Estate agent terminolgy - Is this a push-me/pull-you?

Well I’m sure every one of us has had unfortunate experiences, at some time or another, often due to our own negligence. This certainly does not mean that estate agents en masse are any less competent, or honest than other professionals.

Negligence certainly does play a part on some occasions. It is especially galling to be called upon to help someone who has disregarded the good advice they have previously been given!

Maybe it’s the irrepressible cynic in me that makes me believe that some professions are more attractive to fast buck merchants than others Damian.

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Yes of course John…lawyers, bent politicians, business leaders, market traders, bankers, media moguls, insurance agents,…I totally agree.

Some of the above I would agree with.

But lawyers - yes the public perception is that they are overpaid but the truth is very far removed from that perception in almost all cases, given the hours worked it is relatively poorly remunerated.

Good :slightly_smiling_face:

I think the public perception of estate agents is similarly screwed. They also have to work long hours and the public forget all the hours worked for no pay marketing a property and chasing potential clents around who often have little or no serious intention of buying and frequently lack the courtesy of even responding or thanking the agent for their time and efforts.
Once a sale is agreed there is condiderable paperwork to prepare and the dossiers to be collated for the notaires. Then follow weeks and months of responding to the numerous questions and needs of the buyer, seller, notaires and various agencies.
Then…assuming the sale goes through ,they get their commission, net of TVA, percentage due to owners/ principals, cotusations, advertising costs, petrol etc. and if not they just start marketing the property again having wasted considerable time and monies.
I am not staging a defence of estate agents and only made my original posting in an attempt to assist with clarification however once again we prove to ourselves that it is easy to adversely criticize something that we actually know very little about.

Too many estate agents in rural France are not experts, they are people looking for a job, any job. They take on the responsibility of that position and should be accountable for their performance. The paperwork is part of that job. If they do a bad job they deserve to be criticised, if they are goo they deserve praise. A bit like most things really.

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Don’t confuse agents immobilier with agents commercials. Agents immobilier are trained, qualified, licensed professional. Agents commercials work for the agent immobilier under his licence. They don’t need any sualifications, they’re often micro entrepreneurs, paid on commission and can’t offset expenses. If you spend hundred of euros on fuel showing people round properties and you don’t make a sale, you’re hundreds of euros out of pocket. Must be hard to keep motivated.

I’m talking about the people that buyers meet face to face, no confusion here.

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Well the person they meet when they go into the agency would normally be the agent immobilier=estate agent, and the person they meet when they go to view a property would be the agent commercial = sales rep, I guess?

In my very limited experience once the initial contact had been made the commission only agent using their private car and phone took over.

This is true. And it not necessarily ‘unscrupulous’. The agent’s commission will not be significantly reduced if the seller is persuaded to accept a reduced offer [a reasonable reduction, not a Mick-take] in order to get closure. A €5k reduction in a gross price of €80k to €75k [6.66%] reduces the agent’s fee [at 4%] from €4680 to €4320 [nett]

Asking prices are always pitched with a bit of slack built in for negotiation. In getting the seller to agree to a sensible reduction, the agent is, in that sense, acting to the advantage of the buyer as well as the seller.

On the other hand [estate agents past and present and those of a nervous disposition - look away now] a friend of mine, after her first two or three dealings with estate agents [in Port of Spain, Trinidad] declared “Estate agents are pond scum”

@captainendeavour below is the full thing… your quote makes it look as if I was saying those words…and that is incorrect. Here is the screenshot…

Our agent must have thought we were heaven-sent as, although we took two and a half days of her time, we drove her in our car (much more comfortable) and made an offer for the full asking price on our current property the week after we viewed it.

For various reasons it was clear the owner was not going to haggle - my only (slight) regret is that I didn’t realise the agent’s fees are potentially negotiable - should have bargained them down a bit.

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I did that on the flat I’m living in in Valencia. 2 mins walk round, me and my pal muttering soto voce “Yeah! great potential!” then he … “Don’t fcuk around! Offer the asking!”

The agent then started waving the details about, “The price is not as stated here”

"Oh no. Here we go … "

“It has been reduced by 10.000€”

High fives all round!

I have a friend who has a tendency to pay the asking. He has a standard reaction to something he likes:

“I love it! I want it! How much?”

The last thing I know he bought on that basis was a retired RN Dittisham Class minesweeper…

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Estate agent terminology was much more fun in Wales.
“Free, fresh, never failing, private water supply” translated as “No mains water!”

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That’s basically why I knew the vendor would not budge - just before we came over to view the price had been dropped by 9500€.

I later discovered,when we got all the paperwork, that he was getting a good bit less than he’d paid for the property and had additionally spent about 50k€ doing it up.

I genuinely felt sorry for him but we got really quite a good deal on the property overall.