean greater care over clients money.

Major source of complaint is 'fly-boarding' - putting for sale/sold signs on properties the agent has not dealt with. Really upsets the residents.

Also leaving sold/let by boards up longer than the permitted 14 days