People's experiences of the property market (Estate Agents)

K

Kazman

Guest
Hello

I am a freelance business journalist trying to do a piece on Estate Agents from a consumer angle and the lack of transparency in the way they work. I feel that it is increasingly important to get to the real stories in the property market behind all the spin and advertisements.

I am hoping to find some real stories to highlight the issues that people are facing in the Irish property market and to speak with people about the experiences that they’ve had when either buying or selling their property.

The types of practices that I will be looking at would include: ghost bidding, sealed bids, false advertising of properties, builders/developers reneging on deposits, agents not working fully on behalf of the sellers or anything else where you may feel you were hard done by.

If you are interested in talking to me about your experience, please send me a message with contact details and I will be in touch.

Many thanks
 
Re: People's experiences of the property market

Hello Kaz,

Are you preparing this with a particular publication in mind? It might be good for people to know what affiliations you have (For instance, if I had such a story, I might be reluctant to approach a tabloid newspaper.).

Regards,
MugsGame
 
Re: People's experiences of the property market

Kazman said:
I am a freelance business journalist trying to do a piece on Estate Agents from a consumer angle and the lack of transparency in the way they work.
Click to expand...

Surely you should be approaching this issue with some sort of journalistic objectivity and only coming to conclusions (e.g. about alleged lack of transparency) based on the evidence that you find rather than a priori?
 
Re: People's experiences of the property market

Hi Clubman,

Certainly agree about objectivity being essential and the point I was raising about lack of transparency was with regards to offers being made on houses but only having someone's word for it as there is no paper trail of recorded offers.

I have seen this point being raised several times on AAM and seems to be an issue for many people bidding on houses. And of course only evidence and fact would ever drive a story.

MugsGame - I will PM you
 
Re: People's experiences of the property market

Kazman said:
Certainly agree about objectivity being essential and the point I was raising about lack of transparency was with regards to offers being made on houses but only having someone's word for it as there is no paper trail of recorded offers.
Click to expand...
Bear in mind that if people want EAs to maintain transparent paper based audit trails then they can probably forget about paying c. 1% or less in fees due to the knock on impact of increased costs on charges that normally comes with increased regulation and data management burdens.
 
Re: People's experiences of the property market

Sorry,I had been away from AAM for a while.

Clubman with regards to your point about estate agents having to charge higher fees for increased regulation and data management burdens, as far as I know IAVI members are obliged to keep bid books although presently they are under no obligation to show these to buyers.

Your point about my lack of objectivity when it comes to this issue, I was saying 'lack of transparency' with relation to people not knowing for sure that other bids have actually being placed even though they may well have been. Rest assured that all conlsusions aand angles will be evidence based.
 
Prime Time looking at the property market

RTÉ's Prime Time Programme are looking for people who have had difficulties with Estate Agents while buying or selling their house. If you would like to contact me please private messge me with contact details and I will give you a call.
 
Re: Prime Time looking at the property market

Kazman

Are you a producer/researcher with RTE and/or Prime Time?
 
Re: People's experiences of the property market

Ive merged the last two posts with the existing one started by Kazman a few weeks ago.

Kazman said:
I am a freelance business journalist trying to do a piece on Estate Agents from a consumer angle and the lack of transparency in the way they work. I feel that it is increasingly important to get to the real stories in the property market behind all the spin and advertisements.

I am hoping to find some real stories to highlight the issues that people are facing in the Irish property market and to speak with people about the experiences that they’ve had when either buying or selling their property.

The types of practices that I will be looking at would include: ghost bidding, sealed bids, false advertising of properties, builders/developers reneging on deposits, agents not working fully on behalf of the sellers or anything else where you may feel you were hard done by.

If you are interested in talking to me about your experience, please send me a message with contact details and I will be in touch.

Many thanks
Click to expand...
 
Ubiquitous - yes I am a researcher with Prime Time. I have read posts on AAM about people's feeling of frustration when they are buying or selling a house so I believe that this is a good place to try and talk to people.
 
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