Shitbag Letting Agent Calls Me Up With A Bag’O'Shit Deal
24 Feb 2009
On many occasions I’ve ruthlessly attacked letting agents for their, what I feel to be, unjustified pricing strategy. Yesterday I was bitterly reminded of how extortionate and ridiculous some agents are, so here I am again, sitting on my soap box, crying like a little bitch about how backwards some things in life really are.
I received a phonecall yesterday from an unrecognised number, so I was half expecting it to be from some kind of shitbag in the form of a salesperson. Low and behold, it was a letting agent that had seen a “property available for rent” ad of mine on Gumtree. Before he started his scripted schpeel, he asked me whether I had found a tenant for the property I was advertising. I told him I was still in the process of looking, but I had a few viewings lined up. At this point I thought it was a genuine enquiry, even though I was hoping it wasn’t because he sounded like a common chav. He then furthered his introduction and explained he was a letting agent, and would help promote the property if I was struggling to find tenants.
Obviously my next line was,
HOW MUCH GREEN DO YOU WANT FOR FINDING ME TENANTS, BRUV?
His response was,
We usually charge 10%, but I’ll do you a special rate of £400. We’ll advertise your property across different platforms like Rightmove and Primelocation. We’re based about 30mins from you, but in the past we have successfully found tenants in your area. We’ll just send you the leads and you can do all the viewings yourself so you can personally interrogate the tenants. We’ll sort out all the contracts for you.
I’ll think about it. Thanks for your time. Peace, homie.
errr…what? He wants £400 just to put my property on a few property sites? And once he receives enquiries, he’ll send them to me so I can take the viewings? Whatever, shitbag. I can get my property on the same sites for £30 from over at letmatch and take the viewings myself. And Lord only knows why he was acting like taking the viewings myself was a GOOD selling point. It just means more work on my behalf and less for him.
I refuse to pay £400 for an agent to sit on his fat ass and click a few buttons to send a few details over to a few property portals, especially when I can dot hat myself for the fraction of a cost. Un-fucking-believable.
I know times are tough right now in the property industry, but please…don’t go ripping people off to claw back some revenue.
On a side note, the other day I signed up to letmatch.co.uk, to see how effective their advertising network really is. I’ll write a full report on it once I gather all the details.
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Talk / 11 Comments left so far
With in 24 hours I had my advert up on Rightmove. I will check the other portals later today.
I honestly didn't mind the agent calling me up, but £400 seemed way too expensive, since I would be doing all the work, and all they would be doing is online promo.
Kind regards
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Just for future reference, this is the company which letmatch use:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/estate-agents/agent/Visum-Ltd/Northampton-35298.html
It clearly says, "Webased Estate Agent", so I don't think you need a shop front..
Kind regards
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http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages/article.html?in_article_id=407301&in_page_id=8 - i'm not sure what the up shot of it was but I wasn't aware that Rightmove had changed their policy.
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I'm guessing Letmatch have slipped through the net.
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I'm assuming Rightmove can pick and choose who they want as clients; I'm guessing after being reported, they probably wouldn't want to do any business with them anyways.
But you could be right, they may have slipped through the net. But on their Rightmove profile, it clearly states they're a web-based agent =/
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I wrote an article on letmatch before, How To Advertise Your Buy-To-Let On Rightmove.
If you look at the comments, the first commentor said she got a refund from letmatch because they had technical issues with Rightmove. Then Mark (I'm assuming Mark baldwin, guy who works for letmatch/visum) responded saying the issue had been resolved.
Not entirely sure what went on...but they may have had difficulties with Rightmove in the past.
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It sounds like this program could be right up your street! I look forward to your review.
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Have you watched an episode yet? It's a shame I'm at work at 10am, might have to record it on Sky+
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Please leave a comment
I initially started this website because I wanted to document my every step from property idiot to property landlord,
in hope that people would find my site and help me along the way. I literally didn't have a clue about being a landlord
when I started this website.
You would be better trying to strike an 'advertising only' deal with a local agent. Agents pay a monthly fee to put their properties on the portals so it won't cost them any more to add yours. If you don't want them to be involved in viewings or admin you should be able to strike a good deal with an independent.
I agree about the agent; it is irritating when they call you up from a private ad. Do you put 'No Agents' in your copy. If so I think you have the right to be as rude as you like.
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