Once again estate agents have been named among the least-trustworthy people in Britain, rated in the public consciousness somewhere between politicians and journalists (ouch). Less than a third of people believe agents tell the truth, according to the annual Veracity Index from market research firm Ipsos Mori, which tracks consumer trust in particular professions – less than the same time last year.
Many of us have our own horror stories of widespread chicanery in the sector: when moving house recently, for example, I was informed I would not be permitted to view a house I was interested in until I agreed to list my flat with the selling agent first.
Agents themselves have responded with resigned acceptance to the idea that everyone thinks they are real-life versions of the eponymous hero of the Bafta-winning Channel 4 show Stath Lets Flats: clueless, tactless, and scruple-less.
‘Estate agents have always had a reputation, defaulting to the lowest common denominator,’ said Josephine Ashby, a director of John Bray Estates in Cornwall, with a sigh. ‘If trust has dropped over the past year it will have been largely due to a strong sellers’ market. The fast-paced market has sometimes left buyers bruised and bewildered, questioning the system.’
In London Nick Karamanlis, co-owner of Elliot Leigh Residential, is painfully aware that not all of his peers play by the rules. ‘I have personally experienced agents overvaluing properties in order to win instructions, fabricating false offers and aggressively pushing in-house services – we all know these things happen,’ he said.
‘If trust has dropped over the past year it will have been largely due to a strong sellers’ market. The fast-paced market has sometimes left buyers bruised and bewildered, questioning the system.’
‘I lasted a very short period working for one of these aggressive corporates. You could get perfectly nice university graduates not knowing any better and being pressurised to hit all sorts of targets. In the one where I worked, agents were measured more on how many calls they made to warm leads in order to turn them into instructions, how many times they could renew a 16-week contract, how many reductions they could get on the overvalued property, and how many mortgage and solicitor referrals they could get, rather than how many sales they did.’
Many agents – Karamanlis and Ashby included – would like to see stricter regulation of their profession. UK agents don’t have to be qualified or licenced – an extraordinary situation for people handling multimillion-pound deals. And although there is some legislation governing the sector, much of it is unhelpfully nebulous and appears to only sparingly enforced. The Property Ombudsman handled a modest 1,807 disputes relating to sales last year, ruling in the complainant’s favour in 62 per cent of cases.
‘I think every reputable estate agent would be behind further regulation,’ said Nick Austin, sales manager at RiverHomes in Putney, south-west London. ‘In the US, agents require a realtors’ licence to practice. Why not require the same of estate agents over here? It would weed out those who fly by the seat of their pants.’
Another reason to dislike agents is their fees – around £6,000 for the average UK home. Christian Warman, director of Tedworth Property, is aware that many people think all he does for a living is snap a few pictures, pop them online and wait for the phone to ring. ‘If only,’ he said. ‘In fact, our role involves being a confidante, councillor, tough negotiator, marketer and PR, relationship builder, conveyancer, agony aunt, handyman and much more.’
Setting aside the cost, and the bad apples, at least some of the reason behind our collective dislike of agents is that they are easy to blame when buyers and vendors don’t get their own way. Because for every shameless blagger in a cheap suit trying to sell you a wreck of an overpriced home with cheesy patter and fanciful promises, there is at least one wildly unrealistic and entitled client blaming their agent for failing to achieve the impossible.
‘I had a client who informed me that her neighbour’s home had just sold for £1.2 million but she thought hers was worth at least £1.5 million because she had designed its kitchen herself and it was much more stylish,’ said one exasperated London agent, who asked not to be named. ‘When I tactfully suggested that her unique sense of style might not be worth an extra £300,000 she burst into tears and complained about me to my boss.’
Former estate agent Mark Wells is now CEO of Invisible Homes, the off-market property portal. In his experience anxious clients making massive financial decisions can be a handful. ‘Add to that the fact that most people start off not trusting their agent – that’s the go-to stance – and things can go wrong very quickly,’ he said.
Austin agreed that agents tend to end up being treated as easy ‘punching bags’ for frustrated buyers and sellers to vent their temper on, while Ashby said they are simply messengers well used to being shot when a lowball offer is declined or a torrent of prospective buyers fail to materialise for an overpriced home. ‘It’s easy to blame the agent,’ she said.
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