Estate agents poaching vendors

J

jonnyhotspur

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Has this ever happened to you?
We won a bidding war on a house that was for sale for about two months. Our offer was accepted last Thursday and we paid the booking deposit on Saturday. A survey was organised for tomorrow. We received a call from the EA ( co-owner of a small firm in Lucan) yesterday who informed us of the following:
A Lady from one of the larger agencies in Lucan had rang the vendor to say that they could get 20K more for his house.
The vendor rang him to say that he wanted the house put back on the market or he would switch to the larger agency.
The original EA told the vendor that he had no interest in showing the property to anyone else and that the price we offered was a fair one.
The vendor is now withdrawing the property.
Who said competition was a good thing?
 
I know someone who this happened to recently. This person (not a friend of mine. thank God) was selling a house and had accepted a very genuine and reasonable offer. They were then approached by another EA (also in Lucan!) who said the exact same thing you have just stated in your post. I would imagine by reading your post that it's the same EA as they seem to use the same line. I have yet to find out if this EA got the extra 25k as promised? Just for the record do you know if the person got the 20k more? I think it's disgraceful.
 
Jake108. Talked to the EA this morning. He says it will be going back on the market with the large agency in the next few weeks. It may well get 20K more in a couple of months but that's only because the market will have increased by that much. The first EA seems to have some scruples and told the vendor to take a running jump. He doesn't seem too worried about the tactics of the larger firm either ( must be common practice). I'll keep an eye out to see what price it fetches.
 
Ok jonny. Seems to be a pretty lousy way to do business. Sorry that this happened to you. I can understand how disheartening it must be. Best of luck.
 
This EA should be reported to whatever body regulates them. This can not be allowed to continue. Things are bad enough without adding this to the pot.
 
I would have thought that this is in breechof some IPAV 'rules'...particularly if the poaching EA is a member. Your EA should be encouraged to report this activity to them (or you may care to do this yourself).

ninsaga
 
[FONT=Arial, Verdana, Arial] [/FONT]From Page 10 of today's Irish Independent

[FONT=Arial, Verdana, Arial] Estate agents 'gazump each other'[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial]

THE property market is engaged in a 'race to the bottom', with estate agents now poaching clients away from each other.
The Irish Independent has learned that rival estate agents are ringing home-owners when they see a 'For Sale' sign outside, and offering to get them a higher selling price if they switch to their business.
Alan Cooke, chief executive of the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI), said that some agents are 'doing it wholesale' in an attempt to maximise profits. One house-hunter described how he recently won a bidding war for a house which had been on the market for two months.
After paying the booking deposit, he received a call from the estate agent to say an employer of a larger agency in the same west Dublin town had contacted the vendor and offered to help them get more money.
"The vendor rang him to say that he wanted the house put back on the market or he would switch to the larger agency," said the irate house-hunter. "The original estate agent told the vendor that he had no interest in showing the property to anyone else, and that the price we offered was a fair one.
"The vendor is now withdrawing the property. Who said competition was a good thing?" he said.
Mr Cooke said the only person who gazumps is the seller but admitted that agents are definitely not helping matters. "I could name one or two people, who are not members, who are doing it wholesale," he said. "It's a race to the bottom and the public are going to be worse off." Guidelines from the IAVI, which have no legal standing, once dealt with this exact problem.
However, last November the specific guidelines relating the matter were removed as the IAVI had been warned that they could be in breach of the Competition Act. "The seller is at liberty to appoint any agent at any stage they want," he said.
"The second agent did not act illegally in so far as the seller is entitled to get the optimum price. "Whether they acted properly is another thing."
Anybody can purchase a licence and begin operating as an estate agent. Last October, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell unveiled plans for the establishment of the National Property Services Regulatory Authority. An implementation group was set up in January and will steer preparations for the full statutory authority to be established under new legislation. Once established, the authority will have monitoring and inspection powers and will oversee the transfer of the licensing function from the courts services.
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Edel
Kennedy
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Surprised at this because the last few times I sold I had to sign a document stating that I agree to the charges and would deal exclusively with that agent for x months.

Also I do know of a case where someone wanted to move agent (in this case the service was very poor) and they were told that the IAVI would not let another of their members take the case unless the first agent had been properly discharged (whatever that means!).

Roy
 
said the irate house hunter[FONT=Verdana, Arial]
Edel
Kennedy
[/FONT]
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Nice piece of plagiarism Edel. Irate! Never. Maybe if Arsenal beat Spurs on Saturday. But not over a semi d.
 
Interesting - did she ask your permission before quoting you from this forum?? Is there no protection against this "lazy" journalism?
 
sun_sparks said:
Interesting - did she ask your permission before quoting you from this forum?? Is there no protection against this "lazy" journalism?
Click to expand...
Nope. Never heard of her.
 
I posted on the jobs our td's had prior to politics in a thread 'an alternative to democracy' in the letting off steam forum, with a comment on how teachers are in the majority - lo and behold the Tribune runs with a front page story on Sunday about how many teachers in the Dail - the link is'nt as obvious, but I'm claiming it!! It may be lazy journalism, but at least it's getting the story out there!!
 
Wow, I didn't realise the Indo actually did any research for their stories, so this is clearly an improvement ;)
 
I've had a feeling for a while here that there are journos trawling the site looking for stories. Obviously this is the case, given how my comments regarding Eddie Hobbs and foreign property made the Irish Independent and the Sunday Times. At least at that time, the AAM site was given the credit as being the source for the story.

However, Edel Kennedy has taken this to a new low. Didn't even bother paraphrasing the OP. And no credit as well. You gotta love how Irish journalists make their money these days.

Another thing I'm wary of at the moment here on AAM as well is where relatively new, or first time posters, starting threads specifically designed to illicit comments that will be used in future in a newspaper story. They may either be along the lines of something designed to cause outrage or strong responses, or something (as I get from university students doing theses in my own job), "I know nothing about topic x, can you tell me please".
 
As soon as I saw this --> [FONT=Verdana, Arial]Who said competition was a good thing?[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial] <-- I knew she was quoting from here. I too, read the article and though she had contacted johnnyhotspur for information about the story. Johnnyhotsupr, you should write a letter to the editor and ask for an acknowledgment. If not I am never buying that paper again and will pass this story on to everyone. Eventually, it may ;) even appear on the Irish Times proprerty section
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Try sending in a letter expessing your unhappiness, and see if it gets printed. It might be worth sending it to the Irish Times as well.
 
Seagull said:
Try sending in a letter expessing your unhappiness, and see if it gets printed. It might be worth sending it to the Irish Times as well.
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Don't worry, sure they all know already by reading the comments above. Here's a story they won't plagiarise off AAM though, "Lazy journalists criticised". Unless some other lazy journalist from another paper takes that as an angle to beat on the Irish Independent.
 
I got a PM from some belinda wan in another daily paper asking if she could quote something I said, as she had no manners and could not ask nicely I ignored here At least she had the professionalism to skip over what I had said and her article (was useless I thought ) but contained no quotes from I . I , for one, have Blackballed this unoriginal plagiarist Edel Kennedy who works for the Irish Independent , along with that publishing groups newspapers , until her Editor personally apologises to the management of AAM for having reprinted material without permission from them or the original poster.I expect to see a sticky soon :D
 
Yes, I agree Johnny, you should definitely write a letter of complaint, criticising her use of your words without your express permission. Or ask who exactly her source was? Since no respectable (ahem!!!!) journalist would ever be so lazy to lift a quote from a forum without having the manners of checking first whether they could.

How she thought she'd get away with it is beyond me??
 
Write letters! Japers I'll have to crank up me 'Time Machine':p . I'm lead to believe that AAM will be using this example if the Indo ever slate this site for reproducing articles.
 
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