The head of allAgents, Martin McKenzie, has called for more to be done to stop the practice of over pricing homes to win instructions.
McKenzie specifically calls for estate agent trainers to stop teaching unscrupulous practices, after it was found that at least one industry trainer advocates over-valuing as a deliberate strategy to win new instructions.
This comes on the back of an allAgents report highlighting that almost half of valuations are inaccurate.
Estate agents who charge the highest commission fees are among those accused of overvaluing homes to lure sellers.
The National Association of Estate Agents has previously admitted some “unscrupulous agents” try to win business by quoting a higher asking price.
McKenzie commented: “This is completely unacceptable and must be stopped. Up until now, it was thought that overvaluing to win instructions was simply a tactic by unethical agents, but the fact that valuers are being taught this as part of their training is quite simply wrong.
“The industry already has an unfavourable reputation with the public and hearing about these unprofessional practices simply helps reinforce this.
“Consumers should work with reputable agents that can provide comparable evidence to support their valuations. Consumers can also view statistics of previous valuation accuracy on their allAgents profile page.”
Almost half of agents inaccurately value properties, claims allAgents
Comments (6)
Some corporates do not hire qualified people and have such a high turnover of staff that their young, good looking lady managers have nobody to show them the ropes and “grandfather” them into the job. They are set high listing targets and instructed to tell potential vendors a ridiculously high valuation and to tie them into 6-month Sole Selling contracts, so that they can chip away at the asking price over the ensuing months until they get a sale. They have recently advertised a property at well over 35% above its true market value. This is a consistent policy with the last 2 office managers as shown by the fact that 45.9% of their properties had price reductions before they were sold.
Preying on people’s greed and fear is unconscionable, but is standard practice from agents who have sod all skill, other than lying through their teeth whilst keeping a straight face. Many would not know the value of something if it had a price sticker on it already. The high-power sales tactics prevalent in the industry and pressure to hit quotas and targets by HQ just fuel the conflagration that is the UK property market. That’s probably why, according to research, Estate Agents rank somewhere below hookers in trust and integrity, but on this occasion, it’s the vendor who gets shafted. Agents need to be held more accountable for pricing estimates and if values quoted fall short by a certain percentage then they lose their fee. Australia implemented a number of regulations a way back to deal with just this issue, but then all agents there need to be professionally qualified with annual cpd and licence renewal.
A qualification would change nothing A val is just a personal opinion I remember in my days as an agent I valued a house at 750k in Englefield Green 4 other agents said 650-700k I got 750k Those other 4 agent will have seen it on the market and said – he overvalued it Can any agent say that he has never lost an instruction because his val was lower and the property sold at a higher price than that he suggested
All your suggestion would, do is encourage agents to be very conservative
The loser there is the vendor
I didn’t say it was only corporates, and I don’t mind old school but they need to be genuine!
All the corporates I’ve ever worked for use this strategy. I wasn’t very good in the corporate world! It’s the same with boards, ban them and then it’s your reputation you’re relying on. Then we’ll see who lasts!
It is certainly NOT just corporates. Persuading a vendor to have a board up is selling – which is lost in EA these days.
I bought my last house by seeing a board
I am amazed than any agent wants to stop advertising what he is selling