The majority of people are happy with the service provided by their estate agent, consumer organisation Which? has found.
Yesterday, it said that out of 1,9990 people surveyed in June about their experiences of buying ad selling homes, 65% were either “very” or “fairly” satisfied with their estate agent.
Only 16% were fairly or very dissatisfied, while the rest did not feel strongly either way, reports the body which in some ways has been ‘the old enemy’ as far as agents are concerned.
The Which? finding comes as even The Times resorted to saying at the weekend that estate agents are “repeatedly named among the most-hated professions in Britain”. However, it would appear that it is not the customers who are doing either the naming or the hating..
Which? does caution that out of home-moving service providers, estate agents did come bottom of the pile. However, that seems to be because overall satisfaction levels seem pretty high with service providers.
Overall, 69% were satisfied with their surveyor, 71% with their mortgage broker, 72% with their conveyancer and 77% with their mortgage lender.
Which? additionally advises people wanting to buy homes not simply to search online.
It tells prospective buyers to get out into the area they hope to buy in and register face-to-face with estate agents.
It is perhaps rather more controversial in its advice for sellers, saying: “OnTheMarket.com is owned by a consortium of high street estate agents who want to disrupt the market dominance of Zoopla and Rightmove.
“If your agent has signed up to list properties with OnTheMarket.com they will only be allowed to list properties on one or the other of Zoopla or Rightmove (this is a contractual condition stipulated by OnTheMarket).
“If you’re not comfortable with this then you will need to choose a different estate agent.”
More here
Comments (5)
Sorry I am slightly confused by your post.
The TPOS ‘record levels’ of complaint you are referencing equate to a fraction of 1% of transactions and therefore support the Which findings.
You definitely need to explain the last paragraph; that has me stumped.
If the pollsters cannot get it right in the election, not inclined to believe Which when they surveyed so few sellers. Simple fact is that complaints to TPOS reached record levels, so if such a high % of respondents were actually satisfied, it might follow that complaints would be less! They’re not!
There seems to be a surge in the amount of so-called experts pontificating and generalizing about an industry where historical reviews matter so little.
Are you REALLY trying to be serious here?
Your last paragraph is frighteningly accurate. You should read he cr@p that some numpties put in their websites, giving people the impression that they can’t do without them…
…oh – I see you have. And cut’n’pasted most of it.