RE: OT: Buying a house online.

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Estate Agents are NOT working for the buyer. Nor are they the VENDOR. They
are working for the VENDOR. 

As such, you can never tell, as a buyer, what the real imperative is. Some
vendors are seriously looking to sell, and will take a reduced price to
move quickly. Others will sit in a house for ages, refusing to budge on
price, because they NEED the full price to fund another house / retirement
/ business loan etc.. Some vendors aren't even serious about selling - they
just want a valuation on their house, but are too embarassed to admit this.
(This is why many agents offer a free valuation even if you're not
interested in selling - it saves more time than it takes.)

It's easy to blame the agent - but they are just an agent.



We all know that it's much easier to sell to someone SERIOUS about buying,
than to someone who's "vaguely interested."

However, a potential purchaser who has taken the time to discuss his/her
requirements, and is obviously interested is always going to receive
priority. Only once the agent has phoned round the people they KNOW are
looking for exactly that kind of property will they start incurring the
cost of taking photos / getting details printed, fiddling with
websites.

It's easy for IT folk to criticise estate agents for not being
web-literate. But how many IT folk take any time to research how the
housing market works before committing to hundreds of thousands of pounds
in debt+interest over 20-year periods?

Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Monaghan [mailto:alex@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 25 October 2002 16:07
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] OT: Buying a house online.


We found a similar problem, I think the simple fact is that most Estate
Agents (at least in our area) are just not IT literate. There were a
couple
of agents with decent regularly updated web sites, but they just didn't
have
any good houses - typical !

The main problem we found was that a lot of the good quality houses
were
being sold before the agent had even managed to issue the details, let
alone
publish them on the web site. We actually viewed one house the day it
was
valued and made the offer immediately, the sale fell through due to a
temporary family problem with the sellers - it came back on the market
the
day we exchanged on this house :-(

Personally I'd forget it, it's just too frustrating seeing all these
nice
houses that someone's already bought. Take a long lunch  or afternoon
off
and go and visit the agents and build a good relationship over the
phone,
that's how we got the viewing described above and many others.

Try taking the kids in (or borrow some for the day), let them do their
worst
and suggest you'll pop in regularly with them, you'll then be a
priority
call when something good comes in :-)

Hopefully in a few years time, Estate Agents may have some clue what
technology is, but for now it seems as though the web sites contain the
dross that hasn't sold or lots of pictures of their sold ones.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stuart Grimshaw [mailto:stuart@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 25 October 2002 15:37
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: [ukha_d] OT: Buying a house online.
>
>
> Well, I'm just about fed up of this.
>
> because of the situaton we are in (Wife miles away, I work long
hours
> & agents are shut when I finish) I'm having to do most of my
house
> hunting online.
>
> <whinge>
> Why do estate agents have web sites if:
>    a) The info on them is out of date.
>    b) They never reply to enquiries via their
sites.
>
> </whinge>
>
> Any one had any success finding a house online? Any tips?
>
>
>
> http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
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