They take this business seriously over in England. If you’re an “estate agent,” as they call us, you best behave.
England has a thing called the Consumers Association that takes itself seriously. They probably try and sell magazines, too, but they seem to have a legitimate purpose: to keep the nation clean of bad guys.
We just got back from two weeks in Wales and England. The real estate market is booming even though prices have gone way past the reach of most. As with any industry where things are good (oil, etc.), there’s some sort of hell to pay.
For instance, gazumping.
Gazumping?
Under the headline “Gazumping sweeps Britain.” the Observer ran a story that stated “Laura Williams thought the flat was hers. She had agreed to a price, spent nearly £400 (that’s about $600) on a survey, and arranged a mortgage. But her plans collapsed when a curt phone call informed her that the owner had received a higher offer and the deal was off.
“‘I was gazumped,” she said.
The story continued: “A survey by the Yorkshire Bank shows one in 10 house buyers will gazump rivals to buy a property. According to the National Association of Estate Agents, one in three agreed sales does not make it to exchange of contracts.”
It’s not illegal to gazump in either England or Wales; the blame should lie with government, but somehow the agents are griddled.
“The problem is that the time lag is so great between agreeing a sale and exchange of contracts because the government paperwork can take 10-12 weeks,” said one estate agent. “When prices are rising so quickly, there’s plenty of room for a gazumper to step in and offer the buyer a better deal.”
The Observer added, “Cautious buyers can make pre-contract deposit agreements, whereby each party hands over a cash sum which is lost if they renege on the deal. But until the market slows down, the temptation to gazump will remain irresistible to some buyers.”
The Consumer Association is sneaky, too. It sends “buyers” around to see who’s honest and who isn’t.
A story in The Times of London reported that the CA claimed to have found “... agents deliberately lying to their clients about offers they had received, fabricating higher bids to push up the price of the house, demanding extortionate (that’s their word, not mine ... or ours) commission charges and falsely claiming membership of trade bodies.”
The report went on and on, never questioning the methods used, nor backing up the “facts.” But that must be the way it goes in the UK; the agents don’t seem to have much internal backing. The story concluded, “Melfyn Williams, president of the National Association of Estate Agents, welcomed the report ...”
Think Cathy Whatley wouldn’t have torn someone up?
— Fred Seely is the editor of Realty/Builder Connection and editorial director of Bailey Publishing & Communications In. He can be reached at [email protected].