Estate agents, letting agents and realtors are evil and stupid: share your stories here.

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I am deeply pissed off. Last night my boyfriend and I stood outside a beautiful (and deeply under-priced for the location) garden square flat in Barnsbury, Islington for around 40 minutes waiting for dick-for-brains letting agent to show up. His phone was off. This morning I telephoned again and the idiot IDIOT man told me firstly that the flat was now let and then went on rambling, self-justifying story about how he nearly got into a fight with the landlord who was being "very abusive towards me, so I couldn't stay around and I had to turn my phone off."

Wanker.

― Anna, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:00 (nineteen years ago)

I can't really complain about the estate agent we dealt with, but I will.

On our second viewing of the house she brought her 'pal', we arrived at the house to hear splashing noises coming from the bathroom, the estate agent said, "Oh it's my pal, she's taking a shower".

Her friend, a wheezing woman of around fifty came out toweling her hair, said hello, and went into the living room, where she sat down and put the television on.

Very peculiar.

― *rumpie*, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:13 (nineteen years ago)

And Anna, that's really shit. I'm sure a better one will come up for you.

― *rumpie*, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

me: er dont you think 235 is overpriced?
EA: well no, not the way prices are rising
me: you know theres one on the same street at 190, right?
EA: it must need a lot of work
me: 45ks worth of work?
EA: well, 235 is what they are going for?
me: er, no, not really, the one round the corner has been on for weeks at 215 and they cant shift, theres 2 on the next street below 200 as well

EA: well hes put a lot of work into doing the place up, he needs 235
me: lol i need a holiday home in california doesnt mean im gonna get one

EA: he might accept 220
me: LOL i dont think so

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

letting agents are even funnier with the prices they ask. "um you do know that every clown with a get rich quick scheme has bought a buy-to-let, right? i dont think you can be demanding anything!"

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

actually though, to be honest, most of the ones ive dealt with have been ok, once you take the 'dont trust a thing they say' thing into account

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

gareth i hope at some point during the convo at least one of you said "you're breaking my balls"

two of my friends has recent hellish experience with, surprise surprise, Foxtons, but the story is nothing new. scheduling incompetence, lack of interest in actual needs of the customer/inability to relate personally etc.

― blueski, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:51 (nineteen years ago)

Argh, that sucks!

A few years ago I was supposed to view a flat in Swiss Cottage, after waiting outside the house for 20 minutes with no answer via phone or buzzing/knocking etc, someone in another flat came home and let me in. They told me to just go up to the flat, an old lady (and landlord) is always in there.

Firstly, I had no idea I'd be living with the landlord who was also an old lady. Secondly, when I approached the flat, the door was open and an old stereo was playing. Spooked, I inched closer to the door and said 'hello'. There was no answer. I got the chills and bolted.

Other than that my dealings with landlords have been mostly OK. Though I do have another horror story relating to a real estate agent bursting in at an unfortunate moment that I'm probably not going to share.

― marianna lcl, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:52 (nineteen years ago)

Tease! (I think you may have told me this story when your mind was clouded by wine.)

Steve, I'm going to really struggle to not do Cartman impressions with these people now.

I'm refusing to even think about anything offered by Foxtons, Black Katz or Flatland. It just isn't worth the pain.

― Anna, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:55 (nineteen years ago)

that one in harringey ladder that was on at 205. i was like, this is not worth 205, and the agent was saying haha this is a rising market, sorry son, itll go for 205. i said no it wont. i offer 180

hahah

comes back a week later, she'll take 190

no. sorry, 180 or nothing

a week later, ok 185?

no, not even 182? no

next day. ok she'll take 180

sorry miss, she took too long. ive changed my mind, 180 is too much

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:57 (nineteen years ago)

Go Gareth!

― marianna lcl, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:59 (nineteen years ago)

i didnt really want it, i was just playing

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:00 (nineteen years ago)

houses are kinda like girls, you can easily catch yourself thinking you have a weaker hand than you actually do

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:03 (nineteen years ago)

i learned that from a good charlotte song

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:04 (nineteen years ago)

there was also an article about it in yesterdays daily mail

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:04 (nineteen years ago)

as im sure even a cursory reading of which, should have told you

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:04 (nineteen years ago)

er, Paul Scholes?

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:04 (nineteen years ago)

i don't wanna know about your "weak hands"

― blueski, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:05 (nineteen years ago)

sorry miss, she took too long. ive changed my mind, 180 is too much

unlike you, 180 is usually perfect

― lex pretend, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:09 (nineteen years ago)

http://cimg.163.com/sport/0507/11/zhu31.jpg

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:13 (nineteen years ago)

i didn't know Lex was such a big darts fan

― blueski, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:14 (nineteen years ago)

I had a similar waiting outside property for half an hour, estate agent not answering phone thing when I was looking for my current place. Eventually a bloke came along and asked what we were waiting for, said he was the landlord and the place was let out already the previous day. Thing was I called the estate agent an hour before the appointment to confirm it was still available, fucking twat.

I should have also realised that when looking around a place and agent says "needs work doing because the previous tenants trashed the place, but it'll all be done by the time you move in" - he is lying. Although to be fair landlord seems fairly reasonable and probably will get stuff fixed eventually. As long as he doesn't kick us out for having cats.

― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:44 (nineteen years ago)

696 dude, if you'd said 'Stern John' instead of 'Paul Scholes' I'd have assumed you were a computer program written to churn out Charltonlido parodies.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:51 (nineteen years ago)

over here in the states the realtors are the lesser of two evils by a long shot, the real bastard being the mortgage broker

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 17 May 2007 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

"are you SURE you don't want to overpay for the house by a few thousand? it's like free money!"

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 17 May 2007 13:02 (nineteen years ago)

oh no, those are here too? why dont you get an interest only mortgage? after all, you'll be making money from the ever increasing equity of your house!!!! and the value of houses never goes down lol!!

― 696, Thursday, 17 May 2007 13:03 (nineteen years ago)

the WSJ had a pity piece for some doctor in south carolina who was bitching that he couldn't get a loan for $1m to buy a house because the RE agent had said it wasn't worth over 750k and even the county appraiser called it at under 900. So here he is asking banks for a million dollars to buy a house that's worth at least 100K less and they won't give him the money, this is very disappointing to him and his mortgage broker obviously.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 17 May 2007 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

a coworker of mine nearly had to reschedule closing on his condo bcz wells fargo asswipe tried to give him the paperwork for an adjustable rate when they had been discussing fixed-only all along. this is the day of the sale that he pulls this shit

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 17 May 2007 13:20 (nineteen years ago)

so glad our housebuying went smoothly. . .

― Ms Misery, Thursday, 17 May 2007 13:39 (nineteen years ago)

Oh God, Anna, you are probably right to avoid all those agencies. Especially Black-Katz, because NONE OF THE CHEAP FLATS EXIST. I remember you banging on about young men of limited intellectual means who refer to a flat as 'The Prop-a-tee' and I trust they have not improved. The twatting, flanging, minging little shits.

― suzy, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:37 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, friends' recommendations, word of mouth and Loot are probably the best bets, in that order.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

this is kinda scary, i'm going to have to find an apartment after college this fall, and it's going to be in a country where they don't speak english as the first language. i am going to be sleeping on the streets!

― Maria, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:53 (nineteen years ago)

in countries where no speak englush as first language, streets sleep on you

― Ronan, Thursday, 17 May 2007 16:19 (nineteen years ago)

we had an interesting time with letting agents in chicago last week - one was quite good, but the other was pretty astonishing. she kicked off by leaving us sat around for nearly an hour while she supposedly got the keys together and called the apartments, then took us to 3 in a row where she either had the wrong keys or didn't have permission to be. she also repeatedly got lost, drove really badly and had an aversion to wearing a seatbelt. these were her good points, really. after all this we ended up finding much better places through the local free ads - I get the impression that when renting the agents are good for driving you round and showing you a few places, but shit for actually finding somewhere well-priced to live.

― toby, Thursday, 17 May 2007 21:58 (nineteen years ago)

how do you even end up doing that kind of thing, where did it all go wrong etc.

― blueski, Thursday, 17 May 2007 22:08 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

I don't understand why estate agents would book a viewing time and then... not show up. Not even a phone call to say 'we're going to be late' or 'someone else has put an offer in'. Just, nothing. Nothing but me looking like a creep standing outside a property for half an hour. Not once, but twice. Don't they want my money?

I HATE HOUSEHUNTING. Is there some kind of secret listing of private landlords with places for rent I should know about so I can avoid estate agent scum for the rest of my London-based life? This just makes me desperate to be back in Canada, where letting agents don't exist.

― salsa shark, Friday, 9 October 2009 17:33 (sixteen years ago)

I'm trying to force myself out the door to go deliver an offer on a house to the seller's agent. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Friday, 9 October 2009 17:53 (sixteen years ago)

I knew a letting agent. She had a special key made for keying cars in parking spaces she coveted. She loved to fire off an air horn at 3 am from just behind your bed. Once, she bastinadoed a whooping crane. Truly an evil bitch.

― Aimless, Friday, 9 October 2009 17:54 (sixteen years ago)

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